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Lithium supports the industry-standard Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) as well as proprietary monitoring protocols for Apple's Xserve, Mac OS X and Xserve RAID.

SNMP - Supported by virtually every type of network device with remote monitoring capability. SNMP is the industry standard for network, server and storage monitoring. SNMP Management Information Bases (MIBs) define what monitoring data can be obtained for a particular type of device. Hardware and software vendors typically implement some well-known MIBs as well as defining their own for device-specific monitoring data.

Proprietary - Lithium has class-leading support for the priorietary monitoring protocols needed to monitor Apple's G5 and Intel Xserve and Xserve RAID devices as well as providing in-depth support for monitoring Mac OS X Server and Xsan.

Options for Adding Devices

Add Individual Device

Devices can be added one-by-one by clicking on the '+' button in the bottom-left of the Console window and selecting "New Device at Location" and the desired Location for the device. New Location can also be added through the pop-up menu shown when clicking on the '+' button.

Import from CSV or Apple Remote Desktop

Lithium can import devices from a comma-separated values (CSV) formatted text file or directly from Apple Remote Desktop. In both cases, only the device description, IP address and LOM IP Address is imported. The Device Module, authentication credentials and monitoring protocol is specified through the Add New Device sheet. The settings selected will be applied to each of the devices when added.

Click on the '+' button in the bottom-left of the Console window and select either "From Apple Remote Desktop to Location" or "From CSV File to Location" from the "Import Devices" menu item and then select the desired location for the devices being imported.

When importing from Apple Remote Desktop, the Add New Device sheet shown in Console will show all devices found in the Apple Remote Desktop device list. By default, all devices will be selected. If you only wish to add a subset of devices, simply un-check the device in the list at the top of the Add New Device sheet.

Discover

In the left of the Console window there is a 'DISCOVERY' section with items for 'Bonjour' and 'Network Scan'. Clicking on either will display a list of devices that have been discovered on your network using either Bonjour (Apple's zero-configuration network resource discovery) or by using Network Scanning. These devices are not automatically monitored by Lithium but can be added as monitored devices in Lithium.

Select a device in either the Bonjour or Network Scan view in Console, select the desired Location and click on 'Monitor Selected Device(s)...' in the status bar at the bottom of the Console window. The Add New Device sheet will be shown to set the device type, authentication and monitoring settings for the device to be monitored by Lithium.

You can also drag devices out of the list of discovered hosts and drop them on a Location in the left-hand-side of the Console window to add the discovered device as a monitored device under that Location. The same Add New Device sheet will be shown to allow you to configure the monitoring settings for the device.

Monitoring Mac OS X Server or Client

Lithium is able to monitor hosts running Mac OS X Server or Client using either the industry-standard Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) or Apple's proprietary Server Manager Daemon (servermgrd) protocol. There are benefits and drawbacks associated with each, but it is our recommendation to always use SNMP where possible due to the improved reliability and stability, depth of information and reduced CPU and Memory footprint on the monitored host.