up.time Version 7.0 Release Notes - June 2012
New Features in Version 7.0
up.time 7.0 contains the following new features:
- Expanded SNMP Monitoring
- Network Performance Dashboard
- Inventory Report
Expanded SNMP Monitoring
up.time 7.0 has greatly expanded its SNMP-device monitoring. This expansion to network monitoring is based on three new up.time objects:
- Network Device Element
- SNMP Poller service monitor
- Port Monitor service monitor
Network Device Element Type
There is a new “Network Device” Element type, which replaces the “Node” from previous versions. Although still an agentless monitored network device, this Element now uses SNMP to collect performance and configuration data from a device such as a switch or router, allowing you to focus on specific SNMP-based performance metrics for monitoring.
To support a more unified configuration, you are now asked for SNMP information when adding a Network Device, instead of when adding an SNMP service monitor. Because up.time now collects finer metrics from the network device, this Element type will have a unique Quick Snapshot that provides valuable performance information and port status:
For users who are upgrading, and whose monitored infrastructure includes Node-type Elements, consider the following changes:
- existing Nodes will automatically be converted to Network Devices
- upon conversion, the Element configuration will use global SNMP settings, whose default values are as follows:
- SNMP Version: v2
- SNMP Port: 161
- Read Community: public
Note that after upgrading, users should update their global SNMP settings
found on the Config panel
- any service monitors attached to the Node, after conversion to a Network Device, will continue to seamlessly function
- Nodes will gain new Network Device services: the Configuration Update Gatherer, and Platform Performance Gatherer
- the Network Device’s Platform Performance Gatherer service includes an Is Device Pingable configuration checkbox, which determines whether metrics for packet loss and round-trip time for the network device are retained; during upgrades, this option’s configuration will reflect the Node’s original ping configuration (e.g., if the Node was originally added to up.time, and Is Node Pingable was not selected)
SNMP Poller
There is a new SNMP Poller service monitor that replaces the SNMP service monitor. This service monitor’s MIB selection and threshold creation have been overhauled. Existing SNMP monitors will not change after upgrading to version 7, and will continue to function seamlessly; however, users will no longer be able to edit or clone these monitors
Port Monitor
There is a new Port Monitor service monitor that can be attached to new Network Device Elements. This service monitor expands up.time’s network monitoring capabilities by reporting on port bandwidth, performance, and status.
Network Performance Dashboard
The new Network dashboard is available as a tab on the Global Scan panel. This dashboard uses metric data from the new network device Element, gathered by the new Port Monitor service monitor.
This dashboard gives a high-level summary of your network infrastructure’s performance and availability by providing comparative data for various network performance categories. Presented information includes 24-hour gauges displaying averages, highs, and lows, as well as top-consumer lists, showing which network devices are using the most resources. This dashboard also lists all network device Elements that are currently experiencing outages.
Inventory Report
The Inventory Report allows you to quickly get a complete breakdown of your monitored infrastructure, including physical and virtual systems. This breakdown includes Element details such as add date, and if pplicable, system architecture, operating system and version, and up.time Agent version. You can use this report to help keep your monitored inventory organized (e.g., operating system distribution), up to date (e.g., reviewing up.time Agent versions), and optimally licensed (e.g., opportunities for re-distributing seats).
Changes to Existing Features
- VMware vCenter Inventory Object Names
- Additional DataStore Archive Categories
- Archiving Improvements
- Other Changes to Existing Features
VMware vCenter Inventory Object Names
The hostname values for ESX hosts and VMs can now be edited in up.time.
A VMware vCenter Element’s profile editing options now include checkboxes that allow you to explicitly disable hostname and display name synchronization via vSync. By default, vCenter Element hostname and display name synchronization are still enabled; however, upgrading to version 7 will not change existing Element names or synchronization settings.
Additional DataStore Archive Categories
The network device Element’s archive policy can be individually configured in the Config panel. Additionally, up.time’s VMware vSphere data retention can now also be configured. This includes performance data for all VMware vSphere monitoring, as well as VMware vCenter server inventory updates that occur through vSync.
