One of the most powerful features within NetSupport DNA is the alerting component, providing
real-time feedback on any number of conditions for behaviour across the
network.
Let's take a look. We see on our main welcome screen, we have a summary providing us with
information that there have been 10 alerts within our enterprise in the current
month's period. Also, looking on our tree view, you will see that we have an alert symbol
indicating next to the Channel department. This visual warning can be toggled on or off
using the indicators at the top of the tree view. If we drill down, we can see that this
information relates to alerts against this PC: INVH540. So, at a very high level, NetSupport DNA provides a quick
and easy way of visually seeing any alerts that have been triggered across the enterprise.
If we select our Alerts tab from the top of the screen, on the menu here, you will see that
we enter our alerts mode and we can see that the particular alert triggered against that server
is "New operators have been added". We will discover shortly how we can drill
down and view those alerts and apply actions, where appropriate. Let's start with the
visual feedback that the console provides us. On our main toolbar, because we have entered the alerts mode,
we will see we have (as with each component) our new dedicated views
relating specifically to alerts. They're broken into two sections: the
first section identifies any alerts that we have enabled. In other words, alerts
that we've set up and are actively running and monitoring our systems at the
current time. Our alerts raised are any alerts that have been triggered, i.e. the
conditions have met those that we've defined and they're now providing us with
a visual warning.
So from the list of alerts enabled, we can select either console, server or PC
and you will see we have a summary of alerts that are currently active on the system.
Here are some console alerts; we have a long list of server alerts (which we will cover shortly); and we have
some individual PC alerts running. At this point, let's pause and consider what the distinction is
between the different alert types that NetSupport DNA offers. It's probably easiest
to work from the bottom up in terms of concepts. So first we have PC alerts.
These are alerts that occur on an individual PC or device. Some examples are those running at
the current time: so if the disk space on a particular PC falls below a certain
threshold; if an application runs on a specific PC; if the number of print jobs a
PC is attempting to print exceeds a certain level - each of these can trigger an alert.
In other words, they are conditional-based on a specific individual unit. Our server alerts, in effect,
reflect the larger enterprise or the sum of the parts. Good examples here are where
across the network there are access to websites; software distribution packages were
successful or failed; PCs were deleted from our enterprise; our overall licence limit
(the sum of many) exceeded our licence ownership (whether it be for NetSupport DNA or
software in general); whether against all programs, as indicated, exceed the license
limit - and so on. So NetSupport DNA has a concept of individual PC alerts for
actions that occur on one specific device; server alerts that reflect the
broader enterprise; and finally, console alerts that relate to the DNA console itself - our
technology and enterprise.
So when updates are applied, when new operators are added to the DNA system, when rights are changed, and so on.
So all very specific to DNA itself. So with those three layers of alerts, we are able to monitor
the system from every angle and ensure we get real-time feedback. So how do we
go about setting these alerts and adding them to our list of active console, server or PC alerts?
As always, we go to our component menu, and you will see we have the options for
each of the three levels. So let's start with our PC alerts. Selecting the option
allows us for our organisation - and you can see we have our
hierarchy structure as before. We currently have three alerts running. If we
want to manage some alerts, we simply select the Manage button. As you'll see here, we
have the ability to manage those that are currently allocated or create (on the
right-hand side) new alerts. If we select "new", we see a list is provided to us of
potential alerts that we could choose to set and configure. We can select one and then
simply apply conditions. So in this case here - let's, for example, look at free space as
a percentage (this is one that is currently running). If we select "next", we're able to define our
particular requirements. So we want to specify an alert where we are going to test the C drive. We
want the condition to be less than, and the amount to be 25 percent. Perhaps we
will have an alert where the disk space drops to below 15 percent. You'll see we have
an advanced option here. The
advanced option allows us to control both the sensitivity of the reading and the
frequency. Now, the sensitivity is an important component. If, for example, we
were measuring CPU utilisation, we might not want to test just once and that be
sufficient to trigger an alert. It's quite possible that a PC could have
maximum CPU utilisation for a short period of time. So, for that type of alert, we may
choose to set the sensitivity to be "test" - in this case, five concurrent
times every 30 seconds - and if the condition is matched, then trigger an
alert. In the case of disk space, once the disk space falls below a certain level,
it probably does reflect that that disk space will remain low. So in this case, we can
set our number of checks to one or two and we can choose to poll perhaps every one and a half
minutes or so. Then we can say "next" and apply our alert.
