MonitorWare Agent 8.0 Released (Build-IDs: Service 8.0.411, Client 8.0.1342)

MonitorWare Agent 8.0 Released

Build-IDs: Service 8.0.411, Client 8.0.1342

New Additions

  • Added new Action called Send MSQueue:
    This action can send messages to the Microsoft Message Queuing Server. It is possible to customize the Queue Label, Priority    and Queue Body. The Queue Body contains the message property by default as UNICODE (UTF16) string. In order to use this action, you need to have the Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) Server installed.
  • Added support for IPv6:
    Support for IPv6 has been added into all network related facilities of the engine. All network related actions will automatically detect IPv6 and IPv4 target addresses if configured. You can also use DNS resolution to resolve valid IPv6 addresses. Network related Services can either use IPv4 or IPv6 as internet protocol. In order to support both protocols, you will need to create two services. The only exception is the RELP Listener, which uses IPv4 and IPv6 automatically if available.
  • SMTP Listener Service:
    Added support for accepting connections using the extended SMTP EHLO command.
  • SETP service / Action:
    Extended MonitorWare SETP Protocol to V3. If Sender and Server support V3 or higher, UTF8 is now used to encode/decode messages. This maintains the correct character encoding after the messages is received and rebuild internally.
  • ODBC / OLEDB Action:
    Implemented OutputEncoding for 8Bit (var)char fields. This means we can now write UTF8 encoded messages into varchar fields.
  • Syslog Listener Service:
    Added option to add ProcID into SyslogTag for RFC 5424 Header parsing. This was previously default. The Option is disabled by default now making it easier to filter for the SyslogTag.
    Added option to Force UTF8 Decoding in Syslog Service. A new Encoding configuration tab lets you decide, if you which to automatically detect the encoding, force UTF8 decoding, or use system default encoding.
  • Core Engine:
    Added Performance fix for UTF conversion for empty strings.
    Enhanced SSL Security in all network related Services.
  • EventLog Monitor V2:
    Added support for polling EventLog Records. This works almost like in the old EventLog Monitor, the Eventlog channel is polled frequently and new EventLog records are processed only. By default, the “Subscription Model” is used which processed events in Realtime.
    Added support to read and process EVTX files. This requires the new “Eventlog Polling” method. It is also possible to update the EVTX files while MonitorWare Agent is running.
  • Upgraded internal NET-SNMP library to version 5.6.1.
  • SNMP Trap Receiver / Monitor / Send SNMP Action:
    Added support for IPv4/IPv6 and TCP/UDP. A combination of UDP/TCP and IPv4/IPv6 can now be configured. Continue reading “MonitorWare Agent 8.0 Released (Build-IDs: Service 8.0.411, Client 8.0.1342)”
  • 2011-05-03 MonitorWare Agent 8.0 released

    Adiscon is proud to announce the 8.0 release of MonitorWare Agent. This new major release focusses on international support. First of all, it now provides full IPv6 support throughout the complete engine, including all services and actions. This provides an easy transition to the new protocol just in time when the migration becomes more important to many customers. Also, the new release provides far better support for Unicode, both in messages being processed as well as internal handling, like the write to database actions.

    The improved Unicode support increases interoperability for example in Asia. Not only is it easier to have the correct character set persisted to files and databases, it now also is possible to send Unicode via RFC5424-formatted messages to standards-compliant remote hosts.

    The new IPv6 support is currently of most benefit for customers in countries with very limited IPv4 address ranges. However, it enables a smooth transition to the new protocol to customers everywhere. It is considered an important milestone towards the next generation of the Internet.

    In addition to these top features, the new version includes additional new capabilities, like native support for backup EVTX files. There are various use cases for this capablity. An important one is that some SAN devices export their event log in the form of an ETVX file, which now can natively be read by EventReporter. The new release also contains some bug fixes.

    The new version also includes additional new capabilities, like native support for the Microsoft Message Queuing Server. It also contains some bug fixes.

    Detailled information can be found in the version history.

    Version 8.0 is a free download. Customers with existing 11.x keys can contact our Sales department for upgrade prices. If you have a valid Upgrade Insurance ID, you can request a free new key by sending your Upgrade Insurance ID to sales@adiscon.com. Please note that the download enables the free 30-day trial version if used without a key – so you can right now go ahead and evaluate it.

    MonitorWare Agent sending to the Microsoft Message Queue

    Created 2011-02-03 by Florian Riedl

    With version 8.0 of MonitorWare Agent we introduced a new action called “Send MSQueue”. This action allows MonitorWare Agent Professional and Enterprise to forward the received messages to the Microsoft Message Queue. This action is also available in EventReporter Professional (v12.0) and WinSyslog Professional and Enterprise (v11.0).

