Q: How to manage my GroundWork license?

A: As a user with the Admin role, from the Administration menu item, choose License.

License Details

The Administration > License page displays various information pertaining to your GroundWork Monitor license including version, number of hosts, start and end dates and time remaining. This is also the location where you can apply or update your license key.

New and Existing Installations

Each installation of GroundWork Monitor Enterprise requires a key. 

  • If you need a new key, please Submit a Ticket from the GroundWork Support portal, or contact Sales at sales@gwos.com.
  • For new installations a key is emailed to customers following purchase.
  • For existing installations, you will need to input a new key if your existing key has reached the subscription expiration date or you have exceeded the number of devices purchased. The License page will display a Warning when your device allocation is over the soft limit (typically slightly less than the hard limit).
  • For a free 60-day trial license key for larger numbers of devices, please see Request a Trial.

Password Maintenance

Over License Limit

It is recommended to check your license limit prior to configuring Cloud Hub connections. Please see Cloud Hub Troubleshooting

If you exceed your hard limit of devices, you will not be able to log in and adjust anything but the license key. Your system will continue to monitor and alert. If you encountered this in error, please Submit a Ticket to get a temporary key. It is also possible to remove devices from the command line in many cases.

Default Hosts

Default gw8-docker* Hosts

GroundWork Monitor 8.x out-of-the-box includes self monitoring of containers, named gw8-docker*, which comprise a total of 24 hosts. You can view these hosts by going to Configuration > Dashboards > Status > GroundWork Servers. As of GroundWork Monitor 8.1.0, These hosts do count against your license. You can choose to delete these hosts from Nagios and delete the Docker connector to reduce the posted device count on the License page. If you have the overhead, however, you can choose to keep these to have the server perform the self monitoring. These hosts are optional, however it is best practice is to maintain these hosts.

For 8.1.0 updates, if you do choose to remove the Docker Cloud Hub connection with the self-monitored containers, please note the ConnectorMonitor host is not removed. See next section.

ConnectorMonitor Host

GroundWork Monitor 8.0.0 and 8.1.0 include a host called foundation, which has been renamed in 8.1.0 to ConnectorMonitor. The purpose of this host is to provide connector status for configured Cloud Hub connections. It consumes one license count, however it is optional and may be removed for post 8.1.0 updates. For 8.1.0 the ConnectorMonitor host is not enabled by default.

To remove the foundation host after updating to GroundWork Monitor 8.1.0:

  1. Stop Cloud Hub:

    cd gw8 docker-compose stop cloudhub
  2. Edit the cloudhub.properties file from connector.monitor.hostname=ConnectorMonitor to connector.monitor.hostname=foundation and save:

    docker-compose exec nagios bash
    vi /usr/local/groundwork/config/cloudhub.properties 
    connector.monitor.hostname=foundation
  3. Return to the gw8 directory and start Cloud Hub:

    exit docker-compose up -d cloudhub
  4. Uncheck the Monitor configuration option for each connector that had it enabled.

    Stop Cloud Hub (from gw8):

    docker-compse stop cloudhub
  5. Re-edit the cloudhub.properties from connector.monitor.hostname=foundation to connector.monitor.hostname=ConnectorMonitor and save:

    docker-compose exec nagios bash 
    vi /usr/local/groundwork/config/cloudhub.properties 
    connector.monitor.hostname=ConnectorMonitor
  6. Return to the gw8 directory and start Cloud Hub:

    exit docker-compose up -d cloudhub

Number of Devices Monitored

See Administration > License. The Host Licensed number is the limit of hosts that can be monitored based your GroundWork License, and Hosts Monitored is the actual number of hosts currently being monitored. Within this page you can also  see your License End Date and Time remaining on this license. If you need to adjust your license please contact sales@gwos.com.

Managing Device Count

GroundWork Monitor counts devices in the foundation database, rather than hosts in the configuration database. This means the true count being compared against the license limit is the number of entries in the Device table in Foundation, and not the number of hosts. 

Devices are added to the GroundWork system using the Nagios Monitoring Commit process, through various auto-discovery processes, by the reception of SNMP traps, or if configured by syslogng.

When you re-IP a host, GroundWork creates a new device in order to preserve the historical data (events) on that device with the right name/IP address. Thus, if you generate a report on events you will see the events associated with the device as named when the event arrived, not as it is currently named. This is by design.

Below are processes for determining and adjusting your device count. 

