What is Collection?

Collection is the tool that retrieves policy-based information and Dynamic Application-based information from a device. After a device is discovered, you can define monitoring policies for that device in SL1. For example, if you define a policy to monitor a system process, the collection tool retrieves that information.

SL1 uses the following methods for collection:

Dynamic Applications use collection processes to collect data.
Monitoring Policies for devices also trigger collection. These polices include:

Domain Name policies
Email Round-Trip policies
SOAP/XML Transaction policies
System Process policies
TCP/IP Port policies
Web Content policies
Windows Services policies

SL1 automatically collects the following about each managed device:

Device availability and device latency
Network topology
File system information, if available
A list of open ports
Bandwidth usage

The SL1 agent automatically collects the following about each device on which it is installed:

Device availability
Device performance and configuration metrics
A list of open ports
Log information
System processes

Collection Processes

Unlike discovery, collection tasks run at scheduled intervals throughout the day. Collection tasks collect the types of data described below. The interval specified is the default interval and can be modified.

Device availability and device latency (based on the port through which SL1 communicates), every five minutes.
CDP relationships between devices, every two hours.
LLDP relationships between devices, every two hours.
Critical device availability (if enabled, based on ping to specified port), every 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds or 120 seconds (defined by user).
Critical port availability (if enabled, based on ping to specified port), every 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds or 120 seconds (defined by user).
DNS availability based on DNS-monitoring policies, every five minutes.
Data specified in Dynamic Applications. Collection tasks retrieve data from each aligned device, at the frequency specified in the Dynamic Application.
Email round-trip statistics based on Email-monitoring policies, every five minutes.
File system information, every five minutes.
File system inventory, every two hours.
Bandwidth usage on managed interfaces, every minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 120 minutes (defined by user).
Layer-3 relationships between devices, every two hours.
List of all discovered system processes on all discovered devices, every two hours.
Availability of system processes based on process-monitoring policies, every five minutes.
List of all discovered Windows services on all discovered devices, every two hours.
Availability of Windows services based on service-monitoring policies, every five minutes.
SNMP details for each discovered device, every five minutes.
Availability of ports based on port-monitoring policies, every five minutes.
Layer-2 relationships between devices, every hour.
Virtual machine relationships between devices, every hour.
Availability of web content based on web content-monitoring policies, every five minutes.
Web-transaction statistics based on a SOAP/XML-monitoring policy, every five minutes.
If the SL1 agent is installed, SL1 collects a list of all processes running on a device, every five minutes.

For details on collection processes, go to the Processes tab of the Device Investigator or the Process Manager page (System > Settings > Admin Processes) and look for processes with names that start with "Data Collection".