Servers Alive build 367
Server name or IP address must contain the name of the server or it IP address. If a name is entered, it can be a Netbios name or DNS name. Internaly Servers Alive will use this name once and will once it knows the IP address continues to use the IP address.
(example : THEMACHINE or THEMACHINE.COMPANY.COM)
The Pretty name is only used for displaying (in the GUI, Telnet client, mails, HTTP/HTML output)
The Host ID is the 'number' (maximum 32767) used to identify the host when paging and in the interchange format.
If a host is not responding within the Timeout, it is flagged as being DOWN. On slow links (WAN) this value will almost always be more than 5 seconds. In order to get the correct values for your network, you will have to do some testing.
Second Knock : If a host is seen as down and the second knock is enabled it will be recheck at the end of the check cycle to be realy sure that it's down. This feature will come handy if you're dealing with slow links, machines with slow responces. (see the Second Knock section for more info on this feature)
Include this host in the check cycle : If a host will be down due to maintenance, you can exclude it temporary from the list of host that will be checked. The HTML report will show the host as being in MAINTENANCE.
Include this host in the generated HTML file : By default all host entries will be seen in the generated HTML file. If for some reason you don't want a host in this generated file, (ex your customers need to know if a server is up but not that there isn't enough disk space :- ), you can exclude the host from the HTML file.
Priority :
LOW : host will be checked every 2 cycles (so host will be checked cycle 1,3,5,7,...)
HIGH : host will be checked during each check cycle (default)
Select the apropriate port/protocol to check your host on. If the protocol is not mentioned in the list, you can also use the Other option to enter to port number.
Select PING if you want SAlive to ping the host.
Enter the short name of the NT Service. If you don't know this 'short-name' you can push the "List the available services" to get a list of services currently running on that server.
Servers Alive can also check an NT services based on another user Id than the one running Servers Alive (this can be very usefull when running Servers Alive as a service). Therefore you must enter the username and password of the account than can/will be used to check the NT service. (this account must have admin right on the machine that you’re checking) Also remember to enter the domain too.
Example :
Username : DOMAIN\USERNAME
Password: password
If you get an error message when Servers Alive tries to list the services then the useraccount you’re using has probably no rights to that remote machine.
The disk space checking will allow you to monitor the free disk space of a share.
SAlive will try to connect to this network share and interrogate it for it's free bytes.
If the returned number of bytes is lower than the ones you specified then this entry will be flagged as down.
If you run Servers Alive as a service, you will need to fill-in the username (password) that Servers Alive must use to connect to that drive (using a driveletter)
Note : |
The URL allows you to check the actual content of a web-page.
Enter the correct URL.
Enter the string that should be in the webpage
If the page is password protected, you can enter the username and password to use to get to that page.
If the web-server is behind a proxy-server, you must check the 'Use Proxy' checkbox. (the proxyserver settings can be altered from the PROXY tab of the setup screen.
If the host you're checking is down, Servers Alive can do some things….
You can ask it to execute a command (BAT/EXE) when you're is down. Also you have the choice to make this command run once or at each down-check-cycle. Also you can ask Servers Alive to wait until the command has been completed before continuing.
Note : |
If you want to run a different command when the host is exactly x times down, you can use the escalation options to do so. You can specify the number of times a host must be down before executing this command.
On a per host basis you can alter the recepiant for the mails that Salive send when a host is down (or back up when the status change option is selected)
If the host you're checking is seen as down, Servers Alive can warn you by playing a WAV file (a sound).
If the ENABLE AUDIO ALARM (in the SETUP-AUDIO screen) is enabled you will be able to change the sounds for each host entry. If you select the Use default sound option, you will be warned with the default of Servers Alive. You could also select not to be warned for a certain server, then you must select No sound. If you want a specific sound you must select Other sound and give the correct filename.
Also if you want Servers Alive to page you when the host is down, you must enable the 'Page me when this one is down' on the Alerts tab.
The mail host can be filled in as a NetBios name, DNS name or IP address. (example HERMES or MAILHOST.COMPANY.COM or 123.45.67..89).
The from can be just a name or a fullname (example ServersAlive or ServersAlive@company.com). What to fill in will depend on the way your SMTP server is configured.
The to will always be a fullname (example toperson@company.com)
The envelope icon will send a test message to the specified user. (remember to push the APPLY button, otherwise Servers Alive will use the 'old'-values)
If the Enable SMTP mail is enabled Servers Alive will send an SMTP mail with the list of all NON-UP (execpt for the Status Change option were the UP hosts will be included too if they just changed their status) hosts. If the Use alternate SMTP mail is also enabled, the mail will be send to both SMTP receipients. (both can be on different servers!)
