• HostMonitor: minor GUI improvements
• HostMonitor and RMA: minor Synology Health test adjustments
• HostMonitor and RMA: some IMAP and LDAP tests related corrections (e.g. test could show "No answer" status instead of "Unknown host" status)
• Passive and Active RMA for Windows: reduced CPU usage in application mode, especially on Windows 10 systems (as usually service mode is preferred when high load is expected)
• Web Service: several corrections related to Network Map pane

  Log Analyzer improvements:

• TXT, HTML and ODBC logs analyzing about 5-10% faster
• DBF log files analyzing about 30% faster
• Full screen chart about 10% faster
• Reports with charts about 30% faster
• Log Analyzer uses PNG images instead of GIF image files

• Temperature Monitor test: in some cases HostMonitor could not get data from Sensatronics EM1 devices using "all probes" test mode. Fixed
• Remote Exec and Remote Kill actions: HostMonitor did not resolve variables in "hostname" field. Fixed
• Fixed issues related to System Info feature (some data collected by RMA agents could not be parsed by HostMonitor)

  HostMonitor improvements:

• Send message to pager (SNPP) action supports SSL/TLS connections
• minor GUI improvements
• minor performance improvements

• HostMonitor version 12.20-12.24 could get wrong credentials from Connection Manager when tests performed by RMA agents. Fixed
• If you are using Service tests with "Alert when some Auto services are not running" and "Skip services" options, then in some cases "Start service" action could not start some of stopped services. Fixed

  HostMonitor tests improvements:

• NTP/SNTP test: in some cases test could set Bad status without explanation. New version will show problem description in Reply field. E.g. "clock not synchronized" error message means the host's NTP service is not synchronized to any remote server (HostMonitor can show such Bad status even if time is correct, so far)
• Drive Free Space: minor improvements for "Import from text file" procedure

• HostMonitor and RCC: "Same scale for all charts" option available when you open "History" dialog for several test items and set Performance mode
• LogAnalyzer: about 10% analysis speed increase
• WatchDog: now application uses the same scale for tests, actions and logging charts (unless there are big difference in results). E.g. If maximum 40 tests/sec, 5 actions/sec and 10 records/sec were performed during displayed time interval then WatchDog will set scale for all 3 charts to 50. If 290 tests/sec and 25 actions/sec were performed, then tests chart scale will be set to 300; actions charts scale to 50

• HostMonitor version 12.20 and 12.21 could work incorrectly with Backup Active RMA agents when "Load balancing 50/50" mode used. Fixed
• RMA Manager: in rare cases it could set wrong status when you import RMA agent settings from CSV file. Fixed

  Performance

HostMonitor: new version uses less CPU and can perform more tests. In some extreme cases (high load on multi-core CPU systems) you may see up to 5 times less CPU usage; up to 1000 tests/sec can be performed.
Other improvements help to perform more test probes when test items depend on many master tests.

Passive RMA agents (for Windows): on high load new version may use 10-20% less CPU time in application mode; up to 30% less CPU load in service mode (as usually for better performance use service mode).

Active RMA agents (for Windows): on high load new version may use 30% less CPU time in application mode; up to 50% less CPU load in service mode (as usually for better performance use service mode).


  New performance related options

Test threads limit [N]
This new option replaces "Do not start more than [N] tests per second". Now you set limit for total number of threads used for test execution while HostMonitor will decide how many tests can be started at any given moment. Actually its not firm limit, in some cases HostMonitor may start additional threads (e.g. some tests need a lot of time to provide results).

Up to [N] tests/sec for Active RMA
Sets limit for requests from HostMonitor to ActiveRMA agents



In some cases 20 threads is enough to perform 300 tests per second; in other cases you need 100 threads just for 50 tests/sec (depends on test methods, test settings, speed of your LAN or internet connection and so on).
After update we recommend to let HostMonitor run for some time (at least 10 minutes) and then use Auditing Tool to check for possible problems. It may recommend increasing thread limit or limit related to Active RMA agents.


  Auditing Tool

As usually software speed and CPU load depends on many factors, e.g. 400 fast Ping tests every second can be considered as medium load; while 100 URL or Dominant Process tests per second can be considered as high load. That's why new Auditing Tool collects more data, checks more parameters and can provide better recommendations based on your actual settings.
Also new version shows average load (tests/sec) separately for HostMonitor itself, Passive RMA agents and Active RMA agents.




  Minor HostMonitor and RCC GUI improvements


  The following issues were resolved

- If some test performed by RMA agent then "Execute by test performer" option always started corresponding action using primary RMA agent
  (even if test was performed by Backup agent). Fixed
- In some cases Registry test on Windows 10 system could lead to handles and memory leakage. Fixed

- Improved Web Service
- 12 new test methods
- 7 new actions
- 4 improved test methods
- Automatic backups
- New authentication option for Remote Control Console
- Remote Monitoring Agent (RMA) for Rasberry PC Pi4


  New "Network map" pane (Web Service)

Web Service may group all tests related to the same host, set links between different hosts depending on HostMonitor-RMA and Master-Dependants relations and display HostMonitor, RMA agents and all hosts on interactive map.
youtube demo 



Gravity and Spiral. Web Service may set initial positions for the elements using "Gravity" and "Spiral" algorithms. Spiral works much faster so we recommend this method when you are monitoring thousands of hosts. Actually you may use both methods - init entire WAN map using Spiral algorithm, then select some part of the map (e.g. click on RMA agent to select agent and all hosts monitored by this agent) and apply Gravity algorithm for this LAN.
Note: Spiral algorithm will reset entire map, while Gravity algorithm may work with entire map or selected subset (e.g. RMA agent with hosts or Master test with dependent items).
When you click on Gravity button, button caption changes to "Stabilize/Stop" and you may click it again when map looks "good enough" without waiting for algorithm to complete.

Then you may manually adjust position of any element (standard drag&drop). If you drag master item and hold the button depressed, interface will rearrange dependant items using Gravity algorithm; release mouse button to stop this process at any time.

Rotate left / Rotate right - these buttons may work with entire map or with selected segments (just like Gravity button).
Undo and Redo buttons help to fix mistakes.
Zoom - use mouse wheel to zoom in / zoom out.

