The purpose of the SysOrb Network Monitoring System is to monitor servers, applications and devices in a network by talking to the servers and retrieving information about running services, current load, etc. This information can be used by the administrators of the network to track down problems with their servers, document resource utilization, etc.
The SysOrb Network Monitoring System consists of several major software components, the responsibilities of which are outlined below:
The SysOrb Server: This is the center of the SysOrb System. The Server can remotely check networked services (such as web servers and mail servers) via NetChecks, but it is also the central component to which the Agents will report device information and statistics. The SysOrb Server is the central repository in which all statistical and operational data are stored, and it is the entity in the SysOrb System that will actively alert administrators when problems arise in any of the monitored systems.
In the following text a node is any machine or device that can be monitored by SysOrb. A host is a node where the SysOrb Agent can be installed.
The SysOrb Agent: In order to actively monitor local devices (such as harddrives, memory, processor statistics etc.) on networked systems, those systems must run the SysOrb Agent. This program will gather operational information from the system on which it is running, and report these data to the SysOrb Server for further processing. In case of failures (such as a harddisk running full, or a crashed service process), the SysOrb Server can actively alert the administrators of the particular machine that reported the failure.
The Web Interface: In order to allow easy access to the monitoring data and then configuration of the SysOrb System from anywhere and from any platform, the Web-based Interface is provided. This User Interface ships as a part of the SysOrb Server, and is usually (but not necessarily) run on the same physical machine as the one running the SysOrb Server. In order to fully use and configure monitored services or devices in the SysOrb System, all you need is a computer with a web-browser capable of accessing the SysOrb Server computer.