User manual

What Is Nform?

1.0 WHAT IS NFORM?

Liebert developed Nform to use Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to monitor and man-

age a wide variety of networked equipment, protecting it from costly damage resulting from power

failures and mechanical breakdowns. The monitored equipment can include industrial air condition-

ing units, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units and other devices that accommodate an SNMP

card to communicate over an Ethernet network. Nform will monitor and manage devices manufac-

tured by Liebert or by other equipment makers.

Nform constantly monitors configured equipment, warns of problems ranging from power quality to

environmental conditions.

This product also permits configurable responses to equipment alarms, including support for audible

alarms, e-mail and on-screen notification.

1.1 How Does Nform Work?

Nform on a host computer communicates with up to 30 devices, by default, using SNMP to detect

problems ranging from power quality to environmental conditions.

The user has the option of expanding Nform’s network capabilities with additional licenses. Licenses

are available in increments of 30, 100 or 500 additional monitored and managed devices. Additional

concurrent user licenses are available for one, five or 10 additional users.

Nform employs the SNMP protocol and static IP addresses to issue notifications and warnings,

launch scripts and send e-mail messages. It uses HTML to graphically display system information for

devices with an SNMP card that is Web-enabled. Nform performs its monitoring and management

processes using the network—instead of requiring separate, expensive hardware and cables that

might run alongside network lines.

Typical sequence

• Nform constantly monitors multiple SNMP devices made by Liebert or other manufacturers.

• In the event any alarm occurs, Nform receives an SNMP trap.

• According to configuration, Nform issues a local notification to the monitoring computer, executes

any associated actions—sending e-mails, writing alarm data in files and launching scripts—and

logs alarm data.

• Users can later acknowledge and delete any alarms from Nform’s Net Event Manager.