General Preferences

The General Preferences page is where you enter and view licensing information for SiteScope. It is also the default page that is displayed when you click the Preferences button on the main SiteScope navigation menu.

This section describes:

About the General Preferences Page
Working with General Preferences Settings
Built-in Web Server
Serving SiteScope through an external Web server

About the General Preferences Page

The General Preferences page itself is where you enter or change your SiteScope license information, enter license keys for any optional monitor features, and enable or disable several SiteScope display options. As the default preference page, it also provides access to a number of other pages that you use to set various preferences for SiteScope. This includes E-mail, Pager, Log, and User account configurations.

You also use the General Preferences page to use a Web server other than the built-in server which is part of the SiteScope package. If you choose to use the SiteScope server, you can specify a port and access privileges for the server so you can restrict access to SiteScope. If you choose not to use the native SiteScope Web server and instead want to use a stand-alone Web server, you will need to refer to the instructions for how to set up your server to serve SiteScope pages.

Working with Monitoring Administration

If you are using Mercury Application Management to administer monitor configurations for this SiteScope installation, the General Preferences page will display a single option: Detach from Monitoring Administration. The following is an example of the Detach from Monitoring Administration option display:

Detach from Monitoring Administration
Detach SiteScope from the Monitoring Administration server.

Detach from Monitoring Administration:
Note: To resume remote control, please perform an Attach operation from the Monitoring Administration server

This view is displayed when the SiteScope installation is being controlled by the Monitoring Administration console in Application Management. In this state, you can not edit preference settings or options using the SiteScope interface. Configuration changes need to be made using the Monitoring Administration console.

You use the Detach from Monitoring Administration function to detach the SiteScope server from the Monitoring Administration. This may be necessary if the Monitoring Administration console has become unavailable or if communication between the SiteScope and the Monitoring Administration console has been interrupted. When you click the Detach button, SiteScope resets the applicable settings related to Monitoring Administration control and enables full configuration control to the SiteScope interface. You can reattach the SiteScope to Monitoring Administration later by using the Attach function in the Monitoring Administration console.

Working with General Preferences Settings

Use the entry fields on the General Preferences as described below. Click the Save Changes button located at the bottom of the page to record the changes. You will be returned the SiteScope main page.

License Number

Enter your SiteScope license number to register your SiteScope monitors. This number is issued to you when you purchase a set of monitors. You must purchase a license if you intend to use SiteScope beyond the trial period.

License Status

This line displays information about the license as entered in the License Number box above. This includes the total number of monitor points permitted by the license and how many points have been used plus a label for any optional monitor license keys entered below.

Option Licenses

If you have purchased licensing for optional SiteScope monitoring capability , enter the license number in this text box. Normally, this license key will have a syntax similar to the SiteScope license entered above. If you have purchased multiple license keys, enter each key separated with a comma.

Options Enabled

If you have entered licensing for one or more optional SiteScope monitors, the labels of the enabled monitor types are displayed.

Note: SiteScope may need to be restarted before some optional monitor types become available on the Add Monitor page.

Enable locale-specific display of date and time

You select this option to have SiteScope display dates and times in a format that is applicable to a certain locale, country, or culture. The locale setting for the United States (US) is used by default. In order to use a different locale setting, you must modify the SiteScope configuration file to include the codes for the locale you want to use and select this option in the General Preferences. Use the following steps to over-ride the default locale used by SiteScope:

To over-ride the default locale used by SiteScope:

Open the master.config file in the <SiteScope install path>/SiteScope/groups directory with a text editor.
Find the entry _localeCountry=, and assign it an uppercase, 2-character ISO-3166 country code. For example: _localeCountry=US. You can find a full list of these country codes at a number of sites, such as http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html.
Find the entry _localeLanguage=, and assign it a lowercase 2-character ISO-639 language code. For example: _localeLanguage=en. You can find a full list of these codes at a number of sites, such as http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm.
Save the changes to the master.config file, and then restart the SiteScope service.

International Version

Check this option to enable International character sets. When this option is checked, SiteScope honors all character encodings. You use this option to instruct SiteScope to simultaneously handle character encodings from multiple sources and operating systems (for example, foreign language web pages). If not checked, only the default character set of the operation system where SiteScope installed is supported. The exceptions are all the URL monitor types, the Log File Monitor, and the File Monitor. These monitor types support multiple character encoding regardless of the International Version option setting.

Number of backups per file:

Enter the number of SiteScope configuration file backups that you want to keep. This feature is to help preserve important monitor, alert, and general SiteScope configuration information (for example, the files in the <SiteScope install path>/SiteScope/groups directory). This number represents that number of backups per file that will be maintained. SiteScope will use a naming convention of filename.bak.1, filename.bak.2, ... filename.bak.#, where 1 is the latest backup file.

Operator Acknowledgement

Check this box to enable the optional monitor status acknowledgement feature. This option will add an extra column to each monitor group table labeled Ack. This column contains an acknowledgement icon,

which, when clicked, provides an entry box to create a comment or note associated with the monitor. This note or comment is then available to other users as a floating tool-tip for group communication. The comment text is cleared from the interface when the monitor changes from one state to another. The acknowledgement notes are also recorded in the SiteScope\logs\Operator.log file.

Alert Icons

Check this box to enable the display of alert information for groups and monitors. This will add an extra column to each monitor group table labeled Alert. An alert indicator icon is also added to the upper right hand side of the group detail page as well as the SiteScope main panel to indicate if alerts are configured for that context. This alert indicator icon when clicked, opens the Edit page for the applicable Alert definition. If more than one alert is associated with the monitor or group clicking the alert icon opens the Alert list page. If no alert is directly associated with the monitor or group clicking the alert icon opens the Add Alert page.

