fas fa-user-shield

GroundWork Installation

GroundWork Monitor runs on Linux with Docker CE and Docker Compose. This training covers full installation procedures for a new install, a migration from GroundWork Monitor version 7, and for updating an existing installation to the latest version.

fas fa-check Understand important Pre Install checklist items and what to expect during an installation.

fas fa-check Review of commonly used Docker commands.

fas fa-check Deploy a fresh new installation of GroundWork on your specific platform.

fas fa-check Migrate a Nagios configuration from GroundWork 7 to GroundWork 8.

fas fa-check Update a previously installed version of GroundWork 8 to the latest version.

fas fa-check Understand Post Install checklist items.

fas fa-user-shield

Deploying Parent Child

You can configure distributed monitoring in GroundWork Monitor with Parent and Child servers. This training will detail the deployment of Parent Manage Child where a Nagios Child server is managed from a Parent server, additionally deployment of Child Manage Child where a Nagios Child server is managed from the Child server and will forward all its hosts, services, host groups, and service groups to the Parent server.

fas fa-check Overview of Parent Child deployments including pros and cons, components, and GDMA.

fas fa-check Review of installer options and configuration files for both Parent servers and Child servers.

fas fa-check Perform a Child Managed Child installation and Parent Managed Child installation.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-user-shield

GroundWork Monitor incorporates Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to enable administrators to restrict system access to authorized users. Working along side RBAC, administrators can customize the GroundWork menu and assign secure user access by role. Groups play an important role in the organization of monitoring data and in the ability to restrict visibility.

fas fa-check Navigate and interpret the GroundWork menu structure.

fas fa-check Understand RBAC elements and GroundWork and inventory access.

fas fa-check Create and associate access control elements including custom groups, roles, users, and menu items.

fas fa-check Add folders, pages, and associate users and roles with internal and external links.

fas fa-check Setting up of LDAP/Active Directory authentication.

fas fa-user-shield

System Management

GroundWork Monitor 8 is a containerized application platform and utilizes Docker and Docker Compose. GroundWork provides simple backup and restore procedures using Docker commands.

fas fa-check Run commonly used Docker Compose and Docker commands.

fas fa-check Perform a backup and restore of individual GroundWork databases.

fas fa-check Perform a backup and restore for a full GroundWork system.

fas fa-check-circle Proficiency in GroundWork Monitor basic administration is required.

fas fa-cogs

Automatically coordinate network resources with the configuration database.

fas fa-check Use the Discovery subsystem to perform device-specific probes and generate output data.

fas fa-check Use the Automation subsystem to parse through the discovery data to determine appropriate profiles.

fas fa-check Update the GroundWork configuration database with the final results and view monitors.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

Notifications and escalations are alerts sent when GroundWork Monitor detects failures or over threshold limit conditions. These notifications are sent to configured contacts using specified methods. Scheduling of downtime can be very useful during system maintenance as it suppresses notifications to those entities in downtime. Learn how to configure and manage alert notifications and scheduled downtime.

fas fa-check Overview of notification methods and types of scheduled downtime.

fas fa-check Set up scheduled regular and recurring downtime for hosts and services, and host and service groups.

fas fa-check Using GroundWork Messenger configure Email and Slack notifications.

fas fa-check Manage downtime and notifications.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

Cloud Monitoring

fas fa-cogs

The GroundWork Distributed Monitoring Agent (GDMA) is a multi-platform, lightweight agent which runs plugins that conform to the Nagios standard. This module reviews agent installation, automation options, and the architectural considerations for use in distributed monitoring (Parent/Child) configurations.

fas fa-check Overview of GDMA and Parent Child.

fas fa-check Install GDMA using Auto Registration which adds GDMA hosts to the GroundWork Monitor server by installing the agent on the system you wish to monitor.

fas fa-check Install GDMA using Auto Setup by creating discovery rules for new services and enable detection of certain conditions on a GDMA host.

fas fa-check Understand how to automatically install (or uninstall) GDMA on Linux via an Ansible playbook with Python. This process is best combined with Auto Setup. 

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

Nagios Monitoring in GroundWork Monitor is devoted to configuring and managing Nagios monitored elements. The configuration application, also referred to as Monarch (Monitor Architect), is a full-featured, easy-to-use web based system for use with Nagios. 

fas fa-check Review how use profiles to monitor groups of similar devices.

fas fa-check Understand Nagios components.

fas fa-check Define and manage hosts and services.

fas fa-check Adding custom plugins.

fas fa-cogs

NeDi is an integrated toolkit for managing infrastructure devices like routers and switches. Through the GroundWork NeDi connector in Cloud Hub and the NetFlow and Capture containers that come standard with GroundWork 8.x, NeDi can provide in-depth traffic graphing, alerts when specific traffic patterns are detected, and alerts when particular policies are violated, such as plugging in cameras or phones.

fas fa-check Review the basic configuration and operation of NeDi for discovery.

fas fa-check Set up more advanced features and integration.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

Microsoft Windows™ servers can be monitored directly from GroundWork servers using a variety of methods (SNMP for example, or with WMIC).

fas fa-check Understand the use of the check_nrpe plugin.

fas fa-check Review instructions get NSClient++ set up and working with GroundWork Monitor. 

