Welcome to SiteScope

Welcome to SiteScope, a versatile, agentless solution for monitoring web-based business systems and services. This guide contains instructions for installing and setting up the SiteScope software. This document is also available in PDF format,(SiteScopeUG.pdf), in the SiteScope directory. See the Table of Contents for an overview of the subjects covered in the User Guide.

This section describes:

Introducing SiteScope
Contents of this Guide
Documentation Set
About SiteScope Licensing
Software Libraries included with SiteScope

Introducing SiteScope

SiteScope provides you with the tools needed to monitor the key aspects of your server and Web environment that are vital to keeping Web sites available and functioning. SiteScope keeps you informed of the status of your systems in real-time including automated alerting features available in a variety of media. SiteScope's agentless, centralized monitoring model allows you to set up and scale your monitoring quickly and easily. The client-server architecture allows multi-user access by way of a convenient Web browser interface.

Whether you are supporting service level agreements, ensuring system availability, or gathering data for performance and capacity planning, SiteScope gives you the tools you need to succeed. SiteScope has over 50 types of monitors that can be used to monitor a wide range of Web enabled systems and servers. This includes monitors to verify availability of Web pages, Web application performance, services, and database applications. You can create multiple instances of any type of monitor and to organize them into groups and subgroups. This helps simplify the administration of monitoring complex Web environments.

SiteScope also includes features designed to check the availability and proper function of a sequence of user actions that describe an end-to-end on-line transaction. This includes checking the operation of all the key aspects of the on-line systems from the Web page delivery, e-mail confirmations, and database updates.

The diversity of monitor types available in SiteScope gives you the tools to monitor not only a broad range of systems but also monitor systems at multiple levels. This means you can monitor not only that a Web page is available but that the Web server is not dropping too many requests, that the required services are running on the server machine, that the proper ports are open, that the hard drive is not full, and that the server CPU is not overloaded.

You can create as many instances of any particular monitor that you need up to the number of monitors permitted by your license agreement. For example, you could create 50 URL Monitors to watch 50 Web pages plus 20 Service Monitors to watch an array of Web servers, and 10 Ping Monitors to check network connectivity, and so forth. Each monitor instance can be tailored in terms of target, run frequency, error condition, and error status threshold. Each SiteScope installation can run over a hundred monitor instances.

The wide range of monitoring capabilities available with SiteScope is complemented with flexible alerting features. SiteScope alerts can be sent in a number of different media and tailored as to their specific content. This allows you to integrate SiteScope alerting with other problem tracking and logging systems. Alerts are also flexible in their scope, triggering conditions, and send frequency.

SiteScope also provides monitoring reports which allow you to document the status of your Web environment over a period of time. The reports are customized to provide data in both graphical and tabular format.

SiteScope runs as service on Windows NT and 2000 or as a background process on Solaris UNIX. The SiteScope panel is your window into the SiteScope monitoring environment. It appears when you open a browser view of SiteScope and it displays a status icon for each defined group of monitors. The first time you start SiteScope, you will see an icon for the default groups of monitors created during installation. Each time you add a monitor group, a status icon and hyperlink group name is added to the SiteScope panel. SiteScope monitoring, alerting and reporting continue even if you close the browser interface as long as the service or process are running

Contents of this Guide

This guide describes how to use SiteScope to monitor the availability, usage, and operation of servers and applications in your network. This guide describes the following:

Getting Started with SiteScope

Provides an overview of SiteScope features, the steps for setting up the monitoring environment, and a description of the SiteScope main panel.

About SiteScope Monitors and Groups

Explains the several features and procedures for viewing and managing SiteScope monitors.

Introducing Solution Templates

Describes the solution templates used to rapidly deploy application-specific monitoring based on best practice methodologies.

Standard Monitor Types

Presents detailed information on the configuration of the many standard monitor types available in SiteScope.

Optional Monitor Types

Provides information on the configuration of several optional monitor types. Optional monitor types require additional licensing.

Integration Monitor Types

Provides information on the configuration of monitor types used as part of the Enterprise Management System (EMS) integration module for Mercury Application Management. Integration monitor types require additional licensing.

SiteScope Alerts

Provides an explanation of the operation of SiteScope alerts and detailed information on configuration of the several alert types.

SiteScope Management Reports

Describes how to set up and interpret SiteScope reports.

SiteScope Preferences and Options

Provides detailed information on the various settings that control SiteScope behavior, alerts, remote connections, and other optional features.

Monitoring SiteScope Server Health

Explains how to interpret and edit SiteScope self-health monitoring features.

Diagnostic Tools for Troubleshooting Monitors

Describes how to use SiteScope tools to test and diagnose monitors and network functions that impact the monitoring environment.

Linking Multiple SiteScope Servers with the Multi-view Panel

Provides information about the use of the Multi-view feature to view the status of multiple SiteScope installations.

Advanced SiteScope Topics

Provides information on a variety of topics for using and customizing several SiteScope features.

The SiteScope on-line User Guide is organized so that you can either follow the navigation links at the bottom of each page to read the guide in a book fashion, or you can start with the SiteScope Table of Contents which gives an overview of the sections and topics available. Use the hyperlinks on the table of contents pages to go directly to any topic or section that interests you.

Documentation Set

Your SiteScope package comes with the following documentation:

SiteScope User's Guide - explains how to work with SiteScope. The User Guide is available from within the SiteScope product by pressing on the Help button on the navigation bar or other links. The SiteScope User Guide is also available in PDF format for printing found in the file <SiteScope_install_path> /SiteScope/SiteScopeUG.pdf.

SiteScope Reference Guide - contains reference data for advanced SiteScope options. This includes interpreting SiteScope data logs, working with custom alert templates, template properties, and SiteScope configuration settings. The Reference Guide is available as a PDF file located at <SiteScope_install_path> /SiteScope/SiteScopeRefG.pdf.

README file - describes an overview of the system requirements and the steps for installing SiteScope on Windows, Solaris, and Linux platforms. The README is available as a HTML file located at <SiteScope_install_path> /SiteScope/README.htm.

SiteScope Release Notes - documents new features and product improvements that are available with each version of SiteScope. The Release Notes are available as a HTML file at <SiteScope_install_path> /SiteScope/ReleaseNotes.htm or a PDF file located in the same directory.

About SiteScope Licensing

You may use SiteScope on a free trial basis for 10 days. At the end of the trial period you must either purchase a SiteScope license 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.

Several flexible SiteScope licensing options are available. Contact a Mercury Interactive sales representative for more information about these options. When you purchase a SiteScope license, you will be instructed on how to use your license number to register your copy of SiteScope. The trial counter will no longer appear once you have completed the registration process and entered a license key.

Software Libraries included with SiteScope

The SiteScope application includes the following libraries. Click on the links to view licensing information specific to each of these products.

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
PuTTY NT SSH client from Simon Tatham
Microsoft SQL Server driver from I-NET Software
Apache HTTP Client from the Apache Software Foundation
MindTerm secure shell Java client from AppGate Network Security