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- | ====== | + | ====== Introduction ====== |
- | [[en: | + | {{indexmenu_n> |
+ | [[: | ||
- | = Introduction= | + | ===== Introduction |
- | ====== Pandora FMS: What is it, exactly? ====== | + | ==== Pandora FMS: What is it, exactly? ==== |
- | Pandora FMS is a network monitoring software package, intended for all types of environments. To use the word ' | + | |
+ | Pandora FMS is a network monitoring software package, intended for all types of environments. To use the word ' | ||
Pandora FMS is designed to adapt to every role and organization. Its main aim is to be flexible enough to manage and control the complete infrastructure, | Pandora FMS is designed to adapt to every role and organization. Its main aim is to be flexible enough to manage and control the complete infrastructure, | ||
FMS is an acronym for **F**lexible **M**onitoring **S**ystem. Its purpose is to be able to monitor both complex new generation tools and systems with outdated elements that have difficult access and scarce compatibility - all on one platform. | FMS is an acronym for **F**lexible **M**onitoring **S**ystem. Its purpose is to be able to monitor both complex new generation tools and systems with outdated elements that have difficult access and scarce compatibility - all on one platform. | ||
- | |||
- | < | + | {{ :wiki:mapared_enterprise.png? |
- | {{wiki:Mapared_enterprise.png?550}} | + | |
- | </ | + | |
- | + | Pandora FMS currently uses agents for every ‘modern’ operating system on the market, describing " | |
- | Pandora FMS currently uses agents for every ‘modern’ operating system on the market, | + | |
Pandora FMS can, of course, be used successfully not only as a system monitoring tool, but as a monitoring tool for all sorts of network devices, whether it might use SNMP (versions 1,2,3) or TCP protocol probes (snmp, ftp, dns, http, https, etc), ICMP or UDP. | Pandora FMS can, of course, be used successfully not only as a system monitoring tool, but as a monitoring tool for all sorts of network devices, whether it might use SNMP (versions 1,2,3) or TCP protocol probes (snmp, ftp, dns, http, https, etc), ICMP or UDP. | ||
- | ======About the Documentation====== | + | ==== About the Documentation ==== |
All of this power and flexibility comes with an implicit difficulty at setup stages. In spite of Pandora FMS mostly graphical configuration, | All of this power and flexibility comes with an implicit difficulty at setup stages. In spite of Pandora FMS mostly graphical configuration, | ||
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* Chapter V. Complex Environments and Best Performance. | * Chapter V. Complex Environments and Best Performance. | ||
* Chapter VI. Technical Appendices | * Chapter VI. Technical Appendices | ||
- | * Chapter VII. Technical References | + | * Chapter VII. Technical References |
Besides the official documentation, | Besides the official documentation, | ||
- | We have compiled some [[en: | + | We have compiled some [[:en: |
- | More detailed information about all of the above can be found on our website at http:// | + | More detailed information about all of the above can be found on our website at [[http:// |
+ | |||
+ | ==== The Evolution of Pandora FMS as a Project ==== | ||
- | ====== The Evolution of Pandora FMS as a Project ====== | ||
Pandora FMS was born out of a personal development project of its original author, Sancho Lerena, in 2003. Since then, it has gradually evolved to become the resilient, innovative and flexible monitoring tool we offer you today. | Pandora FMS was born out of a personal development project of its original author, Sancho Lerena, in 2003. Since then, it has gradually evolved to become the resilient, innovative and flexible monitoring tool we offer you today. | ||
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The company financing and coordinating all the back up work on Pandora FMS's development is Artica ST, a Spanish company, founded in 2005 by the creator of Pandora FMS. | The company financing and coordinating all the back up work on Pandora FMS's development is Artica ST, a Spanish company, founded in 2005 by the creator of Pandora FMS. | ||
- | {{ wiki:Roadmap 2017.png ?850}} | + | {{ :wiki:roadmap_2017.png? |
- | Pandora FMS can be found to this day among Sourceforge’s top rated, with thousands of downloads and satisfied users all over the world. For more information on Pandora FMS's evolution and to see a road map of the project, please visit http:// | + | Pandora FMS can be found to this day among Sourceforge’s top rated, with thousands of downloads and satisfied users all over the world. For more information on Pandora FMS's evolution and to see a road map of the project, please visit [[http:// |
- | ====== A Quick Glance at Pandora FMS features | + | ==== A Quick Glance at Pandora FMS features ==== |
- | < | + | |
- | {{wiki:Explanation_scheme.png?500}} | + | {{ :wiki:explanation_scheme.png? |
- | </ | + | |
* **Auto monitoring**. The default monitoring of Pandora FMS agents allows to detect hard disks, partitions or databases in a database server, among many other things. | * **Auto monitoring**. The default monitoring of Pandora FMS agents allows to detect hard disks, partitions or databases in a database server, among many other things. | ||
+ | * **Auto discovery**. Remotely, using the network, you can detect all network elements, catalog them according to your operating system, and given a profile start monitoring them. It can even detect network topology and build a network scheme based on its routing. | ||
