Tasks - Web Server

Problem
Are Web Servers (Apache, Web Sphere) down? Are users not able to access your website due to downtime?

Solution
Allow Chroniker's Tasks Monitor to Load a URL and get the server’s response code. The Page content matching feature will enables a more accurate response time monitoring of the web pages.

Create a Web Server Task
Creating a Web Server Task involves the following steps:

1. Define a Web Server Task
2. Define Alerts
   1. Create Reactions
   2. Create Events
   3. Apply Events to Mail Server Task

Define a Web Server Task

Click on Tools > Add New Monitor > Web Server Task:

• Required Parameters
  
  1. Click on the Group drop down menu button and select a group from this list.
     
  2. Enter a unique Task Name. Use whichever naming convention is most useful to you.
     Example: "NRG_Web".
     
  3. Monitor From: If Chorniker Remote Location is used. Select a location where the task will be executed.
     
  4. URL: Type in a URL address of the page where data will be submitted.
     Example: http://www.nrgglobal.com
  5. Login: (Optional) Enter a login name for a basic HTTP authentication.
  6. Password: (Optional) Enter a password for the login.
  7. Timeout: Enter the number of seconds before the test is considered a failure in the Connect Time-out (sec.) field.
     Example: Recommended value is 15-30
  8. Use Proxy: Check the Use Proxy if you want to execute this task via a proxy server specified in the admin options
  9. Response Code: Enter the acceptable HTTP response code received from the web server
     Example: = 200 (web server checks out ok)
  10. Match Content: Enter a Match against the content (Case Sensitive) of the page. If the matched content is not found on the webpage, the task returns a down event
  11. Fetch All: Check "Fetch All Content" if you want to get all the images, css files or javascript files referenced in the page and calculate the overall response time of the task by taking the respective response time of those elements in consideration.
  12. Enter the host/server of the webserver. This field is used for Host Outages configurations. Please click here to know more about Host Outages.
• Events
  
  1. Click on Add Event button to create a new Event or apply a predefined Event to this task.
  2. Select Event Type from Type dropdown.
  3. Select a predefined Event from the dropdown list or select [Add New Event ..] from the dropdown to create a new Event.
     
     

     When selecting [Add New Event ..], Events form opens to create the new Event.
     
     After creating the new Event, you need to click on Add Event button one more time in Add Task form to see the new Event in the Events dropdown list.

• Description: Enter a meaningful description of the Task.
  
• Click on Submit to save the form or Reset to clear the form.



Summary

You have created a Web Server Task that sends an email when the event threshold you’ve set is exceeded. It is recommended that you create as many reactions and events as you need to monitor your systems and networks efficiently.

If you find that you are receiving emails constantly, edit the event’s threshold accordingly. Or make changes to the web server so that it does operate under desired thresholds

Now that you have a basic Web Server test setup you can graph, report and monitor the data you are collecting. You may also edit the appropriate scenario and or task to include profiles and other options.

Should you need further technical help on the topic of Web Server monitoring with Chroniker’s TaskWatch module, feel free to contact NRG Global at: 1-626-478-2138 or email: support@NRGglobal.com