NTP monitor

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) monitor verifies that the Network Time Protocol Service is available.

Use this monitor to verify that:

• An NTP client can open a connections with an NTP server.
• The server adheres to the NTP protocol by responding with the correct codes.
• The server responds within a required number of seconds.

The monitor opens a connection to the targeted NTP server and waits for the service to respond. If a valid Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time is returned within the specified maximum test duration, the test is successful. The monitor safely disconnects from the server. If the NTP server fails to respond or responds with an error code indicating that the service is not available, the test fails.

NTP is a vital resource for most networks. Clusters and other parallel processing environments depend on an accurate and synchronized UTC value. If your servers do not synchronize the current time with the NTP server, some enterprise applications may produce unexpected results.

Create an NTP 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 NTP.

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. 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 Active Directory server.

   

9. Enter the TCP port number that the targeted resource responds on. The default is TCP port 119.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.
13. Click OK.