You can monitor the status of managed Microsoft servers from the Dashboard and from various panels in the Grid tab. Grid Manager also maintains a log for each managed Microsoft server. You can monitor Microsoft servers and their services as follows:

• You can view the Microsoft Servers Status widget on the Dashboard. For information, see Microsoft Servers Status Widget.
• You can view the status of Microsoft servers. For information, see Viewing DNS and DHCP Service Status on Microsoft Servers.
• You can view the logs of the Microsoft servers. For information, see Viewing Synchronization Logs.

Viewing DNS and DHCP Service Status on Microsoft Servers

Each Microsoft server reports the following statuses:

• Service status (DNS and DHCP): Displays the status of the service on the actual Microsoft server, based on the latest polling of the service by the managing member. The monitor and control setting has an effect only on the service status, and therefore can affect the overall status.
• Overall status: Displays the service status for each service that is enabled for synchronization with the Microsoft server. The overall status ignores any service status for which the monitor and control setting is disabled.
• Synchronization status: Displays the synchronization status for each service that is enabled for synchronization on the respective Microsoft server. The synchronization status is not affected by the monitor and control setting.

Note: When you disable monitor and control settings, Grid Manager displays unknown using gray color for such services. When you enable monitor and control setting of a given service, Grid Manager displays the last known status that is obtained before the setting was first disabled. The appliance later updates to the latest status as soon as the monitoring resumes and Grid Manager displays the new status.

You can view details about the managed Microsoft servers by navigating to the Grid tab -> Microsoft Servers tab -> Servers tab. For each Microsoft server, the panel displays the following by default:

• Name: The FQDN of the Microsoft server.
• Status: The connection status, which can be one of the following:
  • Running: The Grid member is connected to the Microsoft server.
  • Connecting: The Grid member is connecting to the Microsoft server.
  • Error: The Grid member failed to connect to the Microsoft server. Check the Microsoft log for any messages to determine the reason for the failure.
  • Unknown: The Microsoft server is disabled. The Grid member does not try to connect to disabled servers.
• IP Address: The IP address of the Microsoft server.
• DNS: The status of the DNS service on the Microsoft server. When you disable DNS synchronization, NIOS does not display any status icon. The status icon can be one of the following:

• DHCP: The status of the DHCP service on the Microsoft server. When you disable DHCP synchronization, NIOS does not display any status icon. The status icon can be one of the following:

• Comment: Displays any comments that were entered for the Microsoft server.
• Site: Displays any values that were entered for this pre-defined attribute. You can add the following columns for display:
• Version: The Windows version of the managed server.
• Managing Member: The hostname of the Grid member that manages the server.
• Synchronization Status: Displays the synchronization status as follows:
  • Running: The Microsoft server is synchronizing data with the Grid member.
  • Connecting: The Grid member is trying to connect to the server.
  • Error: Synchronization failed between the member and server. You can check the messages in the Microsoft server log to determine the reason for the failure.
• Last Changed: Displays information about when the status was last updated for Microsoft DNS and DHCP services. It corresponds to the last time information was exchanged with the server.
• AD Domain: Displays the AD domain of the Windows server. This is displayed only if the Windows server belongs to an Active Directory domain.
• Root AD Domain: Displays the root AD domain of the Windows server. This is displayed only if the Windows server belongs to an Active Directory domain.

You can also do the following:

• Add Microsoft servers.
  • Click the Add icon.
• Edit the properties of a Microsoft server.
  • Click the check box beside a server and click the Edit icon, or click the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and select Edit from the menu. For information, see Setting Microsoft Server Properties.
• Delete a Microsoft server.
  • Click the check box beside a server and click the Delete icon, or click the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and select Delete from the menu. For information, see Removing a Managed Microsoft Server.
• Manage DNS and DHCP services of a Microsoft server.
  • Click the check box beside a server and click the Manage Server Services icon, or click the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and select Manage Server Services from the menu to view the service status. You can mouse over the DNS and DHCP service icons and click the Start/Stop service icon to start or stop a service, or click the Edit Service icon to edit the service properties. For information about setting DHCP server properties, see Setting Microsoft DHCP Server Properties. For information about setting DNS server properties, see Specifying Forwarders for Microsoft Servers.
• View detailed server status information, as described in Viewing Detailed Status Information.
• Click Test MS Server to test the Microsoft server connection. The appliance validates the Microsoft server and displays the test code and the test result data for services that you have enabled. To test the Microsoft server, click the check box beside a server and click the Test Microsoft Server icon, or click the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and select Test Microsoft Server from the menu. For more information, see Assigning Grid Members to Microsoft Servers.
• View extensible attributes associated with the Microsoft server.
  Click the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and select Extensible Attributes from the menu. For information, see Assigning Grid Members to Microsoft Servers.

