Servers Alive v7.2 (build 2627)


New - Updated

  • SAVE as new SSH/telnet command.
  • The process check's authentication will be default use a connection to IPC$ in order to authenticated towards the remote system. In some cases this is not working correctly (due to security settings on the remote system). You can now globaly change the authentication method used for process checks by setting the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\StartUp\UseimpersonateForProcessChecks (reg_dword) to 1.
  • The service check's authentication will be default use a connection to IPC$ in order to authenticated towards the remote system. In some cases this is not working correctly (due to security settings on the remote system). You can now globaly change the authentication method used for service checks by setting the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\StartUp\UseimpersonateForServiceChecks (reg_dword) to 1.
  • Everywere were it's possible to use the % variables you can now use a script too. Within the SETUP: General\Custom Scripts screen you define a script, this scripts gets an ID. Within the % locations you can point to that script via (SCR=ID) for example: (SCR=2) points to the script with ID = 2.
  • Twitter alert is now ready for the future and is based on v1.1 of the Twitter API
  • The NT Process checker will now also log the CHECKRESULT into RRD.
  • Within the definition of an check you can now use the %h, %p, %r en %w parameters. The %w will be replaced by the IP address IF that is known, else it will be replaced by the hostname (%h). If within the interface of Servers Alive you have the possibility to test a check or to browse (for a service for example), then the % parameters will NOT be replaced by their value! The replacement is only done during the checks!
  • The check description of an external errorlevel check does by default not show the parameters that are used within the commandline. You can enable/disable this by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\StartUp\IncludeParametersForExternalErrorLevelDescription (string) to 1 (for enable = with the parameters) or to 0 (disable = without the parameters) (on 64 bits OS the value to change is HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\Startup\IncludeParametersForExternalErrorLevelDescription)
  • Changes made to the setup while running in none checking mode (via the Remote Icon tool) will be seen by the running service without the need for a restart.
  • When running the Servers Alive service and connecting to it via the Remote Icon tool (SA in none checking mode) you will see the updates while SA (service) is checking.
  • Experimental support NTLMv2 authentication for HTTP/HTTPS checks added
  • GUI element added for the autoUpdateHTTPInterval parameter.
  • Detection of the Windows 2012 OS was added
  • Within the HTML template based output you can use the saif clause outside of sa_report part. New vars that have been introduced are sa_nr_up,sa_nr_down,sa_nr_maintenance,sa_nr_unchecked,sa_nr_unavailable and sa_nr_entries. They all give the total value based on Servers Alive not based on the entries that are part of the specific HTML output page.
  • Within the alerts you can use the %o (letter o) parameter, this will give you a description of the actual check that is done.
  • The trap alerts can use the %m parameter (contains the received trap), if you want to convert the content of the %m parameter you can now this by using a script.
  • The URL formula check will strip the leading tags (until the BODY one) to get the number on the checked page
  • The authentication that is used for the alerts can now also be based on a person, making password maintenance easier.
  • For the URL (http/https) checks you can now select the useragent to use via the interface.
    Installer will by default propose the Servers Alive useragent, Firefox 12 or Internet Explorer 7.0. More options can be added in the registry.
  • MERGE filename as new SSH/telnet command.
  • If the telephony service is not running, the app/service will start it
  • The SMTP alerts can have a different priority per alert, and different for down and the other statusses
  • Built-in webserver can serve files that are within the same directory as the webpage it shows IF the webbrowsers refers to the initial webpage (typicaly this will be used for CSS or images)
  • Within the alerts you can now use a TAB too by entering {09}
  • If an entry has a prettyname, then this was shown in the DEPENDS ON list on the ADD/EDIT entry page, without a prettyname is showed a description of the entry. By editing/adding the following registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\StartUp\Dependsonwithoutprettyname (string) with value of 1 it will always show a description (on 64 bits OS the value to change is HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\Startup\Dependsonwithoutprettyname)
  • Speed optimalisation for the LOAD HOST and at the end of a cycle
  • SSH command as alert was added
  • The mail part of Servers Alive can now work with several mailer threads, this can decrease the time to send a large number of alerts
  • Update to the INTERCHANGE database logging should make it quicker, now also with native supported for some databases. (like Oracle, MsSQL, Sybase, DB2, mySQL, SQLite, Informix,...
  • Changes Wizard can change the TO and BODY part of the following alerts: other mail, SMS, SNPP, sMPP, Notepage, Numeric paging, twitter, msn, xmpp, popup
  • Changes Wizard can change for the alerts based on the primary/alternate email, the TO, SUBJECT and BODY part
  • Trapreceiver now has a trap viewer (can be accessed via the setup screen of the trap receiver)