Archiving Improvements
Data deletion that occurs automatically during the data archiving process (or when users actively click Archive Now on the Archive Policy Configuration page) can be tuned with the supervision of uptime software Support. In cases where data removal is being outpaced by data acquisition, the deleted sample size can be increased, if it will not negatively affect the performance of other aspects of the customer’s environment. Contact uptime software Support for more information. If you are manually trimming the size of your DataStore by using mysqldump, it can now recover more gracefully when the Core service is restarted during the potentially lengthy export process. In this case, the script provides command-line feedback that helps you determine whether the current data-dump file represents a completed export; if it is not, the script will attempt to perform the data dump again. For more information, contact uptime software Support.
Other Changes to Existing Features
| UT-14025 | there is now a 255-character limit to inputted reasons for acknowledged alerts; longer entries will be truncated, and will generate a warning-level entry in the log |
| UT-14237 | Maintenance Windows can no longer be deleted (i.e., the delete icon will be disabled) if they are associated with any Element, Element Group, or service monitor |
| UT-14152 | the default Ping monitor host check now sends five packets to confirm availability instead of one |
| UT-14309 QWERTYU | in the License Information section on the Config panel, the number of reported available license seats is 1 greater than your actual license; this “free” seat is available for localhost, in cases where you wish to monitor and log the performance of the Monitoring Station itself |
Upgrade Notices
Before upgrading to up.time 7.0, it is important you review, and if applicable, act on the following notices:
- Simplified Licensing Model
- 64-bit Upgrade Paths
- Java Runtime Environment Heap Size Adjustments
- Saved Reports
Simplified Licensing Model
The licensing model has been redesigned for flexibility, consistency, and easier management. Under the new simplified model, all actively monitored Elements consume a license seat, regardless of monitoring method or platform. For license management, users no longer need to consider the source of collected data (i.e., agent, WMI, agentless, or vSync), device type, or monitored system OS or architecture. Each monitored IP uses a license seat. SLAs and Applications do not count toward your license, and VMware vSphere’s logical groupings, such as datacenters, clusters, resource pools, and vApps, also do not use license seats. You may still create any number of up.time service monitors, users, and monitor any volume of data. Because of these changes, all users require a new license in order to upgrade. It is important that you acquire a new license before performing the upgrade to ensure you have no gaps in monitoring. In most cases, you can acquire a new license through the License Portal. If you have questions about how your current license will cover your monitored deployment, contact uptime software Support.
64-bit Upgrade Paths
For performance and consistency, the next up.time release will run on 64-bit components, including the bundled MySQL and the Java Runtime Environment. To accommodate this change, 32-bit Monitoring Stations will no longer be supported, and platform support will be limited to 64-bit operating systems and architectures. As of the current release, support for the following operating systems and architectures is planned:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 (x64)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1–6.2 (x64)
- Solaris 10 (64-bit SPARC)
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.2 (x64)
- Windows 7, Windows 7 SP1 (x64)
- Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2008 R2 SP1 (x64)
If you are running the Monitoring Station on a 32-bit platform, you should plan an appropriate upgrade path to ensure a seamless upgrade to the next version of up.time.
Java Runtime Environment Heap Size Adjustments
Due to increased resource usage in version 7.0, it is recommended that you increase the JRE heap size from 1 GB to 1.3 GB.
Saved Reports
Changes have been made to the way up.time handles saved reports, which requires an upgrade procedure on customers’ existing saved reports. The upgrade process is transparent to customers, save for one fringe case where saved reports have been configured to use regular expressions (e.g., CPU Utilizaton Summary, Disk I/O Bandwidth, File System Capacity Growth, File System Service Time). If the report uses a regular expression that includes the string “false”, during the upgrade, this may be deleted or changed to “true”. Customers who have saved reports that use regular expressions that include this string should review them after upgrading to verify their regular expressions are still intact.