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

This training will cover how to monitor hosts with GroundWork Monitor by using SSH to execute monitoring plugins and scripts on remote servers. SSH is a secure communication protocol that can be used to login to and execute commands on remote servers. GroundWork can monitor metrics and services on remote servers by using an SSH plugin, check_by_ssh, for checking such services as disk space, load, and memory.

fas fa-check Review the configuration process including login accounts, Public Key Authentication, Plugins, and Profiles.

fas fa-check Configure SSH Monitoring.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

SLA & Business Service Monitoring

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are used in setting expectations for services, and are most useful when combined with Business Service Monitoring (BSM) which provides a way to group objects and assign status to a group based on the state of its members.

fas fa-check Set up SLAs to monitor target availability.

fas fa-check Setup BSM and monitor the defined business groups.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with Service Level Agreements, and GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

GroundWork has created the Transit Connection Generator (TCG), an open source tool to essentially transfer data between sources of monitoring information and GroundWork Monitor. Learn how to configure Applications Performance Monitoring using TCG.

fas fa-check Introduction to GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG) and supported connector types.

fas fa-check Understand the APM connector deployment options, Linux service and GroundWork container.

fas fa-check Managing the connector in the UI and managing retention options.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

The Elastic connector is implemented in the GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG), and allows a unique type of service to be deployed into GroundWork Monitor, Elasticsearch Lucene queries. Learn how to take your searches through data you get from logs, traps, and other systems into Elastic and bring it directly into GroundWork, unifying the monitoring with Open Source Software across the enterprise.

fas fa-check Introduction to GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG) and supported connector types.

fas fa-check Overview of Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana.

fas fa-check Review requirements and what you will need for Elastic monitoring.

fas fa-check Configure the existing Elastic Stack inside of GroundWork with a few queries, and connect them as services to the GroundWork server itself.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

The Kubernetes connector is implemented in the GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG). This connector lets you use the metrics API in Kubernetes clusters to monitor key metrics exposed on the metrics endpoint.

fas fa-check Introduction to GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG) and supported connector types.

fas fa-check Overview of Kubernetes monitoring.

fas fa-check Review requirements and what you will need for Kubernetes monitoring.

fas fa-check Set up a TCG instance that handles the connection to Kubernetes.

fas fa-check Set up the TCG Kubernetes connector.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

The Microsoft 365^™ connector is implemented in the GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG). This connector lets you use the API that Microsoft™ exposes to the Internet for monitoring any Microsoft 365 accounts to which you have access.

fas fa-check Introduction to GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG) and supported connector types.

fas fa-check Overview of Microsoft 365 monitoring using GroundWork.

fas fa-check Review requirements and what you will need for monitoring.

fas fa-check Set up a TCG instance that handles the connection.

fas fa-check Set up the TCG Office 365 connector.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

fas fa-cogs

GroundWork Monitor supports monitoring with SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). GroundWork uses SNMP for getting information about network devices, both from an inventory perspective using NeDi (Network Discovery) and from a monitoring perspective using TCG-SNMP and Nagios Plugins.

fas fa-check Introduction to GroundWork Transit Connection Generator (TCG) and supported connector types.

fas fa-check Configure SNMP by selecting and setting up automatic SNMP interface monitoring on network devices with the Network Discovery and SNMP connector.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.

far fa-eye

GroundWork Monitor provides a variety of out-of-the-box and ready to use performance and availability dashboards.

fas fa-check View and analyze monitoring data using GroundWork dashboards including, Home, Status, Events, Insight, and Hit List.

fas fa-check Set up a NOC Board dashboard to show custom sets of infrastructure monitoring data.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration, and proficiency in GroundWork Monitor basic administration is required.

far fa-eye

The Grafana installation in GroundWork Monitor enables the creation of graphs using the existing monitoring data source deployed in GroundWork Monitor by default. Graphs provide time series data on every metric for every service.

fas fa-check Create graphs for any service and metrics collected by GroundWork.

fas fa-check Explore the use of template variables and plugins.

fas fa-check Add a different data source to the GroundWork Grafana instance.

fas fa-check Create a new dashboard using the graph panel, multiple data sources, adding metrics and thresholds, and adjusting graph options.

fas fa-check-circle Familiarity with GroundWork basic monitoring configuration.