Monitoring Your Network - Getting Started with NerveCenter Web Client - Starting the Web Client -
Getting Started with NerveCenter Web Client      Getting Started with NerveCenter Client

Starting the Web Client

When you start the NerveCenter Web Client, you are prompted for a username and password which the client uses to connect you automatically to one or more NerveCenter servers that you've preselected.

Of course the first time you use the client, no servers will have been selected, so you must specify one or a set of NerveCenter servers that the Web client connects to. See the section Modifying the Server Connection List, for more information.

Once you start the Web client, you can also modify which alarm instances display and how they display in the Web client. See the section Defining a Partition, for more information.

 
  To start the Web client:

1. Start your Web browser.
2. In your browser's address or location field, enter the URL of the server on which you've installed NerveCenter Web support, followed by a slash, followed by the directory name NerveCenter. For example, you might enter: http://durncweb/NerveCenter
where durncweb is the Web server.

   The NerveCenter Web Client's Login Information page displays.

   

3. Enter a user name and password in the Username and Password fields.

   The user whose name you enter here must be a member of the NerveCenter Users or NerveCenter Admins group (Windows) or the ncusers or ncadmins group (UNIX) on the servers to which you want to connect.

4. Select one of the Login Preferences radio buttons.

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      If you're logging in to a NerveCenter Server using the Web client for the first time, skip this step and go to step 5. Then, to complete your login, see the section, Modifying the Server Connection List, for more information.

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   • If you select the Auto-Connect Previously Selected Servers radio button (the default) after you log in, you will be taken to the client's alarm-summary page. This is the page you use to view information about alarm instances.
   • If you select the Modify Server Connection List radio button after you log in, you will be taken to the client's Server Selection page. This is the page you use to specify the servers from which you want to get information about alarm instances. See the section Modifying the Server Connection List, for more information.
   • If you select the Modify Preferences radio button after you log in, you will be taken to the client's Preferences page. This is the page you use to specify how the client should filter and present information about alarm instances. See the section Setting Preferences, for more information.
5. Select the OK button.

Modifying the Server Connection List

When you connect to a NerveCenter Server, the Web client automatically connects you to one or more NerveCenter servers that you've preselected. This list of one or more servers is called a server connection list.

You modify the server connection list from the Web client's Server Selection page.

Server Selection page

The first time you use the Web client, no servers will have been selected, so you must initialize this set of servers. After you've initially specified one or more servers to connect to, you can always go back and modify your server connection list.

 
  To define the set of servers you want to connect to at login:

1. Access the Server Selection page. If you are:

• Starting the Web client for the first time, the Server Selection page is displayed automatically once you select OK on the Web client's Login Information page.
• Starting the Web client any time after the first time, in the Login Information page, select Modify Server Connect List before selecting OK.
• Already logged in to a NerveCenter Server, in the alarm-summary page, select the Modify Server List from the drop-down list box in the upper right corner of the client window, and select the Go button.

  

1. In the Server Selection page, populate the Available Servers list with the names of all the NerveCenter servers to which you might potentially connect. For each server:
   1. Type the name of the server in the Add New Server text field.
   2. Select the Add button.

      The Available Servers list box now includes the name of the server.

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         The servers that you select must allow logins using the username and password that you supplied when you started the Web client; also, the username must be a member of a NerveCenter user group (unless you are running Windows without NerveCenter security). You must use the same username and password for every server to which you want to connect.

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2. Move the names of the servers you want to connect to now to the Selected Servers list box. For each server:
   1. Select the server in the Available Servers list.
   2. Select the >> button.
3. Select the OK button.

Setting Preferences

Exactly what alarm instances you see on the alarm-summary page and how those instances are presented in the Web client's tree view depend not only on the server to which you're connected, but on a set of preferences you set on the Preferences page. This section explains the procedure for setting preferences and discusses how your settings affect what you see in the alarm-summary window.

 
  To set your preferences:

1. Go to the Preferences page.

   If you select the Modify Preferences radio button while you're logging on to the client, you'll be taken to this page. You can also reach this page from the alarm-summary window: just select Modify Preferences from the drop-down list box in the upper right corner of the window and select the Go button.

   

2. Choose how you want the tree view of your alarm instances to look in the alarm-summary window by selecting values from the two drop-down list boxes.

   In the default tree view, alarm instances are organized first by server and then by severity as shown below.

   

   To choose some other organization, change the values of one or both list boxes. The choices in each list box are Server, Severity, Property Group, and Partition. (A partition is a filter set up using the NerveCenter Web Client. Each partition can include a list of IP address ranges. For information on how to create a partition using the NerveCenter Web Client, see Connecting to a Server on page 41.)

