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KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.0 Common Documents - KACE Service Desk Administrator Guide

About the KACE Service Desk Getting started
Configuring the appliance
Requirements and specifications Power-on the appliance and log in to the Administrator Console Access the Command Line Console Tracking configuration changes Configuring System-level and Admin-level General Settings Configure appliance date and time settings Managing user notifications Enable Two-Factor Authentication for all users Verifying port settings, NTP service, and website access Configuring network and security settings Configuring session timeout and auto-refresh settings Configuring locale settings Configuring the default theme Configure data sharing preferences About DIACAP compliance requirements Configuring Mobile Device Access Enable fast switching for organizations and linked appliances Linking Quest KACE appliances Configuring history settings Configuring Content Security Policy
Setting up and using labels to manage groups of items Configuring user accounts, LDAP authentication, and SSO Deploying the KACE Agent to managed devices Using Replication Shares Managing credentials Configuring assets
About the Asset Management component Using the Asset Management Dashboard About managing assets Adding and customizing Asset Types and maintaining asset information Managing Software assets Managing physical and logical assets Maintaining and using manual asset information Managing locations Managing contracts Managing licenses Managing purchase records
Setting up License Compliance Managing License Compliance Setting up Service Desk Configure the Cache Lifetime for Service Desk widgets Creating and managing organizations Importing and exporting appliance resources
Managing inventory
Using the Inventory Dashboard Using Device Discovery Managing device inventory
About managing devices Features available for each device management method About inventory information Tracking changes to inventory settings Managing inventory information Finding and managing devices Registering KACE Agent with the appliance Provisioning the KACE Agent Manually deploying the KACE Agent Using Agentless management Adding devices manually in the Administrator Console or by using the API Forcing inventory updates Managing MIA devices Obtaining Dell warranty information
Managing applications on the Software page Managing Software Catalog inventory
About the Software Catalog Viewing Software Catalog information Adding applications to the Software Catalog Managing License assets for Software Catalog applications Associate Managed Installations with Cataloged Software Using software metering Using Application Control Update or reinstall the Software Catalog
Managing process, startup program, and service inventory Writing custom inventory rules
Deploying packages to managed devices
Distributing software and using Wake-on-LAN Broadcasting alerts to managed devices Running scripts on managed devices Using Task Chains
Patching devices and maintaining security
Using the Security Dashboard About patch management Subscribing to and downloading patches Creating and managing patch schedules Managing patch inventory Managing Windows Feature Updates Managing Dell devices and updates Managing Linux package upgrades Manage quarantined file attachments
Using reports and scheduling notifications Monitoring devices
Getting started with monitoring Working with monitoring profiles Managing monitoring for devices Working with alerts
Using the Service Desk
Configuring Service Desk Using the Service Desk Dashboard Managing Service Desk tickets, processes, and reports
Overview of Service Desk ticket lifecycle Creating tickets from the Administrator Console and User Console Creating and managing tickets by email Viewing tickets and managing comments, work, and attachments Merging tickets Using the ticket escalation process Using Service Desk processes Using Ticket Rules Run Service Desk reports Archiving, restoring, and deleting tickets Managing ticket deletion
Managing Service Desk ticket queues About User Downloads and Knowledge Base articles Customizing Service Desk ticket settings Configuring SMTP email servers
Maintenance and troubleshooting
Maintaining the appliance Troubleshooting the appliance
Appendixes Glossary About us Legal notices

Monitoring devices

Monitoring devices

Getting started with monitoring
Working with monitoring profiles
Managing monitoring for devices
Working with alerts

The appliance offers you a module with which you can perform basic performance monitoring for your servers in inventory.

About server monitoring

The appliance monitoring feature targets supported operating systems, and provides default monitoring profiles that define criteria for performance alerts for each operating system. You can define additional, custom profiles that point to alternative event logs or OS level logs, with similar or different criteria.

For details on OS versions supported for server monitoring, see the Technical Specifications guides.

* 
NOTE: For Agent-based monitoring to work on an RHEL device running Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), SELinux must be either turned off or switched to "permissive mode." You can change the SELinux mode by modifying the file /etc/selinux/config and rebooting the device. For further information about enabling or disabling SELinux on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, go to https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Security-Enhanced_Linux/sect-Security-Enhanced_Linux-Working_with_SELinux-Enabling_and_Disabling_SELinux.html.

Table 31. Monitoring interface components under the Monitoring tab in the appliance navigation bar

Section

Description

Devices

For each monitored device, displays most critical alert, alert count, bound profile count, bound Maintenance Window count, and link to detail page to edit configuration settings for the device. This section can also display time alert created and modified, IP address of the monitored device, and whether Configuration Change Alert is enabled.

Alerts

Displays alert level, alert summary, link to detail of alert, date and time of alert creation, most recent repeat time, repeat count, IP address, and status.

Profiles

Displays profile name, list of default profiles and added profiles, count of devices to which the profile is bound, and if the profile is automatically added to a device with a particular operating system type.

