Installing SiteScope

Installing and Starting SiteScope

Thank you for downloading SiteScope, an agentless server and system monitoring application. This document provides you with information to help you install and start using SiteScope.

This section describes:

The SiteScope Package

SiteScope is a versatile and powerful server and system availability monitoring software package. SiteScope is designed as a single application that is installed in a single directory structure.

The SiteScope software package includes:

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Installation Requirements

The following are the minimum requirements and recommendations for installing SiteScope.

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Windows NT, 2000, and 2003 Installation Instructions

To install SiteScope on a computer running Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003:

  1. Download the SiteScopeSetup.exe file to your server from the web site.

  2. Use the Run command from the Start menu to run SiteScopeSetup.exe or open Windows NT Explorer and double-click the SiteScopeSetup.exe file icon to start the installation.

  3. During the installation process, you will be requested to do the following:
    1. Accept the SiteScope license agreement
    2. Enter an e-mail address for the SiteScope administrator
    3. Choose a SiteScope installation directory

SiteScope will create a directory named SiteScope and the tree structure containing all of the SiteScope files. The SiteScope service will be added and started during installation. It will also restart the service every time the system is restarted. The service can be started and stopped using the Start>Settings>Services control panel. SiteScope also adds a program item to the Start>Programs menu.

UNIX and Linux Installation Instructions

Beginning with the 7.8.1.1 release, the UNIX and Linux installations of SiteScope are packaged with InstallShield® Multi-Platform.

  1. Download the application SiteScope tar file to your server from the web site and uncompress it using the following command:
    gzip -dc SiteScope.system.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    where system is the applicable operating system (that is: sun or linux). This will create a directory called SiteScopeInstall containing the SiteScope installation files.
  2. Run the install script using in the following command syntax:

    /bin/sh SiteScopeInstall/install.sh

    If the installer determines that it can run in fully graphical mode it will do so. If not then it will prompt to run in either Console Mode or UI Mode.

    To force the installer to use the console mode for the installation procedure, add the -console argument to the command line

  3. During the installation process, you will be requested to do the following:
    1. Accept the SiteScope license agreement
    2. Enter an e-mail address for the SiteScope administrator
    3. Choose a SiteScope installation directory

The SiteScope process is started during installation. Whenever you restart your machine, you will want to start the SiteScope process manually from a shell window or automatically using an init.d script:

To start the SiteScope, use the start command:

<installpath>/SiteScope/start

To stop the SiteScope process, use the stop command:

<installpath>/SiteScope/stop

In each of these commands, replace <installpath> with the path where SiteScope is installed. For example, if you installed SiteScope in /usr, the command to stop SiteScope would be /usr/SiteScope/stop.

Note: In order to view SiteScope Management Reports on UNIX based machines, it is necessary that an X Window system be running on the server where SiteScope is running.

Advanced Multi-Platform Installations:

UNIX/Linux installations can be automated by creating an installation template and then using that template during the install.

  1. Create a template file to be used by the installation By running the install script with the following options.

    SiteScopeInstall/install.sh -options-template ./install.tmp

  2. The template file itself provides documentation on how to modify it. Edit the template file for your environment.
  3. Start the installer again and pass in the template file with the following command:

    SiteScopeInstall/install.sh -silent -options ./install.tmp

SiteScope will now be installed silently using the template file to answer all the inputs requested by the installer.

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Opening SiteScope

If you have completed the installation of SiteScope and are viewing this file on the machine where SiteScope is installed, you can get started with SiteScope now by clicking on the following hyperlink:

Open SiteScope

If you would like to view or access this installation of SiteScope from another computer, open a browser window on the other computer and enter the following URL

http://193.138.212.38:81/SiteScope

Note:When SiteScope starts, it will try to use port 81. If this port is unavailable, SiteScope will pick a new port and send an e-mail message to the SiteScope administrator with the new port number it has selected. Make a note of the port change to access SiteScope both locally and remotely.

When you first start SiteScope you will be prompted to re-enter an e-mail address for the SiteScope administrator as well as specifying an e-mail server that SiteScope can use for sending status messages and e-mail alerts. You may also enter permanent SiteScope license keys, if you have received them from Mercury Interactive. If you are evaluating SiteScope, it is not necessary to enter the license information. You can enter license information later by clicking on the Preferences button on the SiteScope navigation menu.

After you enter the requested information and click the Continue button, SiteScope displays a Getting Started page with suggestions about how to start working with SiteScope as well as some options for automatically setting up a group of example monitors. If you are unfamiliar with SiteScope we recommend that you select the "Start Now with default settings and monitor examples" so you can more easily understand how SiteScope monitors and monitor groups are used and configured.

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Tips to Get Started with SiteScope

SiteScope is accessed through a web browser by entering the IP address and port of the SiteScope service. The SiteScope main page is your entry point to SiteScope.

SiteScope monitors are automated tests of services or systems in your Web environment. SiteScope has over 60 different monitor types that you can use to test the function, performance, and availability of a wide range of systems and applications. You can create multiple instances of any monitor type. You use groups to organize you monitors according to importance, location, type of system, or other criteria.

