User manual

Sensorsoft Alert User Manual

_Port01_Var1.log

_Port08_Var4.log

Graphing data files

The data logged by Sensorsoft Alert can be graphed using the integrated Sensorsoft Graphing Tool (SGT)

applet software.

There are two methods to graph data files:

a) The easiest way to graph a data file is to click on the variable’s reading (hyperlink) in the Monitor List

page. This will launch SGT in a separate browser window and offer a series that can be graphed. You will

only be able to do this, if Alert is logging the data for this variable.

b) If the variable that you want to graph is NOT displayed on the Monitor List page, then it can be graphed

by clicking the hyperlink entitled Graph Data Files on the left-hand side bar. This will launch SGT in a

separate browser window where you can select the name of data file to graph. Log files that contain error or

alerting information cannot be graphed.

For information on how to use the Sensorsoft Graphing Tool (SGT), see the Sensorsoft Graphing Tool User

Manual. This can be viewed from the View Manual button on the SGT web interface.

Viewing log files

There are two methods we suggest for viewing data or log files:

a) The easiest way to view a data file is to hover your mouse pointer over the variable’s reading (hyperlink)

in the Monitor List page. A menu will then be displayed, where you can select the View Data File option.

The data file will then be displayed in text format in your browser window. You will only be able to do

this, if the Alert appliance is logging the data for this variable.

b) If the variable is NOT displayed on the Monitor List page, or it’s an error/status log, then it can be

viewed by clicking the hyperlink entitled View Log Files on the left side of the web page. This will display

all log files available where you can select the name of the file you wish to view.

Logging Data on a NFS Server

By default, log files are recorded on the Alert appliance. The limitations of recording log files on the Alert

appliance are that only a limited number of records are possible and that these are lost after a reboot or

shutdown. To overcome these limitations, you can configure Alert to record log files on a remote NFS

(Network File System) server. By using NFS the number of records stored can be very large or at least

limited only by the size of the hard disk on the NFS server. The Alert appliance (client) does this by

requesting the use of a large disk (called mounting) on a host NFS server where it will then read and write

its log files. A server that supports NFS is mandatory for this feature to work. Not all servers support NFS.

Most UNIX and Linux servers do offer NFS services. Please refer to your file server documentation to

determine if it offers NFS server capability and the manner in which it is configured to allow permissions

for the Alert appliance.

To configure the NFS server to give permissions to the Alert appliance you must do the following:

 create the directory path on the NFS server where you want the Alert log files stored

 explicitly reference the DNS name or IP address of the Alert appliance

 explicitly reference the above directory path you are permitting the Alert appliance to use