New Version Provides System Alerts
Published in Archived articles on July 30, 2009 by Administrator
We have just released version 1.5.25 of CensorNet. A lot of the changes are internal but there are some visible new features, in particular, we have included system alerts.
If you visit System->Configuration->Email Notification you will find that we have added a couple of new fields.
One of them is Enable System Alerts by e-mail and if you enable this and do nothing else you will at least be notified whenever you exceed your license count.
However, this field is also crucial to receiving alerts about other system features which you configure on a different screen. If you go to System->Configuration->System Alerts you can configure which alerts you want to be notified of and in certain cases, set a threshold.
Lets discuss these thresholds first.
You can set a value for Load. The Load value shows how busy your CensorNet is and if it gets too high it can cause everything to run slowly. So you can set a value which if exceeded will cause the system to send you an alert. The system is sensitive enough that even a brief exception will cause a mail to be sent, so if you just receive one, but then no more alerts for ages, you can ignore the warning. However, if you keep receiving alerts it is a sure sign that your system is overloaded. You need to take the load alerts in conjunction with any other alerts you may be receiving. If load is the only one, then you might just need a bigger processor, but if other alerts are being received you should consult Technical Support for advice.
The next threshold you can set is the amount of free RAM. As you are probably aware, we recommend at least 2G of RAM in your CensorNet. The threshold you set is the amount (in percentage terms) of free RAM available and if that falls below your set threshold you will receive an alert. Again, if you receive one alert and then nothing more for some time, you can ignore the odd mail, but should you receive multiple alerts you know your system is busy. If you should receive this alert in conjunction with the load alert, and if both keep coming, you have a good idea that your system is seriously underpowered.
The third threshold you can set is that of free disk space. It used to be that people would let their logs grow to enormous size until it slowed the system down and so we introduced the auto-archive system, which takes an archive once your current log exceeds a certain number of records. So now what happens is people just leave the system to generate archives, never deleting old ones, until the disk gets full and everything breaks. So now you can set a threshold which, should free disk space fall below this value, you will receive an alert. The first check, on receipt of this email, should be to check archives and delete if you no longer have a need for them. If doing this does not fix your problem then contact Technical Support for other suggestions.
With the thresholds out of the way, the other things you can monitor are the system processes. These are :
- CensorNet Proxy Server
- Category Server (CSRV)
- Web Cache Service
- License Server
- Database Server
If any of these services fail you will receive an alert. The mails you receive will advise you as to what actions you can take to try and remedy the situation, but if those remedies fail, then of course, you can contact Technical Support for additional advice.
One last word, if you are knowingly stopping and starting services or rebooting the CensorNet then you are likely to receive alerts. You will also receive them during system upgrades, so please ignore these mails as the reason is obvious.
