Integrating with your Third Party Monitoring Software

Transcription

1 Integrating with your Third Party Monitoring Software OVERVIEW When using a software that monitors your networks, the notifications can be sent to NetHelpDesk, and handled in different ways. There are 3 main options for you to use in NetHelpDesk: 1. Alert Via 2. GFI Max Integration 3. Service Status Tracking Create tickets from an notification sent by your monitoring software. Integrate with GFI Max Monitoring via an API, importing your Customers, Sites and Assets from your GFI Max database. When your monitoring software sends multiple notifications of successes, failures, pauses and so on, you can track the entire history through NHD, and create tickets on failures. These three areas are broken out below. ALERT VIA The most straight forward way to integrate with your existing monitoring software is to tell NetHelpDesk how to treat the s when they are received from the monitoring software. The s that the monitoring software sends will need to go to a mailbox that NetHelpDesk is polling. To setup a mailbox, go to this part of the guides, or speak with our Support team. When s are being sent to the mailbox that is being polled: 1) Go to Options > Setup > Advanced System Settings > Rules. 2) In the Rules list, there may already be a template you can use. Alternatively, click Add. 3) Specify a unique description that separates out the notification from others. 4) Rule is Enabled checkbox will be checked by default. 5) The Subject, Body, From Address and To Address fields can be populated with relevant data that NHD will use to determine what to use from the notification. The second half of the screen is to determine how NHD matches the notification to different parts of NHD that you would like it to associate. Net Help Desk Limited Page 1 of 9

2 Site Name Tag User Name Tag Asset Name Tag Alert Type Specify here what NHD will use from your notification to determine the Site Name to log the call against. This will need to be the same in your tree view as specified in the notification. Specify here what NHD will use from your notification to determine the User Name to log the call against. This will need to be the same in your tree view as specified in the notification. If nothing is specified, the General User is used. Specify here what NHD will use from your notification to determine the Asset to log the call against. This does not have to be anything specified in NHD s Asset Management feature, but used to separate multiple items being checked, without the need to use the NHD Asset Management entity. Specify here a name of the type of Alert that is being checked, so that if you are checking more than one thing on the one item, it separates the alerts out appropriately, e.g. Backup, Virus Check, Up Time and so on. The last option is to Close request if this string is present, and request is unassigned. GFI MAX INTEGRATION NetHelpDesk integrates with GFI Max in the following ways: 1. Import of client and sites from GFI Max into NetHelpDesk. 2. Import of GFI Max devices at sites and details of the devices using the GFI Max Device ID number. 3. Record of changes made to devices. 4. Accept alert and recovery s from GFI Max. 5. Create tickets and automatically close tickets from GFI s. 6. Link the ticket to GFI Max devices. 7. Record a history of tickets against a GFI Max device. How To Integrate In your GFI Max Remote Management dashboard: 1. Go to Settings > Alert Settings, and: a. On the Alert Routing tab, edit the Alert Settings to refer to an address that is polled by NetHelpDesk. b. On the same tab, tick the box Include Check ID s. - Document Continued - Net Help Desk Limited Page 2 of 9

3 c. On the Server Alert Settings and/or Workstation Alert Settings tab, i. Use the update check box to apply to existing devices. ii. Decide what alerts will send s to NetHelpDesk. 2. Generate the GFI Max API Token, go to Settings > General Settings, and click Generate. Net Help Desk Limited Page 3 of 9

4 In NetHelpDesk: 1. Go to Options > Setup > Advanced System Settings and GFI Max. 2. Enter the value of your company s API key into the screen shown below. 3. Click the GFI Max Import/Sync button to import GFI clients, sites and devices. 4. Follow the on screen instructions and choose how to map GFI Clients and Sites to NetHelpDesk ones. Alerts and Recovery s: 1. If you are using the default GFI Max settings, then the alerts from GFI should be recognised by NetHelpDesk. 2. If you are not using the default GFI Max settings, then you may need to edit the GFI device matching string. 3. More advanced settings can be found in NetHelpDesk in Options > Setup > Advanced System Settings > Rules. Here is a screenshot of the default GFI alert rule: 4. GFI Max s are matched to this rule, and a ticket is either created or updated, as required. 5. The s from GFI Max have the following default format, and so the Device ID is matched to the above settings for Device ID Net Help Desk Limited Page 4 of 9

5 X-SYSTEMMONITOR-CHECKIDS: 999 X-SYSTEMMONITOR-DEVICEID: X-SYSTEMMONITOR-SITEID: If the outage recovers itself, and returns to a normal status, a recovery alert is sent by GFI Max containing the string has recovered. If the NetHelpDesk request that was created by the original outage alert remains unassigned, then the ticket will be closed automatically, when it receives this recovery alert. 7. You can test this functionality by: a. Turning off a Windows Service that is being monitored by GFI Max. b. Re-running the GFI checks using the workstation agent. c. Once the alert has been received by NetHelpDesk, turn the service back on. d. Re-run the GFI checks. e. Ensure that the ticket has been automatically closed. In the screenshot from a NetHelpDesk ticket below, you can see that the request is opened and closed. 8. In the NetHelpDesk ticket, the Primary Asset will be the Asset from which the Alert has been generated. This basic setup can be adjusted to use different ticket types for different alerts, and to log tickets against a specific user or site, as required. SERVICE STATUS MONITORING Service Status Monitoring is a full service monitoring service within NetHelpDesk, and allows tracking of full history from your chosen monitoring software. If you are using the GFI Max integration, the notifications imported from your GFI Max database will not impact, or be impacted by use of Services. It is completely separate. This part works by receiving s from your third party systems, processing those s to update the NetHelpDesk service status database, whatever the status of the notification, and track history. New requests can be raised when a service fails, where you can track the actions taken to restore the service to operational status. Net Help Desk Limited Page 5 of 9

