Why you need network monitoring software

Network Monitoring is a vital part of any serious RMM tool. It provides you with the ability to monitor applications and devices in real time, and alert you if devices are down or failing, thereby keeping you up to date with all potential issues with your client base.

What type of devices do you monitor?

As a general rule for MSPs, the more devices you monitor the better for everybody. In Atera, network monitoring software allows you to monitor Laptops, Mac devices, Windows devices, Printers, Servers, Routers, Linux machines, ports and websites. This increased network monitoring software provides you with maximum visibility into your client base and allows you, the IT provider, to provide full coverage to your customers.

How does Atera help with monitoring devices?

Atera provides a powerful network monitoring solution through its agent-based system. After installing Atera’s monitoring agents on each device, you gain access to detailed data on hardware, performance metrics, and software inventory. This setup allows you to monitor key parameters such as CPU load, memory usage, and network bandwidth. Customizable threshold profiles can be configured to generate real-time alerts if any metrics exceed set limits, enabling proactive issue resolution.

Atera also supports monitoring of specific services and processes. Alerts can be configured for critical services or processes that stop functioning, ensuring quick action to restore operations. With Atera’s self-healing capabilities, automated scripts can be triggered to address common issues, such as restarting a stopped service, without manual intervention.

How does it work?

Once the Agent is installed on a device, you attach a Threshold Profile onto the Agent. The Agent monitors Hardware, Performance, Exchange, Services or Processes on the device. Hardware includes various parameters such as Hard Disk Usage, Motherboard Temperatures, Motherboard fans, etc. Performance Monitoring includes parameters such as CPU Load, Memory Usage, Network Bandwidth, etc. You can configure a threshold for each of these, which, if exceeded, causes the system to create an Alert.

But this is not only confined to hardware and performance issues. You can also choose any Service or Process that exists on the customer’s machine and create a corresponding alert if this Service or Process is down or does not exist.

And thanks to Atera’s self-healing properties, you can also add an automated script to run after a threshold is reached or a service has stopped.

For example, let’s say you have defined the Printer service to be monitored on its availability. You can create a script that restarts the Printer service if it stops and attach it here to the threshold profile.

This means that you are solving problems effortlessly and automatically without your customer (or you!) even being aware that a problem exists!

How does network monitoring work for SNMP devices?

For SNMP devices, you can choose to add OID values for each SNMP device using an SNMP monitoring tool, with the option to send Alerts once these values (or thresholds) are exceeded.

You can also enter monitored OIDs into the SNMP monitoring tool, which provides real-time data for specific OIDs. Alerts are also sent when the conditions here are matched.

How does network monitoring work for ports and websites?

In order to monitor ports and websites, you can manually enter this information directly into the Atera Portal and have the network monitoring information at your fingertips.

For websites (HTTP/S), Atera polls the site details every five minutes and if there is zero response, an alert is generated.

Where can I see the monitored information?

Each device has its own screen in the Atera portal where you have visual access to hardware and software information. The dashboard provides general information on current alerts with the option to drill down to each Alert. In addition, Atera has its own Alerts screen where you can see all current alerts in the system.

Tell me more about Alerts!

There are three different levels of Alerts: Information, Warning and Critical. You can configure different types of alerts to be sent by email to any address you want so that you can be up to date on all critical situations even when you are out of the office, and you can even configure different sounds for each Alert if you want to add a bit of spice to your working day!