MonitorMagic - Knowledge Base

We have encountered several software packages which seem to interfere with the performance counter readings, producing false results for any application trying to read these values. When reading the same performance counter with the Microsoft Windows Performance Monitor, readings will be identical to the MonitorMagic results. We have not been able to accurately identify software packages that cause this behaviour. In case you encounter such readings, please contact us.

See this Microsoft Knowledge base article for more information:
126401 - Err Msg: "Not Enough Server Storage is Available to Process..."

MonitorMagic requires several core Windows DLLs, that are not part of the MonitorMagic console or agent installation, to operate correctly. MonitorMagic initializes these DLLs at startup and tries to access all required methods available in the DLL. When this fails, usually another application has overwritten this DLL with its own version that does not include the standard methods required by MonitorMagic. Check to see if the MonitorMagic client application runs on other machines to locate and isolate the problem. Reinstalling the MonitorMagic console or agent will not solve this problem, as another application has modified system files needed by MonitorMagic.

MonitorMagic has a special mechanism for this, called "trigger timing". If you send 10 pings using a timeout value of 5000msec, the total ping period which has to fail is 50 seconds, which is the trigger timing period.

1. Create a new ping monitor and point it to your router
2. Set the timeout to 5000msec
3. Set the monitor scheduling to 5 seconds
4. Add a rule: response time greather than 5000
5. Add 2 alarm actions, one for rule triggered and one for rule no longer triggered
You will now receive a popup when no successful ping has been sent for 50 seconds, and also immediately when the router starts responding again.

Sending SMS messages to telecom operators is a sensitive operation. Most telecom operators use old equipment and do not 100% conform to SMS sending protocols. Read our KB article for troubleshooting tips.

The MonitorMagic service is probably installed in "debug" mode. In this mode, it writes all available status information to the application log, including possibly unwanted information messages. Run the service setup from the MonitorMagic client, make sure the "Enable debug logging in application log of event viewer" in the "Advanced section" of the dialog is disabled.

Our pre-defined policies are set for a target similar to "<point to object>". Since this is not a valid IP address the monitoring will fail. Make sure that all monitors in the policies are targeted to valid IP address before applying them.

MonitorMagic has a special feature to accomplish this: "Trigger timing". When composing a rule in the "Rule Spec" tab, set the trigger timing for this example to 120 seconds (2 minutes). The default scanning rate of the performance counter monitor is 60 seconds, which now means that the monitor must measure a CPU load of 99% for 2 consecutive times before the rule will trigger.

You can also combine this behaviour with the ping monitor, for example when a WAN link is known for dropping a ping now and then, so you don't want an alarm every time a single ping is dropped, but only when several consecutive pings fail.

When you have a workgroup environment, you cannot simply add the MonitorMagic service account from 001 to the administrators group on 002. Instead, you can use a workaround to accomplish the same effect. Create an account with exactly the same name and password on server 002 and assign it to the local administrators group. When you now use MonitorMagic with the local account on 001, you will have full access to server 002.

Note that you don't need to know the initial password of the MonitorMagic service account. Simply reset that password to a new one of your liking and make sure the second account has the same password.

The local monitor policies are saved inside the client console directory, by default:
<drive>:\Program Files\Tools4ever\MonitorMagic\NmMonPol.cfg

The central monitor policies are saved inside the service directory, by default:
<drive>:\Program Files\MonitorMagicService\DATA\MonitorPolicyDatabase.dbm

If you have a backup copy of these files at all times, you can install a new copy of the MonitorMagic service, stop the running service and close the console, restore these files and start the service.

The monitor database is saved inside the service directory, by default:
<drive>:\Program Files\MonitorMagicService\monitor.db

If you have a backup copy of the file at all times, you can install a new copy of the MonitorMagic service, stop the running service, restore this file and start the service.

These servers will not be visible in the network browse tree, but you can manually add these. Right-click on an empty portion below the default tree and either select "New folder...". After the folder has been created, right-click on the folder and choose "Add computer..." and specify either the NETBIOS name or the TCP/IP address for the target computer.

Make sure you have the default MonitorMagic port open on the target server for inbound and outbound TCP communication. See the topic above to find the MonitorMagic port number.