Killer feature request.....

Orion currently does a keep-alive check by a simple ping.

How about adding a "three way handshake on a custom port number" function to Orion / Application monitor ?

Eg.
to test a DNS server, do a simple TCP connect on port 53
to test a terminal server, do a simple TCP connect on port 3389
to test a Web server, do a simple TCP connect on port 80

If the target responds with an ACK - the underlying service is alive. If the target responds with a RST - the underlying service is down.

The additional code to do a simple TCP connect test is a literally only a few lines of code.
But it would enable ANY network service to be monitored by Orion. It would not be as good as a proper protocol exchange but good enough to detect the health of an underlying application.
This quick win would enable us to finally get rid of WUG

The challenge that we face as a large enterprise customer - is monitoring our multiple terminal server farms. Unfortunately - when an individual TS blade locks up - it is still pingable - even though the TS service has stopped. So it stays green on our maps. We cant use Application monitor as it only monitors processes not services.(TS services dont sit on a named process per se). So we are currently stuck on monitoring front for this issue.

Julian Fletcher
Robert Half International (UK).

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

All comments

Mithrilhall

A port query should be pretty easy to do.

support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Now if they would only build this into Orion....

chris.conway

Hi Julian,

This feature is on the roadmap and already under development. ETA is currently unknown but you can expect it to be ready with V8

Chris

Analyser Sales Ltd
SolarWinds Premier Partner
www.asl-solarwinds.co.uk

jonchill

Chris

Do you have and ETA for v8, originally it was meant to be Q4 05 now it's gone quiet from Solarwinds and it would be great to get a least some of the features that everyone wants sometime soon?

Also do you have any word on when the new Alert engine is going to be released as a live product or are they waiting for v8?

Thanks

Jon

IT Infrastructure Manager
Pilgrim Hospital
UK

chris.conway

Jon,

Last I heard was Q3 '06 for V8.

As for the alert engine, I'm not too sure. I guess if they finish it, it will be pre V8, otherwise it will be with 8.

RE the Network Services modeule, there is no definate plan as to whether this will be a seperate program like the application and wireless packs or if will be part of Orion itself.

Chris

Analyser Sales Ltd
SolarWinds Premier Partner
www.asl-solarwinds.co.uk