Getting Started: Chroniker Remote Locations

With Chroniker Remote Locations, you can now monitor the response time of your critical servers and tasks FROM different locations. Chroniker Remote Location will report to Chroniker Base so you can easily manage and compare the monitored data from a central location.

1. Install Chroniker Base

You must have the Chroniker base installed in order to view reports and set alerts on your monitored data.  If you do not have the Chroniker base, download it at: http://www.nrgglobal.com/downloads/chroniker_remote_locations_downloads.php

Otherwise, skip this step and go to step 2.

2. Add New Chroniker Remote Location

To run Chroniker from remote locations, you need to install Chroniker Remote Location in your remote servers. To download Chroniker Remote, please refer to the following link: http://www.nrgglobal.com/downloads/chroniker_remote_locations_downloads.php

Once you have Chroniker Remote installed, login to the Chroniker Base to add the new location as follow:

• Setup -> Chroniker Remote Locations
• Click on "Add New Remote Location" button at the bottom of the screen, Remote Location Form popup appears
  
  • Enter a meaningful name of the location in the location alias field
  • Select the communication mode, Chroniker base and the Chroniker Remote Location communicate through web services.
    
    The communication Policy is specific to each remote location. The base can handle a mix of policies. there are 3 communication policies available, they cover all possible business requirements:
    
    * Base <-> Station This is the most common situation and is default when installing the Remote Location. The Remote Location can connect to the base and the base to the Remote Location. Choose this policy if the Remote Location and the base are accessible to each other.
    
    In this mode, the Remote Location's Web Server port (8000 by default) must be reachable by Chroniker Base, so if applicable, you need to open that port in firewall both on the Remote Location itself and if there is any network firewall then the exception must be created there as well.
    
    A simple test would be to access the following web-page from the Chroniker Base:
    
    http://[Remote Location Host]:[Station Port]
    
    * Base -> Station Choose the policy if the Remote Location is located in a branch that does not have access to Chroniker Base. In this case all communications are initiated by the base and the Remote Location will never try to connect to the base
    
    For this mode, the Remote Location's Web Server port (8000 by default) must be reachable by Chroniker Base, so if applicable, you need to open that port in firewall both on the Remote Location itself and if there is any network firewall then the exception must be created there as well.
    
    A simple test would be to access the following web-page from the Chroniker Base:
    
    http://[Remote Location Host]:[Station Port]
    
    * Station -> base Choose the policy when the base does not have access to the Remote Location. For example the Remote Location is located at one of your suppliers data center.
    
    In this mode, the Chroniker Web Interface port (8888) must be reachable from the Remote Location. This port must allow incoming connections from external hosts so firewall exceptions may need to be added where applicable.
    
    A simple test would be to access the following web-page from the Remote Location:
    
    http://[Chroniker Base Host]:[Chroniker Base WebServer Port]
    
    All the communications are initiated by the Remote Location.
  • Enter the static IP address or Host name of the machine where Remote Locations is installed
  • Enter the port of the Remote Location
  • Specify the time offset of the Remote Location (in hours) with respect to Chroniker Base (default value: 0 if Location and Base are both in same time zone).
    Examples: 0, 1, 0.5, -2
  • Enter a description for the Remote Location.
  • Click on Submit.
• If you want to monitor only some specific nodes and tasks in this location and not all of them, then you will need to:
  1. Go to the monitor's home page
  2. Find the monitor you want to monitor from this location
  3. Click on the edit button to the left of node or task
  4. Once the form is open, specify this new location which you will find listed under the "Monitor From" section
  5. Click update.