eG Administration
 

License Information

To access this page, click on the icon available in the Admin tab. Then, select the Licence Overview option in the Miscellaneous tile. The information regarding the license issued to the user can be viewed here. 

LICENSE INFORMATION page shows the license information of the eG manager for a particular installation. The IP address, if specified, restricts the eG manager to a specific host. The Host ID, if specified, restricts the eG manager to a host that has a specific host ID. On Unix systems, run the command hostid to determine the host id of the system. The output of the command must match the host ID specified in the license for the eG manger to start. On Windows systems, look for the physical address specification in the output of the ipconfig /all command. The host ID specified in the license must match one of the physical addresses of the host (ignore any dashes (-) in the physical address).

Besides monitoring purposes, customers have the option of just using the eG Enterprise as a reporting engine to obtain reports on historical trends and events. The Product name in case of a ‘reporting-only’ installation will read eG Monitoring Suite - Reporter Only. Offered as a lower cost option, eG Enterprise with the reporting-only capability still supports agent-based and agentless monitoring of over 85 different applications and seven different operating systems. The table below lists the key differences between a normal eG manager installation and a “reporting-only” installation.

Sl.No. Normal Manager Reporter-only Manager
1 Users who are assigned the Admin role can login to the eG administrative interface and make configuration changes. Users who are assigned the Admin role can login to the eG administrative interface and make configuration changes.
2 By default, users who are assigned Monitor, Admin, ServerAdmin, or SuperMonitor roles have access to the eG monitor interface. Similarly, if you create a new role with monitoring privileges, then all users who are assigned that role will be able to access the eG monitoring console. No user can access the eG monitoring console; therefore, all the information that is typically available in the eG monitoring console, such as, the current problem list, alert history, component/service/segment/zone state, quick insight, live graphs, knowledge management, service and virtual topology previews, layer model representation, measurement data etc., will not be available to any user.
3 When a user who is assigned the Monitor/Supermonitor role logs into the eG manager, the eG monitoring console automatically opens. When a user who is assigned the Monitor/Supermonitor role logs into the eG manager, the eG Reporter console automatically opens.
4 The eG manager can send out email/SMS alerts of issues to configured users. The eG manager cannot send out email/SMS alerts.
5 Normal alerts, unknown alerts, heartbeat mails, escalated alerts, and shift-based alerts, if enabled, will be sent. Normal alerts, unknown alerts, heartbeat mails, escalated alerts, and shift-based alerts, even if configured, will not be sent by the eG manager.
6 Since email/SMS alerts can be sent, configurations specific to email/SMS alerting such as alarm subject customization, alarm content definition, when the alerts are to be sent and how, etc., can be configured and enforced using the MAIL SETTINGS page in the eG admin interface. Since email/SMS alerts cannot be sent, changes that you make to the look and feel of these alerts will not be effected.
7 Detailed diagnosis, if enabled, can be accessed from the monitoring and reporter consoles. Detailed diagnosis, even if enabled, will not be available for Snapshot reports.
8 The settings defined in the MONITOR SETTINGS page of the eG administrative interface apply to the eG monitor and the eG Reporter interfaces. Of the settings available for configuration in the MONITOR SETTINGS page, only the following settings are relevant to the Reporter-only manager:

  • the default language setting

  • the default date format setting

  • the timescale for the reporter graphs

  • the dimension of the reporter graphs (whether 3D or 2D)

  • the depth of lines in a 3D graph

  • Whether to show the daywise distribution reports (in the reporter home page) in minutes or percentage.

  • Whether or not to show the license expiry alert
9 A user with access to the eG monitor, reporter, and admin interfaces, can change the skin color of any/all the interfaces. Since no user has access to the eG monitor interface, he/she can change the skin color of the Admin and/or Reporter interfaces only.
10 A user with access to the eG monitoring console can set a default home page for the console. Since no user has access to the eG monitor interface, none of the users registered with the Reporter-only manager will have the option of setting a default home page for the monitoring console.
11 Logos can be configured for admin, monitor, and reporter interfaces. Logos can be configured for all interfaces, but the monitor interface-specific configuration will not be considered, as no user can access the eG monitoring console.
12 Administrators can generate audit log reports revealing the user activities on all eG interfaces. Administrators cannot generate audit log reports for accesses to the eG monitor interface, as no user can access the monitor interface.

