AHM for multi-site monitoring

alert · Post by **alert** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 9:15 pm

Hi,

I have a meeting with customer tomorrow who is interested in solution that will help him monitor their network/servers/workstations/services. They've tried Spiceworks but not very exited. They've tried PRTG with is much, much better...and much, much expensive

So I suggested AHM which I have almost no experience with (but purchased license for it over a year ago for my own needs

.

So, the customer have three offices in three different cities on both coasts in US, each site is around 100 users (PC, Mac), printers, servers, storage devices, networked UPS, some Hyper-V and VMware hosts.

I am thinking about setting up AHM on Amazon EC2 (they have Server 2008 R2) and active remote agent for each of two remote sites. Is this the best configuration or it better to host the server on larger site, set RMA for each site, and wait for clustering feature to become available (I am concerned that if the site with AHM goes down, there is no way I will get an alert since they rely on a single fiber line for Internet access.

Is RMA reporting as capable as the host application itself? Home many RMAs I will need per remote site?

What do you guys think? Please let me know ASAP. Thanks!

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 8:40 am

Usually 1 or 2 RMA agents per LAN is enough. 2 RMA (primary and backup) is better. Unless you cannot get permission to run RMA using admin account.
I assume each office has separate LAN protected by firewall, 1 domain in each office?

(I am concerned that if the site with AHM goes down, there is no way I will get an alert since they rely on a single fiber line for Internet access.

There are some options, e.g. WatchDog application or 2nd instance of HostMonitor that will check primary monitor using HM Monitor test method

http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/watchdog/index.htm
http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mfra ... #hmmonitor

Regards
Alex

alert · Post by **alert** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 8:31 pm

Alex, thank you for reply. We're most likely getting Enterprise edition with lifetime updates to make sure we'll get all great features that are coming

Yes, these sites are behind firewalls, site-to-site VPNs, primary and secondary domain controllers geographically separated, cross-domain trusts etc. Admin accounts not a problem, we can even run RMA on separate VM with recommended OS if it is supported and recommended.

So, there is no problem hosting AHM on Amazon EC2? Do you have any feedback from somebody who did this kind of setup?

I like the functionality and added redundancy coming with HM Monitor but it requires second license (=double the cost). I remember seeing something about clustering coming soon, what is the difference in terms of functionality and cost?

Thanks again.

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:45 am

So, there is no problem hosting AHM on Amazon EC2? Do you have any feedback from somebody who did this kind of setup?
...
they have Server 2008 R2

Sorry, we have no idea. Never heard about HostMonitor on Amazon EC2 servers.
Windows Server 2008 R2 works fine.
If you will have problems related to Ping and Trace tests, disable TCP/IP Window Auto-Tuning feature (e.g. using admin console to start command
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled)

I like the functionality and added redundancy coming with HM Monitor but it requires second license (=double the cost). I remember seeing something about clustering coming soon, what is the difference in terms of functionality and cost?

Cluster license will be more expensive, around $2000 - 3 applications on 3 different systems: 2 HostMonitor instances plus Cluster Controller.
Of course it should work better than 2 separate instances of HostMonitor - you will not need to worry about settings/files synchronization, etc. and we hope it will work faster in case of high "external" load (e.g. when several RCC or Web operators loggen in, or HostMonitor needs to create many reports, etc)

Note: Enterprise license and Cluster license - 2 different products.
LifeTime option for Enterprise license will not update you to Cluster license automatically because it covers only Enterprise package (1 HostMonitor, 1 RCC, 1 RMA Manager, 10 RMA, etc plus some new tools that may be inlcuded into Enterprise package)

Regards
Alex

alert · Post by **alert** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:38 am

KS-Soft wrote:
So, there is no problem hosting AHM on Amazon EC2? Do you have any feedback from somebody who did this kind of setup?
...
they have Server 2008 R2
Sorry, we have no idea. Never heard about HostMonitor on Amazon EC2 servers.

Alex,

The whole idea of hosting AHM on Amazon EC2 was to avoid situation when the site is down and cannot send out the message that there is something happening. I was under impression that RMA agents provide exactly the same functionality in terms of tests and "just" report to AHM "server". Server itself can check if the site(s) running RMA agents is down and then report that there is an issue.

Could you please suggest better config in our situation? Two of the sites are 100 and so users, servers and network stuff, third site is just few users. IF RMA is limited for whole site monitoring, maybe we should consider two licenses for AHM for each of the largest sites that will monitor itself and other site using HM Monitor feature and later adding the Cluster controller should we need it? I am really trying to get rid of Spiceworks running on each site or at least replace it with AHM as a primary tool for monitoring of critical services/systems. There is a some features that are not comparable in both products but I feel that AHM will provide us greatest flexibility.

Thanks!

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:37 am

The whole idea of hosting AHM on Amazon EC2 was to avoid situation when the site is down and cannot send out the message that there is something happening. I was under impression that RMA agents provide exactly the same functionality in terms of tests and "just" report to AHM "server". Server itself can check if the site(s) running RMA agents is down and then report that there is an issue.

Not sure what exactly means "site" in this context. Server where HostMonitor is started? Server where RMA started? Entire LAN?

> avoid situation when the site is down and cannot send out the message >that there is something happening

For each RMA agent you may setup backup RMA agent.
To monitor HostMonitor itself, you may use WatchDog, another instance of HostMonitor or may be Amazon CloudWatch (I am not sure how exactly it works).

If you already using Amazon EC2, just download and install HostMonitor, you need 5 min to check if it works. Well, it should work because you are running Windows Server 2008. Another question how exactly implemented this Amazon cloud-cluster-failover thechnology. We don't know details, but I assume it should be reliable...
If you already paying many for EC2, why not use it?

Two of the sites are 100 and so users, servers and network stuff, third site is just few users.

Not sure I understand how "users" can be related to monitoring configuration. HostMonitor monitors hardware and software.
Do you mean there are 100 HostMonitor operators that need to control monitoring in some way using remote access to HostMonitor (RCC or Web Service)?
or you mean HostMonitor should check 100 workstations plus some servers?

IF RMA is limited for whole site monitoring, maybe we should consider two licenses for AHM for each of the largest sites that will monitor itself and other site using HM Monitor feature and later adding the Cluster controller should we need it?

It depends on your needs. e.g. If you need consolidated reports and logs (eg. one report for all systems located in 3 networks), then you need 1 HostMonitor instance + agents.
Otherwise you may setup several instances of HostMonitor and control all instances from one location using several copies of RCC. E.g. each HostMonitor may monitor its own LAN plus check another HostMonitor and some critical parameters in another LAN.

Regards
Alex

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:40 am

On the other hand, Amazon EC2 server is located outside of your network, then it would be more logical to install HostMonitor on your own server/hardware inside your network...

Regards
Alex