Web monitoring

I had a request to monitor NetApp and Commvault management consoles, here's some notes on it.

We just needed a simple availability check so I used the Web Application Availability Monitoring template.

First of all, there's no point building this in a sealed mp because exporting/importing between management groups doesn't work well with this stuff. So build an unsealed mp in dev, then after you import to prod, re-add the Where to monitor from bit, in my case it was a resource pool.

When you follow the wizard this is the info you need:

• Name - Whatever you put here appears in an alert as Web Application Unavailable: %Name%
• What to Monitor - The value for Name will appear in alerts as %Name% [Web Monitoring]
• Where to Monitor From - I always use mgmt servers in a dedicated resource pool, see why below
• View and Validate Tests - Use default values. The check every 10 mins is enough.

Some notes on where you monitor sites from:

"If you are going to be monitoring a large number of websites, it is recommended to run these from a dedicated management server. The reason for this is that management servers write directly to the Ops DB. If you run all of your website monitoring from an agent, the agent has to monitor the website and then send the status to a management servers. Running the website monitoring directly from a management server avoids the middle man."

If the validation test fails you might need to add a certificate to the local computer store. For my NetApp devices, the certificates were self-signed by the device. To get the certificate in the store, login to the agents/servers that will do the monitoring and hit the URL in a browser.

Click on the Certificate error in the address bar then click View Certificates. If you don't see this just find the certificate info.

Notice you can't import the certificate to the store. You first need to add the site as a trusted site then you will be able to import the certificate. Make sure it's in Trusted Root Certificate Authorities in the Local Machine store.

If you view the certificate again you will see the certificate path is now OK.

Validation tests should now work.