Background images
You may set comment, load background image (select image from drop-down list and click "Set map background" button), then save map settings using Save or SaveAs buttons.
Some background samples located in WebService\mapsbg\ folder, images based on data provided by OpenStreetMap (http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright). You can create your own images to fit your company standards and copy files into this folder.

Items
Item color depends on status of all tests related to the host. E.g. green means all tests have "good" status (and may be some disabled tests); yellow means there are some tests with "unknown" status; pink - warning tests; red - there are some "bad" tests; orange - there are some "bad", "warning" or "unknown" items, all of them acknowledged; grey - all tests disabled.
Size of the item depends on number of tests related to the host.

Click on the host (right mouse button) and you will see test items related to the host: test name, last reply and average reply value. Then you may select test and use popup menu (right mouse click again) to enable, pause, resume test, acknowledge test status, check quick log, check performance history and so on.


  Improved Top Hosts pane (Web service)

WebService may adjust long test names trying to fit text in the window, for example it can display "C: on server5" instead of full test name "Free Disk Space C: on server5"

Added new groups:
- System: Hottest system/CPU	QNAP, Synology, NetApp, Cisco, Juniper and HP iLO Temperature tests
- HDD: Highest disk load	Synology Disk Load and Windows Performance Counter ('% Disk Time') tests
- UPS: Highest load	UPS Load tests
- UPS: Highest temperature	UPS Temperature tests
- UPS: Lowest charge level	UPS Charge tests
Improved groups:
- HDD: Hottest disk	includes QNAP Temperature, Synonoly Temperature and HDD Smart tests

  New test methods (HostMonitor/RMA for Windows)

- WebDav Free Space	Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol provides a framework for users to create, change and move documents on a server. WebDAV servers are frequently deployed with quota (size) limitations. This test method checks amount (or percentage) of free space and may trigger alerts when free space falls below specified limit
- SIP	monitors target servers using Session Initiation Protocol requests over UDP, TCP or TCP+TLS protocols
The following test methods check health of F5 BIG-IP network devices using SNMP protocol
- Big-IP Health	checks overall health: status of the disks, power supply status, fans status, failover and sync statuses
- Big-IP Temperature	checks chassis, CPU, blade temperature sensors, sets Bad status when temperature exceeds specified limit
- Big-IP Statistics	allows to checks various metrics, like - Current connections - SSL connections - Connections/sec - Dropped packets ratio - HTTP requests/sec - HTTP errors ratio - HTTP Cache hits ratio - DNS requests/sec and much more
- Big-IP Free Space	this test may check several drives on target system and find drive with minimum free space or drive with minimal percentage of free space
- Big-IP CPU Usage	checks the percentage of CPU utilization
- Big-IP Memory	checks available memory on the device (Total, TTM memory, non-TTM, Swap)
The following test methods check health of Citrix Netscaler network devices using SNMP protocol
- Netscaler Temperature	checks internal, CPU and auxiliary temperature sensors, sets Bad status when temperature exceeds specified limit
- Netscaler Statistics	allows to checks various metrics - Current connections - Connections/sec - SSL connections ratio - SSL cache hit ratio - SSL current queue size - HTTP requests/sec and more
- Netscaler CPU Usage	checks the percentage of CPU utilization; also it may check utilization of the hardware crypto chip (N3 chip, if installed)
- Netscaler Memory	checks amount or percentage of free memory on NetScaler device

  New actions (HostMonitor)

- Start program remotely	executes external program on remote system
- Kill process	kills process on local or remote system
- Slack message	sends a message to Slack messenger channel
- Viber message	sends a message to Viber client
- Hangouts chat	sends messages into Google Hangouts chat
- Microsoft Teams	sends a message to Microsoft Teams channel
- Telegram message	sends a message to Telegram messenger chat

  New variables (HostMonitor)

New variables:
- %Reply_AsIS%
- %LastReply_AsIS%
- %SuggestedReply_AsIS%

  Automatic Backups (HostMonitor)

HostMonitor may create backup copies of all data files once a day and/or once a week; keep last N daily and/or weekly copies; remove old archives, start actions when backup procedure failed, etc.
You may adjust backup options or restore settings from archive using menu File->Backup options (you should use user account with "backup/restore operations" permission; by default only admin account has such permission, you may adjust account settings and permissions using menu User->Operators).
Also HostMonitor may backup your VB and Java scripts, HostMonitor script files (.HMS, .VBS, .JS, .PS1, .CMD, .BAT files). If you are using some external scripts for tests or actions, we recommend storing them in Scripts subfolder within HostMonitor data folder (e.g. C:\ProgramData\HostMonitor\Scripts\).
Note: compression and encryption for archives will be implemented soon.
youtube demo 


  Windows authentication (HostMonitor/RCC)

Now you may set "HM or Win authentication" status to user accounts (operators). In such case remote RCC operator may choose "Windows authentication" option and connect to HostMonitor without providing username/password. Windows authentication mode can be used when HostMonitor and RCC started on domain systems (not workgroup).
Note: in order to use Windows authentication mode while HostMonitor running as service you should set user account for the service using Windows "Services" applet (do not set user account using HostMonitor Options dialog).
Windows account on HostMonitor side can be specified as domain\user or just user (in case of single domain). E.g. if operator logged in to Windows system and started RCC under "DOMAIN1\manager123" name, then either "DOMAIN1\manager123" or "manager123" operator account should be created on HostMonitor side (User->Operators)


  RMA

Remote Monitoring Agent (RMA) for Rasberry PC Pi4 (Ubuntu)

• URL test with "download frames" option could miss IFRAME tags. Fixed
• DNS test did not work in TCP mode. Fixed
• Memory test for Linux
  Net-SNMP-Libs starting from version 5.7.2-43 on RedHat/CentOS/Fedora systems sets memAvailReal counter to the available memory while older versions of Net-SNMP sets this counter to amount of the free memory.
  New HostMonitor/RMA checks Net-SNMP version and adjust calculations depending on version, this way Memory test should work properly for any system with Net-SNMP version below 5.7.2 and above 5.7.2 (e.g. 5.7.3). Unfortunately SNMP agent does not provide full version so it's impossible to determine behavior for 5.7.2.xx subversions, however HostMonitor should be able to get correct data in most cases using any Net-SNMP 5.7.2.xx (in same cases it will not be 100% accurate)
• Service test, "Alert when some Auto services not running" testing mode: in some rare cases it could set Unknown status with "not found" error message. Fixed