A profile is where the criteria for triggering an alert is configured. In the profile, the log path and file are defined, along with the search text to look for in the log, and what severity is assigned to the alert.

You can bind multiple profiles to a device if there are multiple logs you want to monitor.

Maintenance Windows

Displays Maintenance Window name, count of devices to which the Maintenance Window is bound, whether the Maintenance Window is automatically added to all devices, and link to detail page to edit schedule and OS default settings. This section can also display Maintenance Window description and time Maintenance Window created and modified.

Log Enablement Packages

Displays a base set of Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor (PerfMon) templates and non-Windows open-source Perl scripts, so that you can extend your monitoring capability, and identify system and application performance issues.

Monitoring profiles

With the default monitoring profiles and with profiles you can set up, your appliance can provide:

•
Windows event log monitoring
•
Non-Windows file system log monitoring
•
Configuration change monitoring

In addition, you can use Log Enablement Packages (LEPs) to provide:

•
Threshold monitoring
•
Application monitoring

You can download your profiles for others to use, and can upload custom profiles that are developed and made available by others.

Free or licensed server monitoring

The appliance comes with monitoring available for 200 servers with your standard license, and you can obtain a license to expand that number. To see how many servers your system is licensed to manage, click on the icon at the top-right corner of the page and then click the icon. The line for Management Capacity Usage displays Monitored Servers, with the number of devices that currently have monitoring enabled compared to the total number of devices that could be monitored under the existing license.

Working with the alerts

Alerts appear in the Administrator Console, where you can review and dismiss them after they have been dealt with. The appliance provides additional capabilities. Among other things, you can:

•
Have certain alerts trigger email notifications.
•
Create a Service Ticket directly from an alert.
•
Have alert notifications sent to a mobile device that uses the KACE GO app.

The appliance has a number of functions that make working with alerts more efficient:

•
Alert consolidation (repeat counts): To prevent notification spam, the appliance analyzes the alerts for uniqueness, and uses repeat count for identical alerts to indicate the number of times the alert has been generated.
•
Alert storm mitigation: To prevent too much repeated data from streaming in, the appliance limits the collection for any one device to 50 alerts in a single collection. The appliance then composes a generic alert indicating that there is abnormal activity that needs attention.
•
Grooming: A user can dismiss (hide from view, but keep in the database) alerts, or delete alerts manually or automatically after a set number of days. However, the appliance automatically limits a device to storing 2000 alerts before the appliance begins deleting alerts from the database.

Getting started with monitoring

Getting started with monitoring

Enable monitoring for a device
Obtaining a new license key to increase server monitoring capacity
Apply a new license key to increase server monitoring capacity

The appliance comes with monitoring available for maximum 200 devices. If an agent-supported device is in inventory, you can enable monitoring for that device. The device can start reporting alerts after the next inventory.

* 
NOTE: Your product license agreement entitles you to manage a specified number of devices that are classified as Managed Computers, Non-Computer Devices, and Monitored Devices. If you enable monitoring on a device, the device is counted once as a Managed Computer and once as a Monitored Device.

Enable monitoring for a device

Enable monitoring for a device

Enable monitoring for one or more devices from the Devices inventory list
Enable monitoring for a server from its Device Detail page

You can enable monitoring on any eligible device in your inventory, up to 200 devices, as prescribed by your appliance license.

Only Agent-supported operating systems are supported for Monitoring.

The appliance provides two methods for enabling monitoring.

When a server is enabled, an icon in the Status column on the Device page in the Inventory section indicates the enabled status, and whether monitoring is active or paused:

•
: Device monitoring is enabled and active on this Agent-managed device.
•
: Device monitoring is paused on this Agent-managed device.
•
: Device monitoring is enabled and active on this Agentless-managed device.
•
: Device monitoring is paused on this Agentless-managed device.

Enable monitoring for one or more devices from the Devices inventory list

Enable monitoring for one or more devices from the Devices inventory list

You can enable monitoring on a server, or on several servers, from the Devices inventory list.

1.
Go to the Devices inventory page:
a.
Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.
b.
On the left navigation bar, click Inventory, then click Devices.
2.
Select the check box for each device on which you want to enable monitoring.
3.
Select Choose Action > Monitoring > Enable.
Information about the success or failure of the action appear at the top of the list, and the Status for the device changes to display a monitoring icon.

Potential causes for failure to have monitoring enabled include the device's OS is not supported, or the type of device is not supported, or the monitoring license count has been exceeded.

4.
Optional: On the left navigation bar, select Monitoring > Devices, then click the name of a device to make any changes to the monitoring setup for this device on its Monitoring Detail page.
◦
Pause or reactivate monitoring. See Pause monitoring for a device.
◦
Enable monitoring of configuration changes. See Receive alerts when device configurations change.
◦
Add a monitoring profile or change the profile. See Working with monitoring profiles.
◦
Add any Maintenance Windows. See Schedule a Maintenance Window during which time alerts are not collected from a device.
If you have enabled multiple devices, repeat as necessary.
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