| The
functions of a network monitor have changed over time.
At one point, a network monitor was limited to watching
a company's communication interfaces and receiving notification
if they were down. Today, a network monitor can be much
broader in scope and involve the proactive performance
measurement of computer hardware and communication pipelines
to ensure they operate within a specified range.
Basic
Network Monitor
In
its most basic form a network monitor sends a notification
that something is no longer working or is not available.
This would include ping, port, URL and most web site
monitoring. The notification is reactive in nature and
allows you to know that something needs to be fixed.
The use of this network monitor should be limited to
companies that can afford to have their computer system
down while repairs are made.
Advanced
Network Monitor
For
companies that want to avoid system or network outages,
the network monitor needs to be much more proactive.
A proactive network monitor would involve taking performance
measurements of such things as CPU usage, server load,
disk utilization, and memory usage. It might include
the SNMP polling of every piece of equipment on the
company's LAN or WAN. A network monitor could even measure
the response time of transactions and applications that
are critical to the company or its bandwidth utilization.
If any of these measurements were outside of preset
boundaries the network monitor would send an alert so
corrective action could be taken before the situation
became critical. All the performance measurements taken
by this network monitor also are stored in a database
for trend analysis and capacity planning.
The
best network monitor also includes a trouble ticket
system that automatically generates a trouble ticket
when an alert is sent. This creates an audit trail,
ensures that alerts are not ignored, and provides administrative
control of the process. A network monitor is well worth
the investment and is something you should ask your
hosting company to provide. |