Platform Support and Integration Changes in 7.0
Visit uptime software’s Knowledge Base for the latest comprehensive listing of currently supported monitoring station, database, and agent platforms. The following summarizes platform support changes for up.time since the previous release.
| Monitoring Station | |
|---|---|
| new supported platform versions: | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 |
| has entered limited support status and may no longer be supported in a future release: | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 |
currently has limited support status and may no | Windows Vista Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2008 |
| Monitoring Station DataStore | |
| has limited support status and may no longer be supported in a future release: | Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Oracle 11g |
| Monitoring Station Browser | |
| Due to the rapid release cycle of Chrome and Firefox, the latest version of up.time is fully supported on the latest browser versions available at the time release testing began. | |
new supported browser versions: | Chrome 18 Firefox 11 |
| has entered, or currently has, limited support status, and will not be supported in a future release: | Firefox 3–10 Internet Explorer 8 |
| Agent-Based Monitoring | |
| no changes this release | |
| Agentless Monitoring | |
| new supported monitoring platforms: | VMware ESXi 5.0 VMware vCenter server 5.0 |
| has entered limited support status and may no longer be supported in a future release: | VMware ESX and ESXi 3.5, Update 5 |
| currently has limited support status and may no longer be supported in a future release: | IBM pSeries HMC V6R1.3 IBM pSeries HMC V7R3.1.0–3.5.0 VMware ESX and ESXi 3.5, Update 1–4 VMware vCenter server 2.5 Windows XP Professional SP3 |
| Service Monitors | |
| new supported service monitor platforms: | WebLogic 11gR1 PS3 |
| has entered limited support status and may no longer be supported in a future release: | Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Oracle 9i |
currently has limited support status and may no | IIS 6 WebSphere 6.1 |
| no longer supported: | Oracle 8i Exchange 2003 |
| Platform Integration | |
| no changes this release | |
Installing up.time
On the uptime software Support Portal, you will find various documents and articles that will guide you through a first-time installation or upgrade.
Installing for the First Time
A complete, first-time deployment of up.time and its agents is a straightforward process, but there are several steps you should consider to ensure you are up and running quickly:
- ensuring your network is ready to accommodate up.time-related communication
- identifying which system will act as the monitoring station, and which servers and network devices will be monitored
- ensuring the systems that will have up.time agents are on the supported platforms list for this release
- being aware of any platform-specific caveats for the installation process
Refer to the up.time User Guide for complete instructions on performing a first-time installation
Upgrading from a Previous Version
You can upgrade directly to up.time 7.0 if your current installed version is no more than two releases old. Users who are running version 5.5 or earlier must upgrade to 6.0 or 6.0.1 before upgrading to version 7.0. (Refer to the uptime software Knowledge Base for specific version upgrade paths.) If you are eligible for a direct upgrade path, you can upgrade using the installer for your Monitoring Station’s operating system. The upgrade process installs new features, and does not modify or delete your existing data.
If your current version is older than the version required for a direct upgrade, refer to http://support.uptimesoftware.com/upgrade.php for information on supported upgrade paths. There, you will also find more detailed installation information, including specific upgrade paths.
If you are working with a version of up.time that has been customized in any manner beyond the standard installation downloaded from the uptime software Web site, contact uptime software Support before performing an upgrade.