• Define permissions for Microsoft servers.
  Click the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and select Permissions from the menu.

• Use filters and the Go To function to narrow down the list. With the autocomplete feature, you can just enter the first few characters of an object name in the Go to field and select the object from the possible matches.
• Create a quick filter to save frequently used filter criteria. For information, see Using Quick Filters.
• Sort the displayed data in ascending or descending order by column.
• Export the list of Microsoft servers to a .csv file.
  • Click the Export icon.
• Print the list of Microsoft servers.
  • Click the Print icon.

Viewing Detailed Status Information

You can view more status information by selecting a server from the Microsoft servers panel and clicking the Action icon  next to the respective Microsoft server and selecting Detailed Status from the menu or clicking the Detailed Status icon. The Detailed Status panel displays the following information:

• Synchronization Status: The status icon indicates the synchronization status as follows:
  • Green: The Microsoft server is synchronizing data with the Grid member.
  • Red: Synchronization failed between the member and server. You can check the messages in the Microsoft server log to determine the reason for the failure.
• DNS Service Status: For information about the status icons, see Viewing DNS and DHCP Service Status on Microsoft Servers.
• DNS Service Status Last Updated: The date and time of the last DNS service status update from the Microsoft DNS server.
• DHCP Service Status: For information about the status icons, see Viewing DNS and DHCP Service Status on Microsoft Servers.
• DHCP Service Status Last Updated: The date and time of the last DHCP service status update from the Microsoft DHCP server.
• Active Directory Sync Status: The Active Directory Site is synchronizing data with the Grid member when the status icon is green.
• Active Directory sync status last updated: The date and time of the last Active Directory Site update from the Microsoft server.

Note the following guidelines about status information:

• Grid Manager does not display any status information if there is no synchronization between DHCP and DNS.
• If the appliance has not received any information when the services are enabled, then the Synchronization Status icon is displayed in red, whereas the DNS and DHCP status icons are displayed in grey.

Viewing Synchronization Lo gs

Grid Manager maintains a synchronization log file for each Microsoft server managed by a Grid member. It logs events related to the synchronization process, depending on the logging level that you configured in the Logging tab of the Microsoft Server Properties editor described in Setting Microsoft Server Properties.
The log files are rotated and compressed once they reach 40MB. To view the log file of managed Microsoft server:

1. From the Administration tab, select the Logs tab -> Microsoft Logs tab.
2. If there is more than one managed server in the Grid, you can select the Microsoft server whose logs you want to view.
3. The log file contains information related to the synchronization of the Microsoft DNS and DHCP data, as follows:

• Timestamp: The date and time of the log message. The time zone is the time zone configured in the User Profile.
• Source: Identifies the event that generated the message, such as a server synchronization or zone synchronization.
• Level: Indicates the severity of the message, which can be one of the following:
  • Debug: Provides information about all events associated with synchronization.
  • Information: The Grid member is synchronizing with the Microsoft server and these messages provide normal status information.
  • Warning: The Grid member synchronized the data, but there was an issue, which is detailed in the Message section.
    If the Grid member encounters an error during the synchronization, it skips the object with the error, logs the error in the Microsoft log, and continues to synchronize the rest of the data. The Grid member logs the error at each synchronization until you resolve the issue and it can synchronize the object successfully.
  • Error: The Grid member failed to synchronize an object, such as a DNS zone or DHCP scope, due to the error described in the Message section.

• Object Type: The type of object that corresponds to the entry, such as FQDN or ADDRESS.
• Object Name: The name of the object that corresponds to the entry.
• Message: Detailed information about the event.

You can also do the following in the log viewer:

• Toggle between the single line view and the multi-line view.
• Navigate to the next or last page of the file using the paging buttons.
• Refresh the view.
• Click the Follow icon to have the appliance automatically refresh the log every five seconds.
• Download the log.
• Clear the contents of the log.
• Sort the data in ascending or descending order by column.
• Use filters and the Go to function to narrow down the list. With the autocomplete feature, you can just enter the first few characters of an object name in the Go to field and select the object from the possible matches.
• Create a quick filter to save frequently used filter criteria. For information, see Using Quick Filters.
• Export or print the content of the log.