Moving from another monitoring tool

Moving to Monitaria shouldn't mean re-creating every device by hand. Settings › Import reads what another monitoring tool watches: its devices, their sensors and the groups they sit in. It shows what it will create, what you already monitor and what can't be imported (with the reason), then creates what you tick in one configuration change. Settings › Import lists the tools and file formats it reads.

What you need first

• An admin account on the collector. Only admins can import.
• The address of the old tool's server and an account that can read what you want to bring across (read-only is enough), or export files from the old tool.
• A Windows credential in Settings › Credentials if you want Windows sensors brought across. They become WinRM sensors that sign in with it.
• The SNMP community your devices answer to, for devices where the old tool's data doesn't say. It starts as the first community discovery tries.

1. Read the old tool

1. Open Settings › Import and, under Where are you coming from?, choose the tool you're moving from.
2. To read it live, choose Connect to the server. Enter the server's address (start it with https:// so the sign-in is encrypted), a user name and its password or key, then choose Connect and preview. If the server has a self-signed certificate, untick Check the server's certificate.
3. To use exports instead, choose Upload files, pick up to six files and choose Upload and preview. Files are compressed in your browser before they're sent, up to 30 MB compressed.
4. Wait while the collector reads it. A large installation takes a minute or two. You can leave the page: the preview waits for two hours.

2. Check the preview

• Options: Make sites from chooses what becomes a Monitaria site, or Don't make sites. SNMP community for new SNMP sensors is used where the old tool doesn't say. Windows credential for Windows sensors is the account the new WinRM sensors sign in with; None: leave Windows sensors out skips them. The Include tick box brings paused items across as Paused sensors.
• The numbers at the top count new devices, new sites, sensors to add, devices already monitored, sensors that need something first and sensors that can't be imported. Each one opens its list.
• Sites: type over a name to rename it, or type this collector's own site name to put those devices here. The import makes each site name one word, so Head office becomes Head_office, and adds the new sites to Settings › Sites.
• Devices and sensors: search, filter, and tick or untick whole devices or single sensors. Tick all shown and Untick all shown act on what the filter shows.
• A banner says what your license allows. If the import would take you over the device or site limit, it warns that the 14-day grace period would start.

3. Create

Choose Create. The button says what it will do, such as Create 12 devices and 80 sensors, and asks you to confirm. Everything ticked is added in one configuration change: checked like any other, backed up, live without a restart and recorded in the audit log. The result lists the new devices, devices that got new sensors, the sites (each with Show on the Devices tab) and what wasn't imported with the reason, and Monitaria starts checking the new sensors at once.

What comes across

• Devices are named the way discovery names them: Warehouse · RB-WH-SW01 (198.51.100.20) at another site, RB-CORE-SW01 (192.0.2.2) at this collector's own site. The device type comes from the name, tags, vendor and sensors, with the same rules as discovery.
• Ping, website, TCP port, DNS, certificate, SNMP traffic, CPU, memory, disk, uptime, printer status and custom SNMP sensors become the matching Monitaria sensors, and Windows sensors become WinRM sensors. Sensors for services such as mail, file transfer, remote desktop or databases become port sensors.
• Each sensor keeps its interval (between 10 seconds and a day) and goes Down after two failures in a row. Where an interface's speed is known, its traffic sensors warn at 80% of it.
• Devices you already monitor (same address, or the same name at the same site) keep their name and only get the sensors they don't have. Sensors that already exist are skipped, so importing again later, site by site, is safe.

Good to know

• Not imported: toner and paper levels, thresholds and limits, dependencies, notification and alert settings, the old tool's own health sensors, and anything without a Monitaria equivalent. The preview lists each one with the reason and never guesses. Set up alert rules in Settings › Alerts.
• SNMP v3 sensors are held back: add them by hand with an SNMPv3 credential (see the SNMPv3 guide). Ping, website and port sensors on those devices still come across.
• Windows disks: per-disk sensors come across. Where the disk isn't named, you get disk C:; use Add computer sensors on the device for the others.
• One read covers up to 20,000 devices and 250,000 sensors. If the evaluation has ended or the license has expired, nothing can be created; if new devices are blocked, they start unticked and only sensors for devices you already monitor can be added.
• Only admins can import, and every connection, upload, settings change and import is in the audit log. The collector connects only to the address you enter, doesn't follow redirects, and only reads from the old tool.
• Remember these settings for the next import saves the connection. A saved password or key is never shown again and is only sent to the server it was saved for; Forget them clears it. Recent imports on the start page lists the last 20 imports.