• sometimes it could drop connection to HostMonitor (and then reconnect). Fixed

  Improvements

• HostMonitor: Test Info dialog shows detailed temperature/voltage map for Cisco Temperature and Cisco Power test items
• HostMonitor: some customers assign "Send E-Mail" action to all tests using folder and test related variables as recipient address (e.g. %CommentLine5%; %FCommentLine2%; %fvar_AdminMail%) and leave these variables uninitialized for some folders and test items. In such case resolved e-mail address may look like semicolon-separated list of empty strings (e.g. ";;"), then HostMonitor 11.98 will not connect to mail server and will save some CPU resources.
• HostMonitor: minor improvements related to nested macro variables used as parameters of the actions

• WebService: some corrections related to "multi-byte" languages such as Japaneese, Chineese, Korean (versions 11.90-11.97 were affected)

  Performance improvement

• Passive RMA and Active RMA agents can be updated by RMA Manager faster (useful when you need to update 100 or more RMA agents).
  You will see some improvement when new RMA Manager will update old agents. Then it will work even better: new RMA Manager + new RMA agents

• RMA running on Windows Server 2019 could reject updates received from RMA Manager. Fixed in this version (note: if old agent rejects update, you will need to update such agent manually - just copy new rma.exe file)
• HostMonitor and RCC GUI related corrections

  Performance improvements

HostMonitor, RCC

• Auditing Tool works faster
• Telnet service decodes data faster
• Export into text file function works faster
• RCC uses less memory when creates SLA reports
• With some options set "Disable tests" operation could be too slow, now it works faster

• URL test: improvements help to retrieve large web pages (or files) when you have to deal with slow network connection or busy target server (note: by default HostMonitor downloads first 96MB of the file)
• HTTP test: optimized code uses less CPU when you need to check large files (note: by default HostMonitor downloads first 96MB of the file)
  
  
• Interbase test can monitor FireBird SQL servers as well; HostMonitor can use gds32.dll and fbclient.dll client DLLs. Also Interbase/Firebird test allows using non-standard TCP port for connection
• MySQL test can monitor MariaDB servers as well; it can use libmySQL.dll and libmariadb.dll client DLLs. Note: libmySQL.dll from MySQL Connector v8 is not supported yet; libmySQL.dll version 5.x can be used for connection to MySQL v8 but in this case you have to create a user account using mysql_native_password plugin (because default MySQL v8 caching_sha2_password authentication is not supported by MySQL 5.x)
  
  
• ODBC Query test / SQL Query action / ODBC logging: we think there is bug in MySQL ODBC drivers version 8.00.11 - 8.00.15, it may lead to various problems including memory access violations. There is workaround in HostMonitor 11.96. If you need to use MySQL ODBC driver version 8.x, please set two options in hostmon.ini file, [Misc] section:
  [Misc]
  ODBC_UseSharedEnvHandle=1
  ODBC_KeepSharedEnvHandle=1
  

• HostMonitor, RCC and WatchDog show warning icon (in addition to logging) when HostMonitor unable to save test list for some reason (e.g. access is denied)

  GUI improvements

• Test Properties dialog uses less system resources and opens 3 times faster
• Options dialog: new "Test primary" and "Test backup" options help you to verify SMTP settings quickly (located on Mailer Settings page)

• Count Files test in "count older/newer files" mode uses less CPU (you will see the difference when test checks folder(s) with a million files)
• Oracle test: some adjustments for more reliable interaction with OCI (Oracle Instant Client) version 12 and 18
• PostgreSQL test: minor corrections

• HTTP Request action supports HEAD, PUT and DELETE requests (in addition to GET and POST requests)

  Performance improvements

HostMonitor, RCC

• much faster Log Viewer; also it uses less memory
• about 5% faster HTML reports
• 20-50% faster Custom HTML reports (depends on report template, number of fields, etc)
• 60% more efficient External Syslog function

• faster Quick Chart
• much faster loading and analyzing of large files (DBF, TXT and HTML)
• much faster reports generation (some but less speed increase for reports with charts)
• faster main window GUI (in case you have 50,000 or more log records for each test item)
  Note: as usually you will see the slowest GUI on Windows 10

• about 10% less CPU usage

• it works much faster
• uses less memory
• may open files of any size (but shows just last 2GB of logs)
• checks for new records and shows them without reloading entire file
• new "Filter" function allows you to display records based on date, status, test ID, test name or reply value
• new "Copy selected" option

• New popup menu items "Show test name" and "Show host name" tell HostMonitor to display test name or target host name (or IP address)
• Also HostMonitor may adjust long test names trying to fit text in the window, for example it can remove "free disk space" text from the test name when test displayed in "System: Lowest disk space" group)

• Views related to Root folder displayed Template test items. Now View shows template tests only if View source folder is Template folder

• Min reply/Max reply/Average reply fields show units (e.g. Kbit/s, MB/s, TB)
• Min reply/Max reply fields do not round off small values (old version displayed 0 instead of 0.01)

• new menu item "Save current mode as default"

• tests that display response time (ms), e.g. Ping, URL
• traffic tests (Kbit/s..GB/s), including Traffic Monitor, Apache, IIS, Tomcat (when one of traffic check modes selected)
• percentage (%), including CPU Usage, Memory, Drive Free Space tests
• tests with text reply
• numbers, numbers with units (like MB,GB,TB), items grouped by units, then sorted by values
• uptime tests (days), sorted by number of days
• tests with numbers and V, kV, C, F units (some devices may return such data over SNMP protocol; also you may set such units using "Tune up Reply value" option)