+ | * **Monitoring**. The Agents of Pandora FMS are the most powerful on the market. They are capable of obtaining information - from the execution of a command to the call, at its most basic level- on the Windows API: Events, logs, numerical data, process stages, memory and CPU consumption. Pandora FMS makes use of a default monitor’s library, but one of the greatest advantages of Pandora FMS is how **easy** | ||
+ | * **Control**. The agents themselves can activate services, delete temporary files or execute processes. Commands can also be executed remotely from the console, like stopping or starting services. Furthermore, | ||
+ | * **Alerts and Notifications**. Notifications are just as important as failure detection. Pandora FMS gives you an almost endless variety of notification methods and formats. This includes - but is not limited to - escalation, correlation of alerts and prevention and mitigation of cascading events. | ||
+ | * **Analysis and display**. Monitoring is not just receiving a trap or having a failing service displayed. Within the Pandora FMS environment, | ||
+ | * **Inventory**. Unlike other solutions where the idea of CMDB is the base, in Pandora FMS it is an option. The inventory is flexible and dynamic (it can auto-discover, | ||
+ | ===== Introduction to Monitoring ===== | ||
- | * **Auto discovery**. | + | Right from the start, every technical manual of a software package will tell you all about configuration, text files, databases, protocols, etc. We very often learn to configure at low levels while remaining ignorant of the full potential of the software under discussion - what can be done with it and in which situations. The purpose of this section is to explain the theory behind monitoring in a brief but systematic way, regardless of the software used for this purpose. |
- | * **Monitoring**. | + | ==== Types of Monitoring ==== |
- | + | ||
- | * ** Control**. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | * **Alerts and Notifications**. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | * **Analysis and display**. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | * **Inventory**. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | = Introduction to Monitoring | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Right from the start, every technical manual of a software package will tell you all about configuration, | + | |
- | ====== Types of Monitoring ====== | ||
When wondering about the condition of a target item to be monitored, whether it might be a server, a data base, a web element, or a refrigerator, | When wondering about the condition of a target item to be monitored, whether it might be a server, a data base, a web element, or a refrigerator, | ||
- How is the information obtainedfrom the target(s)? Is there already something to make this happen, or is it necessary to "ask around"? | - How is the information obtainedfrom the target(s)? Is there already something to make this happen, or is it necessary to "ask around"? | ||
- Is it better having to constantly ask the target' | - Is it better having to constantly ask the target' | ||
- | - What sort of information does the target provide? Is it something that can be measured in a graphical way and whose progress can be observed? | + | - What sort of information does the target provide? Is it something that can be measured in a graphical way and whose progress can be observed? |
All of these questions answer the three key points that shape the essence of our monitoring model. | All of these questions answer the three key points that shape the essence of our monitoring model. | ||
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The second question concerns whether the monitoring is synchronous (every X number of seconds it asks itself, regardless of any information changes taking place or not) or asynchronous (it only receives information when something relevant has taken place). When using synchronous monitoring with 10 million elements, collecting data at 5 minute intervals will create a considerable load, but if it is done every 50 minutes instead, it will be much more manageable, the down side of the second option being that if something takes place in between, it will take 50 minutes before finding out about it. Using asynchronous monitoring (e.g. with SNMP traps or logs) can save many processing resources, but it will not be possible to draw graphics or create historical graphs, except those directly related to the incidents that occurred. Many tools are based solely on one of the models, sometimes known as ' | The second question concerns whether the monitoring is synchronous (every X number of seconds it asks itself, regardless of any information changes taking place or not) or asynchronous (it only receives information when something relevant has taken place). When using synchronous monitoring with 10 million elements, collecting data at 5 minute intervals will create a considerable load, but if it is done every 50 minutes instead, it will be much more manageable, the down side of the second option being that if something takes place in between, it will take 50 minutes before finding out about it. Using asynchronous monitoring (e.g. with SNMP traps or logs) can save many processing resources, but it will not be possible to draw graphics or create historical graphs, except those directly related to the incidents that occurred. Many tools are based solely on one of the models, sometimes known as ' | ||
- | The third question refers to what is relevant in a given moment in time. The result can be a text chain (a descriptive event), a floating point number (to be able to draw graphics) or simply a status (down, up). Being able to work with different kinds of data allows more flexibility. Pandora FMS supports all types of data. | + | The third question refers to what is relevant in a given moment in time. The result can be a text chain (a descriptive event), a floating point number (to be able to draw graphics) or simply a status (down, up). Being able to work with different kinds of data allows more flexibility. Pandora FMS supports all types of data. |
