Sentinel3G User Guide

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Revision as of 02:22, 28 April 2006

Welcome to sentinel3G

Welcome to sentinel3G™ event monitoring and response software for monitoring networks of Linux, UNIX and Windows NT/2000/XP computers. Together, sentinel3G and this guide will help you to achieve agreed service levels, increase the return from IT assets, minimize down-time and maximize access to network services and resources.

About this Guide

This User Guide is the primary reference for finding out how to install, configure and use sentinel3G. The main sections describe:

• network monitoring concepts, and sentinel3G’s architecture and key components
• how to install and configure sentinel3G
• how to create and customize sentries
• how to use the console to monitor, diagnose, and respond to events.
• the supplied knowledge bases (KBs) and how to add a new KB

Who should use this book

There are two main audience groups: administrators set up and configure sentinel3G. They maintain details of sentries, agents, variables, etc.; operators monitor sentries and respond to events. Usually they monitor events via their console, but notification by other means such as e-mail may be used. Administrators are also sentinel3G users.

Administrators have access both to a console and to the sentinel3G configuration options. Operators typically see only a console. Other interested parties include those with management or statutory responsibility for the procedures implemented in sentinel3G, including IT managers and auditors. They may or may not be sentinel3G users.

Installation

Install sentinel3G on each Linux or UNIX server that you wish to monitor. You must run the installation script install.cos as root. Installation messages are logged to /tmp/FSinstall.log. <datetime>

The software distribution includes standard KBs (knowledge bases), which are installed automatically along with the software. Other KBs are available and can be installed separately.

Users can access sentinel3G’s graphical user interface (GUI) from a Windows PC through the COSmanager PCgui for Windows. This software is also available from our downloads site. Install it on each Windows client.

Starting sentinel3G

The first time sentinel3G is started it will prompt for the name of the host running the Event Manager.

You can either select the current host or click Choose to choose from the entries in the hosts file.

Startup and Shutdown

sentinel3G’s data collection and monitoring engine includes the central Event Manager, and a host monitor running on each server. The installation procedure updates /etc/services and rc scripts so that these processes will be started automatically during each server’s boot process and stopped during each server’s shutdown sequence.

You open a console window by running this command from a shell:

cos sentinel

Contacting Technical Support

If you experience a problem, we suggest you first consult the user guide and release notes. If you have a support contract you will have been supplied with the support e-mail address which is the point of contact for questions about configuring and using sentinel3G. The support staff will be able to handle your question most effectively if you gather some key information first.

Hardware and software environment

• the version number of the product
• if you are running the licensed version, the license key and options used to license the product
• hardware type and configuration
• the operating system and version

Details of the problem or question

• what task were you performing or what process was running?
• what was the sequence of events before the problem occurred?
• what were the symptoms of the problem, including any error messages reported by the product or operating system?
• were you able to reproduce the problem?

Overview

Where to from here

Sentinel3G Concepts

Monitoring Sentries From the Console

Reports

Configuring Sentries and Agents

Configuring Sentinel3G

Managing Users and Access Control

Knowledge Bases