• Views related to Root folder displayed Template test items. Now View shows template tests only if View source folder is Template folder
• Min reply/Max reply/Average reply fields show units (e.g. Kbit/s, MB/s, TB)
• Min reply/Max reply fields do not round off small values (old version displayed 0 instead of 0.01)

• show units (like MB/s) for Max Reply, Min Reply, Average fields
• may show units in Folder Summary line, may convert units depending on tests, e.g. if there are various Traffic Monitor tests using different units (Kbit/s, MB/s) then Folder Summary section will display summary values using KB/s units
• may show units in Section Summary line, works similar to Folder Summary

• these reports were not changed: no unit translations for "summary" sections, always use KB/s for Traffic Monitor test results

• Apache test: supports Apache XAMPP
• IIS "cache hits ratio" tests set 0 if IIS service was restarted between test probes. New version shows average cache hits ratio value in such case (average value counted since IIS restart)
• IIS tests "bytes transferred/sec", "bytes received/sec" and "bytes sent/sec" could show wrong results in some cases. Fixed
• NGINX "requests/sec" and NGINX "ssl handshakes/sec" tests could show wrong numbers (only once after NGINX server restart. Only when new RestAPI used, NGINX R14+). Fixed
• NGING "5xx error responses ratio" and NGINX "total error responses ratio" tests could show wrong numbers (only once after NGINX server restart) Fixed
  
  
• NT Events Log test (Windows Vista mode, "Connect as" option): now you may specify account in both formats: domain\user or user@domain. Old version required user@domain format. Note: Connection Manager is still preferable option in most cases
• SNMP Get and SNMP Table tests allow to set up to 180sec timeouts (instead of 60sec max before)
• Shell Script test: %Object2% variable could return incomplete string. Fixed
• Folder/File Availability test in SFTP mode set Unknown status when specified file does not exist. Now test sets Ok or Bad status depending on test settings (like FTP and FTPS modes)
  
  
• Traffic Monitor test: added Gbit/sec, GB/sec options. You may specify threshold using Gbit/GB units and HostMonitor will display results using same units. Also you may use Gbit/sec, GB/sec units in HMScript (SetTestParam and ReplaceTestParam commands)
• Traffic Monitor test: results include time units (e.g. Kbit/s or MB/min). This way results can be precisely compared and log files can be analyzed correctly even if test settings and units changed during monitoring.
• Traffic Monitor test: historical variables (like %StatLastWeek_AverageReply%, %Stat30Days_MaxReply% show traffic using Kbit, KB..GB units (as before) unless /min option was used for the test - then variables display units like Kbit/min, MB/min
• Traffic Monitor, Apache, IIS and Tomcat tests: Min, Max, Average Reply counters did not count units (KB/s, MB/s, etc). Fixed

• Some corrections related to daylight savings time change
• Minor improvements related to ODBC logging
• Minor changes related to DBF and HTML log files

1. onetest command line parameter tells Log Analyzer to find and analyze one or several tests and ignore other test items. You may specify test ID, list of test IDs, full name of the test or text with wildcard (wildcard should be located at the beginning or at the end).
   Examples

   -logfile:log.txt -onetest:105	Analyze records related to test with ID 105
   -logfile:log.txt -onetest:105,106,107	Analyze tests with ID 105, 106 and 107
   -logfile:log.txt "-onetest:Ping 10.10.1.5"	Analyze test named Ping 10.10.1.5
   -logfile:log.txt "-onetest:Cisco*"	Analyze test items with "Cisco" string in test name or test method
   -logfile:log.txt "-onetest:*temperature"	Analyze test items with "temperature" string in test name or test method

   When you are using HostMonitor or RCC GUI to analyze log file for specific test, HostMonitor (RCC) checks log file size and applies "onetest" switch for large files, this way Log Analyzer will load log file much faster.
   You may adjust limit for such "large" files using MinLogSizeForSingleTest parameter in [Misc] section of hostmon.ini (or rcc.ini) file. For example
   [Misc]
   MinLogSizeForSingleTest=100
   sets 100 MB limit. If you set 0, then "onetest" switch will not be used.
2. When Log Analyzer started without "onetest" switch and its not started in scripting mode then application checks number of records in the file. If there are over 2,000,000 records, it asks "would you like to load last 500,000 records?" so you may choose: load and analyze recent log records or read entire log file. You may adjust these limits using logsman.ini file. For example
   [LogAnalizer]
   MaxRecordsWarn=8880000
   LastRecordsCnt=444000
   

• Logarithmic mode can be useful when test results are very close in values; or on the contrary, when results cover a large range of values (you may set this mode using popup menu)
• When a lot of records selected for the test (over 7,000) then chart may automatically switch to "Display average on daily basis" or "Display average on hourly basis" mode depending on selected time interval and number of records

• Increased speed
• Logarithmic mode: this mode can be useful when test results are very close in values; or on the contrary, when results cover a large range of values (you may set this mode using popup menu)
• Average mode: if there are thousands of records in the log for the test, then each point on the chart may represent several log records. Average mode tells application to calculate and display average test result for each time interval (point). Otherwise chart will show minimum and maximum value for each time interval. You may set Average chart mode using popup menu
• Interaction with test related log

1. when you just click left mouse button, Quick Chart will try to find nearest point with minimum or maximum test result. Behavior depends on test method, for example:
   • Memory tests, Drive Free Space, UNC, VM host free space, VM guest free space, VM host memory, VM guest memory, UPS Charged, UPS Time Remaining tests - Quick Chart will look for local minimum;
   • CPU Usage, Temperature tests, Dominant Process, Ping, TCP, URL, HTTP and for many other tests application will look for local maximum;
   • for some tests (like Performance Counter, SNMP Get, SNMP Table) Quick Chart will look for nearest local minimum or local maximum
2. when you move mouse with button pressed, Quick Chart will show log record related to new selected point, exact point.
   However if there are thousands of records in the log for the test, then each point on screen may represent several log records (one point on chart represents some time interval). In this case application selects log record with minimum or maximum value (depending on test method) related to the point.
   If you set "Average" chart mode, then you may see difference between logged test result and the chart - chart will show average value for some time interval while text label will show minimum or maximum result for the same time interval

