7.5. Probes

Log into the RHN website as either an Organization Administrator or the System Group Administrator for the system.

Navigate to the System Details ⇒ Probes tab and click create new probe.

On the System Probe Creation page, complete all required fields. First, select the Probe Command Group. This alters the list of available probes and other fields and requirements. Refer to Appendix C, Probes for the complete list of probes by command group. Remember that some probes require the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemonto be installed on the client system.

Select the desired Probe Command and the Monitoring Scout, typically RHN Monitoring Satellite but possibly an RHN Proxy Server. Enter a brief but unique description for the probe.

Select the Probe Notifications checkbox to receive notifications when the probe changes state. Use the Probe Check Interval pulldown menu to determine how often notifications should be sent. Selecting 1 minute (and the Probe Notification checkbox) means you will receive notifications every minute the probe surpasses its CRITICAL or WARNING thresholds. Refer to Section 7.4, “Notifications” to find out how to create notification methods and acknowledge their messages.

Use the RHNMD User and RHNMD Port fields, if they appear, to force the probe to communicate via sshd, rather than the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon. Refer to Section 7.2.3, “Configuring SSH” for details. Otherwise, accept the default values of nocpulse and 4545, respectively.

If the Timeout field appears, review the default value and adjust to meet your needs. Most but not all timeouts result in an UNKNOWN state. If the probe's metrics are time-based, ensure the timeout is not less than the time alloted to thresholds. Otherwise, the metrics serve no purpose, as the probe will time out before any thresholds are crossed.

Use the remaining fields to establish the probe's alert thresholds, if applicable. These CRITICAL and WARNING values determine at what point the probe has changed state. Refer to Section 7.5.2, “Establishing Thresholds” for best practices regarding these thresholds.

When finished, click Create Probe. Remember, you must commit your Monitoring configuration change on the Scout Config Push page for this to take effect.