June 3, 2008

Q: Longitude has a built-in solution for monitoring Cisco network devices. Can Longitude monitor non-Cisco network devices?

A: Yes. Longitude’s built-in Cisco solution uses a standard RFC1213 MIB for data collection, so in many cases, you can use it to monitor non-Cisco devices out of the box. The Cisco solution proactively monitors key performance metrics including bandwidth utilization, IP packet errors, TCP errors, TCP retransmits, UDP errors, queue lengths, etc. Longitude alerts you when there is a problem, and also provides pre-configured, on-demand reports and graphs to help you understand performance trends and ensure maximum availability. For more information about built-in monitoring of Cisco and other network devices, please consult the Data Sheet for the Cisco Solution (http://www.heroix.com/downloads/pdf/Longitude_Network.pdf).

If you wish to monitor items not collected by the built-in solution, then Longitude’s SNMP Studio enables you to monitor any SNMP-based device or application, including switches, routers and other hardware devices, as well as middleware and custom applications. The SNMP Studio also provides an interface for browsing Management Information Base (MIB) files. SNMP Studio comes pre-loaded with a variety of MIBs, and additional MIBs can be added easily. Creating a solution in SNMP Studio is as simple as browsing a MIB tree to select SNMP objects for collection and then filling in brief forms in order to configure integrated events and reports for Longitude to create. For more information, please consult the Data Sheet for the SNMP Studio (http://www.heroix.com/downloads/pdf/Longitude_SNMP_Studio.pdf).

Posted by Alison Murphy, Senior Technical Support Engineer

March 25, 2008

Q: How do I manage the size and disk usage of the Longitude database?

A: Longitude uses an open source SAP database, which is automatically created with 3 GB allocated on the drive you choose when you install Longitude. The database will auto-expand on that drive when it reaches either 80% full or less than 100MB free. You can manually extend it on the same drive, but that is rarely needed given Longitude’s self-maintaining features.

Do not gauge database consumption based on what Windows shows as the size of the \Longitude\sapdb\indep_data\wrk\FZEDB1\DATA0001 file. Even if Windows shows that file at 3 GB, the database is not necessarily nearing the full 3 GB allocated.

You can check the consumption by logging into the WebDbm:

http://localhost:7230/webdbm

u: dbm
p: {the password you specified for the original Longitude user during installation}

See the screen shot below.

Posted by Greg Savas, Technical Support Engineer

February 11, 2008

While it’s intuitive that end user experience is the most accurate measure of the quality and reliability of IT services, it’s often much less clear how to measure it. Moreover, there is no standard template for integrating an evaluation of user experience into the myriad of other objects monitored and measured. The process can be quite simple though in a scientific context. The goal is to build a picture of cause and effect in our environment that employs end user experience as the overall barometer of application performance and links it to all the potential service delivery problems. In statistical terms the end user experience is our Independent Variable. All the other things that can go wrong are our Dependent Variables, such as a system going down, running out of space, no response from web server or DB, network connectivity issues, etc. Ideally, we want to build a visualization of Independent and Dependent variables together, so that we immediately see the cause and effect relationship between end user experience and measures from many other application and network performance sources. These typically include hardware, operating system, and application performance measures, along with network monitoring and infrastructure tests like PING and port checks, etc. A really good SLA (Service Level Agreement) will include an accurate measure of the end user experience plus criteria that can impact service delivery, thus it’s a cause and effect picture. It not only tells us when we aren’t performing, the good SLA also suggests answers to the question “Why?” when service delivery suffers.

Capturing the elusive Independent Variable is our first goal. Measuring end user experience really means doing something a user does and evaluating success or failure and the time required. Using the example of a common web application model, in Longitude we would simulate a transaction that logs into the web site, navigates to some page and performs some transaction. The result of our Internet solution test becomes our Independent Variable. We can also measure components of end user experience separately by performing additional transaction monitoring tests that measure the web server response and the database response to a query. These are the first components added to our hypothetical SLA. Our list of Dependent Variables includes the potential impediments to service delivery, such as System resources exhausted, network bandwidth consumed, transaction rates, and more. The goal here is to capture enough of a picture to include 90% of the common issues that can arise. This approach to SLA monitoring will enable us to see at a glance what is going wrong when end user experience is sub-standard.