• Much faster reports generation (some but less speed increase for reports with charts)
• Filter dialog: on multi-display systems Date picker control could show calendar on another monitor. Fixed. Also, new version always uses system date format for calendar, regardless of settings used for log file analyzer
• Statistics: now Log Analyzer does not round off even large Min and Max test values when these values are close, e.g. 10200.01 and 10200.03
• Statistics: Min, Max, Average Reply fields display units for test methods like Traffic Monitor, Top Process, Apache, Tomcat, IIS
• A lot of other minor improvements

  Test improvements

• NGINX test supports new NGINX Plus R15 Rest API (old HostMonitor will not be able to monitor NGINX Plus R16 and newer versions)
  
  
• HostMonitor and RMA for Windows: Certificate Expiration test offers "Use StartTLS" option, this option allows to check SMTP servers that work in Explicit mode
  
  
• HostMonitor and RCC: Import function supports test parameters like
  MasterTestID-Alive = 2
  MasterTestID-Dead = 3
  MasterTestID-DeadOrUnknown = 55
  such command tells HostMonitor to finds Master test by ID.
  Note: Master test must exist in current test list, before import (unlike MasterTest-Alive, MasterTest-Dead commands that may find Master in current test list AND in the import file)
  
  

• New version processes log files much faster
  
  

• HostMonitor uses special color for template folders and tests (you may adjust palette using Color Profiles dialog)
• HostMonitor uses special icons for template test items
• HostMonitor does not perform template test items so now you don't need to disable such items and then enable newly created items after replication
• License check does not count template test items. if you have Advanced license you may monitor 5000 "normal" test items plus setup hundreds of template items at no additional cost (this is especially useful when you have the simplest Starter license)
• "Append from HML file" function merges "normal" folders and separately merges template folders
• Auditing Tool does not check template test items for unresolved folder-level variables (HostMonitor will check for unresolved variables when you create "normal" tests using templates)
• Auditing Tool checks if "normal" test depends on template master item (you should not set such relations because test will not be performed)
• HostMonitor does not include template folders and tests into reports (unless template folder is selected as main folder for the report)
• HostMonitor does not show template folders and tests on screen (even if "show tests in sub-folder" option is enabled and Root folder selected), unless you choose Template folder as current folder
• When you choose Master test for "normal" dependent item, HostMonitor will not show Template tests in the list
• Web Service does not show Template folders and tests on screen (even if "display tests from current folder and from all sub-folders" option enabled and Root folder selected), unless you select Template folder as current folder
• Many other minor modifications

Lan Email Web IIS Apache Nginx Tomcat Windows Unix VMWare HyperV HP iLO SNMP External Cisco Juniper Netapp QNAP Synology UPS Files Interbase MsSql MySql Oracle Postgre Sybase

When you use such menu item, HostMonitor will show all tests related to the corresponding template folder.
Then you may unmark some tests, change monitoring agent, set SNMP profile for SNMP related tests, change type of UPS device (for UPS related tests), set login and password for tests that require account information (see also: Connection Manager). If some test depends on master(s), HostMonitor checks if master template test items selected and shows warning if such items located in different template folder or master test is unmarked by operator. Also HostMonitor checks if all variables will be resolved after replication - if there are some missed variables, you may define variables using Folder Properties dialog.
Also there is "Adjust Masters" option. With this option enabled, if dependent tests copied with master(s) then HostMonitor adjusts master-dependant relations for newly created tests. E.g. if you copy 6 tests (5 UPS tests that depends on 1 Ping test) then new UPS tests will depend on new Ping test (if you are using folder-related variables for target IP address, then new tests will start to monitor new device without any manual adjustments).
If you create just dependent tests without related master template test, then HostMonitor will unlink newly created (replicated) dependent tests from this "missed" master.

Predefined templates
HostMonitor comes with some predefined templates: over 600 items for Windows and UNIX systems, Cisco, Juniper, QNAP, NetApp and Synology devices, HP servers, MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle databases and so on. You may adjust items for your needs (e.g. set alert profiles, change time interval, schedule and logging options, adjust alert), adjust alert thresholds, add more folders and test items or remove them.
Many template tests will be able to monitor your servers without modifications - just create folder, setup %fvar_ip% variable (IP address or host name of the server) and you may add set of tests using templates;
some tests require user account information, you may provide default account or accounts for each server using Connection Manager;
other template tests will require modifications, e.g. if you need to check database size, you need to set database name in SQL query (ODBC Query tests); also you may need to modify class name used in MS SQL related WMI queries.

• remove default templates that come with HostMonitor (remove Templates folder) then select your main template folder and use "Set as Templates" popup menu item;
• you may merge our templates with your items - simply drag&drop your folders (or some selected test items) into Templates folder

• Append from HML file function could import tests that depend on expression incorrectly. Fixed

  GUI improvements

• Copy folders: "Adjust Masters" option
  If you copy folders with test items, you may use new option "Adjust Masters". With this option enabled, if dependant tests copied with master(s) then HostMonitor adjust master-dependant relations for newly created tests. E.g. if you copy 6 tests (5 Cisco tests that depends on 1 Ping test) then new Cisco tests will depend on new Ping test (if you are using folder-related variables for target IP address, then new tests will start to monitor new device without any manual adjustments).
  
  
• New "Check and copy" function
  You may select set of tests, click on "Check and copy" popup menu item and select target folder.
  
  Then you may change some parameters, e.g. change monitoring agent, set SNMP profile for SNMP related tests, change type of UPS device (for UPS related tests), set login and password for tests that require account information (see also: Connection Manager). If you are copying "template" tests and some of them depend on master(s), then HostMonitor checks if master template test items selected as well. Also HostMonitor checks if all variables will be resolved after replication - if there are some missed variables, you may define variables using Folder Properties and User Defined Variables dialogs.
  Adjust Masters option - with this option enabled, if dependant tests copied with master(s) then HostMonitor adjusts master-dependant relations for newly created tests. E.g. if you copy 6 tests (5 UPS tests that depends on 1 Ping test) then new UPS tests will depend on new Ping test (if you are using folder-related variables for target IP address, then new tests will start to monitor new device without any manual adjustments).
  If you copy just dependant tests without related master test, then HostMonitor will either
  • unlink newly created (replicated) dependant tests from this "missed" master (if master is "template" test)
  • keep dependency on original master test (if master tests are "normal" test items)
  
  If you want to copy test items without any checks and modifications, use "Copy" function.
  