Similarly, customers can also install and configure an eG SuperManager for managing multiple eG manager installations in their environment. If an eG SuperManager is deployed, then the Product name in the license for the eG Supermanager will be, eG Monitoring Suite - Super Manager.

Besides the above, the license also governs the following additional eG features:

  • The eG Integration Console (for extending eG Enterprise to monitor custom applications)

  • Integration of the eG manager with external trouble ticketing systems

  • Support for an optional detailed diagnosis capability

  • Support for a supermanager that is empowered to handle multiple managers in an environment

  • The eG Reporter (for providing a variety of useful reports)

  • The eG manager's ability to control the agents from remote locations (Remote Control Activities)

  • The SMS alerting capability of the eG manager

  • The agent per system capability: By default, if a host has multiple IP addresses, the eG Enterprise requires one agent license for each IP address that is managed internally. Likewise, if multiple nicknames are used for the same IP address, a separate internal agent license is used for each unique nickname that has been specified. In many large environments, a single server has many IP addresses, each with different nicknames. The agent per system capability is intended to optimize the internal agent license usage in such large infrastructures. If this capability is enabled by the eG license, the administrator has the option of overriding the default eG agent licensing policy. For example, suppose a host A has two IP addresses 192.168.10.7 and 10.10.10.1, and that the first IP address 192.168.10.7 has already been managed in the eG Enterprise. When adding the second IP address, 10.10.10.1, the administrator has the option of overriding eG's default internal agent licensing policy - in this example, the administrator can indicate that the internal agent for the IP address 10.10.10.1 is actually the one that is already associated with the IP address 192.168.10.7. By doing so, the administrator can ensure that a single agent license is sufficient to manage all the IP addresses and applications executing on a host.

  • The license also controls the capability of the eG agents to run client emulation tests. eG Enterprise supports integration with two client emulation tools, namely, CitraTest and QA Wizard. These tools allow administrators to record user transactions to an application, and configure the eG agent to replay the recorded transaction to extract the required measures. For more details about the client emulation tools, refer to The eG Client Emulation Guide. eG agents will be able to run the emulated tests only if the Client Session Simulation flag in the eG license is set to Yes.

  • To ensure high availability of the eG monitoring solution, eG Enterprise offers a redundant manager option wherein a secondary manager can act as an active or passive standby for the primary manager. This option is governed by the Cluster Type condition in the eG license. If the Cluster Type condition contains the value Not Supported, it indicates that the current installation of eG Enterprise supports a single manager only. If Cluster Type is set to Active-Active or Active-Passive, then it indicates that manager redundancy has been enabled for that eG installation. A cluster can have a single primary manager and one or more secondary managers. An Active-Active cluster is one where both the primary and secondary managers can both have agents reporting measures to them during normal operation. Alternatively, administrators can opt for an Active-Passive setup wherein the primary manager alone will manage all the agents deployed during normal operation. The secondary managers in such a setup will remain passive - i.e., will be up and running, but will not manage any agents unless the primary manager fails.

In addition to the above, the page embeds a LICENSE USAGE section, using which administrators can evaluate whether eG license usage is optimal or is excessive, and accordingly decide on future license requirements.

  • The Total Monitors listing indicates the total number of basic and premium monitors that the current installation of eG Enterprise is allowed to use, the total number of such monitors that are currently utilized, and the overall usage percentage.

  • Basic Monitors are typically a combination of basic agents and agentless basic components. These concepts have been demystified below:

  • Basic Agent - A basic agent can be used to monitor only the operating system of a host and the processes running on it. To use a basic agent, the user must manage the host as any of the following: Generic server, Eventlog server, Windows Generic server, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HPUX, Windows server, MS File server, or MS Print server.

