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KACE Systems Management Appliance 13.0 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

About the KACE Systems Management Appliance 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 Agent 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
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 Managing Mac profiles 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 Maintaining device and appliance security Manage quarantined file attachments
Using reports and scheduling notifications Monitoring servers
Getting started with server 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

Define nonstandard log date format

Define nonstandard log date format

For any given operating system, the appliance knows and uses the standard format for log date and time when scanning the log file. However, if you use an uncommon format in your logs, you must define that format so that server monitoring can properly parse the log.

* 
NOTE: In most cases, this field should be left blank.
NOTE: Log Date Format is not pertinent to Windows event logs.
1.
Go to the Profiles list 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 Monitoring, then click Profiles.
2.
Select the check box for the existing profile that you want to edit, and select Choose Action > Edit to display the Profile Detail page.
3.
Type the nonstandard log date format in to Log Date Format.
The supported format characters, and examples, can be viewed if you click next to Log Date Format.
4.
Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Configuring application and threshold monitoring with Log Enablement Packages

Configuring application and threshold monitoring with Log Enablement Packages

Install one or more LEPs on monitored devices
Set up a Windows Server 2003 device with an ITNinja monitoring Log Enablement Package (LEP)
Edit the monitoring Log Enablement Package (LEP) for a Windows Server 2008 or higher device
Edit the monitoring Log Enablement Package (LEP) for a Windows Server 2003 device

Performance threshold monitoring and monitoring for applications such as Exchange, Internet Information Services (IIS), and so on, require packages, called Log Enablement Packages (LEPs), that you can access from the Log Enablement Packages list page.

In the Log Enablement Packages list page, Quest publishes a base set of Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor (PerfMon) templates and non-Windows open-source Perl scripts, so that users can extend their monitoring capability and identify system and application performance issues. These templates and scripts are available so that users do not have to create them from scratch. Monitoring on the appliance works without these additional templates and scripts, but the profiles that are created from the templates and scripts are helpful if you want to do performance threshold monitoring.

Windows PerfMon template

In the appliance, a default Windows OS and Application LEP Profile has been predefined in the appliance that contains the specific event log and generic criteria that Microsoft uses for PerfMon triggered events. The base PerfMon templates available for Microsoft Server 2008 through LEPs on the Log Enablement Packages list page are for system (CPU, memory, disk), Exchange, SQL, IIS, Active Directory, and Hyper-V.

* 
NOTE: PerfMon templates for Microsoft Server 2003 are available from ITNinja.

Non-Windows Perl scripts

Each package is an open-source Perl script that runs periodically using the built-in operating system scheduler: cron, fcron, and so on. When the Perl script is executed, the script runs a series of commands to determine the use of CPU, memory, and local volumes. An alert is written to the system log (syslog) file if the utilization exceeds the threshold defined in the package. Because the scripts are configured to log to syslog and contain a prefix message for each event, the appliance has predefined the criteria in the syslog defaults for all non-Windows profiles for ease of configuration.

Packages available through ITNinja

ITNinja is a product-agnostic IT collaborative community that serves as a destination for IT professionals to share with one another, and acts as a go-to resource for information on setup and deployment topics. You can browse and contribute to specific software title topics, and other topics, such as deployment, management, configuration, and troubleshooting. The server monitoring community is located at http://itninja.com/community/k1000-monitoring.

In ITNinja, you can find PerfMon templates beyond the standard ones available on the Log Enablement Packages list page. For instance, there are templates to configure monitoring for many Windows Server 2003 logs. The Log Enablement Package Install feature in the appliance does not support Windows Server 2003. For those servers, you install their LEP by using PowerShell, with a method documented in ITNinja.

Appliance monitoring users who are members of the ITNinja community can contribute their own templates and scripts, to expand the library of available LEPs. Similar to Windows Server 2003 packages, because these LEPs are not covered by the install process available to the standard packages, they must be installed by using one the methods documented in ITNinja.

Install one or more LEPs on monitored devices

Install one or more LEPs on monitored devices

You can install Log Enablement Packages on Windows devices and non-Windows devices directly from the appliance.

