Response to RFP: RGE

RGE, Inc.'s IPSentry Network Fault Monitoring application provides monitoring and alerting options geared towards NT based Intranet and Internet networks.

IPSentry provides status monitoring of most common TCP/IP devices and servers such as Routers, Bridges, SMTP/POP3, HTTP, as well as custom or proprietary TCP/IP based servers. Additionally, IPSentry provides native monitoring of NT System Services on local and remote NT stations as well as Disk Drive Space monitoring. RGE provides several add-ins that allow for enhanced monitoring features such as NT Event Log monitoring, HTTP/HTTPS form posting, NT Service Control (start/stop NT services).

IPSentry runs on windows 95/98/NT and 2000 and can be installed as either a standard desktop application or as a Windows NT System Service.

RGE also provides access to the IPSentry SDK allowing in-house and 3rd party developers create custom add-ins for monitoring and alerting options.

With all of the features that IPSentry offers, the requirements set forth in Centralization Corp.'s RFP are easily fulfilled.

Hardware

To begin (regardless of the monitoring software being used) we suggest and isolated NT workstation to be used as the primary monitoring station. While this is not a requirement of our software, it provides for the fault tolerance required to ensure that your network AND your network monitoring software is functioning properly as well as protect against contamination due to software installation, uninstalls, CPU utilization and performance hits, etc.

• Isolated NT Workstation Configuration (Vendor non-specific)
  • 64 MB RAM (recommended, 32MB required)
  • 4.3GB Hard Drive (recommended, 10MB free space required)
  • 3COM/USR Courier Modem
  • NIC Appropriate for your network.

Requirements & Solution Outline

The requirements outlined in the RFP are listed below with the functionality provided in IPSentry that meets the requirement. For the scope of this RFP, many of the additional features provided by IPSentry are not listed. More information can be found on our website at www.ipsentry.com or by sending additional questions to info@ipsentry.com.

I. The solution must be capable of monitoring both the company's Intranet and Internet servers and devices on a 24-hour basis.

Solution
IPSentry provides 24/7 monitoring functionality and allows configuration options to disable monitoring at specific times of day for scheduled down-time. IPSentry also allows the user to suspend monitoring of a specific machine to eliminate unnecessary notifications on a 'known-bad' device.

II. The software should be able to continuously monitor the company's routers, switches, firewalls, remote access servers, RADIUS servers, web servers, SMTP/POP3 (email) servers, DNS servers and Microsoft Windows NT server functions.

Solution
IPSentry monitors standard TCP/IP servers by using simulating user access. Rather than "ping", IPSentry actually connects to the device, issues the appropriate request (if any), and awaits the defined response (if any). For example, when configured to monitor an SMTP server, IPSentry's default configuration requires that IPSentry connect to the server and receive the "220" response that SMTP servers send to denote a ready state. Similarly, under HTTP, IPSentry connects to the web server, issues a default GET request, and awaits the beginning of the HTTP response. Of course, these options are completely configurable allowing the user to specify the data to be send, received, and the amount of time IPSentry should wait for successful results.

When monitoring NT Services such as W3SVC, SQLServer, etc., IPSentry uses the Windows NT Service Control Manager to query the status of the service. The result of this query is the running status of the service as reported by the NT operating system.

RGE offers a free UDP add-in for monitoring of RADIUS servers.

III. The software's polling interval for each device should be configurable by the administrators

Solution
IPSentry provides a "Poll Frequency" option that is used to specify the number of polling cycles that will elapse before the specific device is monitored. This allows some devices to be checked only once while other, more critical, devices are checked multiple times.

IV. The software should check to make sure each device or resource is functioning correctly, if a device fails, an alert should be sent immediately.

Solution
IPSentry is a synchronous type monitoring which means IPSentry monitors one entry after another. If a failure is detected, the appropriate defined alerts are triggered immediately.

IPSentry allows the user to configure alert thresholds whereby and alert can be triggered on the first detected failure (sensitive), or on specified subsequent failures. The user can also specify the maximum number of sequential alerts to be generated for a given sentry item.

When the failed system has recovered, IPSentry can perform "UP" notifications letting the recipients know that the failed system is now functional.

V. At a minimum, the alerts should consist of a page being sent, either in alphanumeric or simple numeric format as well as an email being forwarded to the IT team.

Solution
IPSentry provides both numeric and alphanumeric paging capability. IPSentry also provides for multiple pager operation and "Pager Escalations". Pager Escalation can be configured in such a way that if a failed system has not been corrected in a specified time frame, IPSentry will begin alerting the next pager in the list. If the system is still failing, IPSentry can escalate to another pager, and another, and so-on, until the pager list is exhausted at which point, it will start with the first pager. IPSentry can also be configured to notify ALL pagers in the pager list.

IPSentry provides Email standard SMTP email. The user can configure IPSentry to deliver mail to multiple email addresses as well as try multiple SMTP relay hosts just in case one of the SMTP servers is down. As with all IPSentry alerting options, IPSentry can generate an "UP" alert when a failed system has recovered.

VI. A nice feature for future expansion would be the ability to launch a custom application that could restart a service or execute a soft reboot of a device.

Solution
RGE currently provides the NT Service Control add-in for attempting to restart a failed NT Service.

IPSentry provides two options to meet the external application requirement. First, IPSentry provides a "Launch Application" alert which gives you the ability to execute a command or application as part of the alert sequence. As with other alert options, you can specify a schedule as well as an "UP" alert when a failed system has recovered. The configuration of the Launch App alert allows the use of KEYWORDS as part of the command line allowing information about the alert to be given to the launched application. These keywords provide information such as Entry Type, Status, IP Address, Port, Drive Space, etc.

The second method for customized alerts is through the IPSentry Add-In SDK. The SDK provides documentation and VB sample code for creating in-house custom Alerting and Monitoring add-ins. (Available at www.ipsentry.com/downloadsdk.htm)

VII. A detailed log file containing all device failures and alerts is required.

Solution
IPSentry v 4.1 provides three standard log files that represent different sets of information such as Monitoring Status, Application Activity, and Alerting Activity. The file structures are document in the help files for use in external reporting. Each item in the Monitoring log contains information specific to that monitoring cycle such as Date, Time, Response Time, and Status.

RGE is confident that IPSentry will meet your current and future needs. RGE, Inc. provides access to a full-featured time-limited demo available for download at www.ipsentry.com.

Total Cost

IPSentry Version 4.x 
   from RGE, Inc.         $99.00 US
IPSentry UDP Monitoring 
   Add-In                  $0.00
IPSentry NT Service 
   Control Add-In         $39.00
Total Solution 
   (w/o Hardware)        $138.00

Please direct further requests to:

Rex W. Walker
President/CEO - RGE, Inc.
> www.ipsentry.com
info@ipsentry.com
fax +317 745 3174

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RELATED LINKS

The RFP and responses from other vendors

Review and buyer's guide: Network monitoring and alerting
An in-depth look at several apps; database of detailed specs on 46 tools; and a forum on the technology.