[ Main Index | IPSentry Application Index ]
 
The IPSentry File & Directory Monitoring Add-In provides you with the ability to monitor file and directory sizes, existence, modification, and aggregate information and be alerted via IPSentry alerting features when the specified thresholds are reached.

Just a few uses for the File/Directory Add-in.

From the Entry Editor, set the Type of entry to Add-In, click Select Add-In and select the File and Directory Monitor.
Click on the Configure Add-In button.

File and Directory Monitor Configuration - General Settings

File and Directory Monitoring Add-In Configuration

When you select "Configure Add-In" from the IPSentry machine options editor, you will be presented with the main File & Directory Monitor Configuration Window.

Drive, Path, or Share
Enter the full path that should be evaluated by the add-in. You may enter the path information in one of three ways to suite your needs.

Local or Mapped Drive
Enter the drive and path in the format d:\path\path...
Note: If the drive letter is a mapped network drive, this drive letter may not be available when IPSentry is running as a service.

UNC Share
Enter the UNC Share and path in the format \\SERVER\SHARE\path\path....
If IPSentry is running under an account that does not have access to the specified network resource, you may need to fill in the Username and Password fields to gain access to this directory.

FTP Server and Path
Enter the FTP Server and path in the format ftp://server name/path/path/...
You may need to enter a username & password to access the full directory structure on this server.
Note: Due to the various types of responses for size, date, time, and directory information - it is possible that the "Modified" options may not function due to the format or lack of functionality of the FTP server.

SFTP Server and Path (SSH File Transfer Protocol)
Enter the SFTP Server and path in the format sftp://server name/path/path/...
You may specify an alternate port using the format of sftp://server:port/path/path
The default port value is 22
If you will be validating the SSL certificate during the connection, you will need to enter the thumbprint of the remote SSH host either by clicking on the Retrieve button for the thumbprint field or by pasting the full thumbprint into the field.

FTPS Server and Path (FTP over SSL)
Enter the FTPS Server and path in the format ftps://server name/path/path/...
You may specify an alternate port using the format of sftp://server:port/path/path
The default port is 990
Note that if you specify port 21, the SSL negotiation with be explicit.
You can override this default action by prefixing the servername with <TLS> to require explicit negotiation (StartTLS) or prefix with <SSL> to require implicit negotiation.

Date Stamping
The File & Directory monitoring add-in can make use of date stamping directory and file name information. This means simply that the add-in will convert specific key-word information contained in the PATH & FILENAME fields to their respective date components.

Example: For monitoring taking place on Oct 12, 2006 the following formats would result as follows:
\\SERVER\PATH\LOGS\%yyyy%%mm%%dd%\
Would be converted to \\SERVER\PATH\LOGS\20061012\

See "DATE STAMP FORMATS" for key word conversion details.

File name or pattern
You may enter a specific file name or file pattern that should be analyzed by the add-in.

Examples:
*.txt would evaluate all files with the ".TXT" extension.
tfile.txt would evaluate only files named tfile.txt
ex*.log would evaluate files beginning with "ex" and having the extension ".LOG"

Date Stamping
The File & Directory monitoring add-in can make use of date stamping directory and file name information. This means simply that the add-in will convert specific key-word information contained in the PATH & FILENAME fields to their respective date components.

Example: For monitoring taking place on Oct 12, 2006 the following formats would result as follows:
\\SERVER\PATH\LOGS\%yy%%mm%%dd%\
Would be converted to \\SERVER\PATH\LOGS\20061012\

See "DATE STAMP FORMATS" for key word conversion details.

Username
Enter the user or account name required to access the specified network resource such as the ftp server or network share.

Password
Enter the password associated to the Username required to access the specified network resource such as the ftp server or network share.

SSH Thumbprint
When using sftp and selecting to validate the SSL/KEY, enter the thumbprint here or click on the Retrieve button to have the add-in connect to the host and attempt to retrieve the servers thumbprint.
This option is only available when you have selected to validate the SSL/KEY option.

Validate SSL/KEY
When using sftp or ftps, you can specify that the addin verify that the SSL certificate is valid (FTPS) or that the SSH key is valid (SFTP).
In either case, if the SSL Certificate is invalid or the SSH Key does not match the thumbprint entered, the connection will fail. 

PASV (ftp)
When selecting an FTP location, check this option if you must use Passive FTP.
Here is a sample configuration that will connect to an ftp site.
The filter criteria would be similar to local filters.
IPSentry File and Directory Monitor FTP

Include Hidden Files
When evaluating file sizes and counts, you can exclude system and hidden files from consideration by setting these fields to un-checked.  When checked, the add-in will include files which have their Hidden and System attributes set when counting or accumulating file sizes.

Include System Files
When evaluating file sizes and counts, you can exclude system and hidden files from consideration by setting these fields to un-checked.  When checked, the add-in will include files which have their Hidden and System attributes set when counting or accumulating file sizes.

Include Subdirectories
Selecting this option instructs the add-in to evaluate files in the path specified as well as all sub directories.  Be aware that if the direction contains a large directory tree, monitoring time will increase.

Ignore Connection Failures
In come cases, you may not wish to have alerts triggered if the remote computer is unavailable.  For example when monitoring an FTP server.  

With this setting is checked, alerts would NOT be triggered if the host was unavailable OR if the results of the test matched the specified configuration.

We do not recommend setting this option as a default.

Return File List in Results
Selecting this option will cause the entire file list to be returned as part of the verbose response from the add-in.  Depending on your configuration and the number of files being evaluated, this result can get HUGE.  We do not recommend selecting this option except in cases where the number of files is very few.

Normally, the verbose return result will contain the list of files that contributed to the result.