  • For the trap-alerts we have other % parameters
    • %h: name of the system running Servers Alive
    • %t: time the trap was received
    • %d: date the trap was received
    • %m: received SNMP trap
    • %r: rule that was triggered
    • %s: name/ip of the source of the snmp trap
    • %a: name/ip of the agent sending the trap
  • The trap-alert now contains the ENTERPRISE OID too
  • Schedule profile added (ENTERPRISE edition only!). It's possible via the EDIT menu to create a SCHEDULE and to use that schedule for different entries.
  • The SORT option of the template can use GUI too. When GUI is used all other sort options are ignored
  • sa_if can use sa_levelsdeep too
  • New HTML tag added for the HTML template based output. <sa_group_activemaintenancebutton>: this will show an active/maintenance link for the group. (tag only valid in group header/footer). If the link is clicked we will change the status and re-generate the saved html page.
  • Twitter alert has been added (ENTERPRISE edition only!). In combination with the new %c1...%c7 paremeters you can even add the coordinates of were the actual system that you're monitoring is located by giving the coordinates via the custom fields
  • Via the SAWeb interface you can now set the group's entries to maintenance or active, all at once, works in the same way as the option in the real GUI
  • SAWeb output shows groups names too now
  • The % parameters are extended with %c1 .. %c7, they give the value of custom field 1,..., custom field 7
  • In saWeb we show some extra indentations in order to see the dependencies
  • Deleting multiple entries from within the GUI is now possible
  • Support for Virtual Directories has been added to our built-in webserver. From our point of view although the feature is usefull, we don't think it will be used a lot....we think it will only be used for images. Meaning that in most cases people will only need 1 virtual directory. That's why we decided that at this point we will not create a GUI for it.
    You will have to create the virtual directory definition within the registry.
    Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\WebServer create a new key called VirtualDirectory
    Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\WebServer\VirtualDirectory create a new key with the name of the virtual directory (for example images), and under this key create a new value (string) with the name "Path" and as value give it the path were the virtual directory should be pointing too. (for example c:\files\images\).
  • New HTML tag added for the HTML template based output. <sa_activemaintenancebutton>: this will show an active/maintenance link for the entry. If the link is clicked we will change the status and re-generate the saved html page.
  • The URL check can now use a formula too. Currently within the formula you can only use sa_currentresult. This will typicaly be used with URL that return a simply NUMBER (and not a real page), and were you want to see if that number fits certain ranges/values. For example if you want to get a DOWN when the retrieved value is not between 10 and 50, then you would set as formula sa_currentresult>10 and sa_currentresult<50
  • The telnet/ssh interface has a new command called CONVERT PEOPLE. With this you can change the authentication settings for the service/process/diskspace/perfmon checks from using a username/password to using a PERSON. Using a person makes password management easier. The change will be done if the USERID giving for the PERSON matches the username given for the authentication.
  • Specific logging for the AT+C protocol was added. In order to get the logging you will have to create a string called ATCLogfile under the Servers Alive\Paging registry
  • Within the ADD/EDIT entry screen, the GROUPS are now showing their full path and alpha sorted, making it easier to find the correct group
  • The RRD CREATE script will not overwrite the existing db file(s)
  • RRD checkresult logging will try to do this for the COM-checks too. For the *nix DISKSPACE checking and for the CountFiles COM check there is an update on the add-ons page. The diskspace check will need a config changes.
  • Build-in PING check can now ping over ipv6 too
  • Smallish change to the RTSP checker making it much faster
  • A new internal command was added as alert. You can now as an alert load another entries file and start the checking of it
  • RRD updating/graphing has been changed. The updates will be done via 3 command-boxes instead of 1. The generation of the graphs will be done on different intervals depending on the hour/day/week/month/year type of graph. We do forsee the usage of a BAT directory and you will need to re-generate the GRAPH scripts.
  • The db interchange logger stopped if the remark had to be logged as was larger then 200 chars. By default the size that we declare for the REMARK field in the interchange db is still 200 bytes. You can however change this via the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\Interchange\db_Remark_size (string)), the logging will also be limited to 200 chars (or to the value given in the registry)
  • You can configure via the setup/built-in servers/web server if all entries or just the up/down/maintenance/down_and_maintenance entries should be on the status page.
  • The mailsender will by default use the DNS servers defined on the OS level when using the Direct Send option. However if you want to use specific DNS servers then you can force this via the registry.
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\SMTP\Primary_DNS_to_use (string)
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\SMTP\Primary_DNS_to_use_2 (string)