All SiteScope monitors need to belong to a group. The SiteScope main page displays the names of the top level groups of monitors in your installation. You click on the name of a group to add, view, edit, or delete monitors or subgroups, and to drill down into detailed monitoring data.

At the top of each page are navigation menus and button you use to navigate to the different parts of SiteScope. You use the navigation bar to set up automated alerts, configure performance reports, define connectivity to remote servers, enter many configuration settings, or view SiteScope's context-sensitive on-line help. Click the Browse Monitors link to view all monitors sorted on a criteria you select. Click on the Manage Monitors link to view and manage all groups and monitors using an expandable tree menu.

It is important to remember that SiteScope is designed as an agentless operational monitoring solution. This means that you do not have to install agent components on the servers you want to monitor. It does mean that you have to provide SiteScope with the information necessary to connect to other servers remotely.

To get started with SiteScope we recommend you do the following:

  1. Decide what web systems, servers, and URL's you want to monitor using SiteScope
  2. Decide how these items can be grouped and create new SiteScope monitor groups to help organize your monitoring
  3. After creating monitor groups, click on the name of the group and begin adding monitors to that group. To set up monitors you will need to know:
    1. How to connect to the system you want to monitor. Depending on what type of monitor you are using and what protocol or connection method is needed, you may need to create a remote server connection profile for each server you want to monitor.
    2. What you want to monitor on that system. Multi-level monitoring using a combination of monitor types for checking server resources (CPU, Disk space, Memory), connectivity, and availability of specific functions (URL, services) is recommended.
    3. How you want the status of the system reported. Each monitor type has a default set of error, warning, and good threshold levels. You can adjust and change the thresholds to meet the requirements and circumstances of your particular environment.

    After you create monitors to test the systems and services in your infrastructure, SiteScope will begin reporting results within minutes.

  4. After creating monitors, set up automated alerts using the media that best suit your organization. Later, you can set up scheduled reports for key monitors to review system availability and performance over time.

Start with a few monitors and systems. Once you become comfortable with the product, you can easily set up more monitors, monitor remote systems, adjust alerts, and make other changes to best suit your needs.

After you open SiteScope, you can view the status of multiple, remote SiteScope installations by opening the Multi-view panel. Click the Multi-view in the SiteScope navigation menu to open the Multi-view panel. The first time you open the Multi-view panel, you will have to choose the Edit Multi-view Panel link to add the addresses of the SiteScope installations you want displayed.

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Troubleshooting

If SiteScope does not open at the IP address found in the Open SiteScope link, try these steps and then try to access SiteScope again:

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Licensing Notes

You may use SiteScope on a free trial basis for 10 days. At the end of the trial period you must either purchase a set of SiteScope monitors to continue using the software, or you must delete all SiteScope files and directories.

If you are using SiteScope on a trial basis, you will see a counter on the SiteScope main panel which will indicate how many days are remaining in your trial period. When you purchase a set of SiteScope monitors, you will be instructed on how to use your license number to register your SiteScope installation. The trial counter will no longer appear after you have completed the registration process.

The SiteScope application includes the following libraries. The links to view licensing information specific to each of these products are active once the product has been installed.
Java Runtime Environment, including JSSE, JIMI, and JDNI, from Sun Microsystems
Java SNMP package from Netaphor Software
Java Generic Library package from ObjectSpace
Java PerlTools package from ORO
Java XML Parser from Datachannel
Java MD5 library from Santeri
NT SSH client
MS SQL Server driver from I-NET Software

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Product Documentation

SiteScope User Guide
The SiteScope User Guide explains how to use SiteScope to monitor your web server environment. The Table of Contents provides a good overview of subjects covered in the User Guide. For easier printing, the documentation is available as a single file.

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Release Notes

SiteScope Release Notes
The SiteScope Release Notes describe the new features and changes added to each SiteScope release. If you are updating your SiteScope software, this is a good place to find out about what has changed since the last release.

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Technical Support

Technical support for SiteScope is available in several forms.

SiteScope User Guide
SiteScope comes with user documentation in electronic format. An HTML based version of the User Guide is available from within the SiteScope interface by clicking on the Help link found in the upper right hand side of the screen. The Table of Contents provides a good overview of subjects covered in the SiteScope User Guide. The electronic User Guide is also context sensitive based on what part of the product you are in when you access the user guide. Please read this documentation first if you have questions or experience any problems using SiteScope. A copy of the User Guide is also provided in PDF format if you would like to print a copy. Please note that the User Guide is currently more than 900 pages long (single-sided).

Online Knowledge Base
The answers to many SiteScope questions can be found in our on-line Knowledge Base on the Mercury Interactive Customer Support site at ("http://support.merc-int.com/"). If you can not find an answer to your question in the User Guide, check the online support knowledge base.

On-line Support
For questions and problems that are not addressed in either the User Guide or the online support knowledge base, please submit a support request via our Customer Support site. If you have purchased the Customer Care package, we will respond within 1 business day.

Telephone Support
Requests by e-mail are preferred but you may also contact us by phone at 877-837-8457 option 1 for technical support.

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