These three " | These three " | ||
- | ====== Remote Monitoring ====== | + | ==== Remote Monitoring ==== |
- | Remote monitoring means that Pandora FMS’s server probes, (' | + | |
+ | Remote monitoring means that Pandora FMS’s server probes, (' | ||
- | < | + | {{ :wiki:esquema-remote-module-execution.png? |
- | {{wiki:Esquema-REMOTE-MODULE-EXECUTION.png?500}} | + | |
- | </ | + | |
- | Generally speaking, remote monitoring is done with two different purposes: | + | Generally speaking, remote monitoring is done with two different purposes: |
* To make sure something is ' | * To make sure something is ' | ||
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Synchronous monitoring is always conducted in the same direction: From the monitoring server to the monitored element (target). | Synchronous monitoring is always conducted in the same direction: From the monitoring server to the monitored element (target). | ||
- | The opposite process may also be interesting: | + | The opposite process may also be interesting: |
- | Synchronous monitoring is usually done by using the SNMP protocol, which is the most widely used in methodology for observing and collecting status-related information. | + | Synchronous monitoring is usually done by using the SNMP protocol, which is the most widely used in methodology for observing and collecting status-related information. WMI, a similar protocol owned by Microsoft, is an alternative method of observing and collecting status-related information. |
Basically, both protocols work in a similar fashion, which is as follows: A server sends a request for a particular configuration element of the ‘SNMP agent’ or ‘WMI service’ available in the target device. This particular element is called OID, in SNMP and in WMI it can be identified by a WQL query. The request could be for the free available memory, the router’s number of connections or the traffic in a given interface - or a wide variety of other reportable information. | Basically, both protocols work in a similar fashion, which is as follows: A server sends a request for a particular configuration element of the ‘SNMP agent’ or ‘WMI service’ available in the target device. This particular element is called OID, in SNMP and in WMI it can be identified by a WQL query. The request could be for the free available memory, the router’s number of connections or the traffic in a given interface - or a wide variety of other reportable information. | ||
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Given the importance of the topic, Web Transaction Monitoring and remote monitoring receive a separate chapter. | Given the importance of the topic, Web Transaction Monitoring and remote monitoring receive a separate chapter. | ||
- | ====== Local Monitoring (by Agents) ====== | + | ==== Local Monitoring (by Agents) ==== |
Regarding systems and applications, | Regarding systems and applications, | ||
- | According to the nomenclature used by Pandora FMS, ‘agent’ is used to refer to the entity containing the information and ‘software agent’ as the part of that software installed in that system to retrieve information and report back to Pandora FMS server. The software agent is executed constantly in the system (as a service) and reports information periodically. | + | According to the nomenclature used by Pandora FMS, ‘agent’ is used to refer to the entity containing the information and ‘software agent’ as the part of that software installed in that system to retrieve information and report back to Pandora FMS server. The software agent is executed constantly in the system (as a service) and reports information periodically. |
- | < | + | {{ :wiki:esquema-agent-module-execution.png? |
- | {{wiki:Esquema-AGENT-MODULE-EXECUTION.png?500}} | + | |
- | </ | + | |
- | The agents allow to do more than obtain information through commands, for example to obtain inventory information. Agents can also be configured to react in case of a problem or a failure, interacting automatically with the system, deleting a temporary file or executing a given command. | + | The agents allow to do more than obtain information through commands, for example to obtain inventory information. Agents can also be configured to react in case of a problem or a failure, interacting automatically with the system, deleting a temporary file or executing a given command. |
- | To obtain //precise and specific// information that may be relevant, refer to the manuals of the application to monitor, because even when having ‘generic’ monitors, internal application monitoring involves some additional complexity and specific elements. | + | To obtain //precise and specific// |
- | In Windows, there is a wide range of accesses to the information: | + | In Windows, there is a wide range of accesses to the information: |
+ | |||
+ | ==== The Monitoring Procedure ==== | ||
- | ====== The Monitoring Procedure ====== | ||
Before starting deploying, is is important to set the key points of the technological platform to be monitored. That way, before having information about specific data on the systems, it is clear what it is for and how to make full use of it without wasting time on researches or trivial things. | Before starting deploying, is is important to set the key points of the technological platform to be monitored. That way, before having information about specific data on the systems, it is clear what it is for and how to make full use of it without wasting time on researches or trivial things. | ||
