Ping Monitor Configuration Guide on the Elven Platform

The Ping Monitor from Elven Platform allows you to monitor resources using the ICMP protocol. This feature helps you set up continuous checks, define alerts, and create thresholds for automatic incident triggering, ensuring you're quickly informed when something is not as expected.

The ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) acts like a network messenger, helping verify that everything is working properly and diagnosing issues. It doesn't use methods like GET or POST, which are typical of HTTP, but instead provides a simple and direct way for devices to communicate.

Think of an ICMP Echo Request as a “Hey, are you there?” sent from one device to another on the network. If the target device is available and functioning, it replies with an Echo Reply, like saying “Yes, I’m here!”. This quick exchange helps confirm the other side is reachable and measures the response time.

Just like the HTTP GET method, this process doesn’t make changes or interfere with the device’s state. It’s simply a way to ask and receive information, ensuring everything is connected and working as expected.

Accessing the Ping Monitor

• Navigate to the main menu and click on Service HUB.

• In Internet Services, select the Ping item.

Resource Monitoring

Monitoring the availability of your services has never been easier. Start by giving a clear name to the resource you want to track (Resource Name) to make identification easier. Then, adjust the interval between checks (Interval) and the response timeout (Timeout).

Select where the monitoring agent is located (Checkpoint) by choosing an Environment. If it doesn’t exist, you can create one using + Checkpoint. Add the Healthcheck URL for verification.

Automatic Incident Opening

You can configure automatic incident opening to ensure a quick response to critical issues. To begin, define the incident severity, allowing you to prioritize according to urgency. Next, adjust the Check Interval, specifying the check frequency in seconds to continuously monitor the resource. This helps ensure you're always one step ahead, detecting problems as soon as they arise.

Additionally, select the team to be notified whenever an incident occurs and enable the "Enable to set up automatic incidents opening" option to ensure the configuration is active. With this setup, the platform automates incident management, making the response process faster and more efficient, without the need for manual intervention. This ensures your team is always ready to resolve any issue with speed and precision.

Maintenance Window

The Maintenance Window is an essential feature for managing planned maintenance periods in your application. During this time frame, checks are temporarily paused, preventing monitoring, alerts, and notifications from being triggered while you perform adjustments or updates. This allows maintenance to proceed smoothly, without generating unnecessary notifications or false alarms, ensuring your operations continue in an orderly manner without unexpected interruptions in performance reports.

For example, imagine you need to update the payment system of an e-commerce platform by making backend adjustments, such as installing new security certificates. To do this, you can configure the Maintenance Window for a specific time, such as 12/13/2024, from 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM. During this period, the Elven Platform suspends checks, preventing the monitoring system from logging temporary failures or triggering false alerts. This way, you can make the necessary changes calmly, knowing that the monitoring system won’t be affected during maintenance. This approach ensures the update is carried out in an organized manner, without impacting the user experience or generating unwanted notifications.

Application Opening Hours

You can also rely on the Application Opening Hours feature, which allows you to configure your application's operating hours. This functionality is essential for customizing monitoring based on the periods when your application is actually active, avoiding alerts and notifications outside of business hours. This way, monitoring becomes more aligned with your business's real needs, ensuring more accurate reports and efficient management.

For example, imagine your application operates only from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. You can configure the Application Opening Hours to reflect this schedule by specifying the working days and hours. With this setup, the Elven Platform automatically disables checks outside of these hours, preventing the logging of failures that don’t affect end users and avoiding unnecessary alerts. This approach optimizes performance analysis, focusing only on relevant periods and providing a clearer view of your application's health during its operating hours.

Glossary of Technical Terms

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol): A network protocol used to send control and diagnostic messages between devices. One of its most well-known uses is in the ping command, which checks connectivity between machines.

Ping: A command that uses the ICMP protocol to verify whether a device is reachable and to measure the response time. It’s a simple way to test if a service or server is online.

Echo Request / Echo Reply: The basic mechanism behind ping. The Echo Request is the question sent by a device (“Are you there?”), and the Echo Reply is the response received (“Yes, I’m here!”), indicating the device is reachable.

Resource Name: The name of the resource or service being monitored. It helps with clear identification within the platform.

Interval (or Check Interval): Defines the time interval, in seconds, between each monitoring check. The shorter the interval, the more frequent the test.

Timeout: The maximum time the system waits for a response. If this time is exceeded, the resource is considered unreachable.

Checkpoint: The location or point from which monitoring is performed. It usually represents the environment where the monitoring agent is installed.

Healthcheck URL: The address (IP or domain) that will be checked to determine if the resource is active and responding to ping tests.

Incident: An event automatically generated by the platform when a resource fails or becomes inaccessible. It indicates that there is a problem to be resolved.

Severity: The urgency level classification of an incident. It can range from low, medium, high, to critical, depending on the impact.

Enable to set up automatic incidents opening: An option that, when enabled, allows the platform to automatically open incidents based on configured rules.

Maintenance Window: A scheduled maintenance period. During this time, monitoring is paused to avoid notifications and alerts while planned maintenance is carried out.

Application Opening Hours: A configuration that defines the operating hours of the application. Outside of these hours, monitoring is disabled to prevent unnecessary alerts.