Documentation

Configuring monitoring accounts

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Introduction

Monitoring accounts are necessary for the successful execution of service checks. For example, an SNMP community monitoring account will allow for the collection of information on a host via the SNMP protocol.
This document explains how to use monitoring accounts in the configuration or reconfiguration phase of monitoring.
This feature is accessible from the user interface by navigating to Configuration > General > Monitoring Accounts.

General principles

Definitions

Monitoring accounts are defined for each service. The goal in ServiceNav is to define a monitoring account only once, at a company, site or host level. Once the services are defined for a host, ServiceNav then automatically configures the services from the information provided at the monitoring account level.

It is necessary to support setting an account different from the account defined at the company level. In this way, the user will is able to modify the account at the level of a site, an host, or a service.
Such monitoring accounts are protected: any modification of a monitoring account at the higher level in the hierarchy (company ⇒ sites ⇒ equipment) do not override these monitoring account.

The account types are found under: Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts

The information to provide depends on the type of account. For example, for a Windows - Admin account, you need to define the domain (optional), the user and the password.

Management rules

Monitoring account information is defined at the company level, company site level, host level, or service level.

When updating a company level monitoring account, ServiceNav updates all services of all hosts in all company sites, except those marked as protected either at site level, host level or service level.

When updating monitoring account information at a site level, ServiceNav updates all services for all hosts at that site and subordinate sites, host or service level.

The protection on a monitoring account applies to all the fields of the account (for example, for a Windows account, the domain, the account name and the password are protected).

A service is configured with a single monitoring account: there are no examples of a service requiring multiple monitoring accounts.

If a user wants a specific configuration on a service, they must protect the monitoring account at the service configuration level.

Deployment recommendations

Prior to deployment of monitoring it is recommended to configure monitoring accounts at the company level, then at the company sites level, and finally at the hosts level if exceptions are necessary.

In this way, if the password of a monitoring account is changed later, a simple change of this account at the highest level in the company/site hierarchy will require it.

Monitoring Account Configuration

Company, site

Monitoring accounts are defined at company or site level. To access the configuration:

Navigate to Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts.
Select the company or site in the company tree.

Status the symbol indicates that the monitoring account is protected at this site. The symbol indicates that the monitoring account is configured and protected at a site higher in the tree.

Type indicates the monitoring account type.

Company Indicates the site or company at which the monitoring account is protected.

Values shows the details of the monitoring account. Passwords are hidden.

Description The description of the monitoring account.

From this list, you can :

Protect or unprotect a monitoring account by clicking on the symbol under the column Status
Change the values of a monitoring account by clicking on the symbol under the column Status or the entry under the column Type

Hosts

Monitoring accounts can be configured at host level. To access the configuration:

Navigate in the menu Configuration > Hosts > List
Select the company or site in the company tree
Open the configuration window of the host by clicking on it in the list
Click on the tab Accounts

The symbol indicates that the monitoring account is protected at the host level.

The symbol indicates that the monitoring account is configured and protected at the site associated with the host in the tree, at a site higher in the hierarchy, or at the company level. By clicking on the account, the site or the company at which the account is configured is displayed:

The symbol indicates that a service deployed to a host requires a monitoring account to be configured at the hosts, site or company level; if this account is not already configured and protected at the service level.

From this screen, you can modify the monitoring account at the hosts level (protect it or not, change its values) by clicking on the account:

Services

Monitoring accounts can be defined at service level. To access the configuration :

Navigate to Configuration > Services > List
Select the company or site in the company tree
Open the service configuration window by clicking on it in the list
Click on the tab Availability and checks

In this screen, if the account is not protected, the account information is not visible. conversely, if the details are protected for this service, they are visible and can be modified.

Scenarios

Adding a monitoring account at company or site level

Navigate to Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts.
Select the company or site in the company tree.
Click on Add.

Select the type of account from the list (accounts of the type already configured are not shown in this list)

Enter the required values and click on Apply. The configured account type is immediately propagated to the services of the hosts of the company and subordinate sites.

Changing a monitoring account at company level

To change the monitoring account information:

Navigate to Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts.
Select the company in the company tree.
Click on the monitoring account to be modified (column Type).
Modify the information and click on Click Apply.
A warning message states: "These changes will be propagated to all unprotected monitoring accounts on this site's and sub-sites hosts. Click Yes.

Changing a monitoring account at site level

To change the monitoring account information:

Navigate to Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts.
Select the company in the company tree.
Click on the monitoring account to be modified (column Type).
Modify the information and click on Click Apply.
A warning message states: "These changes will be propagated to all unprotected monitoring accounts on this site's and sub-sites hosts. Click Yes.

