First, please ensure that the computer hosting the MetricsView agent is online, and the agent is running.
Make sure the agent is up to date. Open the start menu, Programs, select the Dotcom-Monitor folder, open the Agent Version Manager. If the latest version identified is not listed as Active, click the Activate button. If it is listed as active, try clicking the Reactivate button.
Check whether the service is running:
Open the start menu and type into the search bar: Services
(open the Windows Services)
Verify that there is at least one Service with a name like Dotcom-Monitor MetricsView Agent Service.
Verify the service is started.
If the service is not started, if possible, restarting the machine should also restart the service and clear out anything that may be interfering such as multiple instances of an application running at once.
If the service is not started, you can try to start it manually by right clicking and select start.
Note the Log On As column. It should either list Local System or a username that has administrative permissions on your system. If the username is not Local System, you can verify that the proper username and password are entered by right-clicking the service and selecting properties. then select the Log On As tab and re-enter the username and password.
Check Proxy Settings
If the machine that the MetricsView agent is installed on requires a proxy to connect to the internet, you can update the proxy settings of the MetricsView agent by launching the version manager from your start menu under the Dotcom-Monitor folder. The proxy settings are available under the advanced settings by clicking the ellipses in the upper right corner of the version manager.
If you do not know your proxy settings, you can find the info by opening up your browser and selecting internet options. Select the Connections tab and go to LAN Settings. From here you can enter a Proxy IP address and Port.
Verify the Agent is Sending Data
The MetricsView agent uses stateless communication with the dotcom-monitor servers. Every minute it checks with our server to see if there is something that needs to be monitored. If yes, it takes the tasks, performs monitoring and uploads data. Otherwise, if there is nothing to monitor it goes back to sleep for 1 minute.
There is no persistent connection to our servers, that will allow us to detect “immediately” if the connection breaks.
The way we do “monitoring” of MetricsView agents, is we look at the responses that it uploaded to our server. If it did not upload anything for X minutes, we trigger an “unavailable” alert. X is a configurable number and you can set it to 1 min or 60 minutes.
Did You Turn it Off and On Again?
If none of these options have helped activate the agent, try to uninstall and reinstall the agent.
Additional troubleshooting information may be available in the Windows Event Viewer, accessible by opening the start menu and typing event in the search bar and selecting Event Viewer. Open the Applications folder and look for any red error messages regarding Dotcom-Monitor services. This information may be useful to share with Dotcom-Monitor support.
Understanding Email Alerts about the MetricsView Collector Status:
What does UNAVAILABLE mean?
When a MetricsView Collector status is “Unavailable” it means the Collector on our server cannot verify a connection to the MetricsView Agent software installed on your server. This could mean: 1) the server running your agent software is down 2) a network connection to dotcom-monitor is unavailable.
What does AVAILABLE mean?
When a MetricsView Collector status is “Available” it is a confirmation that the MetricsView Agent software is correctly installed on your server and the MetricsView Collector on our servers is able to verify the connection. This message is sent after an outage or when a MetricsView Agent is first installed.
What does NO RESPONSE mean?
When a MetricsView Collector status is “No Response” it means the Collector on our server is not receiving data from the MetricsView Agent software installed on your server. This could mean: 1) the server running your agent software is down 2) a network connection to dotcom-monitor is unavailable or 3) the Collector may not have a task assigned to it.
What does RECEIVING RESPONSES mean?
When a MetricsView Collector status is “Receiving Responses” it is a confirmation that the MetricsView Agent software is correctly installed on your server and is sending data to the MetricsView Collector on our servers. This message is sent after an outage or when a MetricsView task is first configured.
For Windows Performance Counter Collectors, make sure the service is running by opening the start menu and searching “Services” and running the Services manager. If the service will not start, you may need to update the password the account uses to logon.