  Note: Network Map Replicator offers more options, like
  • Skip if similar test for target host already exists
  • Adjust test settings automatically
  • If Master tests not copied, try to find new masters using existing tests as examples
  
  
  
• Remote Control Console supports Views based on expressions with historical variables like '%STAT60DAYS_DeadRatio%' (e.g. '%STAT60DAYS_DeadRatio%'>5)
  
  
• RCC: If you are creating SLA reports for a large amount of tests (e.g. 20,000 tests) on remote system using Remote Control Console, new version will get historical data from HostMonitor and create SLA reports much faster.

• Mail Relay test supports secured and encrypted connections (SSL/TLS) to SMTP servers. You may set "None" option to use unencrypted connection, select "Implicit" or "Explicit" (StartTLS) to use encrypted connection (such options for POP3 and IMAP servers where implemented years ago)

• Stop service
• Start service
• Restart service
  These actions support comma separated lists (or LF separated) and can stop, start or restart many services, one by one. E.g. you may use %Reply% variable for action triggered by Service test that checks ALL "Auto" services.
  
  
• HMScript action
  CopyAllTests command supports new optional parameter "-adjustmasters". With this option enabled, if dependant tests copied with master(s) then HostMonitor adjust master-dependant relations for newly created tests. E.g. if you copy 6 tests (5 NetApp tests that depends on 1 Ping test) then new NetApp tests will depend on new Ping test (if you are using folder-related variables for target IP address, then new tests will start to monitor new device without any manual adjustments).

• Telnet command CopyAllTests supports new optional parameter "-adjustmasters", works similar to CopyAllTests HMScript command (see above).

• Generate reports action: "Use reports pool" option could work incorrectly and sometimes did not create reports

  Improvements

• HMScript: new parameters for SetTestParam, ReplaceTestParam, SetTestParamByID and ReplaceTestParamByID commands:
  - Threshold (also ThreshouldUp can be used)
  - Threshold2 (ThresholdDown can be used)
  Now you may set limits for most of test methods using script, e.g. you may set limit for free memory or free disk space, loss ratio or jitter limits for Ping tests, set limits for CPU load, UPS load or battery temperature and so on.
  Some examples:
    SetTestParam    "main router"   Threshold   "50 %"
    SetTestParam    "main router"   Threshold2  "50 ms"
    SetTestParam    _AllMemory   Threshold    "20 %"
    SetTestParam    _AllTraffic   Threshold  "55 KB/sec"
    SetTestParam    _AllTraffic   Threshold  "33 pkt/min"
    SetTestParam    _AllTraffic   Threshold  "22 pkt"
    ReplaceTestParam   _AllUPSTemp   ThresholdUp       65   55
    ReplaceTestParam   _AllUPSTemp   ThresholdDown   15   10
    ReplaceTestParam   _AllFreeSpace   Threshold   "20 %"   "17 %"
    ReplaceTestParam   _AllFreeSpace   Threshold   "5 GB"   "8 GB"
    ReplaceTestParam   _AllFreeSpace   Threshold   "6 GB"   "15 %"
    SetTestParamByID   11054 Threshold   "10 MB"
  
  
• Process test in SNMP mode checked up to 1024 processes, now it checks up to 4096 processes
  
  
• Minor GUI improvements (HostMonitor and RCC)
  

• In some rare cases "report generator" module could make HostMonitor unresponsive for several minutes (sometimes this may happen if you set SLA reports with charts for a large set of tests; also HostMonitor could slow down when many test items launch Generate Reports action with disabled "use reports pool" option and HostMonitor does not have access to the target folder). Fixed
  
  
  

  Fixed several problems in Remote Control Console GUI

  New test methods

IIS test	Internet Information Services (IIS) is an extensible web server running on Windows OS. HostMonitor can check various server parameters: requests/sec, cache hit ratio, error responses ratio and much more
HostMonitor may check QNAP NAS storages using SNMP protocol
QNAP Health	This test method checks disks status, power status, volumes, pools, fans status
QNAP Temperature	Checks system, processor and disks temperature sensors
QNAP Fans	Checks system fans, sets Bad test status and triggers alerts when fan speed is out of specified range
QNAP Free Space	This test may check several drives on target system and find drive with minimum free space or drive with minimal percentage of free space
QNAP CPU Usage	Checks the percentage of CPU utilization
QNAP Memory	This test checks memory usage on QNAP devices
HostMonitor may check Synology NAS storages using SNMP protocol
Synology Health	This test method checks disks status, RAID status, power supply status, fans status
Synology Temperature	Checks system and disks temperature sensors
Synology Disk Load	Check Synology storage disks load, finds busiest disk, sets Bad test status and triggers actions when load is over specified limit
Synology Free Space	This test may check several drives on target system and find drive with minimum free space or drive with minimal percentage of free space.
Synology CPU Usage	Checks the percentage of CPU utilization
Synology Memory	Memory test can check amount of free physical and virtual memory

  Improvements

• NetApp Free Space test: "check listed drives" option will count 0 size shapshots only if you set .snapshot keyword in "listed drives" field. E.g. if you set "listed drives" using pattern /vol* then test will count snapshots but will skip 0 size snapshots
• %DiskSize% variable shows capacity of the disk. Variable can be used as parameter of actions triggered by Drive Free Space, QNAP Free Space, NetApp Free Space tests, etc.
• DiskMeter application can retrieve data from QNAP and Synology NAS storages
• Minor Web Service improvements

  Improvements

• Service test
  Service test may work in 3 modes:
  a) Alert when service not started  -  HostMonitor checks specific service state
  b) Alert when service not started or does not respond - HostMonitor checks service state and responsiveness (this mode used by default)
  c) Alert when some "Auto" services not running
  HostMonitor will get list of ALL services with Automatic startup type and check state of each service. If some "auto" service is not running, HostMonitor will set Bad test status. You may specify comma separated list of services that should not be checked, e.g. MMCSS,sppsvc,UxSms; you may use * wildcard at the end of the name, e.g. clr*,spp*
  
  
• ODBC Query test
  Some ODBC drivers (e.g. MS SQL ODBC Driver version 13.1+) support Integrated Windows authentication and Active Directory Integrated authentication. In this case you may type WindowsAuth instead of login name (for Integrated Windows authentication) or set ADAuth as login name (for Active Directory Integrated authentication). Password field is not used in such case.
  