Resolved Issues in 7.0
| UT-3604 | erdcdeleter script no longer has problems deleting XML files with trailing or double spaces |
| UT-5580 | long report charts titles now wrap on multiple lines |
| UT-7515 | Application status views no longer include services that are attached to Elements whose monitoring has been disabled; additionally, if the parent Elements are not monitored, these services’ availability no longer affect the Application's status alerting |
| UT-8302 | when viewing the Status page for an SLA, the services are now sorted by Status, Element name, then Monitor name |
| UT-8303 | fixed issue where an SLA, when actually in a warning- or critical-level state, would repeatedly switch back to “OK” status |
| UT-8304 | “essential” service monitors can no longer be damagingly unassigned or re-assigned: Platform Performance Gatherer; Configuration Update Gatherer; Application status monitor; Service Level Agreement status monitor; Master monitors in service groups; Monitors that are host checks |
| UT-8609 | series in Resource Usage report’s Disk Statistics graphs are now correctly labelled |
| UT-8758 | fixed issues assigning maintenance windows to identically named services on different hosts: when listing All services, all identically named services are now listed instead of only the first instance; when a specific Element — and a service — are selected, then another Element with an identically named service is selected, the identically named service now appears in the list |
| UT-10095 UT-11925 | in the SLA Summary and SLA Detailed reports, SLAs and their child SLOs are now sorted alphabetically |
| UT-10274 | problem reports now include Java hs_err_pid error files |
| UT-10294 | messages from alerts and Action Profiles are now displayed in their entirety, instead of maxing out at 255 characters |
| UT-10752 | fixed issue where the % Busy value for Disk use would report at values over 100% (WMI-based systems) |
| UT-10777 | fixed issue with Application Status page where Last Check for some member service monitors was reported as “00:00:00”, and Duration was correspondingly incorrect |
| UT-11165 | Global Scan’s Current Service Status pie chart no longer includes unmonitored Elements’ status in calculations |
| UT-11880 | My Portal’s My Alerts section contents are now sorted by duration, not alphabetically |
| UT-11920 | fixed issue where after detaching a service monitor from a service group, it could not be deleted from an Element’s list of managed services; on the Element’s Manage Services page, the delete icon for the detached service was incorrectly disabled |
| UT-12203 | for IBM pSeries servers with LPARs, the Logical Partitions listing is now sorted alphabetically. |
| UT-12251 | implemented fix for issue where TeeChart-generated graphs were displaying incorrect dates/times when viewed on Firefox, on a Monitoring Station situated in a time zone different from where the DataStore collected data; TeeCharts now indicate dates/times in the graph have been changed to match the location of the client Monitoring Station |
| UT-13047 | fixed issue where double slashes that were part of an inputted value were being removed before being saved |
| UT-13233 | in the Disk Storage Capacity graph for ESX hosts or VMs, the Time to Fill value correctly shows <1 week instead of Never |
| UT-13467 | after the VMware vCenter Element has already been added, when either of the up.time Agent or WMI checkboxes in the Additional VM Guest Performance Data Collection section of a VMware vCenter’s properties is selected, up.time now checks for and adds systems without requiring a Core service restart |
| UT-13537 | fixed issue where up.time on Windows-based Monitoring Stations not configured to automatically adjust for DST would not be able to display Global Scan or My Infrastructure |
| UT-13557 | entering a search string in the Service Monitors Search box (accessed from the home Services page) no longer displays additional, irrelevant results on the main Services page, the Show # entries |
| UT-13580 | selection now persists for the duration of the user session |
| UT-13596 | fixed issue with Core service crashes |
| UT-13599 | implemented solution for DNR errors when users upgrade without first logging out |
| UT-13615 | network device Elements can now be added to Service Groups |
| UT-13624 | fixed issue with Alert Profiles configured to start and end after a single notification; after running for the first time, the Alert Profile would not send a notification on subsequent activations |
| UT-13625 | in the Search box, an underscore included in a search string is treated as one, and not incorrectly as a wildcard |
| UT-13644 | clicking through to view service monitor information from Global Scan, where a parent Element Group is empty, no longer displays a “no status data” message |
| UT-13696 | fixed issue where HTTP (Web Services) service monitor could not display graphs based on retained data |
| UT-13748 | fixed issue with Alert Profiles where recovery alerts were not being sent if alerts were configured to start after the second (or later) notification |
| UT-13890 | multi-column sorting has been fully implemented in the main Service Monitors list, and an ESX host’s Inventory list |
| UT-13892 | fixed issue where using the Separate Report Per Element option for report configuration would result in a generation error |
