Larger IT environments place greater strain on monitoring solutions as performance problems can cause false results, which in turn increases the risk of errors and downtime. Plus a lot of larger IT environments don’t run in their own networks, but are made up of several closed ones.
In addition, a lot of the devices in the network have their own dashboards so that admins often have to look in different locations if they want to resolve issues or carry out performance diagnostics.
The size of the network doesn't matter, the monitoring principles remain the same.
The principles of good monitoring are generally the same for larger IT environments as they are for small and medium-size ones.
- The admin receives an alarm or a notification if values reach defined thresholds.
- All information has to be visible in one place.
- Particularly for larger environments, it must be ensured that the monitoring solution in use is scalable.
Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor has been specially developed for monitoring large IT infrastructures and comes with a high-performance dashboard that gives an overview of the entire infrastructure.
Scalable vertically or horizontally.
To monitor a large IT environment, a scalable solution is critical. PRTG Enterprise Monitor gives system admins two options: Vertical and horizontal scaling.
Vertical scaling means as much as possible is monitored via a single PRTG server. This is not only easy to implement, it is the preferred solution when up to 1,000 devices need to be kept an eye on.
Horizontal scaling gives admins several PRTG servers, which is ideal for very large environments. In this case, the infrastructure is segmented, for example, geographically or according to functionality. Each segment is then monitored by its own dedicated PRTG server. PRTG Enterprise Monitor offers the opportunity to use an unlimited number of PRTG servers.
All data requested and aggregated by a variety of devices are, however, is meaningless when they cannot be turned into usable information.
PRTG ITOps Board: Everything at a glance.
To ensure even large networks remain clearly organised, Paessler has integrated a new dashboard. ITOps Board (exclusive to PRTG Enterprise Monitor) extends the monitoring setup with a service-oriented, central overview of multiple PRTG servers.
One of the most important aspects of ITOps Board is the Business Services concept, which offers a structured view as a dashboard. Data on the status and performance of network components is organised according to their importance for the company.
The administrator defines which services are important for the company such as its e-mail provider, the licencing system or a software build process. In the PRTG ITOps Board, the data being monitored in the infrastructure can be assigned to Business Services. In this way, the admin has a comprehensive overview of the IT infrastructure’s state and can set alarms according to specific criteria. This significantly reduces the number of alarms as they are only needed when a business process is at risk.
If you want to learn more about how PRTG Enterprise Monitor can be used to monitor large infrastructures, feel free to contact me.