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      Your specification of a tree view affects not only the organization of the tree view, but also how alarm instances are filtered. Instances are always filtered by server; however, they are filtered by severity only if you choose Severity from one of the listboxes. The same is true for filtering by property group or partition.

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3. If you selected Severity in one of the list boxes, select the severities you want to use in filtering alarm instances. That is, only instances of the severities you select will appear on the alarm-summary page.
   1. Select the Severity Filters tab.

      The Severity Filters tab displays.

      

      The first time you open it, the Available Severities list contains all the severities defined in the database of the first NerveCenter server to which you connected.

   2. For each severity you want to use in your filtering, select the severity and then select the >> button.

      The name of the severity displays in the Selected Severities list. Information about alarm instances with this severity will be displayed on the alarm-summary page.

4. If you selected Property Group in one of the list boxes, select the property groups you want to use in filtering alarm instances. That is, only alarm instances monitoring nodes in the property groups that you select will appear on the alarm-summary page.
   1. Select the Property Group Filters tab.

      The Property Group Filters tab is displayed.

      

      The first time you open it, the Available Property Groups list contains the union of the property groups defined for each NerveCenter server to which you're connected.

   2. For each property group you want to use in your filtering, select the property group and then select the >> button.

      The property group displays in the Selected Property Groups list. Information about alarm instances monitoring a node in this property group will be displayed on the alarm-summary page.

5. If you selected Partition in one of the list boxes, select the partitions you want to use in filtering alarm instances. That is, only instances monitoring machines on subnets specified in the partitions you select will appear on the alarm-summary page.

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      If you have not defined any partitions, the Available Partitions list will be empty. Before you can perform this step you must define one or more partitions using the procedure describe in the section Connecting to a Server on page 41.

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   1. Select the Partitions tab.

      The Partitions tab displays.

      

   2. For each partition you want to use in your filtering, select the partition and then select the >> button.

      The partition name displays in the Selected Partitions list. Information about alarm instances monitoring nodes in this partition will be displayed on the alarm-summary page.

      See Connecting to a Server on page 41, for more information.

6. Check the Display Enterprise Scope Alarms checkbox if you want the Web client to display instances of enterprise scope alarms.
7. In the Alarm View Automatic Refresh field, enter a number of seconds, or leave the field set to 0.

   If you enter a nonzero value x, the Web client will refresh the alarm-summary page every x seconds. If you leave the value set to 0, the client will not refresh the page.

8. Select the OK button.

   Your preferences take effect, and you are taken to the alarm-summary page.

Defining a Partition

A Web-client partition is an alarm-instance filter that enables you to monitor the machines on one or more subnets. You also have the ability to monitor all of the machines on a subnet except ones that you explicitly exclude.

See IP Subnet Filter Exclusion Rules on page 54, for more information about filtering alarms by one or more subnets.

 
  To create a partition:

1. Go to the Preferences page.
2. Choose the Partitions tab.
3. Select the Add Partition button.

   The Add Partition dialog is displayed.

   

4. Type the name you want to give the partition in the Partition Name field.
5. In the Subnet Address and Subnet Mask fields, enter the subnet address and mask for the subnet you want to monitor. Both entries should contain four octets separated by periods.
6. In the Exclusion List, enter a comma-separated list of machines (or ranges of machines) on the subnet that you do not want to monitor.

   For each machine, enter the last octet of its IP address. For example, the entry 1,2, 5-7 would mean to exclude the machines whose addresses end in 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7.

7. Select the Add button.

   The IP address filter displays in the IP Filters list.

8. Repeat step 5 to step 7 to add further subnets to the partition.
9. Select the OK button.

For the partition filter to take effect, you must:

• Add the partition to the Selected Partitions list on the Partitions tab
• Go to the Alarm View tab, and select Partition from one of the list boxes

Disconnecting from a Server

Unlike the NerveCenter Client, the NerveCenter Web Client does not offer a disconnect-from-server button or menu entry. To disconnect the Web client from a server, you must return to the Server Selection page, and remove the server from the Selected Servers list.

 
  Disconnecting from a server from the alarm summary page:

1. Select Modify NerveCenter Server List from the drop-down list box in the upper right corner of the window; then, select the Go button.

   You are taken to the Server Selection page.

2. Select a server from the Selected Servers list.

   This is the server you no longer want to connect to.

3. Select the << button.
4. Select the OK button.

   You are disconnected from the server you selected earlier and returned to the alarm-summary page.