Most organizations use some form of network monitoring software to monitor network assets. A standard network monitoring system will track device uptime, bandwidth usage, and system performance monitoring. While this type of monitoring solution is useful if there are problems with the network, it does not help if the application has a problem. Most large organizations have many different applications to support. Some of these applications include enterprise-level programs that each user has installed on their computer. When such an important application is not working or cannot be accessed, you can be sure that the helpline is calling. The right tools for monitoring application performance issues can save lives and hinder call flow.
Why application monitoring is needed
First, you need to know that application monitoring is not the same as network monitoring. An easy way to explain the difference is for the network monitor to indicate how users can access the application. Application monitoring alerts you when an application is not working properly, even if users can access it. For example, suppose not all surprised users can use SharePoint. The network monitor software does not show any problems on the network, so you begin troubleshooting SharePoint Server. After spending some time visiting event logs and various other log files, you end up with a service that is turned off on the server. The network monitoring system could not tell us this, it fixed all the problems in the network.
Application monitoring software can alert the administrator that something has failed on the server. The ability to quickly diagnose problems with enterprise applications will greatly simplify the life of a system administrator. It also ensures that applications run as intended.
Good app pole for monitoring will give you an instant visual overview of your app, trend overview, performance analysis, and identification of growth areas. All of this information is important when planning, filling out SLAs, and finding problems before they produce great results.
How application monitoring works
The simplest and most efficient way to monitor applications is to use a central monitoring server. Most business monitoring systems will have a central control panel. This program is set up on a server that collects data from applications. It can be a Windows or Linux server. This method of data collection is used in one of two ways, either through the payment of an intermediary or through a voting method.
A proxy push is a locally installed agent that sends its data to a central monitoring server. This method can often provide additional features, but requires more manual work. These factors apply separately and may not work or may not work properly. Therefore, the voting method is preferred.
The voting method uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to collect data from monitoring programs. SNMP and WMI are easy to install and you don't have to worry about constantly updating them.
Ability to monitor application activity
When looking for a solution to monitor application performance, you will find that there are a large number of options to choose from. It really depends on your needs. You can choose between individual applications to monitor individual systems, or enterprise monitoring systems that can monitor all applications in your organization. There are also open source and commercial application monitoring solutions. It is best to experiment with a mixture of products to determine which one is best for you.
