Documentation forIpMonitor
Effective December 31, 2024, IpMonitor will reach its end of life and will no longer be available or supported. If you liked IpMonitor, consider trying another SolarWinds product.

Ping monitor

The Ping monitor verifies that a specific computer or devices is available on the Internet. The default interval is set to 60 seconds.

ipMonitor measures the round-trip time by sending an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request to the specified IP address, and then waiting for a valid UDP packet to be returned. The test passes if the monitor receives a valid return packet within the required timeout period. The test fails if the monitor's specified timeout period expires.

The Ping Monitor tests the following:

  • The route between the ipMonitor host machine and an IP-enabled computer device
  • The target computer or device is able to respond
  • The packet makes the complete round trip within a specific number of seconds

The Ping monitor is often used as a dependency for a group of monitors. For example, a web application group could include a web server, SQL server, drive space, and a Ping monitor that monitors the availability of the server computer.

In this example, you could assign the Ping monitor as a dependency for the web application group. If problems occur with the server, this configuration prevents you from receiving alerts for all the application monitors and resource monitors configured to watch the server computer. This process minimizes the number of alerts you receive and helps you identify the source of the problem.

Create a Ping monitor

  1. Click Devices in the toolbar.
  2. Locate and click the targeted device you want to monitor.
  3. In the toolbar, click Add > Add New Monitor.
  4. In the Select Monitor menu, click Ping.

  5. Under Identification, enter a name in the Monitor Name field using up to 64 characters.

    This name will appear in the Monitors List, Monitor Status, Logs pages, and your reports.

    You can change this name later, if necessary. ipMonitor does not use this field to internally identify this monitor.

  6. Select Enabled to enable the monitor.

    When enabled, the monitor tests the specified resource using the settings you enter under Test Parameters. You can disable the monitor later if required.

  7. (Optional) Select Store Monitor Statistics for Recent Activity and Historical Reports to enable this functionality.

  8. Under Test Parameters, enter the IP address or domain name of the target server.

  9. Under Timing, configure the fields for the monitor testing states.

    1. In the Maximum Test Duration field, enter the maximum test duration rate (in seconds) that the monitor times out before the test is considered a failure.

    2. In the remaining fields, enter the number of second between each test while the monitor is in an OK state (Up), a failed state while alerts are processed (Down), and a failed state and the maximum number of alerts have been processed (Lost).

      In the Lost state, no additional failure alerts are processed. However, a recovery notification is sent if the monitor recovers.

  10. Under Notification Control, complete the fields to determine how many test failures must occur before an alert is sent.

    1. Enter the number of test failures that occur for each alert before ipMonitor generates an alert for the monitor. The default option is 3.

    2. Enter the maximum number of alerts to send before the monitor enters a Lost state.

      The monitor must be assigned to a notification alert to generate an action.

  11. Under Recovery Parameters, complete the fields to indicate the corrective action used to automatically restore a resource using the External Process Recovery, Reboot Server Recovery, or Restart Service Recovery action.

    1. Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), NetBIOS, or IP Address of the machine hosting the service that needs a restart or the machine that needs a restart. You can also click Browse to locate and select the machine.
    2. Select the set of credentials used by the recovery alert. You can select a specific credential to execute recovery alerts that require access to restricted resources, such as Reboot Server, Restart Service, or External Process.
    3. Select the list of services to restart on the target machine specified in the FQDN/NetBIOS/IP Address field. This field is only required for the Restart Service alert. If a service has dependencies, select all dependent services.
  12. Click OK.

Test the monitor

See Downtime Simulator for details about testing the monitor before you roll it out.