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This is the third and final part of "Triage with Keynote Red Alert" article series, where we discussed from the beginning 'what is triage' to advanced 'Triage with Keynote Red Alert' topics. In this article we will discuss on the 'Red Alert for Internet Server Triage'. There's more to e-business than just Web sites; e-business also relies on email, chat, file transfer (FTP), and Authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) services. Red Alert can play a key role in the quick problem detection and triage of these services because of its ability to open a TCP connection to any server system, not just Web servers. Red Alert's ability to test file length is also of great benefit in evaluating the correct performance of any system that generates a log file as a part of its operation; sequential Red Alert tests showing that the log file has or hasn't changed in size can indicate a failed system. A TCP connection, as used by Red Alert, is a far more reliable indicator of success than the classic ping test. A ping reaches only the outermost boundary of a server's Internet protocol software, which may be handled on the I/O card. It does not test the availability of an application. Some server systems may respond correctly to a ping if there's power to their I/O card, even if their CPU is powered down. In contrast, a TCP connect succeeds only if an application has notified the Internet protocol software that it's running and willing to accept incoming connections. TCP connect is therefore a much more reliable indicator of application availability than is ping. That's the reason the Red Alert uses TCP Connect, not ping, as a means of testing non-Web servers for availability. - Red Alert should monitor
the appropriate TCP application ports of your Internet servers (such as your email, chat, FTP, and DNS servers) to ensure that their applications are available and willing to accept incoming connections. Some systems may Red Alert to monitor a number of different ports to test for the availability of different services. For example, Red Alert might monitor both TCP Port 23 for Telnet and TCP Port 21 for FTP. Your Authoritative DNS server uses both UDP Port 53 and TCP Port 53; it's the latter that should be monitored by Red Alert to see if outside users are able to reach it. - Red Alert should test the length of log files.
Red Alert can be set to generate an alarm if the size of a file either changes or doesn't change between sequential file retrievals. The failure of a log file to grow indicates system failure in many Internet systems; in other cases, the increase in size of an error file may indicate a failure. Red Alert Website Monitoring Service and site monitoring software for continuously improving the online experience.
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