Posted by Chris Smith, Senior Technical Engineer

January 17, 2008

As you may have read in our recent press announcement, Heroix has released two new Longitude versions. Some have asked what this means for the “old” Heroix Longitude, so I thought I’d offer a little background on each package. The software we know as Heroix Longitude is still alive and well, and is now called Longitude Enterprise Edition, reflecting its full coverage of application performance and network monitoring, with advanced features that facilitate IT monitoring and management in large enterprises. The two new versions – Longitude Standard Edition and Longitude Professional Edition – consist of selected features packaged and priced to meet the needs of smaller and mid-sized businesses.

Longitude Standard Edition provides out-of-the-box operating system and IT infrastructure monitoring that’s affordable for small to medium businesses; it covers Windows (including Server, XP, and Vista), RedHat and SuSE Linux, AIX, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, VMware ESX, Cisco devices, and transactions. It features a web-based user interface, an event monitor for real time monitoring, proactive notification and corrective action, Windows Event Log consolidation, tailorable rules and thresholds, a real time statistics dashboard, and interactive reporting with built-in performance and event reports.

Longitude Professional Edition provides everything found in Standard Edition, plus application performance monitoring and event handling often needed by midsized to larger businesses. It monitors IIS, Apache, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, Exchange, DHCP, Active Directory, Dell OpenManage, HP Systems Insight Manager, and IBM Director. Professional Edition also monitors additional transaction types and can import MIBs to monitor any SNMP-based network device. It includes application-specific event monitor views, and can schedule alerts and actions, escalate events, and export performance data. Active Directory can optionally be used for authentication on Windows.

Longitude Enterprise Edition includes all this plus full Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring, including alerting, a real time dashboard, and historical reporting. It also features advanced event correlation, a fully customizable Event Monitor (including the ability to define a display based on your own network topology), user experience monitoring (via synthetic web transactions), the ability to send SNMP traps, and J2EE application monitoring. You can schedule reports to run on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule, and an archived reporting portal allows you to publish reports for viewing by particular types of users (e.g., SLA reports for business managers).

In a nutshell, those are the differences between the new packages. A few people have also asked what happens if they start out with Longitude Standard Edition but then wish to upgrade to either Professional or Enterprise. This is handled easily through the licensing, so if you decide to upgrade, you do not need to reinstall or reconfigure the software. All you need to do is enter a new license key.

Posted by: Dick Levin, VP of Development

December 28, 2007 - Thoughts for the New Year

Although a good 80% of the optimism expressed this time of year inevitably seems like New Year’s hype, I can honestly say that we are excited about what 2008 holds for Heroix. Having been in the performance monitoring software space as long as we have, we have seen many changes over the years – from the early days when it was enough to keep an eye on basic system performance – disk space, CPU time, and batch and print queues – to today’s standard of multiplatform application performance and network monitoring. Amid all the mergers, acquisitions and fadeouts in our industry, Heroix has remained a player because we do three things: we deliver a robust product, we take care of our customers, and we adapt to change.

It’s that last point – adapting to change – that has energized Heroix for the New Year. As we’ve seen IT organizations’ monitoring needs grow from simple system monitoring to encompass applications, service level agreements and user experience, Heroix has enhanced our software to provide the highest levels of functionality, scalability, and customizability in the most user-friendly way possible. We still do that, and will continue to.

However, we also recognize that many IT organizations either have budget constraints or simply do not yet need enterprise class monitoring, and so a few weeks ago we introduced two new Heroix Longitude versions packaged and priced to meet the needs of smaller and mid-sized businesses. Joining our existing “top-of-the line” Longitude Enterprise Edition are: Longitude Standard Edition, packaged to fit the needs and budgets of small to medium-sized businesses; and Longitude Professional Edition, for mid-size to larger companies. So, as we head into 2008, we are pleased to be able to offer Longitude at prices accessible to every budget. Now proactive monitoring is feasible for small to mid-size companies, with the proven robustness and out-of the-box usability that’s always been our hallmark.

On behalf of Heroix, I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year in 2008.

Posted by: Rick Lane, President