1.
Go to the Log Enablement Packages list 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 Monitoring, then click Log Enablement Packages.
2.
Select the check box for the package or packages that you want to install on devices, and select Choose Action > Add to Devices to display the Log Enablement Packages Install page.
If you are choosing multiple packages, you can choose both Windows and non-Windows packages to install. In this case, the Log Enablement Packages Install page displays a separate section for Windows packages and a separate section for non-Windows packages. If all the packages you select are for one type, then only the section for that particular type appears.
3.
Select the devices to which to add the package or packages.
a.
Click in the Devices text box to display a list of devices within inventory that are compatible with the packages listed in Selected Packages to the right.
b.
Select the device or devices you want from the list.
4.
Optional: For Windows packages, clear the check box for Add Windows OS and Application LEP Profile if that profile is already bound to the device or devices and you do not want to reinstall it.
5.
Determine how you want the installation to go if one of the packages is already installed on a device.
◦
Leave Replace it selected if you want the current package reinstalled over an existing version.
◦
Select Skip it if you want to retain the package that might be currently installed on the device. For instance, you might have made edits to the package earlier and do not want to lose those changes.
6.
Click Install.
7.
Optional: View the progress of the installation.
a.
Click Devices in the Monitoring section of the left navigation bar, and select the name of the monitored device to display its Monitoring Detail page.
The LEP Installation Log section appears at the bottom of the page, displaying a summary of the installation process for this particular device.
b.
Optional: Click See all LEP Installation Logs for this device to see more detail.

Set up a Windows Server 2003 device with an ITNinja monitoring Log Enablement Package (LEP)

Set up a Windows Server 2003 device with an ITNinja monitoring Log Enablement Package (LEP)

Windows Server 2003 Log Enablement Packages do not appear in the appliance Log Enablement Packages list page, and the appliance LEP installation function does not support Windows Server 2003. However, you can obtain packages from ITNinja with which to monitor Windows 2003 devices, and that entails a different setup process.

Add the Windows Server 2003 device to inventory in the appliance, managed either through an Agent or through Agentless management. See About managing devices.

The process entails action on the server device that is to be monitored, and action in the appliance. On the server device, you download a Log Enablement Package from ITNinja, and start PerfMon. In the appliance, you enable monitoring for the device, define the profile from the monitoring package, and bind the profile to the device.

* 
NOTE: Following this procedure installs one package on one device. If you want to install multiple packages with one procedure, you can find instructions on ITNinja for using PowerShell scripts to do so. See http://itninja.com/community/k1000-monitoring.
1.
Acquire the appropriate monitoring LEP from ITNinja.
a.
Go to the ITNinja Monitoring community page: http://itninja.com/community/k1000-monitoring.
b.
From the Downloads tab, find the package for the Performance Category with the Performance Counters you want to probe.
You can use Search to narrow your search.
c.
Click Download to download the HTM file for the package.
d.
Copy the HTM file <Performance_Category>_Alerts.htm to the device you want to monitor.
2.
On the Windows Server 2003 device you want to monitor, start the Performance Monitor and expand the Performance Logs and Alerts folder.
3.
Under Performance Logs and Alerts, right-click Alerts and select New Alerts Settings From . . ..
4.
In the Open dialog, browse to the location of the package, select it, and click Open.
5.
In the New Alert Settings dialog, confirm the package name and click OK to display the property page for the package.
6.
Accept or edit the LEP properties:
◦
Leave the default settings, and click OK to leave the page.
◦
Optional: On the General tab of the property page, add or remove counters, and revise threshold values, if you want, then click OK. See Edit the monitoring Log Enablement Package (LEP) for a Windows Server 2003 device.
7.
In the Performance window, right-click on the package name and select Start to start the monitoring.
With the device taken care of, you move to the appliance to enable the monitoring feature, create a profile, and bind the profile to the device.
8.
On the appliance, enable monitoring for this device.
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 Dashboard.
c.
Click the name of the device to display its Device Detail page.
d.
Scroll down and click Monitoring under Activities to expand the section.
e.
Click Enable Monitoring to start monitoring and also display details of the default monitoring setup for the device.
With monitoring enabled, the Monitoring section displays the name of the monitoring profile bound to the device by default. If a Maintenance Window has been defined as a default, its name appears too.
9.
Create the monitoring package profile on the Profile Detail page.
a.
On the left navigation bar, click Monitoring, then click Profiles.
b.
On the Profiles list page, select the check box next to Windows ITNinja Plug-In Template and select Choose Action > Duplicate and Edit to display the Profile Detail page.
c.
Edit the name and type a description for the monitoring profile.
d.
Use the Windows Server 2003 Log Path, Application.
e.
Leave the Log Date Format empty.
f.
Optional: Click Edit (), and in the drop-down menu under Level, select a level if you want to use something other than Error.
g.
Click Save at the end of the criteria line, then click Save at the bottom of the page.
10.
Add this new profile to the device.
a.
On the left navigation bar, click Monitoring, then click Devices.
b.
Click the name of the device to display its Monitoring Detail page.
c.
Click in the Profiles field to display a drop-down list of all available profiles, and click the profile you created.
d.
Click Save.
The profile is bound to the device.
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