The icom Connectivity Suite – VPN is a service of INSYS icom for the simple and secure network connection of locations, plants, control centers and mobile devices via a VPN network.

The monitoring function serves for monitoring and ensuring the availability of all participants in the VPN network (Virtual Private Network). It is possible to configure various checks for the individual hosts. Hosts are all network devices that can be addressed via an IP address in the VPN network. These are the VPN participants (INSYS router, PCs, tablets, etc.) itself and the devices in the network behind the routers (controls, panel PCs, data loggers, measuring devices, etc.). If a connection check fails, a failure report will be sent to a configured e-mail address. As soon as this check is successful again, another e-mail will be sent that informs about the re-establishment of the connection. Checks are not affected by possible communication rules.

Five checks can be added per valid VPN licence and these checks can be distributed across all devices and are not restricted to the device assigned to the respective licence. The number of hosts is not restricted.

If Default monitoring is checked when adding a device to the icom Connectivity Suite – VPN, this device will automatically be added as a host together with a ping check with an interval of 60 minutes.

Situation

You need to monitor the availability of a device participating in the VPN network.

Solution

It is prerequisite that a device is already added to the icom Connectivity Suite – VPN.

  1. Open the web interface of the icom Connectivity Suite using a browser:

  2. Select the Monitoring tab and then the Checks tab.

  3. Click on Add new check and specify the check:

    • Name: enter a name that describes the check such clearly that it can be distinguished from other checks

    • Description: enter a detailed description of the check [1]

    • Host: select an already existing host or click on add new host to add another host:

      • Name: enter a name that describes the host such clearly that it can be distinguished from other hosts

      • Accessible IP address: enter the address under which the device that is to be added as host can be accessed in the VPN network [2]

    • Type: select one of the following check types: [3]

      • HTTP or HTTPS: An HTTP or HTTPS request to the web server of the specified host will be performed. If the web server responds with OK, the check is considered as successful. The specified Port is used for receiving the HTTP(S) requests to the web server of the host. If the web server requires authentication, a Username and Password can be specified.

      • PING: A ping request to the specified host will be performed. The check is considered as successful if the host responds to 3 of 5 ping requests within 5 seconds positively.

      • VPN: The OpenVPN client status in the VPN server is used here. If it is still registered, the check is considered as successful.

    • Check Interval: enter an interval for performing the checks

    • Retry Interval: enter an interval for performing the checks if a check has failed [4]

    • Max. Check Attempts: enter the number of checks before the regular check interval is used again

    • Alarm E-Mail: enter the e-mail address to which a failure report is to be sent in case a check fails

  4. Click on OK.

Hosts can be added without a check on the Hosts tab.

Troubleshooting

  • You can verify a functional check by disconnecting the connection of the monitored host if it was online before.

  • Refer to the icom Connectivity Suite manual for more information.

Back to the Configuration Guides for the icom Connectivity Suite

Back to overview

1. The content of this field will also be transmitted in the failure report.
2. The accessible IP address of a device can also be taken from the respective column on the Devices tab. If no accessible IP address has been specified for a device, the fix VPN IP address can also be used. This is shown if you click on More Information () for the respective device on the Devices tab.
3. The checks of the types PING, HTTP and HTTPS cause data traffic on the VPN connection. The checks of the type VPN do not cause additional data traffic since the continuous tunnel monitoring is evaluated on the VPN server.
4. This interval is usually shorter than the Check Interval.