Quick Start Configuration

Welcome to ELM 6.7. Once installed, you're probably looking forward to getting ELM configured to do useful work.  The steps below will guide you in creating an Agent Agents are the fundamental component for identifying the devices to be monitored.  ELM pricing is based on the License and Class of the Agent.  There are 4 licenses: System, Log, Performance, and Event.  There are 2 classes: Class I = Windows Server and Windows Cluster Server Systems and Class II = Windows Workstation and non-Windows Systems. with a few Monitor Items Monitor Items determine the type of information or activity to monitor.  Examples include Event Collector (which collects events), Service Monitor (which watches the state of Windows services), and Performance Collector (which gathers performance counter values)., and an SMTP e-mail Notification Method Notification Methods control the message and how it is is delivered to you.  They're triggered by events and have thresholds which can protect you from being flooded by notifications.. We'll assign the e-mail Notification Method to a pre-configured Event View and then verify the setup. These step are for installing the ELM Server on a server based operating system such as Windows 2003/2008.  This walk-through should take less than 15 minutes.

Open the ELM Console on the ELM Server computer.

Monitoring and Management - The first time you connect the ELM Console to the ELM Server, you're prompted to activate ELM, review your database configuration, and install an Agent with the Agent Installation Wizard. To manually start the Agent Wizard, right-click on Monitoring and Management and select New | Agent. You will be collecting local Windows Event Log records for this walk-through.

Setup a local Service Agent Service Agents execute Monitor Items, collect data, transmit collected data to the ELM Server, and execute the configured Actions for assigned Monitor Items.  Service Agents are required in order to monitor event logs, health and performance and other subsystems in real-time. using these steps:

1.Start the Agent Deployment Wizard, then in the Welcome to the agent deployment wizard dialog, click Next.

2.In the System Names dialog, One System, enter the name of the ELM server, then click Next.

Note
The wizard provides a "Browse" button for searching network servers.  This browse function requires that Network Discovery is enabled on the domain and the following services are enabled and running: DNS Client, Function Discovery Resource Publication, SSDP Discovery and UPnP Discovery.

3.In the Systems Found dialog, your ping should have Succeeded, click Next.

4.In the System Scan Summary dialog, verify that the information is correct.  By default, it will choose for the Install Type: Service Agent.  Verify that all of the error settings are giving the status of OK, click Next.

5.In the Monitoring Products dialog, select the type of monitoring that you want to have ELM licensed for, such as System Class I, click Next.

6.In the Install Agents dialog, click Next.

7.In the Install Summary dialog, verify that the Service Agent has installed with a Complete status, click Finish.

As you performed these steps, an Event Collector was assigned to the Agent via the Windows -- Servers.

Viewing and Notifying - Several Filters and Event Views are fully pre-configured, others are partially pre-configured. Since ELM cannot predict your preferred e-mail address or SMTP server, we'll configure this object next:

1.Expand the Viewing and Notifying container.

2.Expand the Filters and Methods Library

3.Select the All Notification Methods sub-container.

4.In the right panel, double-click Sample SMTP Notification.

5.Select the SMTP Host tab. Enter the name or IP address of your SMTP Server. Enter a valid email address in the From field.

6.Select the Mail Message tab. Enter your e-mail address in the To: field, and click the Test button.

7.If the test was successful, click No in answer to the test results question and look for a test e-mail in your in-box.

8.If the test failed, verify that your e-mail address is correct, then return to the SMTP Host tab to verify that the SMTP Server and From fields are correct.

9.Select the Views tab.

10. Add a checkmark next to All Messages -- Errors.

11. Click OK to save these changes to the Sample SMTP Notification Method.

As you performed these steps, ELM assigned a pre-configured Filter, that matches all errors, to the All Messages -- Errors Event View.

Now that we have a working Notification Method assigned to an Event View, all errors received by the ELM Server will trigger an e-mail Notification.

Verification - Now you can generate some events to verify that everything is configured correctly:

1.Right-click on the ELM Server name that appears in the Agents and Monitoring Library, below Monitoring and Management, and select Tools | ELM Event Generator. This will open a new window titled Event Generator.

2.In the list of Event Sources, scroll down to WSH and select it.

3.In the right panel list of Events, select 1 from the Event ID list.

4.Click the Generate events button.

5.Click the Open Event Viewer button. This will open the Windows Event Viewer.

6.Select the Application log and look for an Error Event from source WSH to verify the event can be written.

7.Close the Windows Event Viewer.

8.In the ELM Console, select Viewing and Notifying | Event Views | All -- Errors, and look for an Error Event from WSH. This verifies the ELM Event Collector is gathering event log records.

9.Finally look in your e-mail in-box. You should have an e-mail with details about a test WSH error.

10. Close Event Generator.

By following the trail of data from the Windows Event Log, to the ELM Server, then to your in-box, you can verify data is being properly transmitted each step of the way. This troubleshooting technique validates basic ELM functionality.

Now that you have an overall understanding of how ELM is organized, please explore the full power of ELM in depth.