HostMonitor and RCC improvements:

• Find (Ctlr+F) and Search again (F3) options have been added to several lists:
  - Action profiles (searches within profile names; if you need to find a parameter with a specific value, use Find&Replace option)
  - User defined variables
  - List of services (Service test)
  - List of event log sources (NT Events Log test)
  
  
• Minor improvements related to Windows Server 2025
  
  
• New "undocumented" hostmon.ini option enables float numbers processing for SNMP Get test expressions like TotalTraffic1 = [1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1] + [1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.16.1]. There is no Float type in original SNMP standard but some SNMP agents use Opaque data type for this purpose. You may add FloatForExpressions=1 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor.

  The following issue has been resolved

• Corrected mistake in version 15.00 related to Optional status processing

  HostMonitor and RCC improvements:

• New items in menu Accounts:
  - SSH Key Manager
  - Set/Change Master password
  (Connection Manager and SNMP Credentials items have been moved from Profiles menu to Accounts menu)
  
  
• SSH Key Manager
  This tool allows you to manage private and public keys used for SSH test authentication. Private key authentication has priority over password authentication. This means that if the private key for the target server is set in SSH Key Manager, that key will be used to authenticate to the target server; otherwise, the password specified in the Connection Manager will be used for authentication. With SSH Key Manager you can import and export keys, verify fingerprints, approve a new public key when the host key changes and delete keys.
  
  
• Set/Change Master password
  This option allows you to change the master password used to encrypt files with sensitive information, e.g. private SSH keys, accounts used to connect to remote systems, etc. If you move HostMonitor and configuration files to another system, you will need to enter this password the first time you start the software (if you start HostMonitor as a service right away, then use RCC to enter the master password)
  
  
• Script Manager offers menu items "Find" and "Search again". HostMonitor checks the list of profiles looking for the specified text in each field: name, hint, platform, script code, comments, history, etc
  
  
• You can now customize the Related URL field of a test item with an additional optional hint string. For example [title=GOOGLE]https://www.google.com?various=1&parameters=2 - this string tells the HostMonitor GUI to display a short title GOOGLE in various menu items, in the reports, etc. When you click on such an item, the URL specified after the title will be used.
  - The "old" variable %RelatedURL% provides the URL without a hint
  - The new variable %RelatedURLHint% provides only a hint
  
  
• Improved Auditing Tool

  RCC improvements

• The new RCC is compatible with Wine for Linux version 8 and 9 and can be started on modern Linux systems (old version of RCC could be run on older versions of Wine like 3.6, but it did not work with newer versions of Wine)
  
  
• RCC shows a hover tip instead of a modal window when "Display confirmation messages when new settings applied" option is used
  
  
• Other GUI improvements

  HostMonitor / RCC / RMA for Windows improvements

• Improved DHCP test: you can manually specify which network interface should be used for testing - set RequestIP property of the DHCP test using a string like <request IP>/<interface IP>, e.g. 10.10.10.101/10.10.10.1
  
  
• Improved SSH test: private key authentication can be used instead of password authentication. If the private key for the target server is set in SSH Key Manager, this key will be used for authentication. Otherwise the password specified in Connection Manager will be used.
  
  
• Improved SSH test: HostMonitor and RMA send public keys retrieved from servers to SSH Key Manager. You can also choose the behavior of the software when the host public key changes. SSH Key Manager offers 3 options:
  - set Warning status once, automatically approve new key
  - don't connect to the host until operator approves new key
  - automatically approve new key
  If you choose the "don't connect to the host until operator approves new key" option and the host key changes for any reason then HostMonitor/RMA will not perform SSH tests related to the server until you open SSH Key Manager, verify the fingerprint of the new pubic key and confirm that this new key is legitimate (note: new unapproved public keys marked in red).

