Monitoring
SMART goals: What they are and how to apply them in IT projects
Content: What are SMART goals and why are they important in IT? Breakdown of SMART Goals into IT Projects Practical Examples of SMART Goals in IT Benefits of SMART Goals Disadvantages or, Rather, Considerations about SMART Goals And there are not only SMART goals...
Network and alert management: looking for a better performance
When faced with the technological plenitude offered by almost any company's IT infrastructure you might be tempted to think that installing a monitoring system to oversee each device, and alert your team when there's an issue, is the best bet....
Bandwidth monitoring: Don’t get conned and get what you pay for
When was the last time you checked your phone bill? Itemized all its contents and checked all those boxes? How could you know if your ISP is giving you the service you pay for? Does your network get saturated even though you're nowhere near your...
Packet loss: problems, causes and solutions
Information transmitted through networks circulates in the form of pieces of information. These pieces, these packets, contain the information necessary for the recipient to be able to sort and use that information. After being aware of this, we...
Network topology and distributed monitoring
Content: Introduction to network topology Basic monitoring Remote monitoring Agent monitoring Distributed monitoring Monitoring remote networks with proxy agents Multi-server distributed monitoring Distributed delegated monitoring Remote network...
Who watches the watchmen?
For the last half-century we have lived in a new, network-enabled global age, and for the last couple of decades, under the new paradigm of Globalism, which means your HQ could be in London, your accounts department in Dublin and your IT support...
Internet of Things: Policies of self-destruction
We are entering the fourth Industrial Revolution, at least according to some techno-cultural commentators, a new cultural, social and commercial age founded on interconnectivity among devices, the Internet of Things. What are we talking about...
Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) to monitor business processes instantly
Finding a tool which allows you to monitor business processes in real time isn't easy, and because of this we'll talk about those Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) tools that allow managers to monitor the status of their business processes and...
Nagios alternative: Tired of them? Comparison with Pandora FMS
Even though nobody can agree on how to pronounce it, Nagios is still the name that comes to mind when one thinks about monitoring an IT environment. Why so? Many reasons, young Padawan, but basically it is a landmark in the crowded terrain of...
Zabbix alternative: why you should choose Pandora FMS
Pandora FMS as a Zabbix alternative: One of the challenges companies face when they grow to a certain size is maintaining oversight of their IT infrastructure. As a company network grows, it begins incorporating new apps, new operating systems,...
Best Network Tools to manage your network
Best Network Tools to manage your network Today, we're going to bring you a compilation of all those network tools you should know about in order to correctly manage your networks. Many of these network tools have been around for some time, but...
Network monitor: all you need to know
Network monitor with Pandora FMS In this article we're going to take a look at the main characteristics that a network monitor should have, their pros and cons, and how to know if it's time to install one to oversee your company's network. Plus,...
IP subnet calculator: what is it and how it works
An IP subnet calculator is a tool, normally an online tool, which performs a series of calculations based on specific values and returns the results. So far, so normal calculator. Only this calculator is for working out network values. The...
Server monitoring: a small guide with the best practices you need to know
Small guide of best practices for server monitoring The best practices for server monitoring begin much before the moment at which we choose or deploy a tool. It's not about fixed guidelines, rather a way of working and understanding how to use...
Application monitoring: how and why
In the monitoring sector there are several key aspects that IT administrators need to keep an eye on, namely: communications, servers and applications. All three are essential for a company’s services to function and a critical problem in any of...
Twitter alerts: how to integrate Pandora FMS alerts with Twitter
No, we’re not talking about Donald Trump’s latest midnight briefing to an astonished world, or a flame war between Hollywood celebrities. Instead we’re going to take a look at another kind of Twitter alert; the kind you can configure with...
Web server monitoring: Everything you need to know
Web server monitoring Web server monitoring This article aims to present some of the options for web server monitoring that you can perform with Pandora FMS. We’ve taken an Apache web server as our example, and we’re going to focus on four key...
Monitoring costs: buy cheap, buy twice
Monitoring costs Monitoring costs If you've been working in IT for any length of time you'll have come across a multitude of software at very different price points. Normally software is specialized, and each kind of software has its own market...
Dashboard tv: How to create a Pandora FMS dashboard on a TV using a Raspberry
Dashboard tv Dashboard tv When implanting a monitoring system in business environments it’s very common to have a team of operators or agents in charge of tracking any problems that may come up, and to take the necessary action in case of a...
Certificate expiry: how to monitor the expiration of SSL certificates with Pandora FMS
Certificate expiry Certificate expiry Certificate expiry Background One of the main requirements and concerns of online platform administrators is the expiration of SSL certificates. In this article we're going to look at how to monitor the...
Seven of the best free network tools every sysadmin should know
Free network tools that you need to know Network administration is one of the toughest challenges a sysadmin can face. Not only is it complicated in itself, it´s also of vital importance for large and medium-sized companies, and their balance...