- | < | + | {{ :wiki:ciclo_monitorizacion.png? |
- | {{wiki:Ciclo_monitorizacion.png?400}} | + | |
- | </ | + | |
In your case, what do you think describes your monitoring needs better? | In your case, what do you think describes your monitoring needs better? | ||
- | * To avoid losses | + | * To avoid losses |
- | * To analyze degradations | + | * To analyze degradations |
- | * To evaluate growth | + | * To evaluate growth |
For each of those answers, the focus of your monitoring solution will be different in certain aspects. | For each of those answers, the focus of your monitoring solution will be different in certain aspects. | ||
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**Performance** | **Performance** | ||
- | + | ||
- | **Capacity Planning** | + | **Capacity Planning** |
Once you know which model you will follow, you are left to wonder what to do when the system tells you the service is down, or worse, what will happen if the server' | Once you know which model you will follow, you are left to wonder what to do when the system tells you the service is down, or worse, what will happen if the server' | ||
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You need to think about action procedures. | You need to think about action procedures. | ||
- | ====== Action Procedures ====== | + | ==== Action Procedures ==== |
In order to be able to draw up action procedures, it will be necessary to take into account several factors: | In order to be able to draw up action procedures, it will be necessary to take into account several factors: | ||
- | ***Urgency of the event**: being able to distinguish something normal from something rare or critical. | + | ***Urgency of the event**: being able to distinguish something normal from something rare or critical. ***Form of notification**: |
- | ***Form of notification**: | + | By focusing on the most critical issues first, you reach a logical starting point that defines **what** |
- | ***Scaling**: | + | |
- | Before entering any configuration, | + | ==== Supervision Models ==== |
- | < | + | By supervision models, we are stating that a monitoring system is designed to report information and work automatically, |
- | {{wiki: | + | |
- | </center> | + | |
- | By focusing on the most critical issues first, you reach a logical starting point that defines **what** the most important issues for your organization are. Once you know what the most critical elements are, you can define **how** to monitor the target(s), while considering **who** will be responsible for the resolution of the reported problems in those systems as well as how to notify the appropriate people of the existence of a problem. | + | {{ : |
- | ====== Supervision Models ====== | + | On the other hand, there are certain people called //system |
- | By supervision models, we are stating that a monitoring | + | |
- | < | + | Here we can already see the differences: |
- | {{wiki:Notice_ways.png? | + | |
- | </ | + | |
- | On the other hand, there are certain | + | * The **direct supervision model** |
- | Here we can already see the differences: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | | + | |
- | + | ||
- | * The** indirect supervision model** | + | |
For teamwork that involves operators, administrators and third level personnel, Pandora FMS provides meaningful tools like: event ticketing, incident creation, notification scaling, internal mail, notice board and chat among the users of Pandora FMS. | For teamwork that involves operators, administrators and third level personnel, Pandora FMS provides meaningful tools like: event ticketing, incident creation, notification scaling, internal mail, notice board and chat among the users of Pandora FMS. | ||
- | ====== | + | ==== And what Now? ==== |
The following chapters are exclusively devoted to Pandora FMS. Up to this point, we have been discussing general issues which were probably important for you to know before we continue to explore Pandora FMS. You probably know many of these things already. You may have used other monitoring programs. Perhaps, you may have heard that this or that application is always monitored in a certain way because it is the best way possible. | The following chapters are exclusively devoted to Pandora FMS. Up to this point, we have been discussing general issues which were probably important for you to know before we continue to explore Pandora FMS. You probably know many of these things already. You may have used other monitoring programs. Perhaps, you may have heard that this or that application is always monitored in a certain way because it is the best way possible. | ||
- | Maybe, but from our experience, each client works in a certain way and regardless of how much we know about monitoring, we may not know more about how your infrastructure was configured than you do. Monitoring easy tasks presents no problems, the hard job is to adapt monitoring to your business without having to adapt your business to monitoring. Not an easy task. More than 800 pages await, if you wish to discover the best way to monitor your organization with Pandora FMS. It is a challenge, but one we believe is well worth the effort. | + | Maybe, but from our experience, each client works in a certain way and regardless of how much we know about monitoring, we may not know more about how your infrastructure was configured than you do. Monitoring easy tasks presents no problems, the hard job is to adapt monitoring to your business without having to adapt your business to monitoring. Not an easy task. More than 800 pages await, if you wish to discover the best way to monitor your organization with Pandora FMS. It is a challenge, but one we believe is well worth the effort. |
- | [[en: | ||
- | [[Category: | ||
- | [[Category: |