The next option is: who are we going to tell when the alert is triggered? Of course, we'll have our
on-screen indicators, but we can also choose to alert on screen specific operators
that have been defined within the DNA environment. And, if we choose to configure it within the
system (and we will show you shortly), we can also choose to notify individual users by email. Let's say "OK" and we'll finish
that. You'll see we now have an extra alert that, if we wish, has been defined and can
be added to our categories at the bottom.
So for our PC alerts, we now have two disk space warnings. We have a print queue
having more than ten jobs and we also have an alert if the application Notepad is run at any time on our
system. And we can simply say "OK" to that. So now we have four print jobs and we will see when we look at our print list
we now have under our PC - here we have our print; free space; free space; and application
Notepad running. So with those alerts running, any alerts that are triggered will
immediately appear within our hierarchy structure here. And remember, alerts can be
assigned against the entire enterprise or against just specific departments. We can
drill down again, so we'll see individual PCs if an alert
triggers. So we will wait to see whether any of our alerts trigger in due course, but in
the meantime, let's look at our other kinds of alerts. So again, from our Alerts menu, we can
select our server alerts. And here you will see we have a list of all of our available alerts - and
below, we have our enabled alerts. So, for each category we can specify any alerts -
this is those that are remaining that haven't yet been assigned. We can see,
for example, if the CPU changes on the hardware, we can simply select the alert and say Add
and it becomes part of our overarching list. We can review the different items we have
defined at the moment (perhaps attempt to access a restricted website) and again we
can review that. We can decide on specific information such as its
priority and, again, who we will contact if the alert is triggered. So for our system alerts, it is very easy and
simple to select from our pre-defined list and enable or disable the alerts that
we want. We can do the same with our console alerts. If we select our console alerts, because these
relate specifically DNA - we can see under our DNA console, we have alerts that are triggered based on:
currently enabled; a new DNA operator being deleted; added; configured,
and so on. And whilst we've been talking, you may have seen an alert pop up in this corner, which we will show you shortly.
And at the top, we have some new alerts that we could assign if we wanted to,
which is one of the new features in NetSupport DNA, namely: our ability to monitor directory
accounts and warn us if any accounts become disabled or locked on the network;
a good way of ensuring user productivity on the system.
OK. So, if we wanted to apply this particular alert to our system, which is to warn us if a
directory user account becomes disabled, we can edit the conditions. Here it's a
critical alert and it will alert/contact admin within the console. We can choose which
domain accounts we want to monitor - in this case, all members of UK. And here we will
need to provide our admin credentials to give us the rights to poll the network
itself. Once we've applied those, we can then test our credentials and then set them.
In this case, we will just hit "Cancel" as we've already got some alerts running here.
And again, when we hit "Close" that's now running on our system. Now, you will remember earlier we listed our PC alerts here
and one of our alerts was "is application Notepad running?" and we had a popup message appear on the
screen. If we look down here, we have a new one in the workgroup - and we can see for this particular PC
we have an "is application Notepad running?". We can see the time that it triggered and we
can look at the conditions and it says on this machine, with this user, with
this address, the condition was met. So we can now close the alert - we are happy we've seen that. Or we can enter a
description. Let's just put that that was noted - thank you very much - and close that alert.
So that alert is now cleared off the system. It's a very simple and easy way for us to be alerted to any
conditions that change on the enterprise.The last bit to also be aware of is: if we go to our Tools menu and we
select our Settings. From within our Settings, we have an email option here and this is where we
create and set up our credentials linked to our email server if we want to be able to
send email messages directly from DNA to specified users when alerts are triggered.
So this is where we go to specify the email server address, the account name and passwords that
we're going to use. And we can select the option here to test that is working, so that
in future, any alerts triggered can be directed to the right individuals. We will
come back to our home screen - we are still on our Alerts menu. You'll see we have 10 alerts which are our new operator
accounts that have been added. And again, if we select our Action box for each of those, we can see
details of each of the alerts that were triggered. These were the new users that were created as console users.
If we are happy with them, we can simply close that alert. You'll see that we now have no active alerts on the system.
Nice and simple and easy to use. Thank you for viewing this tour. Please visit
www.netsupportdna.com to find out more or, if appropriate, download a free, 30 day trial.