The Send options will specify when a mail is send.
Note : |
If you want Servers Alive to warn you of a failure with a sound, click the 'Enable audio alarm' and select the correct file to play. If there is no WAV capable device available you will not be able to check the 'Enable audio alarm' checkbox.
Note : |
If you enable file logging, Servers Alive will log all it's doing into a logfile. What will be logged, can be changed with the Log options. Servers Alive can log into a fixed log file, therefore select the Log file name option and fill in the name of the file to which the logging will be done (all new loggings will be appended at the end of the file) If you want a file per month, select the Automaticly change the name every month option. For a file per day, select the Automaticly change the name every day option. For the latter two, the file will be kept in the same directory as Serves Alive.
Note : |
If the Automatic save changes to a file is enabled all changes made to the current hosts configuration is saved to the known filename. If it's enabled and you start a new set of hosts, you will be prompted for a filename when you quit Servers Alive.
If Load Window positions at startup is enabled, Servers Alive will restore the last position on screen it had and also restore itself to the last-know size it had on screen.
The Check times grid is used to know every x minutes Servers Alive will start checking your list of hosts.
If the value is 0 (zero) than no checking will be done in that time period.
(Note : Saturday 6pm to 8am means from Saturday 6pm to Sunday 8am - same logic for all others)
When the Publish summary web page is enabled, Servers Alive will create a HTML page after every check cycle. You must specify the page name. The name must also include the directory in which the file must be created. You can customize the webpage by specifing a custom HTML Header page and HTML Footer page. Also for these two both name and directory must be specified.
When creating the page, Servers Alive will 'copy' the header, add the Servers Alive grid to it and append the footer at the end.
By specifying the Look, you can also customize the contents of the grid created by Servers Alive.
Note : |
In you enable the pager, Servers Alive can send you alerts via an attached modem to a numeric pager.
In order to send you the alert, you must specify the Phone number of your numeric pager. Also the COM port (in most cases TAPI will work best) to which your modem is attached. You can also specify how many times a host must be checked as been down before it will send out a pager alert. (remember that you will also have to include the host for paging. By default a host is NOT included in the paging. This can be changed by EDITING a host)
In most cases, after dialing the phonenumber of your pager, Servers Alive will have to wait several seconds before sending out the numeric information. This wait can be entered bij entering a number of , (comma) in the Wait string box. (every , represents aprox. 2 seconds) Also after a numeric message has been entered, you need to specify a 'end-of-message' indicator, this misy be entered in the End message indicator box.
You can test the pager by clicking on the pager-icon. (remember to push the apply button, otherwise Servers Alive will use the 'old'-settings.)
Note : |
If you enable the Export result file, Servers Alive will create an export file after each checking cycle.
You need to specify the Filename (must also include the path name) to which the export file must be written. (the file will be re-created each time). If you specify a Command, Servers Alive will execute that command after each creation of the export file.
Format of the export file :
If you Enable other mail, Servers Alive will send you a mail using the command line you specify. In this commandline, the %m will be replaced with the message that Servers Alive generates. If you push the Test button, Servers Alive will send you a message using this commandline. Remember to push the Apply button first, otherwise Servers Alive will use the 'old'-values. It will use the Send Options of the SMTP mail to create the message.
If you start Servers Alive via the Startup group or as a service, it's easier to specify all start-up commands via the registry instead of via the commandline interface of Servers Alive.
Check the Load commandline interformation from registry checkbox to enable Servers Alive to read the info from the registry.
/load |
specifies which file of hosts to load |
/start |
forces Servers Alive to start checking the hosts right away |
/minimized |
starts Servers Alive minimized |
/noip |
The first time Servers Alive checks a host, it will resolve the name into an IP address. Each of the following times Servers Alive checks your host, it will continu to use this IP address. In some cases (people using some dynamic IP services) it's needed that the check is not done on the IP address cause this changes (due to the dynamic IP configuration), in order to force Servers Alive not to keep the IP addresses, you must specify the /NOIP parameter |
The URL checking can also be done through a proxy-server. In order to do this you must specify some proxy-parameters.
First off all the name and the port number.
Some proxy-servers can be accessed if you're not authenticated by the proxy-server. Servers Alive can do this via BASIC authentication. (not NTLM or Challenge response).
Note : |
If you enable the HTTP server and specify a port number (default 4310), it will be possible to interrogate Servers Alive with a HTML client (=web browser). The URL to use is http://hostname:portnumber/status (example http://networkchecker:4310/status).