  
• SQL Query action
  When ODBC driver supports such options, you may type WindowsAuth instead of login name (for Integrated Windows authentication) or set ADAuth as login name (for Active Directory Integrated authentication). Password field is not used in such case.
  
  
• Database logging
  When ODBC driver supports such options, you may type WindowsAuth instead of login name (for Integrated Windows authentication) or set ADAuth as login name (for Active Directory Integrated authentication). Password field is not used in such case.
  
  
• Minor GUI improvements
  
  
• Improved WatchDog application
  
  

• RMA for Windows: HP iLO Fans test could check specific fan but could not check all fans installed on the system. Fixed

  New test methods

• Apache test (Apache HTTP Server is a free and open source web server for UNIX and Windows platforms).
  HostMonitor can check the following Apache server performance metrics:
  - Connections/sec
  - Bytes/sec
  - Busy workers
  - Idle workers
  
  
• NGINX test (NGINX is high performance HTTP and reverse proxy server).
  HostMonitor can check the following performance metrics:
  - Connections/sec
  - Requests/sec
  - Non handled ratio
  - Non handled count
  - Current connections
  - Busy(active) connections
  - Waiting(idle) connections
  - 1xx responses ratio
  - 3xx responses ratio
  - 4xx responses ratio
  - 5xx responses ratio
  - Total error responses ratio
  - Cache hit ratio
  - SSL fails ratio
  - SSL handshakes / sec
  - Health checks
  
  
• Tomcat test (Tomcat is one of the most commonly used servers for Java applications).
  HostMonitor can check the following performance metrics:
  - Free memory ratio (%)
  - Used memory (MB)
  - Busy threads
  - Busy threads ratio (%)
  - Requests/sec
  - Bytes/sec
  - Processing time
  - Errors/sec
  - Errors/requests ratio
  
  

  Improvements

• HostMonitor (RCC): new popup menu "Switch to folder N" switches from Views pane to Folders pane and selects folder where current test item is located
• HostMonitor (RCC): new option for custom menu items. If command starts with [copy] keyword then HostMonitor does not execute command, instead it resolves variables and copies data into clipboard. E.g. if you set menu item using the following command line [Copy] Test: %TestName% Reply: %Reply% select the test and click on menu, then HostMonitor will copy into clipboard buffer string with test name and reply value.
• New telnet command 'TDID <TestID>' (or 'TestDependentsByID <TestID>') shows list of IDs of all test items that depend on Master test specified by TestID

• HostMonitor (RCC): if you copy multi-line text from clipboard into User Defined Variables list (Global variables), GUI did not process such operation correctly. Fixed

  RMA for UNIX 1.32

• File Integrity test supports MD5, SHA256 and SHA512 digest. Use one of these modes when you need to check for unauthorized file modifications. CRC32 can be used for legitimate modifications monitoring (not related to system security).

  New test methods (HostMonitor, RMA for Windows)

• UPS Health
• UPS Load
• UPS Charge
• UPS Voltage In
• UPS Voltage Out
• UPS Temperature
• UPS Remaining Time

Using SNMP protocol HostMonitor may monitor uninterruptible power supply devices, check battery status, retrieve active alarm conditions, monitor battery temperature and charge level, input voltage and so on. HostMonitor can check various UPS models from APC, CyberPower, Hewlett-Packard Company, Eaton, IBM, TrippLite and more.

  Network Discovery

• Replication option "Adjust test settings automatically" tells HostMonitor to adjust some settings according to target host OS and detected protocols. Now it may set UPS type when you copy UPS related test
• New Replication option "If Master tests not copied, try to find new masters using existing tests as examples" can be very useful when you already have set of test items related to the target hosts but you want to replicate some new test methods. If you copy just dependent items, this option tells HostMonitor to check existing test items located in the target folder, find tests with similar "master-pattern" and set the same masters for new test items.

  Acknowledgments:

Normally HostMonitor resets operators comments when test status changes from "bad" to "good". Now you may change this behavior. If you insert KeepAckCommentNDays=3 line into [Logging] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor, it will keep comments that are up to 3 days old (you may use different number, e.g. keep comments for 5 or 15 days)

  HostMonitor, RCC and RMA: minor improvements and corrections related to the following modules

Tests

• HP iLO Health
• HP iLO Disks
• HTTP test
• URL test

• Send message to pager (TAP)
• Send message to beeper
• Send E-Mail

• Test Properties dialog for Drive Free Space test
• User profiles dialog
• Auditing Tool

• supports SNMPv3, authorization, encryption
• supports SNMP profiles
• more responsive GUI

• supports SNMPv3, authorization, encryption
• supports SNMP profiles

• HostMonitor 11.10 Beta: WMI test could fail by timeout. Fixed

  Improved tests

NT Event Log
New option "Report about last event but count ALL" works similar to "Report about last Bad/Good event" option, however it counts all NEW events that fit "bad" filter (and "good" filter if specified). If "Show events description in Reply field for NT Event Log test" option is disabled (Options dialog) then test will display number of detected "bad" events in Reply field of the test.
Also you may use '%NTEvents_BadCnt%' and '%NTEvents_GoodCnt%' variables for Optional status processing, actions or Custom HTML reports (regardless of "Show events description" option). E.g.

