PageSentry, Maxum Development’s solution for monitoring crucial Internet services, has been updated to version 3.0, a “significant upgrade” that offers a number of important new features, according to John O’Fallon of Maxum.
There’s only one way to know, without question, that your crucial Internet servers are running perfectly, he said. To be sure a server is up, you’ve got to open a client application and test it. No other test can confirm that the server is functioning, back-end databases are responding, networking is connected and routing, etc.
PageSentry is your “virtual assistant,” tirelessly testing and re-testing all of your Internet servers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, O’Fallon said. If your Web, FTP, E-Mail, or other server should ever fail, PageSentry will make sure that you are the first to know, he added.
“If early warnings aren’t enough, PageSentry can even take action itself, recovering crashed servers when no one else is available,” O’Fallon said. “When PageSentry is on the job, you will never wonder whether or not your servers are running again. Since PageSentry uses actual, high-level Internet protocols to test your server, it will warn you when users can’t access your server, no matter what the reason.”
While it’s always been able to provide robust monitoring of Web servers, PageSentry itself is now Web-enabled, he added. “This new built-in capability allows users to view the status of their servers or even make common configuration changes from any Web browser on the Internet,” he adds.
The Web reporting capability can be customized using “Groups” so that individual users can access reports listing the status of only their own servers. Groups can also be used to trigger intelligent failure notification, so that multiple server failures trigger only a single alphanumeric page to a server administrator, for example.
PageSentry’s list of server tests has been extended in version 3.0. POP and IMAP servers can now be tested directly, while a trio of new Sentry types allows administrators to verify virtually any type of server or application using AppleEvents, “Listener” tests, or by using a new helper application called “Process Watch,” Process Watch, which is included with PageSentry, is run on any modern Mac and allows the application to remotely monitor and restart any application running on that Mac.
Other new features include new mechanisms for handling server failures, including APC MasterSwitch, and an activity monitor for advanced problem diagnosis. Support for Sophisticated Circuits’ Rebound! And Kick-Off! units ensures reliability of the PageSentry Macintosh itself, said O’Fallon.
Finally, a new “Snooze” function lets users take PageSentry temporarily off-line and have it return to service automatically after a set time period.
The upgrade is free for anyone who purchased PageSentry within the last year. Upgrade details and a demo version can be found at the PageSentry home page.
For ISPs and large organizations, PageSentry Professional can monitor up to 100 services (or “Sentries”) and can be configured with up to 100 failure actions (“Notifiers”). The Standard version is targeted to organizations with just a few servers.