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 Monitoring and Response (formerly referred to as Mission Control) is PlantCML’s remote monitoring service. Enabling this service will prompt PlantCML’s SMC to begin continuous monitoring of each approved device at your site.
The staff in the Systems Management Center (SMC) will perform the following tasks for each monitored site:
Capture Windows Event logs for processes and services in real-timeInspect Event log entries for analysis, auditing, alerting, and compliance requirements Track performance counters for trend analysis and capacity planning Create reports of event and performance data Send and receive alert notifications when issues occur, services fail, or performance exceeds thresholds Automatically stop, start, or restart failed services remotely Process and forward SNMP traps from network appliances Monitor non-Windows systems using syslog monitoring
Understanding the benefits of PlantCML Monitoring & Response
There are a number of items that differentiate PlantCML’s mission-critical Monitoring and Response solution, as described below:
Event filtering — Filter and response criteria have been refined over many years to ensure accurate problem identification and prompt resolution. Application-specific alerts — PlantCML is uniquely qualified to ascertain the optimum response to application specific alerts. This is not a one-time activity, but rather an on-going interaction that exists between the software development teams and the Managed Services support team. Focused on 9-1-1 — PlantCML understands the critical nature of the 9-1-1 call center environment and the need to resolve issues expeditiously, sometimes completing preventative repairs before a failure occurs.Reviewing the Monitoring and Response system
There are three main software components used to implement the Monitoring & Response service:
A server Agent application, which monitors events on serversA workstation Agent application, which monitors events on workstationsA Console application, which collects, filters, and uploads events
Both of the Agent types monitor the performance and event logs of a given machine, forwarding all events to the Console. The Console will collect these events, and filter them based on criteria configured by the SMC staff. If any events make it through the filter, the Console will upload those events to the PlantCML SMC for diagnosis. The following diagram illustrates this process. The Console application can be licensed to collect and filter Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps from a wide variety of devices. If an IP device has been certified for Monitoring and Response, PlantCML can provide an IP Device License to enable the SNMP trap functionality. Prior to the service commencement date, the SMC will establish network connectivity with the call center via the dialup modems or firewall router. After connectivity has been established to the primary server, the staff within the PlantCML SMC will deploy the monitoring applet to each of the Agent devices. This is done remotely, and should have no impact on the operation of the call center’s system. After the Agent applications have been installed and configured on each device, the SMC personnel will validate that events are being received appropriately. Once this is validated, the site will be activated for Monitoring & Response services. Events are “pushed” from the site to the SMC as they occur. This ensures that events are received in a timely manner. The SMC will also “poll” each site once every 24 hours.
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