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\SMTP\Alternate_DNS_to_use (string)
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\SMTP\Alternate_DNS_to_use_2 (string)
  • The "status summary" option has been extended with an option to send an "OK" message when NO downs are detected (if there are down, the downs are ofcourse send)
  • You can have 2 sets of XMPP servers, typicaly used for GTalk and an inhouse XMPP server
  • From the Remote Icon app you can now start Servers Alive is none checking mode
  • The WHEN tab of the alerts now have a "status change" option too, this means that the alert is send each time there is a status change. This can cause a lot of alerts, going from unchecked to up for example is also a status change!!
  • Woodstone's Servers Alive Remote Client (wsSARC) was added to the Servers Alive installer. This will enable you to get the system-tray icon of Servers Alive in cases were desktop interaction was not possible AND on remote systems.
  • ‹sa_onstatusminutes› tag added, can also be used within the sa_if statements.
  • TCP checks can be done over ipv6 too
  • UDP checks can be done over ipv6 too
  • DNS checks can be done over ipv6 too
  • Built-in webserver can use SSL/HTTPS too
  • If authentication is enabled for the built-in webserver, then make sure to enable it for each PERSON that is allowed to access saweb.
  • Packet size of the PING checks can be set for each ping check entry.
  • The subject of the keepalive mails can be changed via the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\SMTP\KeepAliveSubject (string))
  • You can set an entry to go into maintenance after a specific time (until a specific time was already possible)
  • Authentication based on the settings of a PERSON (more central user management for Windows authentication) is now possible for service, process, perfmon and diskspace checks.
  • OS detection sees Windows 7 and 2008 too
  • saWeb changes: start/stop/pause/update is now possible and each entry contains a link to the entry on which it depends (if any)
  • The context menu on a group now also has the option to remove all entries and subgroups (and entries)
  • The SNMP trapreceiver now converts low and high ascci within the received data to HEX values.
  • The SNPP sender can work with snpp gateways that need authentication. You will have to create a custom command within the registry:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\SNPP\CustomCommand (string)with as value
    LOGI username password
  • Process check accepts wildcarts. If you look for a process with the name ??tepad it will give an UP on notepad.
  • In the HTTP POST alert we only replaced the % parameters within the data to post, this is now also done within the URL.
  • New checktype introduced, called COMBINED CHECK. Basicly this is a boolean check were you can combined all the other checks. The COMBINED checks will only be done at the end of a cycle when all other entries are already done. Currently you have to manualy enter the boolean-expression.
    Syntax is rather simpel. You can use AND and OR and NOT and (). To reference an entry you have to know it's uniqueID.
    Example: [2] = down or [3]= down
    => will give an up if the entry with UID 2 or the entry with UID 3 is down.
  • The SNMP TRAP Receiver alert can now work on a part of the enterprise OID, if you enter for example 1.2.3.4.5.* then it will be triggered on all enterprise oids that start with 1.2.3.4.5.
    Do know that only SNMPv1 traps contain an enterprise OID!
  • By default the built-in webserver listens to all IPs that are configured on the system. Via the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\WebServer\BindIP (string)) you can define to what IP the server should listen. If you give an invalid address then we will default back to listen to all addresses.
  • A new alert was added - "Export setup to .REG file" (Execute Command - Internal Servers Alive command) - this will typicaly be used to generate a .REG file that will be included into a backup.
  • Built-in version of saWeb can filter on the group
  • The URL check can now be configured to just check if the status code is acceptable, acceptable based on a list you give.
  • By default a user with a blank password will not be able to login to the built-in webserver, this can be changed via the setup. (that is with authentication enabled ofcourse :-))
  • Built-in webserver can use authentication. As user it will allow the PEOPLE that are defined. Don't forget to add a password to them!!
  • Major change in the built-in webserver. The webserver is now able to serve the pages that are generated by SA too. For example for the "Default Page" you should use as URL: http://myhost:4310/default page
    This will only work if the user running Servers Alive has access to the file (which will in most cases only be the case if the file is local)
  • Via the F3 key you can do a FIND NEXT.
  • It's now possible to change the name of a person via the GUI too
  • You can add a wait at the end of each HTTP POST/GET alert by adding/editing the following registry value: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\StartUp\HTTPAlertWaitAtEnd (string)
  • The ‹sa_group_name› tag now also works in the entries-part of the HTML template based output (and no longer only in the group header/footer part)
  • Alerts on the SNMP trap receiver can also filter on the generic and specific type (of the received trap)
  • Primary and alternate SMTP PORT are now accesible from the GUI (advanced)
  • Check TOS byte consistency option added to the PING check

Fixes

  • All known bugs were fixed

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