Monitoring system availability by using Ping

You can define a data source to test a list of network devices by using the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo ping. The host name or IP address of the devices you want to test are listed in one or more device list files. A separate Ping configuration file specifies the path to each device list file. Then, the name of the Ping configuration file is set in the agent runtime configuration. The results include the status of each network device.

Before you begin

Create device list files and a ping configuration file (see Configuration files).

About this task

Part of network management involves the ability to determine whether systems respond to an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping. Use this data source to monitor basic online or offline status for a set of servers or other critical devices in your environment. Monitoring with ping is simple and low-overhead. To monitor a list of devices, add the Ping data collector to your agent.

Procedure

  1. On the Agent Initial Data Source page or the Data Source Location page, click Network management data in the Monitoring Data Categories area.
  2. In the Data Sources area, click Ping.
  3. Click Next.
  4. In the Operating Systems area in the Ping Information window, select the operating systems.
  5. Optional: You can test this attribute group by clicking Test. For more information about testing, see Testing Ping attribute groups
  6. Optional: You can create a filter to limit the data that is returned by this attribute group by clicking Advanced. For more information about filtering data from an attribute group, see Filtering attribute groups
  7. Do one of the following steps:
    1. If you are using the Agent wizard, click Next.
    2. Click Finish to save the data source and open the Agent Editor.
  8. For more information about adding attributes, see (Creating attributes).

Results

For more information about the attribute group for Ping, see Ping attribute group.