Determining Your Device Count

Selecting Configuration > Nagios Monitoring > Maintenance > Device Cleanup, displays a summary of current devices (with explanations in the table below):

summary
========================================================

Number of devices Total: 253
Number of devices referenced by hosts: 232
Number of devices NOT referenced by hosts: 21
Number of devices probably created by traps: 0
Number of devices probably created by syslog messages: 0
========================================================
Total Unused Devices: 21

Number of devices Total

The current total of all devices in the database, this is the number the license manager would look at.

Number of devices referenced by hosts

This is how many devices you have that are monitored as hosts in Nagios (via the configuration database). These are what are termed "core" devices. You can't really affect this number without deleting hosts in Monarch.

Number of devices NOT referenced by hosts

These are the devices that could potentially be removed since they are not associated with hosts in the configuration.

Number of devices probably created by traps

These are the devices created by the processes other than configuration (traps).

Number of devices probably created by syslog messages

There are the devices created by the processes other than configuration (logs).

Total Unused Devices

This is the number of devices that are no longer referenced. They are kept in the database for historical data preservation only.

Adjusting Your Device Count

Using these options deletes historical data! If that data is important to you, you may want to make a backup of the GWCollageDB database first.

Device cleanup

  1. Select Configuration > Nagios MonitoringMaintenance > Device Cleanup.
  2. The summary will show the used or unused device counts. Check each option to be cleaned (see table), then select clean or list to view cleanable devices.
  3. Perform a commit, Configuration > Monarch > Control > Pre flight test > Commit.

    Cleanup

    Remove devices no longer used. Be aware this action will remove all LogMessage and performance data for these devices from the GWCollageDB (foundation) database.

    Forceclean

    Remove devices when Cleanup alone does not remove all devices. This option is needed in cases where a device is in the device table, but all log messages pertaining to it have been removed, either by operator intervention, or by data retention processes. In the rare case where Cleanup, Cleansnmp and Cleansyslog do not remove devices NOT assigned to hosts, try the "forceclean" option in addition to Cleanup, Cleansnmp and Cleansyslog. Using the "forceclean" option may delete devices classified as snmptrap or syslog generated. This is because it removes devices for which no historical messages exist in the database. Such devices may exist if you have been managing the data saved by trimming out old messages. This is by design, and usually desirable.

    Cleansnmp and Cleansyslog

    Remove snmptrap and or syslog devices only. Of course, if you do this, the event console will no longer display events for deleted devices. If your GroundWork installation is still receiving snmptraps and/or syslog messages, devices will be newly created and the count will be increased, accordingly. Devices that you do not wish to be in your Total Number of Devices, should not be sending snmptraps or syslog messages to your GroundWork installation.

Service cleanup

The Service Cleanup option enables you to search for unused services you may want to delete.

  1. Select Configuration > Nagios MonitoringMaintenance > Service Cleanup.
  2. Enter a service name, (use the "%" symbol as a wildcard).
  3. To list only services and ignore listing service profiles, check Ignore Service Profiles.
  4. Click List and then select the boxes of the service names you wish to remove, click Delete selected

Externals cleanup

Service or host externals can be added to ServicesHosts, and Profiles. You can delete externals with the External Cleanup tool by searching service externals or host externals.

  1. Go to Configuration > Nagios MonitoringMaintenance > Externals Cleanup.
  2. For the service name the "%" character can be used as a wildcard. Enter a valid search pattern for externals (e.g., windows%, gdma%, wmi_%_MSE%, %, - or _).
  3. Select service to list service externals or host to list host externals.
  4. Click List.
  5. Check the boxes of the service names you wish to remove.
  6. Click Delete selected

Remove unused services

This option lets you remove all unused services for a specified date.

  1. Go to Configuration > Nagios Monitoring > Maintenance > Remove Unused Services.
  2. Enter a date you want the services removed.
  3. Enter a service name, (you may use the "%" symbol as a wildcard). You can also choose to select Invert Search which will list all services except the entered service.
  4. Select List, and then choose the boxes of the service names you wish to remove, notice you also have the option to select Delete RRDs. Checking this box deletes any services associated RRDs. When ready, click Delete selected

Close events

You can list and close events for a specified date.

  1. Go to Configuration > Nagios MonitoringMaintenance > Close Events.
  2. Enter a date you want the events closed.
  3. Enter a device name, (you may use the "%" symbol as a wildcard).
  4. To keep a specified number of events for the indicated device you can enter that number in the box titled Keep Last N Events.
  5. Select List to view events and or Close Events to close searched events.