6 NHD can even generate a ticket if a Service Status is not received. The definition of a Service is quite broad. Examples of Services: A nightly batch job, such as a backup, virus scans, or disc space check. A frequently recurring check, such as a check of the status of a network link, or a check that a URL is operational. A manual task such as changing of the backup tapes in a server or periodically reviewing the list of valid users. Monitoring for warning messages from a third party utility or monitoring system and tracking that actions are taken to respond to the warning. Any task or job that you wish to report the success or failure of, and which may form part of your SLA. If the third party service status gathering program being used doesn t have the ability to send an directly, use the NetHDSendStatus.exe program to send the . This file can be found in the Win folder of the NetHelpDesk installation folder. This will allow you to use batch files, and other scripting tools to write the status monitoring mechanism, and integrate this mechanism into your existing batch processes or other systems. If you are not using the NHServer program for s in and out of NetHelpDesk, this will also need to be configured to utilise this functionality. To view a guide on setting this up, please visit for assistance, or contact the support team. Defining a Service 1. In the tree view, go to relevant Customer/Area. 2. Right click on a site, and Edit Site and Services. 3. Click on the Services Tab. 4. Click Add a Service. 5. There are 6 tabs of information about each service. The defaults are often sufficient, but you can adjust the values to fit in with the third party monitoring software that you are using. 6. The six tabs are: Basic Details, Service Users, Service Assets, Service Status Tracking, Identification Rules, and Status Rules. Basic Details Tab The details tab has the following fields: - Section Continued - Net Help Desk Limited Page 6 of 9

7 Description Service Type Service Hours Show in User Catalog Track Service Status Client / Area Notes Service Status button Define how this service will differ from others. Select a predefined Service Type, or go to Options > Setup > Advanced System Settings / GFI Max > Service Types to add, edit and delete from the list. Define a set of hours that the service will be checked. This may be during your pre-existing working hours you have defined already, or you may want to set up specific coverage time for these types of service checking. Shows the service check in the User Catalog area. Enables the Service Check. Specify the Client / Area Site you want to check. This will be auto-populated if adding at the site level. Free text box for all your notes you may wish to keep. Check the service once it is set up, at the click of a button. Service Users Tab Specify the Users affected by the Service Status monitoring. Allows you to build a list of those affected, and en masse should you wish to keep them updated of any progress. Service Assets Tab Specify the Assets affected by the Service Status monitoring. Allows you to track any changes against the Asset entry also. Service Status Tracking Checking Interval in Minutes: Details Link: Override Operational Status: Parameters 1,2,3: Minimum/Maximum Values: How often the check is expected to send an 'all is OK' message. If the message doesn't arrive, it indicates that the state of the service is unknown. A link to more detailed information about the service. Specify a URL or the name of a file preceded by the name of a viewing program, e.g.'notepad.exe status.txt'. This is used to override the actual status with predetermined values. These are set for each service, and have meanings dependent on what the type is. For virus checking services the first parameter is the server name being checked. For file transfer services the first parameter is the keyword associated with the service, the second is the destination file location. Zero (0) by default. Identification Rules The identification rule tab defines how the incoming service status is linked to a service, and has the following fields: - Section Continued - Net Help Desk Limited Page 7 of 9

8 POP3 Server Subject Body From Address To Address ID Rule is Enabled Define which POP3 server the arrived on. A string that is found in the subject. A string that is found in the body. A string that is found in the from address. A string that is found in the to address. Uncheck to temporarily disable the rule. Status Rules The status rules tab defines how NetHelpDesk knows the status of a service i.e. Is it OK, or a Fault and has the following fields: Choose whether receiving an notification from your monitoring software mean either: 1. Status is OK, or 2. Status is Fault / Service Failure / Problem. Status is OK. Select if receiving any message means the Service is OK, or The message must contain one of 4 things to be classed as OK. Define as applicable. Subject Body From Address To Address A string that is found in the subject indicating the status is OK. A string in the body. A string in the from address. A string in the to address. If more than one value needs to be matched use $OR$ to separate parameters. Status is Fault / Service Failure / Problem Select if receiving any message means the Service is a fault, or The message must contain one of 4 things to be classed as a fault or problem: Subject Body From Address To Address A string that is found in the subject indicating the status is OK. A string in the body. A string in the from address. A string in the to address. If more than one value needs to be matched use $OR$ to separate parameters. Choose to create a Request on Failure, as required. Net Help Desk Limited Page 8 of 9

9 Setup Third Party Software Set up your software to send an to the mailbox being polled by NetHelpDesk. By default all service status messages should have 'SERVICESTATUS' in their subject line. If the third party service status gathering program doesn t have the ability to send an e- mail directly, you can use the NetHDSendStatus.exe program to send the . NHServer Processing Options > Setup > Advanced System Settings Tab > Rules. Click Add. By default all service status messages should have 'SERVICESTATUS' in their subject line. View Status Of Services: 1. Go to the Main Screen Navigation Bar > Services. A service can be in one of the following states and is indicated by the colours of traffic lights on service status lists: OK Fault Unknown - expired Unknown No Data Overridden Engineer Aware The NHServer program has received an for this service that says it is OK. It has been received within the time frame expected (green) The NHServer program has received an for this service that says it has a problem and is faulty. (red) No has been received telling the status of the service within the time frame expected. So the service may be OK, but you don't know. (purple) Needs investigation. You can manually override the status of the service as required. (An exclamation point (!) precedes status description) Engineer is aware of the issue, and actively working on it. - END OF DOCUMENT - Net Help Desk Limited Page 9 of 9