Systems and Network Infrastructure Integration

9Monitoring Systems and Networks

“A house runs more smoothly when the master looks after his own affairs.”

French Proverb

– Understanding the concept of monitoring and its challenges.

– Learning the main monitoring protocols.

– Discovering proprietary and free monitoring tools.

– Taking on Nagios, the flagship free monitoring tool.

9.1. Introduction

Businesses set up fairly complex IT infrastructures in order to ensure reliable service and permanent access to data for its employees and partners.

Network infrastructures are vital to the operation of a business and its IT system, as any problem or breakdown on these networks can have harmful consequences for the company both financially and organizationally and can tarnish its brand name. In view of these facts, several parameters should be monitored, such as output, link function, cabling problems and the state of the different services in place.

To do this, rigorous follow-up and monitoring of the different components of these infrastructures is necessary to ensure that they are functioning properly and in order to intervene in the event of problems, and even to be proactive and anticipate malfunctions. This is the end goal of monitoring.

Network and service monitoring involves methods and tools that make it possible to observe everything that happens in the network and to manage its components in the event of problems, locally or remotely, in order to restore functionality. These methods include detecting breakdowns, ...