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Sentry-go - A Brief History |
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Since its launch back in 2001, Sentry-go monitoring solutions have always had
the same aim - to provide customers with affordable monitoring software for the
Windows platform that is, above all, quick & easy to use & doesn't require a
team of people to look after it.
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From the Beginning |
Sentry-go was originally designed as one of the first desktop monitoring
solutions for the Windows platform. A server-based monitor was soon added and
this solution developed into a number of smaller “Quick Monitors” a year later.
Built to be quick & easy to use, these low cost solutions allowed smaller
organisations to monitor their environments, or parts of their environments at a
very low cost, all without needing to employ a team of people to maintain it.
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Component-based Monitoring |
Sentry-go Plus! was a component-based, plug & play solution, built on
the success of these Quick Monitors. Designed to be just as easy to use,
Sentry-go Plus! had the advantage of being extremely flexible, allowing the
customer to purchase only the monitoring options they were going to use. It also
allowed a single tailored monitor to be run on each server, rather than needing
multiple Quick Monitor services.
In version 5.x, the technology found in the Quick Monitors and Sentry-go Plus!
came together in the Sentry-go Monitoring System. With this version, new &
improved monitoring capabilities were added as were changes to client tools. In
came the new Console Browser, additional reporting as well many more options to
help the Administrator configure & maintain the system.
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New monitoring options added to the File/Directory monitor allowed details of
users/processes accessing files & directories to be captured. The new scripting
monitor allowed users to plug in their own monitoring tasks, whilst continuing
to make use of Sentry-go’s management framework, alerting & reporting. And for
those who didn’t want to write scripts, the new Scripting Wizard was added to
help you generate them from on-line templates.
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Sentry-go Monitoring Today |
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Today the technology
- now at version 6, continues to be enhanced and shared across the Sentry-go
range of monitoring solutions. The aim,
as it’s always been remains the same – to provide low cost, fully featured
monitoring solutions that are quick and easy to use. |
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Sentry-go
Quick Monitors
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Quick Monitors continue to provide Sentry-go monitoring functionality as a
pre-configured group of components, designed to monitor standard environments
such as SQL Servers, Microsoft Exchange, Print servers, IIS or a generic Windows
application server.
The new Easy Access utility provides a quick & easy way of accessing a monitor's
primary functions and an ideal way of getting up and running quickly. It also
woprks seamlessly with an updated Client Console, providing real-time access to
monitors across your enterprise, locally or remotely.
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Plus! Components
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Sentry-go Plus! continues to provide the ability to build a solution that
meets the needs of your individual servers. By using components - either individually
or together, you can get the ultimate customised monitoring solution.
With Sentry-go Plus!, the software provides the management framework, alerting and web
reporting for free. All you need to do is add the monitoring components you wish to use!
As in version 5, you can do this in 1 of 2 ways. Either build your own
solution from scratch or, start with an existing Quick Monitor, and further extend it's
functionality by including additional monitoring components. |
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Pulling it all together with the Enterprise Option |
The Sentry-go
Enterprise
Option |
The
Sentry-go Enterprise Option pulls the monitoring
information from each monitor together as a single unit. A natrual progression
aimed predominantly at users with larger monitored environments, this optional
component allows information to be captured from Sentry-go to a central SQL
Server database, automatically in a self-managed system.
From here, additional web reports are made available through the monitor's
built-in web server, allowing information to be displayed at the enterprise
level in addition to the standard per-server reports. Using this & the drill
down options within the reports, you can spot trends & determine the key issues
across your environment much more easily.
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Whichever Sentry-go solution you choose, the aim today remains the same as when
we started. To provide an affordable solution that allows customers to monitor
what they want, when they want, all wrapped up in a quick & easy to use package.
Many of the changes have come about through customer feedback and we thank all those in the past and future who help us continue to improve our
software.
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