Ping monitor

Ping Monitor is used to ping a system using either its IP address or its DNS name (resolved to an IP address at every poll) and get the system's availability and response time. It uses ICMP protocol and sends an ECHO_REQUEST, and receives an ECHO_REPLY. Ping monitor requires root privileges since it uses raw socket for sending ping requests. Enable ICMP on the host machine and Firewall for hosts behind firewall.

Monitored attributes for Ping monitors

The following table lists the monitored attributes of a Ping monitor.

Attribute	Description
Availability (%)	Availability of the system being pinged. If ping action is successful, system returns 100%, otherwise it returns 0.
Response time (ms)	Turn-around time for a ping request.
DNS Lookup Time (ms)	Time taken for resolving the specified DNS name to an IP address. In case the name lookup fails, Ping monitor will report NO RESPONSE. In case an IP address is specified in the field. Ping monitor will report 0 (as no name resolution would be done).

Configuration information for Ping monitors

The following table describes the information required during configuration of the Ping monitor.

Configuration information	Description
Input fields on the Configuration tab
Instance Name	Specify a name for the monitor instance. This is displayed on folders, graphs, lists, etc. Example, Ping Monitor.
Tag	Specify a tag value to search or group the objects. You can enter multiple name-value pairs, text, or include both (name-value pair and text). This gives you the option to group objects in different forms. Click the + icon to select a default tag class. The Enter Tag Details screen opens. Select Tag Class from the drop-down list and enter a tag value. Click Add to append tag class and value. Click Finish. The tag specified by you is not considered as a default class. You cannot enter special characters &"/<>' in the tag field. Editing a Tag Value on the Enter Tag Details screen: Select a tag value and click Edit. Make the necessary modifications in the Tag Value text box and click Set to add the changes. Deleting a Tag Value on the Enter Tag Details screen: Select a tag value and click Delete. Click Yes to delete the tag value.
Source Agent	Select the name or IP address of the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server or Infrastructure Management agent to host the new monitor instance.
Target Device	Specify the DNS name/IP address of the machine to be pinged. Infrastructure Management recommends that the IP address of the Target Device and the device where the monitor is being created be the same.
System-populated fields
Monitor Version	Version of the installed Infrastructure Management monitor.
Control tab
Collect Data	Select/clear check box to enable/disable data collection for the monitored component. By default, data collection is enabled (check box selected).
Fast Poll Period	Specify the time interval between two consecutive fast polls. Default is 0 seconds.
Fast Poll Tolerance Count	Specify the number of consecutive unsuccessful poll attempts before recording Zero availability for the fast poll. Default is 0.
Retry Count	Specify the number of consecutive unsuccessful attempts before recording Zero availability for the poll. Default is 3.
Statistics Poll Interval	Specify the time interval between two consecutive statistical data polls. Default is 5 minutes.
Statistics Poll Timeout	Specify the time-out period for each poll of statistical data. If no data is available at the end of this interval, the system records Zero availability and proceeds with the next scheduled poll. Default is 30 seconds.
Group tab
Group Membership	This enables you to add a device and its monitors to one or more groups. Optionally, you may associate the device with a group. A group is used to logically organize the devices and monitors by department, geographic area, or service. Assigning a device to a group also enables the system administrator to restrict or allow access to certain devices. To associate the device with a group, select the group name here.

Additional configuration and setup issues

The following table presents details about Additional configuration and setup issues for the Ping monitor.

Issue	Details
Skip validation	This monitor enables forceful creation when the monitored target is not reachable or specified inputs are wrong. Click Yes on the Skip Validation confirmation message to forcefully create a monitor. Clicking No will fail the monitor creation. Forcefully creating the monitor when target is not reachable or with invalid input(s) may cause Availability to be set to 0.
Monitor configuration	No additional configuration requirements for this monitor. Maintain the default configuration of Infrastructure Management.
External setup	No external setup requirements for this monitor.
External dependencies	A properly configured DNS server should be reachable from the Infrastructure Management agent hosting the Ping monitor. The machine hosting Infrastructure Management agent (on which the Ping monitor is running) should be configured to point to the properly configured DNS server.
Infrastructure Management agent dependencies	Infrastructure Management agent installation on the monitored host is not mandatory. Monitor instance can be created on any Infrastructure Management agent.

Ping monitor thresholds

Absolute thresholds for Ping monitor

Attribute	Severity	Duration (min)	Flag	Default Threshold	Outside Baseline	Baseline Type
Availability	Critical	0	Below	100	N	ALL
Response Time	Minor	15	Above	500	Y	ALL

Signature thresholds for Ping monitor

Attribute	Severity	Duration (min)	Flag	Sensitivity	Absolute Deviation	% Deviation	Suppress	Baseline Type
Availability	Event Only	10	Above	0	0	5	1	Hourly
Availability	Event Only	30	Below	50	0	5	0	Hourly
Response Time	Event Only	10	Above	50	500	5	0	Hourly