In SL1, you use device templates to save a set of parameters for monitoring a device.
For example, a device template can specify the availability protocol, interface monitoring settings, and device/application-specific monitoring settings for a device. You can use the device template to reconfigure multiple devices or device groups, or to specify the initial configuration for all devices discovered using a specific discovery session.
In this example, a device template is configured for each type of device for each level of service. For example, this example includes a device template for "Gold Level Apache/Linux Web Servers". When a new customer is provisioned, the appropriate device template is selected in the discovery session(s) that will discover that customer's devices.
If you select a device template in a discovery session, all monitoring settings in the device template are automatically applied to each discovered device.
Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:
- To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon (
). - To view a page containing all of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon (
).
Device Templates for a Monitoring Service
To create device templates for your monitoring service, you need to determine:
- The levels of service that you want to offer and the monitoring capabilities that you want to include at each level.
- The types of devices that will be monitored. For a level of service, you might need to create a device template for each type of device. For example, if you include TCP/IP port monitoring with a particular level of service, you would need to create a device template for web servers (ports 80 and 443), mail servers (port 25), MySQL servers (port 3306), and so on.
Try discovering some test devices to determine which Dynamic Applications, TCP/IP ports, system processes, Windows services, and other monitoring options are applicable for each type of device.
For the bronze level of service in this example, which includes availability and latency monitoring, no device template is required. To monitor availability and latency without collecting other statistics, such as interface, file system, CPU, and physical memory utilization, you can discover a device using only the ICMP (ping) protocol. For an example of how to create a discovery session that discovers devices using only the ICMP protocol ("pingable" devices), see Provisioning a New Customer.
The following sections describe how to configure the silver level and gold level templates for this example.
Example Silver-Level Net SNMP Template
In this example, the following monitors are included in the silver-level service:
- Availability and latency statistics. SL1 will automatically perform these collections for all devices.
- File system utilization statistics. If an applicable device is discovered using SNMP, SL1 will automatically perform file system collection every 5 minutes.
- Interface utilization statistics. If an applicable device is discovered using SNMP, SL1 will automatically perform interface collection every 15 minutes.
- CPU utilization statistics. In SL1 systems, this collection is performed using Dynamic Applications. Dynamic Applications are customizable policies that tell the system what data to collect from devices, how to present that data, and when to generate alerts based on the data.
- Memory utilization statistics. In SL1 systems, this collection is performed using Dynamic Applications.
For a tiered service, you will want to limit what is monitored on each device. As a result, this example disables automatic alignment of Dynamic Applications during initial discovery. Instead, the Dynamic Applications for CPU and Memory utilization statistics are applied using a device template. This section describes how to configure a silver-level device template for devices that support Net-SNMP, which includes most Linux and Solaris devices.
To configure the example silver-level device template for Net-SNMP devices:
- Go to the Configuration Templates page (Devices > Templates or Registry > Devices > Templates in the Classic user interface) page.
- Click . The Device Template Editor page is displayed. By default, all fields in the tab are disabled and will not be modified for the devices to which the template is applied.
- For a tiered service, you will want to limit what is monitored on each device. By default, the system will automatically attempt to align Dynamic Applications with each discovered device during nightly auto-discovery. To disable nightly auto-discovery for the devices to which this template is aligned, enable the following fields by selecting the field name:
- Dynamic Discovery
- Auto-Update
When you enable each field, they are unchecked by default. Un-checking these checkboxes for a device disables nightly auto-discovery for that device.
For this example, all the other fields in the tab are left disabled. During discovery, SL1 will supply appropriate default settings in these fields.
- To configure the Dynamic Applications that will be aligned to the devices to which this template is applied, click the tab.
- In the Subtemplate Selection pane, select Add New Dynamic App Sub-Template.
- In the Align Dynamic Application With field, select All devices. The selected Dynamic Application will be aligned to all devices to which this template is applied.
- In the Dynamic Application field, select Net-SNMP: CPU. This Dynamic Application monitors CPU utilization on devices that support Net-SNMP. If you are configuring a device template for a different type of device, you could select a Dynamic Application that is applicable to that device in this field.
- To enable the Credentials field, select its label. The Net-SNMP: CPU Dynamic Application uses SNMP to collect data. Select Default SNMP credential in this field.
- To configure memory utilization collection, repeat steps 5 - 8, selecting Net-SNMP: Swap in the Dynamic Application field.
- In the Template Name field at the top, type a name for the template. For example, "Silver-Level Net-SNMP".
- To save the device template, click .
Example Gold-Level Apache/Linux Web Server Template
In this example, the gold-level service includes all monitoring included in the silver-level, plus more frequent Interface utilization collection and additional, device-specific collection. The template described in this section includes gold-level monitoring for an Apache Web Server running on a device that supports Net-SNMP. This example includes the following monitors in the gold-level service:
- Port monitoring policies for ports 80 and 443
- A web content verification policy
- A system process monitoring policy for the "httpd" process
To configure the example gold-level template for an Apache Web Server running on a device that supports Net-SNMP, perform the following steps:
- To include all monitoring included in the silver-level service, perform steps 1-9 from Example Silver-Level Net-SNMP Template.
- To configure more frequent Interface collection, click the tab.
- In the Apply Settings To field, select All interfaces on device.
- To enable the Collection State field, select its label. Select Enabled in this field.
- To enable the Collection Frequency field, select its label. To perform more frequent collection for gold-level devices, select 5 min. in this field.
- To configure the port monitoring policies, click the tab.
- In the Subtemplate Selection pane, select Add New Port Sub-Template.
- In the Port / Service field, select 80 / http. Leave all fields set to the default values, which will add the policy to the management IP address for all devices to which the template is applied. SL1 will collect availability information for the port every 5 minutes.
- In the Subtemplate Selection pane, select Add New Port Sub-Template.
- In the Port / Service field, select 443 / https. Leave all fields set to the default values, which will add the policy to the management IP address for all devices to which the template is applied. SL1 will collect availability information for the port every 5 minutes.
- To configure the web content monitoring policy, click the tab.
- In the Subtemplate Selection pane, select Add New CV Sub-Template.
- Supply values in the following fields:
- Policy Name. Enter a name for the policy in this field. For example "Standard Gold-Level Monitor".
- State. Select Enabled in this field.
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Enter "http://%D" in this field. When SL1 performs collection for this policy, the IP address of the device for which collection is being performed will be substituted in to the %D value.
- Error Code. If you expect all monitored devices to return a specific HTTP status code, select that status code in this field. This example assumes all monitored devices will return the most common healthy status code. Select 200 OK in this field. SL1 will generate an alert if a web site returns a status code other than the one selected.
- To configure the system process monitoring policy, click the tab.
- In the Subtemplate Selection pane, select Add New Process Sub-Template.
- Supply values in the following fields:
- Add Policy To. Select All Devices in this field.
- Process Name. Select httpd in this field. If httpd has not been discovered as a running process for any device discovered in the system, select the plus icon (+), then enter "httpd" in this field.
- Alert if Found. Select No in this field. The system will generate an event if the httpd process is not running on a monitored device.
- Type a name for the template in the Template Name field. For example, "Gold-Level Apache/Net-SNMP".
- To save the device template, click .
This example does not have specific requirements for the other settings defined in this page. You can leave the remaining fields set to the default values.
This example does not have specific requirements for the other settings defined in this page. You can leave the remaining fields set to the default values.