Report Icons

Check this box to enable the display of report information for groups and monitors. This will add an extra column to each monitor group table labeled Report. An report indicator icon is also added to the upper right hand side of the group detail page to indicate if reports are configured for that context. This report indicator icon when clicked, opens the Edit page for the applicable Report definition. If more than one report is associated with the monitor or group clicking the icon opens the Report list page. If no alert is directly associated with the monitor or group clicking the report icon opens the Quick Report page.

Groups per Row

Enter the number of top-level monitor groups should be displayed in the SiteScope main panel. In previous versions of SiteScope this was fixed to three groups per row. Depending on the length of group names being used, it is recommended that you use a value between 2 and 6.

Blue Gauges

Check this box to enable display of SiteScope blue status gauges. This is a legacy feature from earlier SiteScope versions.

Suspend Monitors

Check this box to temporarily suspend the execution of all monitors. You can use this to make configuration changes in the case that SiteScope is heavily loaded with a large number of monitors running and the responsiveness of the SiteScope interface has become slow. You can also use this to reduce the time required to complete large configuration operations such as a global search and replace operation from Mercury Application Management Monitor Administration. You can suspend all monitors temporarily, make configuration changes, and then resume monitoring again by clearing this option and save change.

When the Suspend Monitors option is enabled, the following message is displayed below the SiteScope navigation menu:

The status indicators for all monitors and groups will continue to display the last recorded value for each item. This is to say that the status icons are not changed to the (disabled) icon.

Note: This option has the effect of disabling all monitors currently defined for this SiteScope installation. It is, however, not the same as a Disable all monitors action. If you set Suspend Monitors and then later clear this box to re-enable the monitors, those individual monitors that were set as disabled prior to the Suspend Monitors action will retain their original disabled state. This is different from a global disable action. If you were to select all monitors and Disable them (using the Manage Monitors and Groups page) and later re-enable them, the Disable state would be set and then cleared for all monitors, regardless of their state prior to the action.

Note: Use of this option may impact reports. Monitors that would have run during the time that monitoring was suspended may display blanks for that period in reports.

Default Authentication Credentials

You use this section to enter default authentication credentials that SiteScope will use to log into certain applications and systems. This user name and password will be used if the following conditions are met:

no other authentication credentials are entered as part of an individual monitor configuration
the target application or system requires authentication credentials

The following monitor types can use this feature:

Username

Enter the default username to be used for authentication with remote systems. Both username and DOMAIN\username are valid formats. SiteScope will use this user name for the monitor types listed above unless a different user name is entered explicitly as part of the monitor configuration.

Password

Enter the default password to be used for authentication with remote systems. SiteScope will use this password for the monitor types listed above unless a different password is entered explicitly as part of the monitor configuration.

When to Authenticate

You use this setting to control when SiteScope will send authorization information when requesting a URL.

Note: This only determines when the authorization information is sent. This option will still use the Authorization User Name and Authorization Password entered for this monitor instance. If these are not specified for the individual monitor, the Username and Password specified in the Default Authentication Credentials section of the General Preferences page will be used, if they have been specified.

Built-in Web Server

IP Addresses Allowed Access

You can restrict the IP addresses that are allowed access to the SiteScope Web server by entering which IP addresses should be allowed access. You can use a wildcard at the end of the IP address to indicate a range of addresses. For example, 206.168.191.* allows access to the 206.168.191 subnet.

Note: To restrict access to this SiteScope instance to the IP address(s) entered here you must also check the Require both IP address and Login option below.

Require both IP address and Login

Selecting this option adds further security by restricting SiteScope access to users who have both a correct username/password and an allowed IP address. With this option checked, users who try to access SiteScope on this server will be presented with a login screen. Only those accessing SiteScope from the allowed IP addresses will be able to view SiteScope.

Note: For effective access control to this SiteScope you should also create user accounts and be sure that each user account has a login name and password assigned to it.

SiteScope Port

Enter the port on which the SiteScope server should be accessed. By default, this port value is normally set to 8888 and the access method is HTTP. You can change this to be some other available port number.

You can also set up SiteScope to be accessible via Secure HTTP (HTTPS). To do this you will have to obtain and install a digital certificate on the SiteScope server. You will also have to define a port number for the SiteScope _httpSecurePort parameter. Leaving the SiteScope Port box blank will have one of two effects. If the _httpSecurePort parameter is defined, leaving the SiteScope Port empty will force all access to the SiteScope server to be Secure HTTP connections.

Note: If the _httpSecurePort parameter is not defined, and no valid port is entered in the SiteScope Port box, the SiteScope Web server will not start and will not serve the SiteScope Web pages unless it is invoked from an external Web server.

You clear this setting and select the Static HTML pages if you have configured another Web server to invoke the SiteScope CGI interface and serve SiteScope pages. See the section on Using a Stand-alone Web server for instructions on how to enable this option.

Serving SiteScope through an external Web server

SiteScope can be invoked as a CGI program from a third party Web server. This is not recommended but may be necessary to comply with security policies in certain situations. See the section on Using a Stand-alone Web server for more information on this option.

Static HTML pages: Selecting this option tells SiteScope to write out HTML files of certain pages normally presented by SiteScope. You use this option to enable access to SiteScope information serverd from a separate Web server. You should also clear any entry in the SiteScope Port setting field as part of using this optional feature.
Web Server Address: Enter the name or the IP address of the machine on which SiteScope is installed. For example, enter either the machine's IP address, as in 206.168.191.44, or you could enter the machine's name. as in trout.thiscompany.com. This information is used for providing links to SiteScope management report pages in your management summary e-mail when you are serving SiteScope through an external Web server.

Click the Save Changes button to complete the action.