File and Directory Monitor Configuration - Filter Criteria

Sample for evaluation of total count of modified files. (No files modified in the last 5 days)
File and Directory Monitoring Add-In Configuration
 
Sample for evaluation of total accumulated size of matching files (There was a change in the accumulated size of the files as an aggregate).
File and Directory Monitoring Add-In Configuration

Sample configuration for filtering on a size range (Any file above 500MB in size)
IPSentry File and Directory Monitor Size Range

 

Number of File(s)
Select this option to perform the monitoring function and evaluate the "Number Of" files that match the file specification.

MD5 Hash
Selecting this option performs an MD5 hash on the contents of the file to further identify the file as having been modified.   We do not recommend using this option when scanning large numbers of files or files of great size since each file must be read in its entirety and then an MD5 hash calculated against it's contents during each scan cycle.

Size of File(s)
Select this option to perform the monitoring function and evaluate the "Size Of" files that match the file specification.

Accumulated Size
When selecting "Size Of" files, the default evaluation will look for any single file outside the range specified.  When you select this option, the total size of all files matching the file specification will be evaluated against the range specified.
For example, if you want to trigger alerts if any one file is more than a specific size then you would leave this option unchecked.  If you want to trigger alerts if the total amount of spaced used by all matching files is more than a specific size, then you would check this option.

Number of Modified Files...
Selecting this option will count up the total number of files modified within the specified time frame and compare the total against the selected trigger requirement or range.

Number of Unmodified Files
Selecting this option will count up the total number of files NOT modified within the specified time frame and compare the total against the selected trigger requirement or range.

Time Frame
When evaluating Modified/Unmodified files, you may set the duration to check to be "Since last check" or within the last (x) Days, Hours, etc...

Has Changed since last check
Selecting this option will cause an alert to be generated if the value associated with the above option has changed since the last check.  e.g.  If the total size of files has changed since the last check, the add-in will return CRITICAL.

Has Not Changed since last check
Selecting this option will cause an alert to be generated if the value associated with the above option has NOT changed since the last check.  e.g.  If the total size of files has NOT changed since the last check, the add-in will return CRITICAL.

Is not within range of...
Selecting this option will cause an alert to be generated if the value associated with the above options is outside the specified range.  e.g.  If you enter a low value of 0 and a high value of 5000 and your size scale is MB, then an alert would be triggered if the size of files is 5001MB or more.

Has Increased
Selecting this option will cause an alert to be generated if the count or size defined has not increased.  Ideal to be alerted when new files are added to a folder.

Has Decreased
Selecting this option will cause an alert to be generated if the count or size defined has not decreased.  Ideal to be alerted when files have been deleted from a folder.

File Size Scale
Select the file size scale you wish to use for size comparisons (KB, MB, GB, Bytes)
When comparing file sizes, the value that you enter in the file size range will be represented in this scale. 
*Note: Changing this selection will NOT change your range values.  It will simply change the evaluation process.  Therefore, if you enter 1 and 2 in the range fields, and change the scale from KB to MB, the range will be 1MB to 2MB rather than 1KB to 2KB.

 

DATE CONVERSION FORMATS

%%date.calc The %%date.calc keyword is a new keyword which allows you to specify that the date value to use for date format conversion should be calculated.

The format is %%date.calc{+/-}{#}{interval}%%
Where:
{+/-} Represents ADD or SUBTRACT the number of intervals
{#} Represents the number of intervals to add or subtract.
{interval} Represents the interval of time.
y=year
d=day
m=month
h=hour
n=minute
s=second

Example: %%date.calc-5d%% would cause the date/time value used to be the current date/time minus 5 days.
%d% Display the day as a number without a leading zero (1  31).
%dd% Display the day as a number with a leading zero (01  31).
%ddd% Display the day as an abbreviation (Sun  Sat).
%dddd% Display the day as a full name (Sunday  Saturday).
%aaaa% The same as dddd, only it's the localized version of the string.
%w% Display the day of the week as a number (1 for Sunday through 7 for Saturday).
%ww% Display the week of the year as a number (1  54).
%m% Display the month as a number without a leading zero (1  12). 
%mm% Display the month as a number with a leading zero (01  12).
%mmm% Display the month as an abbreviation (Jan  Dec).
%mmmm% Display the month as a full month name (January  December).
%oooo% The same as mmmm, only it's the localized version of the string.
%q% Display the quarter of the year as a number (1  4).
%y% Display the day of the year as a number (1  366).
%yy% Display the year as a 2-digit number (00  99).
%yyyy% Display the year as a 4-digit number (100  9999).
%h% Display the hour as a number without leading zeros (0  23).
%hh% Display the hour as a number with leading zeros (00  23).
%n% Display the minute as a number without leading zeros (0  59).
%nn% Display the minute as a number with leading zeros (00  59).
%s% Display the second as a number without leading zeros (0  59).
%ss%

Display the second as a number with leading zeros (00  59).

%yymmdd%

Displays the Year/Month/Day in YYMMDD format.

%yyyymmdd%

Displays the Century with Year/Month/Day in CCYYMMDD format.

%dd-mmm-yy%

Displays the date in DD-MMM-YY format (e.g. 01-JAN-01)

%dd-mmm-yyyy%

Displays the date in DD-MMM-YYYY format (e.g. 01-JAN-2001)

 

 




     If you require additional assistance, please visit our on-line support forum at http://forum.ipsentry.com.
 
©1997-2012 by RGE, Inc. - All Rights Reserved
IPSentry® is a registered trademark of RGE, Inc.

 
Support Forums: http://forum.ipsentry.com
Web Site: https://ipsentry.com
Support Email: support@ipsentry.com