Getting Started with Monitoring

Introduction

This guide will help you get started with Dotcom-Monitor Monitoring Solution. To learn how monitoring works, see Monitoring Algorithm. If there are any terms that are unfamiliar, check available articles in our Glossary. On our Video Tutorials page you can find detailed how-to video guides that will walk you through the monitoring configuration process and help to understand how it works.

This quick start video will provide you with a valuable overview of all the steps involved in the monitoring configuration process.

Add a Device

Dotcom-Monitor uses devices to organize and set up monitoring. Device defines monitoring settings, including frequency, monitoring locations (agents) list, reporting options, alerting options, and other settings. Devices are grouped together by platforms based on the monitoring type.

To create a device and configure monitoring, click Devices on the left sidebar of the start page and on the device manager page, click New Device. This will take you to the page where you can select a monitoring type.

The exact process for setting up a single monitoring device varies depending on the type of the monitoring target and the monitoring platform used. If you are not confident about what type of monitoring you should pick, see Selecting Right Monitoring Type.

For a quick start with Dotcom-Monitor Monitoring Types and their use cases, take a rapid video tour.

Configure a Device

Depending on the monitoring type, from within the device settings page, you can create a web app monitoring script, specify the target web page or other web resources or set up hardware counters. Additionally, you can select a specific group to receive reports or alerts and choose schedules and filters to apply to the device, the reports, and the notifications. If you do not know what you wish to put in these fields while setting up your first device, you can stick to the default options, and always come back and edit the device at a later time.

To manage a device, click Devices on the left sidebar of the start page, select the device from the All Devices list and use options from the device’s menu.

Once you have identified what those options should be and save your device, you can create new groups, schedules, and filters from the Manage menu on the left sidebar of the start page.

Configure Delivery Address Groups

Delivery Address Groups or Notification Groups are used to configure who will receive alerts and scheduled reports on a device. To set up notification groups, on the start page go to the Manage menu on the left sidebar and select Delivery Address Groups. Our recommendation is to create the first alert group and include your preferred contact information for receiving notifications. You have the flexibility to revisit and create additional groups at a later time. For instance, consider creating notification groups tailored for different shifts within your support teams.

Configure Schedules

When configuring notification groups you may have noticed there was an option to set a schedule for the group. To configure schedules, on the start page go to the Manage menu on the left sidebar and select Schedules.

Schedules can be set up so that certain groups only receive notifications during specified time periods. Schedules can also be used to define when monitoring should be run or suspended.  For example, if you perform server maintenance every Friday evening at midnight, you may want to suspend your alerts for that period so that notifications are not sent out. Or, if you have three support shifts you may want to schedule alerts to be sent to different support teams at different times of the day.