Gateways

Network Monitor supports the monitoring of servers, routers and other types of assets on multiple networks. A gateway is installed on the server's local network and each remote network managed by Network Monitor. Assets are monitored by the gateway sharing their same network. Each gateway, local and remote, sends its monitoring results back to the Network Monitor server.

Network Monitor Server

The Network Monitor server contains a database and management interface providing a consolidated view of all data returned by all gateways. Remote gateway assets are managed exactly the same as any local gateway. This makes Network Monitor very simple to configure and manage. This process is completely transparent to the user.

Network Monitor Gateway

A gateway acts on requests from the server. Except for a small cache file, gateways do not store any configuration or statistical data locally. All data is sent immediately to the server. The gateway must be installed on an agent machine.

Server and Gateway Communication

The data between a gateway and the server is always sent from the gateway to the server. The idea behind this solution is that more gateways than servers are deployed, so the administrator only has to open one port on the server firewall to allow communication.

If, for any reason, the gateway cannot connect to the server, the gateway starts buffering test results and statistics while waiting for the server. This buffering time can be configured per gateway.

Security and data integrity is achieved by using the state of the art communication protocol SSH2. The SSH2 protocol encrypts data with public key algorithms and protects connections from man-in-the-middle attacks. This is the same way VPN software establish secure tunnels over the internet.

Time Synchronization

Network Monitor automatically adjusts for time zone differences. The administrators must ensure the clock on gateways are synchronized with the clock in the Network Monitor server. We recommend that server and gateways be synchronized with a time synchronizing service such as NTP (Network Time Protocol). Failure to synchronize time between server and gateway may lead to unpredictable results in alarm generation and statistical storage.

Gateway nodes

Gateway nodes display as specialized nodes on the monitor tree. Gateway views, commands and properties are similar to groups. Gateway nodes have additional, specialized properties and commands for managing a gateway installed on a network.