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resource planning for ipMonitor: need guidance

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263 Posts
Points 747
freemen posted on Fri, Sep 19 2008 10:45 AM
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I am an Orion user, but I have been talking to a net admin bud of mine who is considering SW products. I think that ipMonitor is a better fit for him due to network size and the fact that he does not need to keep historical data.

That said, I don't know enough about ipMonitor from a theory standpoint to be able to talk about server requirements (CPU speed and number, amount of RAM needed, drive space and configuration options, etc.) and other planning aspects that one should consider prior to purchasing and installing ipMonitor. For instance, should one be concerned about the effects of the number of configured monitors on server resources and network bandwidth?

Does SW have a guidance document that details that essential questions and issues that one should consider before installing and configuring ipMonitor?

Any help would be appreciated.

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14 Posts
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SolarWinds Employee
bkyle replied on Fri, Sep 19 2008 2:46 PM
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Here is a link to the FAQ:

http://www.solarwinds.com/products/ipmonitor/faq.aspx

 

This should address most of your questions.   There are also links for system requirements, as well as features, and an overview.

 

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SolarWinds Employee
SRegan replied on Fri, Sep 19 2008 2:47 PM
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Thanks for the Great Question freeman!

We do have system requirements available in the Admin Guide and on our website.   Here is a link to our web page that describes these things.

http://www.solarwinds.com/products/ipmonitor/system_requirements.aspx

As for bandwidth consumption,  this is not a simple metric to calculate because every cleint uses the software uniquely in their own environment.  For example:  Someone using ipMonitor to test simple availability (ping) of 5000 nodes on their network will see significantly less network overhead then someone who is monitoring 300 SQL servers.   The amount of network traffic generated depends on monitor types.  Additionally, the more frequently these monitors are set to perform each test.   The default is 300 seconds between each test, but you can set it to be as aggressive as 1 second (however,  this is not recommended) 

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263 Posts
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freemen replied on Fri, Sep 19 2008 3:03 PM
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Thanks for the two replies. I have another question. Where (file name and location) does ipMonitor store the statistical data?

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2,318 Posts
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SolarWinds Employee
Mark Wiggans replied on Fri, Sep 19 2008 3:18 PM
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Under the DB temp directory (last 24hrs.)  and also DB store - in the installation directory.

Mark Wiggans Information Development-

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263 Posts
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freemen replied on Fri, Oct 24 2008 1:33 PM
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I see some data files in these folders with TLOG and PLOG extensions. What, if anything, can open and read these files?

As far as data retention and deletion are concerned, does one simply need to delete these files at some arbitrary size limit? Or, is there a more formal procedure for maintaining these data files?

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228 Posts
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SolarWinds Employee
Fodome replied on Fri, Oct 24 2008 1:59 PM
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Hello Freemen,

Every file within the \dbstore\ directory contains the statistics for all monitors for a specific day.  In order to keep these files an unbelievably small size, they are written in a binary and proprietary format which cannot be read and understood by anything other than ipMonitor.  As you can store many years of statistics without requiring any significant drive space (unless you are running this on a computer made in 1999), the need for maintenance is simply not there.

Hope this answers your question.

Sincerely,

Chris Foley

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adamd2929 replied on Thu, Dec 17 2009 7:59 PM
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Hi Chris,

I have some PLOG files that are old enough not to be required any more.  Can they just be deleted?

R.

Adam

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SolarWinds Employee
Answered (Not Verified) Fodome replied on Tue, Dec 29 2009 12:53 PM
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Suggested by MarieB

Hi Adam,

I always recommend backing up first but yes, you can delete the older files at will.

Chris Foley

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Points 24
adamd2929 replied on Sun, Jan 3 2010 6:58 PM
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FYI - I'm not sure if this helps answer the original question, but I have 1200 monitors with most at 30 second polling (though some at 60 second) and I get a new 22MB PLOG file in dbstore each day.

ipMonitor handles the deletion of a PLOG file really well.  If you delete a PLOG file, the history for that day just disappears :).  I have not noticed any glitches in monitoring, reporting or anything else as the result of deleting the 30+ of these files that were collected by ipMonitor before it became one of the live production systems.

 

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