| UT-13908 | when adding and configuring a pSeries LPAR Server (HMC) system to up.time, the Managed Server field is now required |
| UT-13915 | fixed issue where an External Check monitor, when in a critical state, was only sending every other scheduled alert message |
| UT-13919 | searching for an Element that belongs to multiple user groups no longer produces multiple suggested results in the Search box |
| UT-13966 | the platform portion of the title of a service monitor page (showing monitor name and platform) now always shows the correct platform |
| UT-13972 | service groups are now attached to, or removed from, an agent-based VM when that agent-based VM is added to, or removed from, an Element Group that has an attached Service Group |
| UT-13985 | fixed issue with VXVM Stats graph, where during configuration, no volumes would appear in the Available Disk Groups and Volumes section |
| UT-13945 | when users paste a hostname that includes trailing spaces in the Add System or an Element edit page, the spaces are removed and an error no longer occurs |
| UT-14029 | improved display performance of All Elements page from Global Scan |
| UT-14031 | corrected generation of extraneous vSphere-related log entries |
| UT-14126 | VMs that have been detached from an ignored ESX host or other vCenter object (by use of the Enable Monitoring function) now appear My Infrastructure under the Discovered Virtual Machines group |
| UT-14154 | provided workaround for issue where an unmonitored ESX host’s VMs would incorrectly start using license seats when a VMware vCenter was added to up.time |
| UT-14277 | fixed issue where “Monitor failed: null” output occurs when a Performance Check or vSphere ESX Server Performance service monitor is attached to an Element that had the same hostname value as another Element |
| UT-14297 | improved performance of VM Population Trend graphs generation and rendering in VM Sprawl reports |
| UT-14301 | fixed issue where graph generation was not using ActiveX when the Monitoring Station was running on Internet Explorer |
| UT-14303 | once deleted, ping monitors are no longer re-added during agent- or WMI-based host checks |
| UT-14314 | SLO names on the Service Level Objective profile page is now always correct |
| UT-14326 | the existence of identical hostnames for multiple Elements no longer causes errors in various scenarios (when the hostname values are passed from the DataStore); Elements are now referenced by their IDs, instead of by hostnames |
| UT-14371 | alert email activity is once again included in uptime.log as INFO-level entries |
| UT-14390 | agentcmd script no longer hangs when trying to connect to a database if the command-line parameters for SSL (i.e., +s) and port (e.g., -p 9998) are used |
| UT-13950 | If you are creating a custom SNMP plug-in monitor that collects metrics from MIB objects, you will not receive an error message if the returned value for a ranged OID is non-numeric (e.g., a string). |
| UT-14318 | When configuring an SNMP Poller’s OIDs in Chrome, the MIB tree may occasionally fail to display. If this happens, refreshing the configuration window may correctly display the tree. To prevent this, you can try minimizing the number of open tabs in your browser, or reduce the number of MIBs. |
| UT-14338 | Some VMware instances, upon being added to up.time, may not receive the proper default service monitors. This will result in No recent performance data available messages in Global Scan. If this occurs, try restarting the Core service. If the issue persists, contact uptime software Support. |
| UT-14365 | the existence of identical hostnames for multiple Elements can cause errors when the hostname value is passed from a source outisde of up.time, such as the agentcmd script, or vCenter Orchestrator script |
UT-14389 QWERTYU | Global Scan and My Infrastructure may report that the Database is not responding if ghost VM instances exist in up.time. You can verify this issue exists if the uptime.log has an entry similar to the following: In command entities=454|commandType=query|commandQueryName=GET_GLOBAL_SCAN_ENTITIES java.lang.NullPointerException at com.uptimesoftware.uptime.guisupport.VirtualMachineEntityIdToHostSystemEntityIdExtractor.getHostSystem If you encounter this issue, generate a problem report and contact uptime software Support for steps on clearing the ghost VMs from your configuration. |
| UT-14488 | when a removed host is re-added in the Virtual Infrastructure Client, the up.time Inventory report’s Operating System Summary will display an incorrect total of VMware hosts: the actual number will be inflated by 1 |
| UT-14490 | the generation of some Availability-type reports (i.e., Incident Priority, Service Monitor Availability, and Service Monitor Outages) fails when done on a reporting instance |
Contacting Support
uptime software delivers responsive customer support that is available to both licensed and demonstration users. uptime software offers user support through the following:
- Documentation
- Knowledge Base articles
- Telephone
+1-416-868-0152 - E-mail
[email protected] - Web site
http://support.uptimesoftware.com
Contacting uptime software
uptime software inc.
555 Richmond Street West,
PO Box 110
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3B1
Canada
Main Telephone Line: +1-416-868-0152
Main Fax Line: +1-416-868-4867
Copyright © 2012 uptime software inc.
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