Monitoring devices and systems connecting to your network is key to sustaining network health, but some devices are more difficult than others to track.  Point of Sale cash registers, IP PBX boxes, IP cameras, VMware servers, storage systems, or certain embedded devices, for example, are often critical infrastructure that network admins want to keep online.  But centrally monitoring their real-time connectivity is not always possible with traditional solutions requiring an installed monitoring agent.

Enter the MX client connectivity monitoring tool, just released.  It allows you to specify individual devices to survey in real-time and track their online status.

Eight devices are being monitored in real-time; alerts will be emailed to IT admins.

Connectivity is checked every 1-2 seconds, and when a device fails to respond for 30 seconds, an alert is issued (IP address changes are handled gracefully, and do not trigger offline alerts).  If a device goes dark, connectivity continues to be monitored from the dashboard so that once it reconnects it is immediately recognized.

Connectivity alerts also generate events in the MX’s Event Log, and are filterable using the “client status” check box.

The MX Event Log will capture client status events for devices being monitored in real-time.

With this client monitoring capability, IT administrators get immediate feedback when critical systems go offline, even if those systems cannot support traditional monitoring solutions.

We’ll be exploring additional features being rolled out to our MX line of security appliances, so stay tuned!