IIS Monitor

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The IIS Monitor monitors only Internet Information Services 5.0 (Windows 2000), 5.1 (Windows XP) and 6.0 (Windows 2003). The IIS Monitor periodically checks for state changes and broken paths. In addition, it executes a File Monitor (no separate File Monitor configuration necessary) to parse the IIS log files for failed requests, and connection attempts from blocked addresses (e.g., addresses blocked via IIS security).

Important
The IIS Monitor can be used with Service Agents only. It cannot be used with Virtual Agents or IP Virtual Agents.

A broken path occurs when IIS and the file system are out of sync. When this happens, and depending on where the broken path exists, Windows Internet Services Manager may display a red "stop sign" icon next to the virtual directory with the broken path.

Failed requests are any HTTP response code that represents a failure. This includes all HTTP 500 and 400 level response codes, as well as all HTTP 300 responses except for HTTP 304. Any HTTP 200 response is considered a success.

Note
If the IIS Monitor tries to access a blocked address, it will generate 2 warnings: one for a blocked address attempt, and one for a failed URL request.

By default, the IIS Monitor monitors all virtual servers. This is done through the use of an asterisk (*) wildcard. You can monitor specific virtual servers by removing the asterisk entry and replacing it with the name of the virtual servers you want to monitor. To remove the asterisk entry, click it once to select it, and then click the Delete button.

To add virtual servers, enter the name of the server in the Add Virtual Servers to Monitor field and click the Add button.

If the IIS Monitor should repeat failure messages during an outage, check the box that says Execute configured Action(s) for every failure.

The IIS Monitor starts looking for issues (broken paths, etc.) that occur after the first Scheduled Interval.  If you need the IIS Monitor to search IIS history for all issues, then add a check mark for Do Actions on First Run when first configuring it.

Actions

Enabled State Change (Warning) 5557 - A web site state changed. For example if the Default Web Site is paused.

Broken Path (Error) 5558 - IIS is configured for a non-existent directory path.

Failed Request (Warning) 5559 - A client tried to access an invalid URL.

Blocked Address Attempt (Warning) 5560 - A client tried to access a restricted or blocked URL.

Categories

Displays the Monitoring Categories to which the Monitor is assigned. Click to select or deselect Monitoring Categories. Right click to create or edit Monitoring Categories.

Test Monitor

Test any Monitor Item against any Agent capable of running the Item using the drop-down and Test button on this dialog box. Testing a Monitor Item prior to putting it into production validates that the monitor item is configured properly. To test a monitor item:

1.Select the Agent you wish to test against from the drop-down list.

2.Click the Start Test button.

If the test was successful, you will receive a pop-up indicating this and the option to see detailed results of the test. If the test failed, detailed results of the test will automatically open in Notepad.

Schedule

Displays the Scheduled Interval and Scheduled Hours settings which control the frequency for the Monitor Item.

Scheduled Interval tab

Specify the interval at which the monitoring, polling or action is to occur. Depending on the Monitor Item type, Items can be scheduled in interval increments of Seconds, Minutes, Hours and Days. The Scheduled Interval is relative to the top of the hour or top of the minute. For example, if a Scheduled Interval is configured for 10 minutes, the Monitor Item will execute at hh:10:00, hh:20:00, hh:30:00, hh:40:00, hh:50:00, h1:00:00, etc. If a Scheduled Interval is configured for 15 seconds, the Monitor Item will execute at hh:00:15, hh:00:30, hh:00:45, hh:01:00, hh:01:15, etc.

Scheduled Hours tab

Select the days and/or hours this item is active. By default, the schedule is set to ON for all hours and all days. Mouse clicks toggle squares between ON and OFF. Clicking on an individual square will toggle the active schedule for that hour. Clicking on an hour at the top of the grid, or on a day of the week at the left of the grid will toggle the corresponding column or row. Keyboard equivalents are the arrow keys and the space bar.

Properties Tab

This read-only tab displays the properties of the selected object and the values for those properties.