  Active RMA improvements

• You can configure the agent to work with a primary and a backup HostMonitor and RMA Manager. If you specify the HostMonitor address using 2 hostnames (or IP addresses) separated by comma (for example 10.10.1.5,10.10.2.100) then the agent will try to connect to the first address; if the connection cannot be established, the agent will try to use the second address.
  You can also set two addresses for two RMA Managers. This option is useful if you need to manage RMA agents from 2 locations, and it can also help when you experience some problems with Internet connection and need to switch to a backup Internet service provider.

  RMA Manager improvements

• New version works faster with a large set of Active RMA agents (1000+ agents)

  HostMonitor and RCC improvements:

• Improved "Acknowledge status" feature, now allowing you to acknowledge an issue (Bad or Unknown test status) for N minutes/hours/days or until a specific time such as October 25, 2026. This time can be adjusted later by the operator. When the specified time expires, HostMonitor will change the test color to "red" (after the following test probe, unless this time test will return to "good" status). If "stop alerts" acknowledgement option was used, the actions will be resumed after the specified time expires.
  Also, if you set ResetRecurrencesOnExpiredAck=1 option ([HostMon] section of the hostmon.ini file), then HostMonitor will reset Recurrences counter after the acknowledgement period expires, even if the test status remains the same. This allows to start predefined sequence of actions from the beginning (for example, if you setup alert profile to send an e-mail to the administrator only once when the test status changes from "good" to "bad", then HostMonitor will start this action again after the acknowledgement period expires)
  
  
• HM script: AckTestStatus and AckTestStatusByID commands allow you to specify the expiration time of the acknowledgement. You can use the TILL or FOR options:
  AcktestStatus <testname|groupname> [FOR <minutes> | TILL ddMMyyyyHHmm[ss]] [StopAlerts] [<comment>]
  AcktestStatusByID <testID> [FOR <minutes> | TILL ddMMyyyyHHmm[ss]] [StopAlerts] [<comment>]
  E.g.
  AcktestStatusByID 842 "comment"
  AcktestStatusByID 842 StopAlerts "comment 2"
  AcktestStatusByID 842 FOR 25 "comment 3"
  AcktestStatusByID 842 TILL 031220250544 "comment 4"
  AcktestStatusByID 842 TILL 05052025210000 StopAlerts
  
  
• IMAP and LDAP tests: you can now completely disable certificate checking (in addition to old options like "Accept certificate with invalid hostname", "Accept certificate with invalid dates"). This option is rarely needed, and can be enabled by inserting the following lines into the [Misc] section of the hostmon.ini file:
  sslCertCheckModeIMAP=0
  sslCertCheckModeLDAP=0
  
  
• SNMP Trap test: better handling of "global" errors. For example, if HostMonitor could not open the specified port for listening (usually port 162), it would set the status to Unknown and display an error description for all SNMP Trap test items. It now uses a subset of "good" tests for this reporting (it can also use "Unknown" items if there are no "good" SNMP Trap tests). This allows for better cleanup of errors after the problem is resolved.
  
  
• Folder/File Size test: now you can switch file scanner from typical Windows behavior to more logical behavior. For example, if you check a folder using wildcard mask like *.LOG, then Windows search will get all files with the extension .LOG, files with extension .LOGLOG, .LOG22, .LOG.zip, and so on. There are other weird nuances. You can switch to a more logical behavior where '?' matches a single character in a certain position, '*' matches any number of characters. In this case searching for *.LOG will only count files with the extention .LOG. Just add StrictMaskCheck=1 line into [Misc] section of the hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor.
  
