Documentation

AGENT Checks

About AGENT checks

AGENT checks allow you to install a NodePing probe, installed and maintained by you and available only to your account, inside your private network that you can assign other NodePing checks to run on. For example, installing an AGENT on your LAN will allow you to create PING checks that can ensure internal devices are up and running in the 192.168.x.x address space.

Monitoring services and devices inside your private networks and pushing the results to NodePing is what AGENT checks were built for. An AGENT check will show up in your available check location regions dropdown so you can assign checks to be run on the AGENT.

AGENT checks bring uptime monitoring to your internal networks. The AGENT software is available from our GitHub account. Instructions are there on how to install and use it.

When to use AGENT Checks

Use AGENT checks to add a private probe to your internal networks that you can assign other NodePing checks to. If you need to watch the internal ends of VPN endpoints, or private file servers behind your firewalls, or maybe your intranet webserver, an AGENT check with the AGENT software running on a server in your internal network will provide the platform for that internal monitoring.

Using AGENT Checks

To set up an AGENT check,

1. Select AGENT from the Check type drop down.
2. Give it a friendly label to identify this AGENT. Adding a meaningful location to the label will come in handy when it is shown in your assignable regions list.
3. Set how often you want the AGENT to run in the Check Frequency field. Every minute is recommended.
4. If you'd like to receive notifications when the AGENT check fails to communicate with NodePing, check the box next to 'Fail when heartbeat is old'. The heartbeat from an AGENT is considered 'old' when the latest heartbeat timestamp is older than your check interval multiplied by your check sensitivity. The default of a 1 minute check and a sensitivity of 'High (2 rechecks)' means your AGENT heartbeat will be considered old when it is more than 2 minutes old (1 minute interval * 2 rechecks).
5. Set the Sensitivity. High (2) is usually appropriate. Do not set this to 'Very High (0)' as it is not a useful setting for AGENT checks and may cause false 'down' notifications.
6. Set the notifications for this check. More information about notifications.
7. Install and set up the AGENT software as described in the linked documentation.

Common usage:

• Monitor services and devices behind firewalls by adding a private NodePing probe to your network.

Other considerations

AGENT checks require you to install the NodePing AGENT software.