If the Webpages automaticly updates itselfs is enabled, the generate webpage, will include one additional line that cause the webbrowser to request an update from the server (Servers Alive) every 60 seconds.
The webpages generate by the HTTP server can't be customized.
If you enable the Telnet server and specify a port number (default is 4301) you can interrogate Servers Alive via a Telnet client (like the default TELNET.EXE of Win95 or NT 4). Via this Telnet client you'll see a list of all hosts, their status and the last time the status changed. And this ordered by status. Via the Telnet session you can enter several commands :
STATUS |
to get the current status of Servers Alive |
SYST |
to get the version number of Servers Alive |
HELP |
to get some basic help on the commands |
UPDATE |
to force Servers Alive to do a check cycle |
MAINTENANCE |
to put a host into maintenance mode |
ACTIVE |
to reactivate a host was in maintenance mode |
QUIT |
to quit the Telnet session |
If we concider this (simple) network diagram, we will check the router and the webserver via Servers Alive.
From the dependecies, we will set that the webserver (slave) depends on router (master)
Check cycle 1
Maintenance mode
Sometimes you want to do some work on a server without stopping the actual checkin of this server. Also you don't want to get allerts from Servers Alive saying that this server is down. Therefore the concept of MAINTENANCE was introduced.
Once a server/host entry is put into MAINTENANCE mode, it will be flagged as being in MAINTENANCE and Servers Alive will no longer try to test it.
There are several ways to put a host into maintenance mode.
Note : |
What Host number to use?
This is a sample TelNet session to Servers Alive :
Connected (c) 1997-1998 Woodstone Computer Consulting Inc. build 367 Known commands : SYST,STATUS,HELP,QUIT status Status of hosts at last check =============================== 1. entheeke (port 80) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 2. gate (port 8000) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 3. gate (port 8443) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 4. mailhost (port 25) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 5. mailhost (port 110) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 6. 172.22.0.71 (port 119) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 7. products (port 53) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 8. hermes (port 25) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 9. voyager (NTService msftpsvc)UNCHECKED since 3:22:02 PM , 6/24/98 10. zippy (port 80) :UNCHECKED since 3:22:03 PM , 6/24/98 Last check done on |
So if you want to put products (port 53) into maintenance mode, you must use 7 as host number.
Second Knock
What is Second Knock (SK in short)?
Concider the following setup :
When Servers Alive tries to check the server, the slow-link is not yet up. And the host is seen as down. Using the SK option, you can ask Servers Alive to recheck this hosts at the end of the checkcycle and give the slow link the time to get up.
Most of the time this feature is used if you're checking hosts over a slowlink (aka WAN)
Little example :
Registry hacks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DBU Consulting\Servers Alive\ExcludeDateTimeInMailSupport
For all questions about Servers Alive you can email us at
whatsrunning@iname.com.Registration
It costs $69 to register Servers Alive.
The only difference between the registered version and the freeware version, is the number of hosts you can check. The freeware version is limited to 10 hosts, the full (registered) version to 1000.
You can register Servers Alive via the web on
or via phone/fax on
Published by Woodstone Computer Consulting Inc. August 11th 1998
This license agreement covers your use of the Woodstone Computer Consulting Inc's Servers Alive, its executable files and documentation, hereinafter referred to as the Product.
The Product is Copyright © 1997-98 Woodstone Computer Consulting Inc. You may use it and distribute it according to this following License Agreement. If you do not agree with these terms, please remove the Product from your system. By incorporating the Product in your work or distributing the Product to others you implicitly agree to these license terms.
This License Agreement covers the current version of The Product. Woodstone Computer Consulting Inc. reserves the right to modify the terms of this License Agreement at any moment, and without prior notification, in future releases of The Product.
The Product is provided in one form: as a ready-to-run installation kit consisting of executable programs, release notes, etc. (the Product Executable).
You may freely use and distribute the Product Executable so long as you provide the complete and unmodified original Product Executable installation kit as supplied by Woodstone Computer Consulting Inc.
The Product is provided as free software, in the hope that it will be useful. It is provided "as-is", without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Product is with you. Should the Product prove defective, the full cost of repair, servicing, or correction lies with you. The freeware version is limited to checking 10 hosts. You can register the product and then you will be able to check up to 1000 hosts.
Limited technical support can be had from
whatsrunning@iname.com.For commercial distributors, other licensing conditions may be negotiated with respect to technical support and redistribution rights.
Before selling Servers Alive, you should contact