• Now test may check MD5, SHA256 and SHA512 digest. Use one of these modes when you need to check for unauthorized file modifications. CRC32 can be used for legitimate modifications monitoring (not related to system security).
• Also HostMonitor/RCC GUI and "Import from file" function allows you to setup test item with empty digest. In this case HostMonitor will calculate and set digest on 1st test probe. This saves your time when you need to setup tests for large files.
• Minor GUI improvements

• Now test may check MD5, SHA256 and SHA512 digest. Use one of these modes when you need to check for unauthorized file modifications. CRC32 can be used for legitimate modifications monitoring.
• New option "Compute and check digest within the following tags" allows to specify some important parts of the document and check digest only for these parts. E.g. check digest for HTML code between "<table" and "</table>" sections

• Show popup window
• Send e-mail

  Improved Network Discovery

Copy/Paste/Replicate functions offer new option "Adjust test settings automatically". It tells HostMonitor to adjust some settings according to target host OS and detected protocols. E.g. if you copy CPU Usage test from Windows to Linux host, HostMonitor may change OS property from "Windows (RPC)" to "UNIX (SNMP)"; also HostMonitor may change SNMP profile specified for the tests; change OS property for Memory tests; adjust Drive Free Space tests for Windows, UNIX or NetApp devices and so on.


  New application: Disk Meter

Disk Meter displays chart with information about all disk drives mounted on local or remote system. Each disk represented by a bar; red colored bar indicates disk with free space below specified limit.


Disk Meter can connect to remote system using WMI or SNMP protocol and retrieve data from various systems, such as:
- Windows
- FreeBSD
- Linux
- AIX
- ESXi
- Solaris
- NetApp NAS


  GUI improvements

• HostMonitor/RCC: new popup menu item related to Drive Free Space test allows to start Disk Meter using test settings for automatic data collection (note: SNMPv3 not supported by Disk Meter v1.00, will be supported in the next version)
• RMA Manager: better interaction between RMA Manager, HostMonitor and Active RMA agents
• Other minor improvements for HostMonitor, RCC and Web Service GUI

• HostMonitor v11.00 Beta could not process connections from Active RMA agents when many agents sent requests at the same time. Fixed

• 24 new test methods
• 11 improved tests
• Improved actions
• New variables
• Improved built-in tools
• Improved external applications
• Speed optimization

• Drive Free Space
• CPU Usage
• Process

• Cisco Health
• Cisco Temp
• Cisco Fans
• Cisco Power
• Cisco CPU Usage
• Cisco Memory

• Juniper Health
• Juniper Temp
• Juniper Fans
• Juniper CPU Usage
• Juniper Memory

• NetApp Health
• NetApp CPU Usage
• NetApp Temperature
• NetApp RAID status
• NetApp Free Space

• HP iLO Health
• HP iLO Temp
• HP iLO Fans
• HP iLO Power
• HP iLO Disks

• Consumes less system resources when HostMonitor needs to send hundreds of mails at once

• New option "Max windows on screen" limits number of windows on screen (possible value 1..128)
• Increased limit for "time to live" parameter up to 1800 sec

• About 30% less CPU load
• If POST request is used and 'Content-length:' header missed, HostMonitor inserts correct 'Content-length' line
• HostMonitor checks HTTP reply code and records error in the log when reply code<>200

• Improved System Info
• Improved Network Discovery
• Improved Auditing Tool
• Stronger password checks

• It works much faster when SNMP v2c or SNMP v3 is supported
• If possible, System Info tool selects SNMP profile with higher version of SNMP protocol
• If v1 protocol specified for all related tests, System Info still verifies if target device supports SNMP v2 and provides such information
• HostMonitor v10: some requests could not work with SNMPv3. Fixed

• Recognizes more devices, e.g. Juniper and NetApp, various UPS devices
• Allows to create and replicate new test methods
• %Type% variable allows to search for Juniper, NetApp, SonicWall and UPS devices
• If you choose "all SNMP profiles" mode for some network, then HostMonitor sets priority for profiles with SNMP v2c and v3 versions (not applicable for devices already discovered by older version of the software)

• Checks operator accounts, for each operator with remote access checks password strength
• Checks strength of the passwords used by RMA agents
• Checks SNMP protocol version used for tests like Network Traffic, Interface Status, SNMP Table, tests related to Cisco, Juniper and NetApp devices; warns admin when SNMP v1 is used

• HostMonitor and RCC: User Profiles unit checks operator accounts, for each operators with remote access checks password strength
• RCC operator can change its own password using menu User->Change password. Software checks passwords strength and does not allow weak passwords (unless StrongRccPswd option disabled, see notes below)
• RMA Manager: as you know it allows to change passwords for existing agents using "Agent configuration" option. New RMA Manager uses new code for stronger password validation and does not allow weak passwords (unless StrongPswd option disabled, see notes below)
• RMA_Cfg utility (helps to setup RMA settings locally) uses new code for password validation as well. It warns the operator but allows weak passwords after confirmation

Also, there is optional parameter in rma_mgr.ini file (used by RMA Manager)
[PswdCheck]
StrongPswd=1
Default value 1 - means RMA Manager will not accept weak passwords when operator will try to change password for existing/running agent using "Agent configuration" option. If you set StrongPswd=0 then RMA Manager will check passwords and show warning when weak password detected however any password will be accepted after confirmation.

• improved RMA for Windows
• improved MIB Browser
• minor changes and improvements were applied to Process Meter, Log Analyzer, Log Visualizer, RMA Manager, WatchDog, Web Service and Telnet Service

• UNIX (Linux, BSD, AIX, etc)
• Cisco
• Juniper
• NetApp
• HP iLO

• Dominant Process
• Disk Free Space
• Process test
• CPU Usage
• Certificate Expiration
• URL test
• DNS test
• SNMP Table test
• Network Traffic test
• Interface Status test

• Network interfaces window (it helps you to setup Network Traffic and Interface Status tests)
• System Info tool

• Get table
• Get row
• Get next N counters

• HostMonitor and Active RMA: SNMP Trap test could filter out some valid coldStart, warmStart messages. Fixed
• HostMonitor: in some cases HTTP test did not calculate CRC for images even with "download images" option enabled. Fixed
• RCC: import from local file could report errors regarding profiles used by SNMP related tests. Fixed
• Web Service: did not show total_good_tests / total_bad_tests statistics when logged in web operator does not have access to Root folder. Fixed