Ping file
The probe acquires the list of hosts to be polled from a ping file specified by the PingFile property. Each line in the ping file contains the name of a host, how often the probe should ping it, and the length of time in which a response is expected.
Each host listed in the ping file has a poll time. After this poll time has elapsed, the probe pings the host. If the host responds within the timeout time, the poll timer for the host is reset so that it is not pinged again until the poll time has elapsed again. To set the timeout period, you use the TimeOut property in the properties file. This value can be overridden for an individual host by using the time out parameter in the ping file.
The length of the poll time is specified
for all hosts by the Poll property in the properties
file. However, you can override this time for an individual host by
using the poll rate parameter in the ping file. Similarly,
the trip time can be set by the Trip property
in the properties file or can be overridden for an individual host
by using the trip time parameter in the ping file.
If the host does not respond, the poll timer is not reset because this instructs the probe to ping the host again after it has gone through all the other hosts in the ping file. The probe attempts to ping the host on each pass of the ping file until either the host responds or the maximum number of retries has been reached, in which case the probe deems the host to be unreachable and sends an alarm indicating this to the ObjectServer. It then resets the poll timer and does not attempt to ping the host again until the poll time has elapsed.
Example ping file
#
# Example ping file
#
# Format: One host per line
#
# To add a trip time, a poll rate must also be entered, but a trip time
# is not necessary for adding a poll rate only.
#
# Each line takes one of the following formats:
# host [ poll rate ]
# host [ poll rate ] [trip time ] [timeout]
# host [ - ] [ trip time ]
#
host_01 30 1600
host_02 25
host_03 - 1600