Algorius Net Viewer 5.0 - New functionalities

We are glad to inform you about the release of anniversary fifth version of Algorius Net Viewer. It demonstrates the active process of product enhancement and reaching new levels of its development. It all happened thanks to you – our users. We’d like to express our sincere gratitude for that.

Fifth version was significantly improved in order to ensure faster and more stable operation. We have introduced the ability of early warning about potential network issues. However, basic changes were made in scanning methods. Now the application uses new scanning approach, providing various scanning methods based on plugins.

Plugins

All scanning methods are now implemented in plugins. All plugins are located in Plugins folder in application catalog. Each plugin has scanning method algorithm and settings editor. You can develop you own plugins, API for that already exists, but it is still evolving.

Scanning methods

Previously scanning methods were hardcoded by developers. Now you can create one or several scanning methods based on each plugin. You can set individual settings for each method, enabled by corresponding plugin. All scanning methods from previous version are in place, so no migration is required.

In order to create new scanning method you have to select plugin, enter the name, identifier and settings. Scanning method’s name is displayed for selection, you can change it freely any time. Scanning method’s identifier is used for internal links and is not recommended to be changed. If identifier is changed, devices may fail to find its scanning method and you’ll have to specify it again. 'Group operations' mechanism has new ability to filter devices by scanning method.

New scanning method — External

New External scanning method is added – it enables device scanning using external utilities. It significantly expands the application functionality, since you can include any external application with scanning of network devices into Algorius Net Viewer.

Let’s show how to use 'Ping.exe' utility as an example. We create new scanning method in monitoring settings, select External plugin for it, set identifier and name (e.g. PingExe). Set ping.exe as file name and %IP% as attributes.

'Timeout' can be increased up to 15 seconds. It is enough to finish Ping.exe operation. After this period of time application is forcedly closed and device is displayed as inactive.

'Ping.exe' returns zero exit code in case of successful ping. It can be used to set Inactive state in Algorius Net Viewer.

'Ping.exe' is the console application, so you can get numeric value from the console. In English operation system average Ping in the console is shown after word 'Average'. We specify it in scanning method settings:

Scanning devices using ping.exe
Scanning devices using 'ping.exe'

All other settings can be left as is. Click 'OK' and new scanning method is created – now you can assign it to devices. If you hold mouse over a device you will see not only its status, but detailed console output also:

Displaying external command execution
Displaying external command execution

New scanning method — WMI

WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) scanning method enables monitoring of different parameters: hard drives status, network interfaces status, launched processes and lots more. WMI Query Language (WQL) is used to access WMI. This language is a sort of SQL language.

In order to activate WMI you should specify executable query, address range and ranges of returned values to set active or inactive device state or a warning.

New scanning method — Temperature

New scanning method 'Temperature' measures PC temperature via sensors. Data gathering is performed via WMI plugin. You can optionally configure high and critical temperature for warning notification or error.

New scanning method — DriveFreeSpace

New scanning method 'DriveFreeSpace' measures free space on specified or all hard disk drives. Data gathering is performed via WMI plugin. You can optionally configure high and critical low space for warning notification or error.

New scanning method — MultiPing

New 'MultiPing' scanning method is similar to 'Ping' method in previous versions. Difference is that device is scanned several times and average response time is taken. It increases the scanning accuracy. You can also specify the interval between requests.

MultiPing scanning method
'MultiPing' scanning method

New scanning method — UDP

New scanning method 'UDP' enables device scanning by sending a package to device’s UDP port and waiting for response at the same port. Response time is measured. It is possible to set text of package being sent. You can enter hex-message:

UDP scanning method
'UDP' scanning method

Early warning about potential issues

Previous versions could notify only about device start/stop/downtime. Version 5.0 has new device state — warning. You can specify the event for this state in scanning method settings – e.g. when ping exceeds 1000 ms.

You can be notified when devices enter this state. E.g. application can notify you when ping of any device is more than 1000 ms during defined time interval. It makes it possible to find potential issues before their real occurrence.

Flexible notification settings

In previous versions you had to specify device type to configure the events. Now it is not required – you can set up the notification for all devices at once.

You can specify the scanning method for events, so you can configure a notification for all devices with specific scanning method.

Some examples of new abilities:

  • Notify when any 'Server' with 'Ping' scanning method is in ‘warning’ state more than 10 minutes.
  • Notify when any device on '1234' map becomes inactive.
  • Notify when any device with 'TCP' scanning method becomes inactive.

Pause for specific maps

Now you can pause the monitoring not for all maps, but for specific chosen maps also. Pause state for each map is saved when application is closed. Thus you can have all maps opened and scan only required ones.

Arrows on lines end

Lines settings now have an ability to set arrow on one or both line ends. It is convenient to visualize data flow directions.

Quick settings change

Now you have an optional ability to specify the configuration file during application launch, e.g.: NetViewer.exe -o:my_options.xml.

Now it can be used on repeated application launch. Since application is not started twice, changes are applied to current launched application. Thus you can quickly switch between various settings.

You can also use -L: key, e.g. NetViewer.exe -l:my_options.xml. With this key settings will be loaded from specified file, but saving will be done into previous file. It is useful when you need to update settings from master-copy.

Application performance optimization

Several critical performance issues are fixed. These issues usually arose on slow PCs and under specific operating systems versions. Algorithm for MAC address gathering was changed: previously application could periodically hang for short intervals of time. Processing of external commands was advanced: its population was pretty long if there were more than 100 commands. Settings application was advanced: device collection is now reloaded only if required.

Monitoring log is also optimized. Previously scanning result and error text was saved as text in the database. It could be critical for big maps in terms of data volume. Now database stores only numeric scanning result or numeric error code. During report generation message text is automatically populated using these numeric data, so database size is decreased with no visible changes for a user. It not only keeps the disc space, but also speeds up report generation.

Online documentation

Now you can find Algorius Net Viewer documentation in HTML on our website:
https://algorius.com/support/manual.html

You can read the description of the main new features of:

Previous version 4.1 | Next version 5.1