Observer

To monitor an endpoint, you need an Observer. As a SaaS customer, you can use observers already provided by us. We offer an Observer located in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and East Virginia (USA).

Keep the Observer software component up to date and perform updates regularly.

Permanent monitoring of the Observer can only be ensured if the IP addresses from which monitoring is performed are not blocked by firewall rules. If necessary, unblock the following IP addresses when using the observers available on the SaaS platform:

164.90.185.111 164.90.231.250 142.93.119.55 142.93.119.52 138.68.93.235 138.68.71.130 139.59.155.98

Add Observer

If, as a SaaS customer, you would like to add further locations, e.g. to enable access to endpoints on the intranet, you can do so in any number. As an on-premises customer, you must always install an Observer to monitor endpoints. To do this, you need a Linux-powered server (Debian, CentOS). You can of course also work with a virtual machine.

  1. Go to Endpoints → Observers→ Add Observer

  2. Run the installation script with root-privileges on the desired Linux device.

The Observer automatically connects to the Enginsight platform.

Configure Observer

Following the installation, you must configure your Observer. To do this, simply click on the Observer you have installed and the following overlay will open.

  1. Assign an alias to give your Observer a unique name.

  2. Specify the region to which the observer should be assigned (e.g. London, server room...)

  3. Specify how many endpoints the Observer should process in parallel. The correct setting depends on the performance that you make available to the Observer. The default setting is 2. Adjust this setting if necessary.

  4. Finally, save your configuration by saving the changes.

If you assign several observers to the same region, they automatically share the monitoring of the endpoints.

On-Premises

If you are operating Enginsight as your own on-premises instance, you have two additional options.

  1. Operate as a dedicated Observer: Specify whether you want to use the Observer as an organization's dedicated Observer, or whether you want the Observer to be shared with all organizations.

  2. Allow Internal targets: Restrict the observer's access targets. The observer only has the rights to access internal IP addresses if the "Internal targets" option is enabled. This option is important if you are not using the Observer as a dedicated observer, so that other organizations cannot monitor internal IP addresses.

Website monitoring can also be carried out via a proxy. However, a direct connection should be available for all other Observer functions. If the local network is severely restricted in terms of Internet communication, the use of multiple observers is recommended: A cloud observer for Internet endpoints and a local observer for the local network.

Update Observer

We update the Enginsight Observer on an ongoing basis. To ensure that all (new) functions work as desired, it is necessary that you always keep the Observer up to date.

  1. Go to Endpoints → Observers and check that all version numbers are up to date. You will receive a warning if an outdated version is installed.

  2. If a watchdog does not have the current version number, click on the Update button in the right-hand column under Actions.

The current version number can always be found here.

Get logs

On the Observer server: Get and save logs

If you have access to the Observer server, you can also read out the current logs directly. The best way is to save the logs into a .txt-file.

Use the commands below to do this. Adjust the file name before you do this.

Debian:

cat /var/log/syslog | grep -a observer-m9 > /tmp/<filename>.txt

CentOS:

cat /var/log/messages | grep -a observer-m9 > /tmp/<filename>.txt

How far back in time the logs go depends on the configuration and load of the server.

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