Windows Server Monitoring and Event Log Management Solutions
May 3, 2011 - Volume 6, Number 5 |
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-In this Issue- |
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April Curiosity Poll Results - Compliance Standards Final Reminder - Sunset of ELM 5.0 May Curiosity Poll - Smart Phone Curiosity Poll III The "ELM 411" - Create Your Own Events 100%
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With the powerful event filtering capabilities in ELM for collection, Event Views, Notifications and Reporting, our market research indicated that this enormous amount of flexibility sometimes led to a disconnect between seeing an event and configuring ELM to send a Notification on that event occurring.
Our product management and development teams were put to the test to come up with a more streamlined way for ELM users to setup Notifications based on what they are seeing in the ELM Console. The previous method for creating a Notification was based on three building blocks.
- A Filter looking for specific conditions.
- A Notification Method (email, pager, etc.)
- A Rule tying #1 and #2 together.
Working with Event Filters is very straightforward. Setting up different Notification Method types is pretty easy as well; the potential for confusion appeared to come about when trying to establish Notification Rules to tie these two together. If you don't work with them on regular basis, remembering the process was not intuitive enough.
In ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5, we've taken a new approach to setting up Notification Methods based on Event Views to streamline and simplify setting up Notifications. The basic premise is "What You See is What You Get" and Notification Rules have gone away.
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Each Event View now has the option of assigning a Notification Method directly to it. Any events being displayed in that Event View (based on the Filter criteria) will generate a notification. This presents a few different options.
However you prefer to approach it, assigning Notification Methods is much easier to do, while retaining the same rich, powerful filtering ability ELM is known for. More details on this great enhancement will follow with the upcoming release of ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5! |
Stay tuned for future updates on other new features and enhancements coming in ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5 - scheduled for release later this year!
April Curiosity Poll Results - Compliance Standards
Last month we mentioned living in a world of checks and balances. Full of policies, procedures and proof that we're following the rules and maintaining security. With that in mind, we got to wondering...
"What compliance mandates are you required to adhere to?"
As of the publishing of this newsletter, here's what respondents had to say.
Regardless of your industry or the rules you must follow, this chart shows that compliance requirements are strong across the board.
Final Reminder - Sunset of ELM 5.0
With less than one month left we want to give a final reminder to clients running older versions of ELM that commercial and technical support of all four ELM version 5.0 products will be terminated effective May 31, 2011, in accordance with our product lifecycle policy. An upgrade license is available free of charge for all clients with a current Support and Maintenance Agreement. |
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If you are wondering about the latest product offerings and where your upgrade path leads, please do not hesitate to contact our Sales or Support departments.
(ELM Version 5.5 products will continue to be supported)
May Curiosity Poll - Smart Phone Curiosity Poll III
We first asked about this in 2009. Revisited it in 2010. It's back again! Here we are in 2011 and it's time to see what's changed with our reader's use of smart phones for administrative tasks.
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Be sure to vote and next month we'll compare results from 2009, 2010, and 2011!
The "ELM 411" - Create Your Own Events
Admins everywhere use scripts and batch files to quickly and accurately automate mundane or routine tasks. Under normal circumstances all goes well and these little babies are real time savers. However sometimes "stuff happens" and not all goes as planned.
So how do you know or how can you find out when things don't go as planned? Sometimes it will be very obvious that something is broken. Sometimes it isn't. Using ELM together with a batch file you can confidently move forward knowing what worked and what didn't. Here's how...
Take the scenario where you have 50 workstations spread across your facility and you need to push out an application install. Using a batch file you can accomplish this fairly easily (for example using Group Policy). But how do you know if all of the installations were successful?
By adding a simple script to the end of your batch file, you can have it create a custom event. For example:
eventcreate /t information /id 55 /l Application /d My batch file installation completed
In the EventCreate command:
"/t" sets the event msg type (info, error, warning, etc)
"/id" sets the event id for the custom event msg
"/l" sets which event log
"/d" sets the Message Text or Event Description as whatever you want to put there
So now once the batch file is executed it will generate a custom event on that workstation with the parameters which you have specified.
Within ELM you would create a new Event View with a Filter that includes the parameters to look for this custom event. If the View shows 50 events, then you know the batch install was a success. If you see less than 50 you know there is a problem and can sort by Computer or another field and quickly track down which one is missing.
Okay, but what if we're talking about 500 instead of 50 workstations? In a situation like this you could go more advanced and setup an Event Alarm monitoring item for Event Not Found.
After walking through setup, we assign this monitor item to the Windows--Workstations category and you are ready to go.
If the batch runs successfully it will create the custom event; the Event Alarm will find it and stay quiet. If the batch file is unsuccessful on a particular machine however, the Event Alarm will not find the custom event, and be triggered to perform the Action you assigned. You could then setup a notification from this if you so desire.
Creation of custom events within batch files and scripts along with the monitoring of ELM can not only simply those mundane tasks but also confirm that everything worked as planned.
For more details on the EventCreate utility, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324145.
We hope that you found this article informative and wish you continued success with your ELM deployment!
NOTE: All ELM 411 articles are written based on ELM Enterprise Manager Version 6.0 and instructions may not be accurate for previous ELM Versions. If you would like assistance upgrading to ELM 6.0 so you can use these tips - please contact support@tntsoftware.com.
Share your own ELM tips!
Have a tip or trick with our ELM products you'd like to share with our newsletter subscribers? Send your ideas and any applicable screen shots to info@tntsoftware.com with "ELM 411" in the subject line. We'll take a look and if usable you'll see it published here in the ELM 411 section of upcoming newsletters!
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