Spiceworks Monitor & Alerts

Boston

Understanding & Using Spiceworks
Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting

Francis Sullivan
CTO & Co-founder, Spiceworks Inc.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Session Overview

• kinds of alerts and monitors
• default configuration
• reporting
• advanced topics
• Q&A


What Can Be Monitored?


AntiVirus: Keep your machines up and running with current antivirus software.
Is not up-to-date: Be alerted when virus definitions need updating.
Has > 1 installed: Be alerted if more than one antivirus program is installed.
Having more than one antivirus program installed can slow down the performance of a
machine and actually leave it more vulnerable to an attack.


Device: A device is any computer connected to the network. You can monitor a specific
device, or monitor them all by typing quot;Any Devicequot;.
Is online: Be alerted if a device goes online.
Is offline: Be alerted if a device goes offline.
Is discovered: Be alerted if a new device is discovered on the network.
Offline for a time period: To avoid flutter, only be alerted if device stays offline.


Disk: Find out if there are issues with any disk on your system. You can keep an eye on every disk on
your system by typing quot;Any Diskquot;, or pick one particular disk.
Was added: Be alerted when a hard drive is added.
Was removed: Be alerted when a hard drive is removed.
Is < x% free: Be alerted when diskspace falls below a certain percentage. Choices are 5, 10, 15,
20, and 25%.
Has < x MB/GB free: Be alerted when diskspace falls below a certain value. Choices are 50,
100, 250, 500 MB and 1, 5, 10 GB.


Software: Stay on top of software issues with this monitor. You can designate a specific
program to be monitored, or choose to monitor all software by typing quot;Any Softwarequot;.
Is installed: Be alerted when programs are installed.
Is uninstalled: Be alerted when program are removed.
Is not compliant: Be alerted if too many copies of a program are installed.


Service: A service is a program that runs in the background of a computer to keep everything
else working right. You can monitor a specific service, or monitor them all by typing quot;Any
Servicequot;.
Is uninstalled: Be alerted when a service is uninstalled.
Is installed: Be alerted when a service is installed.
Is stopped: Be alerted when a service has stopped.
Is started: Be alerted when a service has started.


Hotfix: A hotfix is a patch that is downloaded to fix a program. You can decide to monitor all
hotfixes by typing quot;Any Hotfixquot;, or choose to monitor one individual hotfix.
Is uninstalled: Be alerted when a hotfix is uninstalled.
Is installed: Be alerted when a hotfix is installed.


User Account: Keep track of the user accounts on your network. You can monitor one specific
account or monitor them all by typing quot;Any User Accountquot;.
Is removed: Be alerted when a user account is deleted.
Is created: Be alerted when a new user account is added.


Printer Supply Level: Keep track of your printer supplies so you don't have to drop what you're
doing when you're out of toner.
Is < x%: Be alerted when the ink or toner in your network printers drop below a certain
level. Choices are 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%.


Event: You can find out when an event of your choosing happens such as a certain ID
logging in. Or you can monitor all events by typing quot;Any Eventquot;.
Is triggered: Be alerted when an event is triggered.


IT Service: Keep track of how long you have until an IT service end date.
Is < x Days: Be alerted when an IT service end date is approaching. Choices are 10,
30, and 60 days.


Where Alerts Show Up

»On Inventory Summary



» On Group Summary



»email notification



»on the device


Default Configuration

• pre-configured monitors
• changing thresholds
• email configuration


Default Out-of-the-box Monitors


Changing Thresholds in 3.5


e-mail configuration


Reporting

•accessing reports
•out of the box reports
•creating or editing your own report
•reoccurring reports


Accessing Reports
Two levels of access when it come to reports in Spiceworks:

Admin access: This is the normal level of access that you have as the
administrator of Spiceworks. You have complete control over all
reporting functions, including granting quot;Reportingquot; access to others.

Reporting access: People with reporting access are allowed to open
Spiceworks and run reports designated quot;publicquot;. Reporting users
cannot create their own reports nor access any other Spiceworks
features.
You can designate reporting access to anyone who might regularly need
reports. A convenient way to save yourself a little work!


Viewing Reports

Actions:
Click column headings to sort the report information.
Click the Print, PDF, CSV or Excel links to print or save the report in the desired
format.
When saving a report to Excel, you must open the document with Microsoft Office
2003 or later. If you are using Open Office, you should try saving as a .CSV file and
then importing it.


Default Out-of-the-box Reports


Creating or Editing a Report

name and description

type
conditions

display


Types of Reports


Conditions
auto-complete

and / or

Strings


Date Conditions

explicit date
relative dates


Example Relative Dates

• 3 years ago
!•! 5 months before now
!•! 7 days from now
!•! next month
!•! 1 year ago tomorrow
!•! 3 months ago saturday
!•! 3rd wednesday in november
!•! 4th day last week
!•! last week tuesday
!•! tomorrow at 6 a.m.


Display
add new columns

first column
defines sort order

drag-and-drop to
reorder columns


Sharing Custom Reports
Have you written a cool report? Share it with the Spiceworks Community. Your report may
save someone else like you a lot of time. You'll also earn a nifty badge for your profile.

To share a report:
Click the Reporting link on the left panel from anywhere in Spiceworks.
Select the report you want to share.
Click on the Share button.
Enter more details about the report you've shared and click the Submit button.


Import Reports that Other Users have Shared


Reoccurring Reports
Monday Morning “Coffee” Report:
shows what had changed in the last week
- you can configure the time and period from advanced email settings
for example: tomorrow at 6 a.m. would make this a daily report

Script Interface:
run_report.rb - http://community.spiceworks.com/education/projects/Scripting_Spiceworks_Reports
- list available reports
- run report and save output as CSV, PDF, or XSL
- can be hooked into Windows at or task scheduler to run on a schedule


Advanced Topics

behind the scenes:
•online/offline checking
•network health check
•network scanning


Online/Offline Checking

Spiceworks
scanner
Main App

http
Sqlite DB

IT Admin
Spicedesk


Network Health Check

Spiceworks
scanner
Main App

http
Sqlite DB

IT Admin
Spicedesk


Network Scanning

Spiceworks
scanner
Main App

http
Sqlite DB

IT Admin
Spicedesk


More Advanced Topics

• tricks with email
• SQL Reports and Widgets
• APIs


Nagios Example


SQL Reports


SQL Report as a Widget


SQL Tools

Firefox addon SQLite Manager
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5817


Alert API’s - Web REST Interface

POST /api/alerts.json?title=AlertTitle&hostname=HOST&...
- create a new external monitor alert

GET /api/alerts.json
- array of all monitor alerts

GET /api/alerts/{id}.json
- details for the alert with the specified id

GET /api/alerts.json?data_monitor_id={id}
- array of all monitor alerts for the data monitor with the specified id


Alert API’s - Web REST Interface
filtered
GET /api/alerts.json?filter=active
- array of all active monitor alerts

GET /api/alerts.json?filter=recent
- array of all alerts generated in the last 7 days

GET /api/alerts.json?filter=recent&date=2008-10-20
- array of all alerts generated since the specified date

GET /api/alerts.json?filter=external
- array of all external alerts


Questions?


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