  
• Minor GUI improvements, including Log Viewer improvements
  
  
• New variables can be used as test item parameters (such as name, comment, related URL)
  %DisguisedFolderFullPath%
  %DisguisedHost%
  %DisguisedPath%
  %DisguisedObject%
  These variables are similar to %FolderFullPath%, %Host%, %Path% and %Object% but some characters will be replaced with DisguiseChar ('?' by default). You may add [DORA] section into hostmon.ini file and set the following options: DisguiseMode, DisguiseChar, DisguiseLen, DisguiseRatio, NonDisguiseMin, NonDisguiseMax

  HostMonitor 64bit version

• Performance improvements related to HostMonitor communication with Active RMA agents, Remote Control Console and Web Service
• Bugs fixed

  RMA Manager

• Improved GUI speed, you will notice this when managing several thousand agents

  New test method

• HostMonitor, RMA for Windows: a new Firewall test method allows you to check Windows firewall status and settings. It may check local profiles and group policies (domain, public and private profiles). For each profile test may check is firewall enabled, check notification status, inbound and outbound filter status, logging settings, etc. It does not check firewall rules for each port and protocol.

  HostMonitor improvements

• HMScript improvements: SetTestParam and ReplaceTestParam Threshold commands allow to set hashes for URL tests (CRC32/MD5/SHA256/SHA512)
• HMScript improvements: SetTestParam and ReplaceTestParam Threshold commands allow to set CRC32 checksum for HTTP tests
  E.g.
  ReplaceTestParam _AllURL Threshold e173a1db 4510E13C
  SetTestParam releaseCheckSum Threshold 565d688cd2e9527169c1989baea14bc1
• Telnet command improvements: SetTestParam and ReplaceTestParam Threshold commands allow to set hashes for URL tests (CRC32/MD5/SHA256/SHA512)
  
• Telnet command improvements: SetTestParam and ReplaceTestParam Threshold commands allow to set CRC32 checksum for HTTP tests
• HostMonitor and RCC: Auditing Tool improvements

  Web Service improvement

• Increased speed of Network Map data generation code for cases with over 50,000 test items and many thousand of master test items. But web browsers can still work slowly when displaying complex maps with so many elements

  MIB Browser and Disk Meter improvements related to SNMPv3

• new SHA256, SHA384, SHA512 authorization methods.
  Only MD5 and SHA1 algorithms are defined in SNMP standards however many manufacturers use more strong unofficial SHA256/384/512 hashes.
• New privcy (encryption) modes: AES192, AES256, AES192C, AES256C.
  Such modes are not defined in SNMP standards however many manufacturers use these algorithms. AES192C and AES256C modes used by Cisco, they are equivalent to AES192/AES256 when SHA256, SHA384 or SHA512 authorization mode is used.
• About 25% faster code for SHA1 authorization and AES128 encyption

  MIB Browser improvements

• "Find exact name" menu item: searches for a node with a specific name. The search is case insensitive. For example if you type "sysuptime" or "SYSUPTIME", the software will find the node "sysUpTime", but not "sysUpTimeEx"
• "Find name" menu item: searches for a node with a name that contains a search string. For example if you type "time", the software will find "sysUpTime", "sysUpTimeEx", "ExtraTime" and other nodes with the string "time" in the name
• "Find description" menu item: searches for a node with a specific string in the descriptions
• A slightly faster compiler for MIB files
• Fixed a GUI issue where the letter "f" could not be entered.

  The following HostMontior/RCC GUI related issues have been resolved

• Log Viewer corrections related to date/time search
• Minor GUI corrections related to NT Event Log test method
• Minor GUI corrections related to URL test method
• Minor corrections related to Replication of DHCP Pool tests (Network Map window)
• "Export to text file" function corrections related to HTTP, Process, DHCP and Printer tests (only RCC application was affected)
• Corrections related to %AlertThresholdValue% and %AlertThreshold% variables when triggered by OS Updates test method
• Some corrections related to %FolderParent% variable
• Other minor GUI corrections

  HostMonitor, RMA for Windows: Improvements related to SNMPv3

• new SHA256, SHA384, SHA512 authorization methods.
  Only MD5 and SHA1 algorithms are defined in SNMP standards however many manufacturers use more strong unofficial SHA256/384/512 hashes.
• New privcy (encryption) modes: AES192, AES256, AES192C, AES256C.
  AES192, AES256, AES192C and AES256C are not defined in SNMP standards however many manufacturers use these algorithms. AES192C and AES256C modes used by Cisco, they are equivalent to AES192/AES256 when SHA256, SHA384 or SHA512 authorization mode is used.
• About 25% faster code for SHA1 authorization and AES128 encyption