    To get this new functionality working, you need to do some work in advance. Basically, you need to have the Microsoft Message Queue functionality installed on both the system you want to use MonitorWare Agent on, as well as the system where you want to have the messages being forwarded to. If both systems are the same, the process is can be shortened a bit. But our assumption is, that this is not the case.

    Step 1

    The server which should receive the messages from the message queue needs the most attention here. We will show how to configure it with the example of a Windows 2008 server. These steps should be similar for a Windows 2003 Server as well.

    Go to the Server Manager. On the left hand side, you find everything, that is necessary for the server. Go to “Features”. Then click in the right pane on “Add Features”.

    Message Queue 01

    You will get a list of features you can install. Right now, we are only interested in the Message Queueing feature. Mark it to be installed. You could expand the view, but for now the default options are sufficient (depending on your needs you might want to install some of the other options). When you have marked Message Queuing, click on “Next”.

    Message Queue 03

    You will be shown the Features to be installed. The screenshot shows only the Message-Queuing Service, since this is the only feature we want to install right now. Click on “Install”.

    Message Queue 04

    The feature will be installed now. When the results are shown, it should say that the installation was successful. Click on “Close” now.

    Message Queue 05

    In your Server-Manager you should now find Message Queuing und Features. Expand the view completely. You will see the different queues now.

    Message Queue 06

    Most interesting to us are the privat queues. It will hold the received messages later. But for that, we need to create a queue first. Right-click on the private queues. In the context menu go to “New” and then on “privat queue”. A window pops up, where we can define a name for it. Choose a name and click on “Ok”.

    Message Queue 08

    You can see the newly created queue named test on the screenshot. By expanding the view further, you will find more sub-folders like queued messages and journal messages. We will later find the messages in queued messages.

    Message Queue 09

    That’s it for now. The server is now ready to receive messages for the message queue.

    Step 2

    Now we take care of the client setup. We need to setup the message queue feature here as well. In this example we show how to do that on a Windows XP machine. The process should be similar on a Windows Vista or Windows 7 machine.

    Go into the Control Panel and open “Add or Remove Programs”. Click on the “Add/Remove Windows Components” on the left side. The Windows Components Wizard will open and it will show you a list of additional programs and services. Scroll down until you find the entry “Message Queuing”.

    Message Queue 10

    Mark it for installation and click “Next”. The components for Message Queuing will now be installed. When it is finished, the installation wizard will tell you, that you have successfully completed the installation. Click on “Finish”. You can close the “Add or Remove Programs” window as well.

    Message Queue 11

    That was pretty quick. We do not have to do any extra configuration here. We just needed to install these components for the API to be available, so MonitorWare Agent can use it.

    Step 3

    We can now configure MonitorWare Agent to send to the Message Queue. We assume, that a basic configuration for MonitorWare Agent is already available and it is configured as a syslog receiver with a ready ruleset.

    Therefore we just need to create the action. It is called “Send MSQueue”. Right click on “Actions”. A menu will open. Move the mouse to “Add Action” and the list of available actions will appear. Click on “Send MSQueue”, you will find it in the middle of the list.

    Message Queue 12

    The setup wizard will occur. Simply click on “Next” and then on “Finish”. You can now see the “Send MSQueue” action with its default values.

    Message Queue 13

    We need to change at least the “Server Computername / IP” field and the “Queuename” field. These need to be changed for the scenario to work. The rest can stay as is. Though you might want to change at least the “Queue Message Label” as this will always be the same then. You can change it, by using the properties available in MonitorWare Agent. The same goes for the field “Queue Message Body”, which can be completely customized with properties and you own content. By default it holds the message of the Syslog Message or Windows Event.

    We need to change the adress field, which is on the top, to the IP of the machine we want to send to. Hostnames currently do not work yet. The “Queuename” must be set as well. This is needed for the queue that should be filled with messages. You can see on the image below, how this should look like.

    Message Queue 15

    You can get the path yourself by going to your queues on the server. Right click on the queue you want the path of and click on “Properties”. A window with the properties will open. In the field “Label” is the path to the queue. This should be copied and pasted into MonitorWare Agent.

    Message Queue 16

    Final Thoughts

    This is the easiest way to set up MonitorWare Agent to work with the Microsoft Message Queue. More information on the Message Queue is available at the Microsoft website.

    Please note: the MonitorWare Agent Service must be started with some account credentials that have administrative privileges on the local machine as well as on the remote server, that shall receive the messages. You might need to set this manually in the control panel for “Services”.