Installation of Probes

Toolbox Deployment of Probes

All Toolbox installations install exactly the same software, so a Probe install is exactly the same as a Manager install. Functional variations are controlled entirely by the Toolbox license.

The Toolbox Probes, and Managers, can be viewed thru one or more, local, or remote probes, Web Browser. Critical is the ability of any Manager to view any combination of Probes.

Toolbox Probe and Manager System Software Architecture

All Toolbox installations install the same software, so a Probe install is the same software installation as a Manager installation, structure as illustrated below.

How Probes Work

Probes are a full installation of Toolbox Software including Web and MySQL Servers. They are fully standalone systems that can be viewed as a standalone system directly in a web browser. 

However, they can also be attached to another Toolbox System and viewed as part of a distributed monitoring system.  The distributed system supports remote maps with animation and drilldown. 

Probes communicate with other Toolbox Systems using an IP Address and HTML GET and PUT Web requests – which simplifies firewall setup.

How do I add Probes to Toolbox?

To do this go to Settings Tab and select the Probes Panel then follow the Help Instructions.

NOTE: The Probes are created under the Settings Tab -> Probes.

Setting-Up a Probe

This is a simple process. Select the Settings main tab and click on the Probes panel. New probes can be added by clicking on the Add Probe button. The critical setup parameters being the Probe Title and its IP Address, it a good idea to add the other fields such as Icon too.

Probe Usage

Probes can automatically send their Discoveries to the Probe Master system; they can then be viewed Live in the Master System.  A Master system is a system that monitors one or more Probes, otherwise it is the same as a Probe. 

Multiple Probes Monitoring a Single Large Network

Multiple probes are typically used with large or multiple networks to scale monitoring (worldwide).

Probe Licensing

Probe Licensing has a facility to warn when the maximum Web Users (set in the product license) is exceeded to avoid confusion in the field. 

The number of Probes a manager can control is now set in the license. A new license type has been administered to limit a product to Probe Only Tabs Discovery and Settings, with Inventory Explorer and Maps tabs removed. See section Probes Licencing  and Administration Details.

Single Manager

Single System Deployment Connected to One Network

This would apply to a small or medium sized network in terms of Monitored Devices so could be a very large network – however with only key devices and links monitored.

Single System Deployment Connected to Several Networks using a VPN

This configuration is suited to a discovery and monitoring of multiple remote networks accessible via VPN links. The Manager sees the individual networks as one network, however individual Drill Down Maps can be created per VPN linked Network to view the networks individually with the multiple Drill Down Maps. 

Multiple Probes with a Manager

A Manager and Probes configuration is used for the following reasons-

• To reduce remote polling traffic by polling locally
• To reduce the Polling and storage requirements per System. Unrelated Networks need Polling separately.

Typical Scenarios: –

• Multiple Network Locations – keep Probes Local
• Split up the Polling Loading per System – reduce loading per System
• Poll individual functions of a Network Separately – unrelated networks

Mixed Manager and Probes Hierarchy (Including Possible VPN Links)

Probes Licencing and Administration

To support Probes administration in Enterprise Inventory Explorer a Probes Admin GUI shows status, discovery license and probe performance in one click.

Probes Licensing

Show Maximum Web Users

By clicking on the product icon in the Windows System Tray the  Web Users option is shown.

The user can see how many Web Users are allowed in the supplied product license. In this case one user is permitted under the license running on the product install server.

Maximum Probes that can be Managed

Probes are added under the product Setting tab on the main GUI.

A panel under the Settings Tab  is used to add Probes that are managed by the product GUI as below:

In this case 3 probes may be added as per the supplied product license.

Probes Administration

Probes are added and setup under the Settings Tab.

A new Probes Information and Go-View GUI has been added under the main Inventory Tab, Inventory panel as below: –

Clicking on the Show Probes button shows the Probes as below:

The View Probe tab is selected. Clicking on a row in the Grid opens a new Browser Tab and the selected Probe may be accessed from the new Browser Tab as below:

Note the Login details matches the selected row in the grid row that was clicked to access the remote probe. This feature is useful to setup or change Discovery Parameters on a remote probe system.

Selecting the Operation Status shows the Response Time of the Probe and other details.

The Settings Overview tab shows further details about the Probe such as when it was created, and by whom.

The final tab Admin and License shows  the Licence Device Counts to track total device discovery limits in one view. The Grids  can be manipulated and Exported or Printed.