  • Agentless Basic Components - eG Enterprise supports both agent-based and agentless monitoring of target components. For implementing agentless monitoring, the solution uses Remote agents. A remote agent implements agentless monitoring for one or more of the target servers/applications - i.e., without requiring an internal agent for the target server/application, the remote agent can collect critical statistics about the target. For more details regarding eG's Agentless Monitoring capability, refer to the Administering eG Enterprise document. In eG parlance, hosts/applications that are monitored in an agentless manner are called Agentless Components. Typically, a Generic server, Windows Generic server, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HPUX, Windows server, MS File server, MS Print server, AS400 server, Netware server, Snmp Generic server, when managed by remote agents, will be counted as Agentless Basic Components.

    The eG license does not restrict the number of Basic agents or Agentless Basic components that can be configured in an eG installation - instead, it only restricts the total number of Basic Monitors. This imparts to customers the flexibility to decide how to use the basic monitors - i.e., they can decide how many of the Basic Monitors should be reserved for Basic Agents and how many for Agentless Basic Components.

    Premium Monitors are typically a combination of premium agents, agentless premium components, and external agents. These concepts have been demystified below:

    Premium Agents - If any applications on the host (e.g., Web, email, DNS, etc.) have to be monitored, the internal agent used for this purpose is counted as a premium agent.

    Agentless Premium Components - In eG parlance, hosts/applications that are monitored in an agentless manner are called Agentless Components. All applications that are monitored using a remote agent are called Agentless Premium Components. External Agents - The eG license restricts the number of external agents that can be configured in the target environment. Since each eG installation requires at least one external agent, the customer's license must allow for at least one.

    The total number of Premium Monitors that an eG installation is allowed to use is automatically computed as the difference between the Total Monitors and Basic Monitors. For instance, if the eG license allows 20 monitors totally and 7 basic monitors, then 13 will be automatically set as the maximum number of premium monitors that can be configured in the environment. If required, the customer can even have 19 basic monitors, reserving 1 premium monitor for the 1 external agent that is a must for every eG installation.

    Moreover, the eG license does not explicitly restrict the number of Premium Agents or Agentless Premium components that can be configured in a target environment - instead, it restricts the total number of Premium Monitors. This imparts to customers the flexibility to decide how to use these Premium Monitors - i.e., they can decide how many of the Premium Monitors should be reserved for Premium Agents and how many for

    Agentless Premium components. However, since the Premium Monitors restriction includes the ceiling on external agents as well, customers cannot exhaust their Premium Monitors license on premium agents and agentless premium components alone - in other words, if the eG license allows a total of 10 Premium Monitors and 3 External Agents, it implies that only 7 Premium Monitors can be consumed by premium agents and/or agentless premium components - 3 Premium Monitors will be reserved for external agents.

  • The license specifies the maximum number of Services that the manager can support.

  • In addition, the license imposes a ceiling on the number of Applications and the number of unique IPs (refers to the number of Monitored Targets) that can be monitored. Therefore, if a user monitors 4 applications executing on a single host, the eG Enterprise system will count the number of applications as 4 and the number of monitored targets as 1.

  • Restrictions on the number of Users permitted, the number of Network Devices that can be monitored, and the maximum number of topology Segments that can be configured are also specified in the license.

  • The license also specifies the maximum number of Endpoints licenses that the manager can support if IGEL Endpoints components are currently managed in your environment;

  • The license specifies the maximum number of O365 users that the manager can support;

Note:

If an eG license is expected to expire within the next 7 days, a message warning users of the impending license expiry, appears in the eG administrative interface, by default. If need be, you can make sure that the message appears in the eG monitor interface as well, so that users with Monitor-only access can also be informed of the license expiry. To achieve this, do the following:

  • Log into the eG administrative interface and open the MONITOR SETTINGS page by following the menu sequence: Configure -> Monitor Settings.
  • In the OTHER DISPLAY SETTINGS section of the page, set the Show license expiry alert flag to Yes, and Update the changes.

    • Clicking on the Agent Status button in this page will lead you to the page that provides you with the status of the agents of a selected type.