Over 50 test methods affected by these improvements:

• SNMP Get
  
• SNMP Table
  
• Traffic Monitor
  
• Network Interface Status
  
• Disk Free Space test in SNMP mode
  
• Process, Memory and CPU Usage tests in SNMP mode
  
• all tests related to Cisco, Juniper, F5 Big IP, Netscaller, NetApp, QNAP, Sonicwall, Synology, UPS and Printers

  HostMonitor, RCC, RMA for Windows improvements

• SNMP Set action was improved
• If you add QuickLogAfterInactive=0 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor, it will not add record into QuickLog when test status changes like Ok->OutOfSchedule->Ok or Bad->OutOfSchedule->Bad
• Other minor GUI improvements

  HostMonitor, RCC, RMA for Windows: redesigned NT Events Log test method

• Now you can setup filter profiles with several filter records in each profile. E.g. you may setup single test that checks for the following events
  - Application Hang source, all events
  - Application Error source, event type Critical, Error or Warning
  - Group Policy Client, event ID 52 with "error" string in message description
  (as before single test item checks only ONE log channel, e.g. Application)
• One or many test items may use such filter profile and detect events from different sources.
• If you set many test items using the same filter profile (checking logs on many different systems), you may modify single profile and all related test items will be affected
• "Mark unused" and "Usage report" options help you to manage filter profiles efficiently

  HostMonitor: improved Microsoft Teams action

• Microsoft plans to disable "office" webhooks on August 15. New HostMonitor may use "office" and "workflows" webhooks.
• "Workflows" mode require Microsoft Teams account with a premium Power Automate license and should work after August 15. So if you are using Microsoft Teams alert method, we suggest to setup such webhooks using Microsoft Teams -> Workflows and change URL specified for HostMonitor action (just open Action Properties window and copy new URL instead of old URL)

  HostMonitor and RCC GUI improvements

• Built-in Log Viewer offers "Find the test" popup menu item - opens main window and selects test item related to selected log record (if test item still exist)
• Other minor GUI improvements

  HostMonitor, RMA for Windows: test related improvements

New cache for SNMP related test methods helps to perform monitoring faster when SNMP v3 protocol is used and you have many test items with short test interval for each target host. This does not mean that SNMP v3 will work faster than SNMP v2 or SNMP v1 (SNMP v2 is the fastest version of the protocol) but update may increase performance of SNMP v3 requests.
Note: you may disable this cache - just add snmpv3UseCache=0 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini (or rma.ini when agent is used for the tests) and restart HostMonitor (or RMA).
[Misc]
snmpv3UseCache = 0
Over 50 test methods affected by this improvement:

• SNMP Get
  
• SNMP Table
  
• Traffic Monitor
  
• Network Interface Status
  
• Disk Free Space test in SNMP mode
  
• Process, Memory and CPU Usage tests in SNMP mode
  
• all Cisco, Juniper, F5 Big IP, Netscaller, NetApp, QNAP, Sonicwall, Synology, UPS and Printer relates tests

SSH test
If you need to enable old key exchange algorithms, such as diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1 you may add KeyExchangeAlgorithms line to the [SSH] section of hostmon.ini file (rma.ini file if RMA agent is used for the test) and restart HostMonitor (RMA agent). E.g.
[SSH]
KeyExchangeAlgorithms = curve25519-sha256,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group14-sha256,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1

  HostMonitor, RCC, RCC_Themes: GUI improvements

• Service test: minor improvements related to "Choose service to monitor" window
• Traffic Monitor test: minor improvements related to "Choose network interface" window
• New %FolderParent% variable can be used for test patterns

  The following issue was resolved

• Active RMA for Windows version 8.00 - 8.20: remote update by RMA Manager could fail. Fixed

