Process Monitor (SNMP)

This type of SAM component monitor uses SNMP to connect to a Linux/Unix server and test if a specified process is running. It then reports the CPU and physical memory used by the process in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

Note the following details about this monitor:

• Deploy the SolarWinds Platform Agent for Linux to collect additional process and status data for this monitor, as compared to agentless monitoring via SNMP. See Configure Linux/Unix systems for monitoring by the SolarWinds Platform agent.
• Unavailable counters may indicate: 
  • Script issues on the agent.
  • The named service is stopped.
  • A problem with SNMP configuration.
• For a Windows version, see Process Monitors for Windows.
• This component monitor does not compute a statistic.

For an example about tracking multiple processes across different servers for an application, see this THWACK post: Monitoring processes using SAM.

Field descriptions

If you create a Process Monitor in the Component Monitor Wizard, you'll be prompted to provide several values, as described next.

Description

A default description of the monitor. To override the default description, add to or replace existing text. Changes are automatically saved. The variable to access this field is ${UserDescription}.

Customize descriptions to specify what will be monitored so related alerts and notifications are more meaningful later.

Enable Component

Determines whether the component is enabled. Disabling the component leaves it in the application in a deactivated state not influencing either SolarWinds SAM application availability or status.

Command Line Filter

(Optional) Select which instances of a process you want to monitor, based on the command line arguments of the process. This is a text match, with support for partial matches.

For example, to monitor only instances launched with –myOption=NorthAmerica, use this filter:
–myOption=NorthAmerica. To monitor instances launched with America in any argument, use America

For another example, see Monitor an application process launched from a specific path in the SolarWinds Success Center.

Process Name

Specify the process name you want to monitor. If you do not know the process name, SolarWinds SAM can help you find processes to monitor.

Status when Process is Not Running

Set the status for the Process Monitor when the monitored process is not running. You have a choice of Down or Not Running.

The Down status will result in the application having Down status as well.

CPU Threshold

Set thresholds based on the percentage of CPU resources in use by the monitored process. When the CPU usage polls within the thresholds, the monitor switches to a Warning or Critical state. See Application Monitor Thresholds.

Physical Memory Threshold

Set thresholds based on the amount of physical memory in use by the monitored process. When the physical memory usage polls within the thresholds, the monitor switches to a Warning or Critical state.

IO Read Operations/Sec Threshold

Set thresholds based on the amount of I/O read operations performed per second in use by the monitored process. When the read operations poll within the thresholds, the monitor switches to a Warning or Critical state.

IO Write Operations/Sec Threshold

Set thresholds based on the amount of I/O write operations performed per second in use by the monitored process. When the write operations poll within the thresholds, the monitor switches to a Warning or Critical state.

IO Total Operations/Sec Threshold

Set thresholds based on the amount of total I/O operations performed per second in use by the monitored process. When the total operations poll within the thresholds, the monitor switches to a Warning or Critical state.

User Notes

Add notes for easy reference. You can access this field by using the variable, ${UserNotes}.