Uptime Monitoring
Uptime Monitoring
The term "uptime" is used to determine the amount of time a computer system has been functional. In network terms it is defined by the availability of a server, device or site. In individual computer terms it is defined by the reliability and stability of the individual sytem. Uptime is most often than not measured in percentages, as such an uptime of 90% for a day would mean that the system in case was functioning properly for 1296 minutes (21.6 hours).
Networks require several reliable devices for working properly. The successful and rapid transfer of information and files in networks implies that these devices are continuously available. Uptime Monitoring Software controls and monitors the availability of devices of the internet as well as of devices of an intranet such as servers and routers.
Uptime monitoring is used for alerting administrators when a system fails - most times in the form of notifications (per email, SMS, etc.). It can also be used to determine where issues may arise within a network and to proactively monitor the activity within said network, allowing administrators to balance loads and consider routing and purchasing options. The simplest way to determine the uptime of a system is using PINGs at specified intervals, computing the uptime percentages from actual and failing responses.
PRTG Network Monitor is such an uptime monitoring tool. It checks the availability of your servers and other network devices such as a router. PRTG Network Monitor supports a wide variety of sensor types and creates so detailed uptime monitoring reports and monitors the downtime as well. This way the tool can find out if the device works properly or if there are faults in the system. Devices with many downtime reports are probably working incorrect.
With the help of the analyses and the
graphs, PRTG Network Monitor creates, faults instantly can be detected
by the administrator. Furthermore the tool can create detailed notifications
about faults detected. These notifications are sent to the
administrator and the faults can be corrected. Notifications about
downtime or error reports can be sent via email, via pager, by SMS or
by network broadcast. Additional the PRTG Network Monitor can create
a text log file about the error occurred. That helps the administrator
to solve the problem. If you run a system open to the public on
weekends as well as on holidays the administrator can receive an error
report at home or anywhere else. This way it is not necessary that the
system administrator is present at the company or the university all
time.
Detailed uptime monitoring including alerting the administrator in case
of occurrence of errors, is one of the benefits of network monitoring.
However Network Monitoring Software comprises not only tools for uptime monitoring and downtime monitoring but also usage monitoring since intense usage of network bandwidth can be the reason for unavailability or system errors as well.
Therefor PRTG Network Monitor continuously records the bandwidth usage of file and data packages transferred to the server or downloaded from the server. This way you can check, if the bandwidth capacity is completely used. PRTG Network Monitor helps to detect overload times of the network and faults of the system. The tool creates a diagram of several parameters of network usage, showing the bandwidth usage graphically. Moreover the tool creates statistics about the traffic amount to show how much the server is frequented by users.