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As director of software development at Dartware, I am involved in the day-to-day process of listening to our customers, understanding what they really need and want from network monitoring software, and directing the development team to make sure high-priority needs and wants are met. We will soon release InterMapper 5.1, the latest result of these efforts by the development team. Some of the new features slated for InterMapper 5.1 include:
- Probe Groups
- Google earth integration
- SMS notifiers
- Database improvements
- More global device list actions
- Assorted smaller conveniences
- Grid layout
- Command-line import/export capabilities
- Insert icon
- Server logs preference pane
Probe Groups
A Probe Group allows you to include multiple probes targeting the same IP address in a single icon on a map. The status of the probe group icon is the worst status among the probes in the group. For example, we have a machine running Plone and InterMapper DataCenter. With a probe group, we could collect an HTTP probe for Plone, an HTTPS probe for IMDC, an ssh probe to make sure we can reach it for administrative purposes, and a Host Resources probe to monitor CPU usage and disk space, into a single icon. As long as that icon is green, we know at a glance that everything about the machine it is targeting is fine. If the icon isn't green, we can check the status window or the list view to see more information about which of the four probes is showing a problem. A probe group will count as a single device against your license count.
Google Earth Integration
InterMapper 5.1 exports the following information so that Google Earth can place them in the proper location:
- Devices are represented by their status badges (green, yellow, orange, red circle icons)
- Networks ovals are shown as cloud icons
- Links between devices are shown as lines
- Status windows for each of these items are displayed when you click on them
- Each map is represented as one of the "Places" at the left side of Google Earth
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