SSH Monitor is an advanced IPNetwork monitor. Use it to run a program (script) on remote host and return results to interpret as performance value. It should be used if there’s no built-in monitor to handle a particular task. In most cases this monitor type can be used if there is an existing program (including Nagios plugins) and/or script on a remote host and it is required to integrate it with IPNetwork Monitor’s engine. This monitor can also be used just to test SSH connection. As long as execution results can be interpreted as a performance value, any possible program or script can be used. The program should be able to run unattended and correctly close, otherwise memory leaks and other problems on remote host may happen. Using this monitor incorrectly (i.e., with programs returning unexpected values or behaving abnormally) may result in false alarms as well as in real problems going unnoticed. Due to nature of this monitor, manual monitoring can be either extremely difficult, or simple, it can’t be predicted in general case. However, using IPNetwork Monitor capabilities, this can be handled in efficient and uniform way. Creation of SSH Monitor is a simple process. Specify host and port to use first. SSH connection can be a complex process. You can use password, key file and combine method of authentication when key authentication is tried first, password – afterwards. To make sure the host is trusted, you can optionally provide key fingerprint and check it prior to running the monitor. Depending on authentication type, specify path to public and private keys (you can also provide passphrase to unlock the key); and user credentials. Finally, specify whether script will actually be run and if yes – specify the full command line to execute and program type (check Nagios plugin mode if necessary). Finally, change the value to divide return results by prior to using to calculate performance status. SSH monitors can be resource-consuming. Also, precaution should be made they actually leave no running processes on the remote host; otherwise host performance may degrade in the course of time. However, there are many uses for such a monitor. Developers can check the status of their work on remote host. Owners of a proprietary software can run custom checks to make sure the program behaves as expected. Actual uses are numerous; however, if built-in means are insufficient, it is recommended to contact IPNetwork Monitor developers and propose to implement what is missing. Using SNMP Custom monitor is recommended in case of UNIX-like systems, since SNMP is designed to allow such “plug-ins”. SSH Monitor should depend on other, less resource-consuming monitors wherever possible, to make sure it is really required to run a program remotely. Other monitor types, such as SNMP Custom Monitoror TCP Monitors can be used first to check the remote host availability and other remote checks.

Description of other features:

Monitoring Features Here you can find the list of monitor types supported in IPNetwork Monitor and brief description of their parameters.
Application Templates Here you can find the list of application templates supported in IPNetwork Monitor and their short description.
Network Discovery Helps you to create a basis of your monitoring configuration and automates the task of detection network hosts and network services.
Alerting Features Here you can find the list of alert types (ways of reaction to the problems happened during monitoring) available in IPNetwork Monitor, and their brief description.
Reporting Features Here you can find the list of report types available in IPNetwork Monitor with brief descriptions.
IPNetwork Monitor interfaces and structure Here you can find an overview of IPNetwork Monitor components, Windows and web interfaces.

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