  HostMonitor, RMA for Windows: new test methods

Printer Status test
This test method checks various counters and alert flags provided by printers using SNMP protocol. When some problems detected, HostMonitor will set Bad test status and display error(s) description in Reply field of the test (see also %Reply% variable). Also you may use %PrinterDetails% variable as a parameter of the actions triggered by this test, HostMonitor will provide name of the printer, description, location and information about the problem(s). Test options:

• Ignore open door, cover, interlock status
  With this option enabled HostMonitor will ignore the DoorOpen, CoverOpen and InterlockOpen statuses and will set Ok test status if just these problems are detected
• Ignore almost full/empty warnings
  With this option enabled HostMonitor will ignore "warning" flags such as inputMediaSupplyLow, outputMediaTrayAlmostFull, markerTonerAlmostEmpty, markerWasteInkReceptacleAlmostFull, markerDeveloperAlmostEmpty, mediaPathMediaTrayAlmostFull
• Ignore other non-critical problems
  With this option enabled all non-critical issues will be ignored by HostMonitor. A critical alert is one that stops the printer from printing immediately and printing can not continue until the critical alert condition is eliminated. Non-critical alerts are those that do not stop printing but may at some future time.

We tested various models of Brother, Canon, HP, Konica, Lexmark, Ricoh, Xerox printers. Printers from other manufacturers may support SNMP protocol and necessary counters as well.

Printer supply levels test
This test method checks various counters provided by printers using SNMP protocol. When the level of some supply falls below the specified limit, HostMonitor will set Bad test status and display level(%) and description of the supply type in Reply field of the test (see also %Reply% variable). Also you may use %PrinterDetails% variable as a parameter of the actions triggered by this test, HostMonitor will provide name of the printer, description, location and information about all avilable supplies.

You can set a minimum threshould for each group of supplies

• Check toner, ink levels
  HostMonitor will check the toner and ink levels, ribbon and wax (if printer uses such supplies and provides the necessary data)
• Check waste, water, binding levels
  HostMonitor will check the waste space for toner, ink, wax, water, waste paper, level of binding supplies, staples, covers, etc (if printer uses such supplies and provides the necessary data)
• Check OPC, corona wire, transfer units
  HostMonitor will check OPC, developer units, fuser oil, cleaner unit, transfer unit, fuser oiler

We tested various models of Brother, Canon, HP, Konica, Lexmark, Ricoh, Xerox printers. Printers from other manufacturers may support SNMP protocol and necessary counters as well. Note: many Brother printers do not provide toner level data, just drum status and warning flags related to low level

  HostMonitor test related changes and improvements

VMWare_guest_status test for VMWare ESXi

• HostMonitor now also checks 'configstatus' parameter, e.g. HostMonitor can set Bad test status when duplicated MAC or IP address is detected.
  You can disable this check by adding VMCheckConfigStatus=0 line to the [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file (HostMonitor restart is required)
• HostMonitor may display list of all guests with the "worst" (red, yellow, gray) status. To enable this option, you may add vmShowManyGuests=1 line to the [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor

VM_guest_free_memory test for Microsoft Hyper-V

• HostMonitor can also use GuestAvailableMemory counter when available (on Windows Server 2022). In this case several counters are used for calculations because single GuestAvailableMemory counter does not tell the whole picture, it can show a lot of free memory while most of that "free" guest memory is actually paged to the disk by the hypervisor. However you can tell HostMonitor to only use GuestAvailableMemory counter (when available) by adding the hyperV_AlwaysCountMemoryPressure=0 line to the [Misc] section on hostmon.ini file (HostMonitor restart is required)
• Also HostMonitor can check guest systems with empty name field (old version ignored such guests)

SSH test:

• The following HMAC algorithms are enabled by default: hmac-sha2-256, hmac-sha2-512, hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com, hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com
• If you need to enable older protocols, such as hmac-sha1 or hmac-md5, add HMACAlgorithms line to the [SSH] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor. E.g.
  [SSH]
  HMACAlgorithms=hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1,hmac-md5
• If you need to enable older protocols for some RMA agent, then add HMACAlgorithms line to the [SSH] section of rma.ini file (located on the system where the agent is running)
• Also you may enable the following algorithms
  hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com
  hmac-sha2-224
  hmac-sha2-384
  hmac-sha2-224-etm@openssh.com
  hmac-sha2-384-etm@openssh.com

New switch related to "Recheck dependant test items when master test status has been changed" option.

