Now the agent is installed and configured on the remote Windows server we wish to monitor, and its pre-shared key has been added to the BLËSK server NRDP configuration. The last step is to create/add the host in the APM module and start monitoring it.
1. Log in to the BLESK web interface. Select the APM module.
2. Go to “Configure | Administration”
3. On the left panel select “Supervision | Host”. Press the “Add” button to add a host.
4. The following page will appear. Three of the fields are required, after that you should select the check command to use and fill the argument field.
- Host name – here you should enter the FQDN of the server to be monitored.
- Address – as with the host name, use the FQDN of the server to monitor.
- Description – here you can add a description for the server.
- Host groups – here you should choose the group in which the host will appear in APM. If you don’t choose the host group, you wont be able to see your host.
- Check command – Keep in mind that we check passively the server on which the agent is installed. So, we need to choose a command that will fit our needs. That command is “check_dummy”. After choosing the command, you should see the command definition in the “Command view” field.
- $ARG1$ – after choosing the command, you need to add some arguments. For a new passive created host, we use the following arguments (2 “CRITICAL: No data is received from this host since last check”) which lets the system inform us when no data is received from the host.
5. Next, check the boxes “Registered” and “Active”, and go to the next tab “Check settings”. In the “Check settings” tab, we use the following settings for passively checked nodes.
- Max check attempts = 1
- Active checks enabled = off
- Passive checks enabled = on
- Check period = 24×7
- Freshness threshold = 300
- Checks freshness = on
6. We will complete the addition of the host by going to the “Alarm settings” tab. Here you have the default settings for passively checked nodes.
- Contact groups – if you want a group to be alerted, select the contact group that will receive the notifications.
- Contacts – if you prefer a contact to be alerted, select the user that will receive the notifications concerning this node.
- Notification period – the period during which the notifications will be sent. Generally we keep this simple and choose to send them 24×7.
- Notifications interval – the interval in minutes between host notifications. By default this is 60 minutes. If the node is down, you will receive notification at the specified interval.
- Notification enabled – enable or disable the notifications.
Once completed, click on the “Save” button to save your changes for the host definition.
