Advanced MonitoringAdvanced Monitoring


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SpireWatch

NeoSpire's monitoring solution, SpireWatch, takes service monitoring to the next level.

 

Traditional monitoring solutions monitor services to ensure that a server's applications are simply responding to user requests. However, today's complex hosting solutions demand a higher caliber monitoring capability and a proactive approach. Critical system resources such as CPU, RAM and disk usage must be properly monitored, but most importantly a customer's application must be functioning properly. NeoSpire's solution covers service, customer application, resource and server application monitoring from one central monitoring tool, SpireWatch.



Service Monitoring

Service monitoring is the means by which basic services are monitored for operation.

 

An example would be monitoring HTTP (port 80) of a server to ensure that the web server application is running. However, these tests do not reflect what the web server application is returning. It is entirely possible for a service to be responding properly, but there may be other issues preventing a website from working properly. This is where application monitoring comes into play.

 

Customer Application Monitoring

Customer application monitoring is a collaborative effort between NeoSpire and the customer. NeoSpire will consult with a customer to determine how an application works and how NeoSpire can effectively monitor the application.

 

For customers that utilize dynamic web pages or web-accessible applications, NeoSpire recommends a level of monitoring that is customized to each specific application. NeoSpire accomplishes this by using a customer-specific, customized test that requests a specific page from each application being monitored. This custom page should be written using the same technologies and database queries as the production application. The page is tested for a specific output, if this output changes in any way, the monitoring system will alert our System Administration team who will take immediate action. The page can be enhanced to provide extra troubleshooting information on a failure, which can be used by the NeoSpire System Administrators or the customer's developers to assist in resolving the error in a more timely fashion.

 

This method of monitoring provides the customer more control over what is monitored, by using a page within the existing application the customer is able to add or remove specific tests from the page at anytime they wish. When used in conjunction with our Load Balancing system, this page can be used to test the application for availability of new requests.

 

There are two benefits to using this type of testing:

 

  1. It does not require the customer to learn anything new. The test page is dependent on using code similar to the existing business logic used throughout the customer's site.
  2. Monitoring individual pieces of a system still leaves the possibility of something being missed or overlooked. Testing the end result, the customer's business logic and code, prevents such an oversight.

 

Resource Monitoring

Monitoring a system's resources is crucial to ensuring that a system does not experience a critical shortage of resources.

 

  • A system short on RAM might still function, but it may be functioning much slower than what is tolerable.
  • Another typical problem is a stray DLLHOST.EXE process on an IIS 5.0 based server may begin to consume all the CPU cycles on a machine. All other monitoring may remain normal, but NeoSpire's monitoring system would alert NeoSpire to this problem

 

Application Monitoring Modules

NeoSpire is committed to constant development of modules that are specific to popular server applications. These modules are designed to take the service monitoring component to the next level. An example is NeoSpire's email relay module. With this module NeoSpire is able to test that a mail server is able to perform the following:

 

  • POP3
  • SMTP
  • DNS resolution
  • Local and remote message delivery

 

Typical monitoring may be able to test the first two items but the remaining items are only testable if the entire mail send/receive process is tested. Also, any in-between components such as network, spam/anti-virus filtering software, etc are also tested. This in-depth testing allows NeoSpire to be confident that a customer's entire solution is working, not just the pieces.

 

NeoSpire's application monitoring modules include, but not limited to:

 

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000
  • MySQL
  • Microsoft Exchange 2000
  • J2EE Environments
  • Microsoft ASP/ODBC
  • Microsoft .NET
  • Macromedia ColdFusion 5 and MX
  • Oracle 8, 9, 10

 

 

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