Eko and Friends

In The blog post New to Hyperic HQ: Part 2, we've discussed how to monitor resources which HQ discover out-of-the-box. In this part 3 blog post we're going to discuss how to add platforms that HQ doesn't discover automatically.


Add a New Platform
HQ can monitor a variety of network devices using SNMP, including firewalls, switches, routers, and hosts that can be queried via SNMP. To monitor a network device using SNMP, we use an existing HQ Agent as a proxy for collecting the SNMP data from the network device.

Before we start monitor an agentless SNMP device, we have to configure HQ Agent to receive SNMP traps on an unprivileged ports if we want to run the agent as non-administrative user, because by default HQ Agent use UDP port 162 for receiving traps. To configure the receiving port open agent.properties file located in: C:\Hyperic HQ 4.0.1\agent-4.0.1\conf\agent.properties. Your agent home directory may vary.

add the following line:

snmpTrapReceiver.listenAddress=udp:0.0.0.0/1620

This line will enable the agent to receive traps at UDP port 1620 from any interface in the platform. Once this line is added we have to restart the Agent. You need to configure your SNMP device to generate traps and send it to the Agent. This configuration is specific to the device. Consult your device documentation for the configuration.

There are network devices that we can added to HQ. These devices have different platform types. HQ provides Cisco IOS and PIX OS built-in plugin, we can choose the type in the platform type drop-down menu. For devices which HQ doesn't provide plugin, we can choose Network Device platform type if the device doesn't have a storage, for example routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers. For a device which has storage, we can choose Network Host platform type.

These are steps for adding a new platform to HQ as an example:
1. Open Browse page by clicking the Resources tab in the Masthead and click the Platforms link.
2. In the Tools Menu, choose New Platform. New Platform pages appears.

New Platform Page: figure 1, click to enlarge


3. Enter platform name, type, and the IP address. Click OK button. Inventory page for the new platform appears.

Inventory Page for The New Platform: figure 2, click to enlarge


4. In The Configuration Properties section, click Edit button. Configuration Properties for the new platform appears.

Configuration Properties for The New Platform: figure 3, click to enlarge


5. To identify interface services, choose the interface index to use. Most devices work with the default ifDescr
6. Enter snmpIP, snmpPort, and snmpCommunity string.
7. Check the Enable Log Tracking box. We will see the SNMP port with netstat if we enable log tracking for the network device.
8. Click OK button. The Inventory page for the platform appears.

Now you can monitor the platform in the browse page.


Add a New Server
As an example we're going to add Windows Terminal Services to HQ. But before we do that, we have to deploy Windows Terminal Services plugin for HQ. In the machine where HQ Agent resides, copy terminalservices-plugin.xml from this directory:

C:\Hyperic HQ 4.0.1\agent-4.0.1\bundles\agent-4.0.1-nnn\pdk\examples

to this directory:

C:\Hyperic HQ 4.0.1\agent-4.0.1\bundles\agent-4.0.1-nnn\pdk\plugins

Your HQ Agent installation directory may vary. Once copied, You have to restart the agent. To verify terminalservices-plugin.xml is registered to the agent, check the log for the agent in:

C:\Hyperic HQ 4.0.1\agent-4.0.1\log\agent.log

Next part is to deploy the plugin to the server. Copy terminalservices-plugin.xml to:

C:\Hyperic HQ 4.0.1\hq-plugins

This directory is not exist by default, you have to create it first. After that you have to restart the agent. We don't have to restart the agent thereafter. Because this directory is used for hot deployment of plugins for the server. To verify registered plugin, open the server log:

C:\Hyperic HQ 4.0.1\logs\server.log

These are steps for adding a new server:
1. Open the Browse page
2. Click the platform we want to use
3. In the Tools Menu, select New Server. New Server page appears.

New Server Page: figure 4, click to enlarge


4. Enter server name. For server type, select Terminal Services. For Install Path box, enter:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost

5. Click OK button. Inventory page for the new server appears
6. In the Configuration Properties section click Edit button. Configuration Properties page for the new server appears.

Configuration Properties for The New Server: figure 5, click to enlarge
...

7. Check the Auto-Discover Session box, and click Ok. The Inventory page for the server appears.

Now you can monitor the server in the browse page.


Add a New Service
As an example we're going to monitor my.opera.com site.
1. Go to platform which its agent is used to monitor.
2. Click Menu Tools button and choose New Platform Service. New service page appears.

New Service Page: figure 6, click to enlarge


3. Enter service name, select service type http, and click Ok. Inventory page for the new service appears.

Inventory Page for The New Service: figure 7, click to enlarge


4. In the configuration properties section click Edit button. Configuration properties page appears.

Configuration Properties Page: figure 8, click to enlarge


5. Enter host name my.opera.com, port number 80, path /, socket timeout 10 seconds, and method HEAD. Click Ok.

New you can monitor the service in the browse page.