Real-time Monitoring of Enterprise FTP

FTP/WatchDog provides enterprise-wide, real–time monitoring of FTP activity. Remote Monitoring Agents provide real-time FTP usage data on distributed platforms (Linux, Unix, Windows, Solaris, etc.). Real-time FTP data is loaded into an SQL database as it is being created and provides an automated method for issuing alerts pertaining to various FTP transmission criteria. The alert information can also be used to further automate processes dependant on FTP usage, such as triggering Production jobs, remote file transmissions, etc.

How it works

FTP/WatchDog’s real-time monitor is a java application that interfaces with remote agents to monitor FTP usage on distributed system platforms. The real-time monitoring component archives all FTP usage data into the FTP/WatchDog history file and provides a foundation for FTP automation and alerting for enterprise FTP activity.

Remote monitoring agents are deployed on distributed system platforms (Linux, UNIX, Windows, Solaris, etc.) to gather and provide FTP usage data to the FTP/WatchDog real-time monitor. The real-time monitor gathers FTP usage data from the remote agents. It monitors the health of the remote agents and can be set to generate an alert when an agent becomes unresponsive.

Click to show larger image

Alerts

The real-time monitoring component also provides a platform for monitoring FTP activity, generating alerts and for FTP automation. Alerts can be generated for any circumstance. For example:

· Alerts can be generated for transmissions of sensitive data

· Alerts can be generated for failed FTP transactions (failed file transfers, logon failures, etc.).

· Alerts can be generated for specific FTP transactions, based on selection criteria you provide.

Alerts take the form of emails which are issued by the real-time monitor in response to an FTP transaction that meets one of the criteria above. The email message contains critical information about the FTP transaction, thereby enabling the email recipient to determine whether further action is required.

Sensitive Data Alerts

Alerts can be generated for FTP transactions involving sensitive data. The email alert for sensitive data transmissions contains the date and time the transaction started, the FTP action (upload, download, etc.), the User ID used to initiate the transaction, the file name of the file involved in the transaction, the local and remote IP addresses and an indication whether a secured connection was used for the transaction.

Sensitive data can be identified by file name, using pattern matching.

Failed Transaction Alerts

Alerts can be generated for failed FTP transactions. The email alert for failed transactions contains the date and time the transaction started, the FTP action (upload, download, etc.), the User ID used to initiate the transaction, the file name of the file involved in the transaction, the local and remote IP addresses and a failure reason.

User-Defined Event Alerts

FTP/WatchDog users can define any number of Alert Events which watch for specific FTP transactions (using selection criteria supplied) and generate alerts for the selected FTP transaction(s). The alert takes the form of a email message, the contents of which is up to the user and is part of the Alert Event definition.

FTP transactions can be selected by any combination of up to 15 different selection criteria including the file name, file size, the duration of the FTP transaction, average data transfer rate, start date/time, end date/time and whether the transaction used a secured connection.

Automation

Data center automation efforts can be enhanced with the FTP/WatchDog real-time monitor. As much as 60% of today’s business processes are multi-platform processes that depend on FTP to tie processing on the various platforms together. Successful completion of a file transmission is often a “trigger” to begin the next step in the business processing.

The FTP/WatchDog real-time monitor knows what FTP activity is taking place as it is happening and can be an effective tool in improving the automation of business processes. A few examples of FTP-related automation processes are shown below.

Successful completion of a file transfer can trigger an automation event to start the next step in a business process.
A failed FTP file transmission can trigger automation to retry the transfer or escalate the situation for human intervention.
Failed attempts to log onto an FTP server could trigger a security alert email.
Unusually slow running file transfers to a specific IP address could trigger a network performance alert.
File transmissions of sensitive data to unauthorized locations and/or by unauthorized users could trigger a security alert.
Transmission of large files could trigger a disk space space usage alert.

Real-time monitoring provides the missing piece in true FTP automation.