• This option tells HostMonitor to recheck all dependant test items immediately after their master test fails or recovers (otherwise the tests will be executed on a regular schedule). This helps to maintain more accurate statistic information. However HostMonitor does not "touch" dependant items when the master test changes its status to any of the "inactive" statuses (OutOfSchedule, WaitForMaster, Disabled, Paused)
  New option "count inactive master test statuses as well" (located on the same Behavior page of the Options dialog) tells HostMonitor to change the statuses of all dependant tests when the Master test becomes inactive

  HostMonitor action related changes

HostMonitor: HMScript action

• New _AllPrinterStatus and _AllPrinterLevels parameters for HMScript commands like DisableTest, EnableTest, PauseTest, SetTestParam, ReplaceTestParam

HostMonitor: Send E-mail action improvements

• TLS related improvements for "POP before SMTP" authentication mode
• You can also set a specific port for POP3 connection when "POP before SMTP" authentication mode is used: just add 1 or 2 lines in hostmon.ini file, [SMTP] section. E.g. if you want to set TCP port 2095 for the primary mail server and port 110 for the backup mail server, add the following 2 lines to the [SMTP] section and restart HostMonitor
  Pop3Port1=2095
  Pop3Port2=110
  Note: by default HostMonitor chooses the TCP port for POP3 connection based on TLS mode (None-110, Implicit-995, Explicit-995).

  HostMonitor, RCC: GUI improvements

• User Profiles window allows to to export list of operators into comma separated file; use "Export to CSV file" popup menu item
• Some font improvements related to regional (non-ASCII) character sets
• When you use the telnet service, HostMonitor truncates exessively long folder and file names before sending the data to the client, new "unofficial" option allows to set a length limit. You may add TelnetMaxNameLen=<length> line into [RCI] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor. E.g.
  [RCI]
  TelnetMaxNameLen=80

  Web Service improvements

• Network Map pane creates separate groups for the following test methods:
  - RAS
  - SNMP Trap
  - ODBC
  - External program
  - Active Script
  - Shell Script
  Previous versions used "localhost" group in this case, unless SetUserIP command was used in order to assign specific IP address to some of such tests so test item can be moved somewhere (to other host node). This command can be used in new version as well

  RCC, Web Service, Log Analyzer, Log Visualizer

• Some modifications in order to support new test methods

  HostMonitor and RCC improvements

• When you select many test items and click Edit button, you may change "Tune up Reply value" explession; Timeout and Retries parameters (number of packets for Ping tests) in addition to other parameters you could modify before.
• "Mark unused" popup menu item for RMA list. When you are managing list of Remote Monitoring Agents using menu LANs -> RMA agents you may use new menu item to grey out all RMA agents currently not used. HostMonitor checks all folder settings, test settings (within loaded test list), action setting and Network Discovery settings
• Minor performance improvements

  The following issue was resolved

• HostMonitor v 14.24 could resolve %FullPath% variable incorrectly. Fixed

  HostMonitor improvements and corrections

• Shell Script test method: rare Windows bug may cause problems for Shell Script test method so we changed HostMonitor code. Note: if you need to use some very old script processors (like MS DOS program on Windows XP) then new version will not work for you unless you switch HostMonitor code to old mode: add ScriptsShortName=1 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor
• HTTP test method: minor changes
  