To protect a monitoring account already configured at company level:

Navigate to Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts.
Select the site in the company tree.
Click on the monitoring account to be modified (Status column).
Click on the Yes radio button and enter account information, then click Apply:

A warning message states: "These changes will be propagated to all unprotected monitoring accounts on this site's and sub-sites hosts. Click Yes.

To stop protecting a monitoring account configured at site level, i.e. to use the monitoring account defined at the level of a site higher in the tree structure, or at the company level, the account defined at the site level must be deleted.

Deleting monitoring accounts at a company or site level

To delete one or more monitoring accounts:

Navigate to Configuration > General > Monitoring accounts.
Select the company in the company tree.
Select the monitoring account(s) to be deleted.
Click on the trash button.

A confirmation window is displayed. This window indicates which accounts can be deleted and which cannot.

It is not possible to delete accounts that are used by one or more services, and for which no monitoring account is found in a higher-level site or at the company level.

It is possible to delete accounts that are used by one or more services, and for which a monitoring account of the same type is found in a higher-level site or at the company level.

Accounts can be deleted if they are not used by any service.

Click on Click Apply to confirm deletion of the selected accounts, or on Cancel to abandon this deletion action.

Adding a monitoring account at the hosts level

Open the host configuration window, and the tab Accounts.

This tab contains the accounts required by the services associated with the host: it is therefore not necessary nor possible to manually add monitoring accounts here.

Changing a monitoring account at the host level

The information that can be modified is as follows:

Change an account from "unprotected" to "protected": in this case, the information associated with the account becomes editable.
For protected accounts, edit the associated information.
Change an account from "protected" to "unprotected" (by clicking on radio button).

To change a monitoring account at the host level :

Navigate to Configuration > Hosts > List.
Select the company or site in the company tree.
Open the configuration window of a host by clicking on it in the list.
Click on the tab Accounts.

To change an account from "unprotected" to "protected":

Select the account on the left.
Set Yes The values associated with the monitoring account are reset.
Fill in the values associated with the monitoring account.
Click on Click Apply.

To change the information associated with a protected account:

Select the account on the left.
Fill in the values associated with the monitoring account.
Click on Click Apply.

To change an account from "protected" to "unprotected":

Select the account on the left.
Set No . A monitoring account of the same type is displayed.
Click on Click Apply.

The account of the same type will be the one defined at the hosts site level, if it exists, or at the level of the first site encountered going up the site tree towards the company level.

If no account of the same type is found in the hosts site, or in a higher level site, or at the company level, it will not be possible to make the monitoring account unprotected: it will be necessary to first configure a monitoring account at the site or company level.

Deleting a monitoring account at a host level

The monitoring accounts defined at the hosts level are those required by the services associated with the host: it is therefore not necessary to manually delete monitoring accounts at this level.

When a service is deleted at the host level, the associated monitoring account does not appear anymore in the host configuration window (tab Accounts).

Adding a host

A host can be added from discovery or manually.

During discovery, the SNMP community and a Windows administration account are pre-populated with the accounts of the same type defined at the site level (or, failing that, at the level of a parent site, or the company):

The following rules apply when adding a host using an SNMP community and a Windows administration account: if the monitoring account (SNMP, WMI) entered in the discovery configuration is identical to a monitoring account in the site associated with the host, or in a parent site, or at the company level, the monitoring account (SNMP, WMI) is not protected at the host level. Otherwise it is protected.

In the host detail page, displayed by clicking on the host in the list of discovered hosts, the monitoring accounts used to discover the hosts are displayed:

Whether from discovery or from the hosts list, adding a host involves specifying host templates models for that device.

Once the host has been added, complete the configuration by going to the host configuration window, tab Accounts.

Accounts identified by a red padlock must be configured and protected, or a similar account must be added at the site or company level.

Adding host templates to a host

Adding one or more host templates to a host implies adding services to this host: you must complete the configuration by clicking on Accounts.

Accounts identified by a red padlock must be configured and protected, or a similar account must be added at the site or company level.

Adding a service to a host

From the list of services, adding a service to a host requires checking the configuration of the service in the Accounts tab of the host.

In the following example, the IBM-AS400-Cpu unit service is added to a device.

The Accounts tab of the host configuration window indicates that the AS400 supervision account should be defined either at the host, site or company level.

Updating the configuration

To push the configuration:

Navigate to Configuration > General > Loading.
Select the company or site in the company/site tree.
Select the monitoring box on which you want to update the configuration.
Click on Click Apply.

The section Detail of configuration errors describes the list of errors encountered.