ServersAlive ASP Template: Dynamic Filtering & Graphs

To use this template:

1. Download the zip file and extract it.
2. Copy the ASPdynamicFiltering.htm file into your ServersAlive directory.
3. Copy the ServersAlive.css file into your web server’s directory, like c:\inetpub\wwwroot.
4. Download the KavaChart Free Ala Carte Gallery. It’s a set of free charting applets for Java. Unzip that, go into the applets directory. Copy the Jars subdirectory into the same folder you saved ServersAlive.css, probably like c:\inetpub\wwwroot\jars.
5. Set up the template output in ServersAlive. Your template setup screen should look like this.
6. Set up the remarks in your checks for the fancy features….

Setting Up Your Disk Space Alerts

For each disk space check you have in ServersAlive, put the total drive size in megabytes in curly brackets, in the Remark field. If you have a 72 gigabyte drive, you would enter “{72000}”, as you see in the screen shot to the right. It doesn’t have to be exact – we just need a rough number to base the graphs on.

For each check that you would like in a server group, put the server group type in the remark in square brackets, as you see in the screen shot to the right, which happens to be a [D]atabase server. Your choices are:

• C – Citrix server
• D – database server
• F – file server
• M – mail server
• N – network server
• W – web server

You can add more choices if you edit the code. The only thing you have to touch to add a server is to add lines in the area that looks like this:

      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "%" then Response.Write("selected") %>>All Servers
      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "C" then Response.Write("selected") %>>Citrix Servers
      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "D" then Response.Write("selected") %>>Database Servers
      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "F" then Response.Write("selected") %>>File Servers
      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "M" then Response.Write("selected") %>>Mail Servers
      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "N" then Response.Write("selected") %>>Network Servers
      <% If Request.Cookies("ServerType") = "W" then Response.Write("selected") %>>Web Servers

You can copy/paste one of the existing lines and add your own. Make sure it’s a unique letter, not one of the existing server types. Note that there are 3 places in each line that you have to change: the two letters, and the server type name. On the Citrix line, I color-coded them blue so you can see easier.

What The Web Template Does

This template uses CSS styles to color the entries by status. I like my running entries to be gray, so that they don’t jump off the page. I like my maintenance entries to be yellow, so that it’s immediately clear what’s down versus what’s on maintenance.

You set your own colors by editing the ServersAlive.css file included in the download – it’s very simple to edit with any text editor. The Color tag is for the font color, and the Background-Color tag is for the – yeah, you guessed it, the background color. You can look up colors at the Visibone Color Lab, and you’re looking for the six-character code in bold at the top when you click on your favorite colors.

This template shows pie charts for diskspace checks, and speedometer graphs for all other checks to show the response time. The top number on the speedometer graph is the max response time for that one check, since the last time ServersAlive was restarted. The speedometer graph will turn yellow if the last response time was significantly longer than average, and will turn red if the check is down.

Known Issues With Monitoring Exchange and IIS

As with the graph examples, this will break if you have check responses that return multi-line text answers, like a POP3 check to MS Exchange or an FTP check to MS IIS. I’ve had to hide those checks on my web page in order for these bar graphs to work.

More Server Monitoring Tips and Tricks

• ServersAlive ASP Template Setup
• ServersAlive ASP Template with Bar Graphs for Drive Space and Ping Times
• ServersAlive ASP Template with Dynamic Filtering and Graphs
• Using Perfmon for Windows Performance Tuning and Monitoring
• SQL Server Setup Checklist
• HP C-Class Blade Chassis Review
• HP Virtual Connect Review