  
• Actions: %uuu% and %uuu[-0u]% variables can be used as parameters of the actions:
  %uuu% - current local time as UnixTimeStamp (seconds since 1970)
  %uuu[-0u]% - current UTC time as UnixTimeStamp (seconds since 1970)
• HTTP request action: Content-Length parameter could be calculated incorrectly for large POST requests. Fixed
• Send E-Mail action: corrections related to Big-5 charset

  HostMonitor x64

Now we can offer x64 version of HostMonitor. Its not available to everyone and its not needed by everyone, for most of customers x86 (32bit) version works more efficiently and uses less memory. On the other hand, if you have over 100,000 test items plus a lot of remote RCC operators and 1000+ Active RMA agents connected to HostMonitor, then you may need x64 version. It may use over 2GB memory and in some cases works faster. Related forum thread

If you would like to try it, please contact support team by e-mail (HostMonitor menu Help -> Support)

  IPMI related improvements

The following applications support more cipher modes for IPMI related tests: IPMI Health, IPMI Temperature, IPMI Fans, IPMI Voltage, IPMI Current, IPMI Discrete Sensor

• HostMonitor
• Passive RMA for Windows
• Active RMA for Windows
• Active RMA for FreeBSD
• Active RMA for Linux
• IPMI Browser

The following cipher modes are supported

• 00: None
• 01: RAKP-HMAC-SHA1
• 02: RAKP-HMAC-SHA1 + HMAC-SHA1-96
• 03: RAKP-HMAC-SHA1 + AES128CBC + HMAC-SHA1-96
• 15: RAKP-HMAC-SHA256
• 16: RAKP-HMAC-SHA256 + HMAC-SHA256-128
• 17: RAKP-HMAC-SHA256 + AES128CBC + HMAC-SHA256-128

  HostMonitor, RCC GUI improvements

• You may search for a folder by name or comment field using menu Search or hot key Ctrl+Shift+F
• Log Viewer improvements

  HostMonitor, RCC, Passive and Active RMA for Windows (x86 and x64):
      improvements related to Traffic Monitor test method and "Choose network interface" window (this window is also used for Interface Status test method)

• "Request and calculate traffic data" option. If you enable this option HostMonitor will show additional information for each network interface:
  - amount of total received and transmitted traffic;
  - average amount of data per second;
  - bandwidth utilization (%);
  - bandwidth utilization by income traffic;
  - bandwidth utilization by outgoing traffic
  Notes:
  - Bandwidth utilization: amount of data transferred through a network relative to its total capacity.
  - In this case average traffic and utilization percentage calculated based on total traffic thru interface since device reboot (not a current utilization measured for last second or minute)
  - This option is available for SNMP v2c, SNMP v3 enabled devices with 64bit traffic counters
• You may sort interfaces in the list by any field (index, description, speed, traffic, etc)
• When you are creating a new test item, then you may select many interfaces in the list; HostMonitor will create separate test item for each selected interface. As before you may also select "monitor traffic on all interfaces" item, such single test item will monitor all interfaces and check total traffic on the device.
• Other minor GUI improvements

  Active RMA for Linux and FreeBSD improvements

• New faster encryption module
• The agent may provide traffic related data for "Network interfaces" window
• File Integrity test works faster in all modes: CRC32, MD5, SHA256, SHA512
• Text Log test method: some speed improvements related to "expressions" mode
• SNMP Trap test speed improvements. Some customers set thousands of SNMP Trap items with various filters, in such case processing of many Trap messages can lead to high CPU load and slow down RMA agent (especially when "counter fits expression" options are used, thousand items with such option can slow down even new version of the software)

  WatchDog for Linux and FreeBSD improvements

• New faster encryption module (required for HostMonitor v14)

  Minor improvements related to

• Send E-Mail action
• Telegram message action
• Log Viewer
• Web Service

  HostMonitor and RMA for Windows: 26 test methods were improved

The following tests support TLS 1.3

• URL
• Certificate Expiration
• POP3, IMAP
• E-mail, Mail Relay
• LDAP
• FTPS
• HP iLO tests: Health, Temperature, Fans, Power, Disk status
• VMWare host related tests: Host status, CPU Usage, Free Memory, Datastore Space
• VMWare guest related tests: Guest status, CPU Usage, Free Memory, Free disk space

