Using the Uptime Monitoring Service

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Applicable Plans - Virtual Cloud Servers, Virtual Machines, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments

Using the Uptime Monitoring Service

Overview

Uptime Monitoring allows you to set up monitors to check any port or URL of your eApps server from multiple remote locations. Alerts can be configured to notify individuals or groups, that you define, whenever a remote monitor check fails. This service works for all Virtual Cloud Servers, Virtual Machines, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments.

Monitors can be set up for any eApps hosted server. You have complete flexibility to monitor any port or a URL. The URL monitor will check for text strings on the page, which can be retrieved from a database. If the page does not respond, or if the text retrieval from the database fails, the alert notification will be sent. Response time graphs are also included, showing the round trip response time from each remote location for each monitor. Up to four (4) weeks of history can be viewed.

Monitors can be configured with our First Responder managed services add-on. With this option, alerts will be sent to eApps Support, with your instructions on how to respond when the alert is sent. This option ensures that highly skilled technicians are standing by 24 hours a day, and will take action within minutes if your site fails to respond to a remote monitor.

The Uptime Monitoring Service is accessed from the Customer Portal - https://portal.eapps.com. Log in to the Customer Portal, and go to My Cloud > Uptime Monitoring. This is where you will create and manage your monitors.

Creating Monitors for Your Server
    Creating Contacts and Contact Groups
    Creating Monitors

Creating Monitors for Your Server

In order to create monitors for your server, you will need to do the following:

  1. Create Contacts
  2. Create Contact Groups (optional)
  3. Create Monitors

Creating Contacts and Contact Groups

A Contact is an e-mail address that alerts from the monitoring service will be sent to. A contact can also be added to a Group (covered below). You have to add Contacts before you add Groups. Note - you cannot enter an @eapps.com e-mail address as a Contact. If you want eApps to monitor your Virtual Server, please select the First Responder option.

  • Adding a Contact - from the Service Administration section of the main Advanced Monitoring page, click on Manage Contacts and Groups. On the Advanced Monitoring Contacts page, click on New Contact. Enter the Email address of the Contact, and click on Create Contact.

A Contact Group allows you to designate which contacts get notified in the event of a certain kind of alert from the monitoring service. For example, you could have a Group called "Webmaster" that contains the contacts for your web development team who would get notified if there was a problem with the website, and a Group called "System Admin" that contains the contacts for your system and network administrators team who would get notified if there was a problem with the Virtual Server or network.

  • Adding a Contact Group - from the Service Administration section of the Advanced Monitoring page, click on Manage Contacts and Groups. On the Advanced Monitoring Contacts page, click on New Group. Here you can give the Group an Alias (Webmaster, System Admin, App Dev, etc.) and then check off which contacts will be in the Group. Once you have added your Alias and Contacts, click on Create Group.

You can also edit, rename, or delete Contacts and Groups from the Manage Contacts and Groups screen.

Creating Monitors

After adding Contacts and (optionally) Groups, you can create a Monitor. From the Monitors section of the main Advanced Monitoring page, click on New Monitor. This takes you to the Uptime Monitoring New Monitor page.

Monitor

  • Monitor Type - select the type of service you want to monitor from the drop down menu. Note - some Monitor Types will require additional information. Click on the Info (i) icon next to each requirement if you need further explanation.

  • HOST - select the host to be monitored from the drop down menu. You can also choose Other Host and then enter a Hostname located at a third party provider. Make sure to enter either a FQDN or valid public IP for that host.

First Responder - if you have First Responder available, you can select it here. This will alert eApps Support if this monitor is triggered. You can also provide any relevant information here, such as instructions on how to restart a service or how to connect to your database, and eApps Support will follow these instructions.

If you have not purchased any First Responders, you can subscribe to that service from Upgrade/Downgrade Monitors.

Locations - select at least one location to monitor your service from. If possible, try to pick a location that is close to where your customers are so that you can get a good indication of how the service is responding for them.

Contacts - select at least one Contact to be notified in case an alert for this service is triggered.

Groups - you can also select one or more Groups to be notified in the event an alert for this service is triggered. Groups are optional.


Click on Create Monitor. This will create the new Monitor and enable it (turn it on).

Once your Monitors are in place, you can edit them, view a graph of location response times, and purchase additional Monitors and First Responders.

  • Edit - to edit a Monitor click on the Edit button to the right of an existing Monitor. This will allow you to edit your ports, hosts, locations, contacts, and even delete monitors. This is also where you can Disable (turn off) a Monitor, and then Enable (turn on) it again when needed.

  • Graph - click on the Graph button to the right of an existing Monitor to see the response time from your Locations to the service that is being monitored. You can select a time period to view, and from the menu on the right you can print the visible graph or download it in several image formats.

  • Upgrade/Downgrade Monitors - to add additional Monitors or First Responders, click on Upgrade/Downgrade Monitors under the Service Administration section. This allows you to purchase more Monitors or First Responders, or if necessary downgrade the amount you have available.

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