Use this section to get an easy-to-read starter's guide, encompassing the entire usage scenario for ObserveIT. Starting from the simple installation process, through the daily usage scenarios, this simple intuitive guide will get ObserveIT to work for you in no time. We would also suggest that you take a look at our collection of How To Articles for additional information.
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System Requirements
The following is list of the minimum system requirements for each ObserveIT component. Actual recommended resources will depend on the number of Agents deployed, the amount of activity on each Agent, and the amount of historical data retained in the database.
- Application Server: Windows 2000/2003/2008 Server, Internet Information Server (IIS), .NET Framework, 1 GHz CPU or higher, at least 512 MB RAM, at least 10 MB free disk space.
- Web Console: Windows 2000/2003/2008 Server, Internet Information Server (IIS), .NET Framework, 1 GHz CPU or higher, at least 512 MB RAM, at least 10 MB free disk space.
- Database server: Windows 2000/2003/2008 Server, SQL Server 2000/2005, SQL 2005 Server Express Edition, 1 GHz CPU or higher, at least 512 MB RAM, and 10 MB free disk space.
- Agent: Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/2008/Vista, .NET Framework, 10 MB free disk space.
Installing ObserveIT by using the "One Click Installation" on the first server
The following instructions will take you step by step through the process of installing ObserveIT using the “One Click” Installer. This installation method is recommended if you are installing all the ObserveIT Server components on a single platform, or if you will install the Web/Management and Application Servers on a single platform and have a separate SQL Server platform. For other types of installations, refer to the Custom Install section in the product documentation.
- Run setup.exe and Respond “Yes” or "Run" to the security warnings.
- You will see the main installation screen.
- If you are installing all components on the local server, use “[local]” for the destination server. Otherwise, select the remote SQL Server from the list.
- If the account you are currently using is a SQL Server administrator, you can use Windows authentication for the installation. Otherwise, choose SQL Server authentication and provide a User and Password with privileges to create databases and user accounts. If you select Windows Authentication as the authentication method you will need to perform additional tasks. Please refer to the product documentation.
- Either way, you must use a SQL Server or Window login username that has 'dbcreator' privileges at the minimum. The default SQL Server login is "SA" (without the quotes). You can also use a Windows user that has administrative rights on the server.
- Select the checkbox to agree to the Terms of Service and click Install to begin the installation.
- As the installation proceeds, you will see messages about its progress in the text window.
- When the installation is complete, Click on Exit to close the ObserveIT Installer.
- If there were any errors during the setup, you will be presented with a message describing the error. Please refer to the product documentation for additional troubleshooting information.
This concludes the ObserveIT installation phase, and the product is already recording the local server on which it was installed.
Note that while the “One Click” Installer is good for most test/pilot environments, in most production scenarios you'd want to install the components on separate servers, based upon your scaling and performance designs. Please refer to the Custom Install section in the product documentation for more information.
Installing the ObserveIT Agent on the additional monitored servers
While the "One Click Installation" installs all the ObserveIT components on the first server, you will now need to install the ObserveIT Agent on any additional server that you wish to monitor. If you want to install the ObserveIT Agent separately on the servers that you wish to monitor, please follow these steps:
- To run the ObserveIT Agent Installer, run the Setup.exe file located in the ObserveITAgent folder which was created when you extracted the setup files from the archive.
- When you execute the Installer, you might see a Security Warning telling you that the publisher could not be verified. Click Run to continue.
- Next, specify a URL to the ObserveIT Application Server, the one which the Agent will communicate with. Click “Next” to continue. If you've made changes to the default port add a ":<port number>" (without the quotes) to the end of the URL. For example, if the ObserveIT Application server was installed on a server named "SRV100", the URL would look like this:
"HTTP://SRV100/ObserveITApplicationServer" (without the quotes). Of course you can use the server's FQDN or IP address if required.
- When the installation is complete, click “Close” to exit.
Logging on to the ObserveIT Management web console
The Web Console is available using a web browser and connecting to
http://servername/ObserveIT.
While highly unlikely, if you've changed the Web Console directory or port using a custom installation, use the correct virtual directory name instead of “ObserveIT”.
If you are logged in at the console of the server where the Web Console is installed, you can access it from the Start Menu under All Programs, ObserveIT.
The default Operator credentials are:
- User Name: admin
- Password: admin
(Note that passwords are case sensitive)
If the machine on which the agent has been installed is NOT part of an Active Directory domain, at this point of the configuration process, the only available Authentication type will be "Only ObserveIT.Authentication". On the other hand, if the machine is a member of a domain, you will be able to log on as one of your domain users.
Enter the User Name and Password and click “Enter” to continue.
Configuring ObserveIT
After installation, ObserveIT is already running, capturing, and recording any human interaction with any server that the agent is installed on. However, in some cases, you might want to make configuration changes to the product. Some of these configuration changes are listed below:
- Licensing and Activation.
- Changing/Adding administrators to the ObserveIT console.
- Changing the administrator's password.
- Configuring ObserveIT's Identification Services.
- Configuring ObserveIT's Server Configuration Policies, including the setting of the agent icon, users that are required to perform secondary logons, which applications to record or to exclude from the recording policy and more.
- Configuring LDAP connections and SMTP alerting options.
- Configuring connection security.
And more. Some of these tasks will be described here, but for all the configuration options please refer to the product documentation for more information.
Viewing Recorded Sessions
As noted above, ObserveIT has already began to capture and record any human interaction with any server that the agent is installed on. Since one of ObserveIT's main functions is the ability to reply these recordings, we will describe the steps required to do so below:
- Login to the Management Console.
- Click either on the Server Diary, User Diary, or Search tabs.
- Type in the name of the required server or user, or type a textual string in the search box.
- View the recordings.
Upgrading ObserveIT
Upgrades are installed over previous versions retaining all settings and configuration. Although hardly likely to cause any issues, it's always a best practice to make sure you have a good and working backup of your SQL database before upgrading. In order to upgrade your existing version of ObserveIT, you will need to upgrade the Database, Application and Management components, plus all the ObserveIT Agents that are deployed in your organization.
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