Notes:

• Certificate Expiration test supports TLS 1.3 on Windows 7 and newer.
• Other tests require Windows 11 or Windows Server 2022 (just for TLS 1.3).
• By default only TLS 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 protocols are enabled (TLS 1.1 and 1.2 on older Windows systems)
• If you need to check some very old HP server (iLO2), you may enable TLS 1.0 using hostmon.ini option: add sslProto_HPiLO=10880 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor
• If you need to check some very old VMWare system (ESXi 5.0 or older), you may enable TLS 1.0 using hostmon.ini option: add sslProto_VMWare=10880 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor
• Similar options available for POP3, IMAP, LDAP, FTPS, Email, Mail Relay, URL tests
  [Misc] section
  sslProtocols - sets default TLS options for all methods, including URL;
  the following options may override TLS modes for specific test methods:

sslProto_POP3 sslProto_LDAP sslProto_IMAP sslProto_FTPS sslProto_HPiLO sslProto_VMWare

= 8192   - just TLS 1.3 = 10240 - TLS 1.2 and 1.3 = 10752 - TLS 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 = 10880 - TLS 1.0-1.3

SSH and SFTP tests:

• support keDHGroup16Sha512, keDHGroup18Sha512 and keDHGroup14Sha256 key exchange algorithms
• support the hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com and hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com HMAC algorithms

File Integrity test

• works faster in all modes: CRC32, MD5, Sha256, Sha512

Shell Script test

• Unicode support for output files. Powershell scripts may produce results in such format (output should start with FFFE BOM bytes)
• some speed improvements (if script generates large output before test result)

SNMP Trap test

• speed improvements. Some customers set thousands of SNMP Trap items with various filters, in such case processing of many Trap messages can lead to high CPU load and slow down HostMonitor (especially when "counter fits expression" options are used, thousand items with such option can slow down even new version of the software)

  HostMonitor: improved actions

• Send E-mail action supports TLS 1.3
• Send message to pager over SNPP action supports TLS 1.2
  (Windows 7 or newer is required)

  Performance

Faster compression code for data exchange between HostMonitor and RCC, HostMonitor and Web Service

Faster encryption code for data exchange between all components

• HostMonitor ↔ Passive and Active RMA
• HostMonitor ↔ RCC
• HostMonitor ↔ Telnet client
• HostMonitor ↔ Web Service
• HostMonitor ↔ WatchDog
• RMA Manager ↔ Passive and Active RMA

Note1: for data transmission between HostMonitor and Passive RMA old code is used by default. If you are not using old RMA agents for UNIX, you may switch this module to faster code as well: add Encr3PassiveRMA=1 line into [HostMon] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor.
Note2: if single RMA has to perform a lot of tests (e.g. 100 tests/sec), then it`s better to use Active RMA. On the other hand, if you have to use many agents (e.g. 500 RMA) with low load on each agent, then it`s better to use Passive RMA.

HostMonitor and RCC GUI improvements:

• Under some conditions disable, pause or resume of thousands (e.g. 20,000) test items could be slow; new versions work much faster
• Under some conditions remove folder with thousand sub-folders operation could be slow on RCC side; new version works much faster
• Some speed improvements related to Views (more improvements will be done in the future versions)
• Top Hosts pane: better support for large numbers in Reply field (up to 10^36) and small numbers (between 0 and 1)
• Minor Auditing Tools improvements
• Minor GUI corrections

  RMA Manager

• faster import from csv files
• import statistics and progress bar displayed
• import log filter: "Just errors" and "All data" modes

  WebService

• TLS 1.3 supported in HTTPS mode
  (now Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 or newer is required for HTTPS mode; HTTP mode can be used on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or any newer OS)