Peeper – Eltex software monitoring expert

For businesses where a lot depends on stable service operation, every minute of downtime means losses. Imagine this situation: a company implements a network equipment management system into its infrastructure. All tests have been passed, configurations have been verified, and the service has been successfully launched. And then suddenly — a failure.

The search for the cause begins: is the problem in the control system? In the database? In the network? In the server? After long checks, it turns out that the software is operating normally, and the cause is in the server environment. The disks ran out of space, one of the processes took up all the memory, and many other reasons.

In the process of supporting the implementation of Eltex software products, we have repeatedly realized that without well-coordinated infrastructure, it is impossible to guarantee the operation of the application. Accordingly, a tool for multi-factor control is needed that can see the whole picture.

For this reason, we have developed the Peeper monitoring system. It is a comprehensive solution integrated into the Eltex ecosystem that tracks specific metrics of its software products, as well as key characteristics of the server environment, such as network, Linux, Docker, and database metrics.

The idea of creating Peeper was simple: take proven open source monitoring tools and use them as a basis for creating a simple and easy-to-use system. Peeper is based on solutions from Grafana, Victoria Metrics, Telegraf, and others. It would seem that you could just take them from open sources and use them to work with Eltex software products. So what is the value of Peeper?

The value of the system lies in its deep integration with Eltex products, ease of deployment, and ease of use. The main drawback of open source monitoring systems is the lengthy and laborious configuration process. Configuring comprehensive monitoring is a non-trivial task: you need to understand the system architecture, know the critical metrics, configure templates, and set alert thresholds. This requires expertise in both Eltex software products and the monitoring system stack. In practice, this translates into long hours of debugging and launching.

We took on this task. Peeper is easy to deploy and operate. The system comes with preconfigured profiles and dashboards for each Eltex software product, and the specific metrics and alerts are determined based on the experience of hundreds of integrations. The customer gets working monitoring out of the box without having to understand the intricacies of the product and spend a lot of time on configuration.

The main task of the system is to prevent accidents before their occurrence. Peeper continuously monitors all important indicators and, when it detects that any of them are approaching a critical level, it immediately sends a notification.

All server and application performance data is stored in a single repository. When a failure occurs, Peeper allows to go back in time and see what happened before, during, and after the crash. All records, graphs, and events are collected in one place, and it is possible to trace the entire chain: what “fell off” first, how it affected other parts of the system, and why the protection did not work.

In addition, Peeper provides a complete picture of the system's internal state. All internal processes are visible, even if everything looks normal from the outside.

Key features:

• Easy to implement and operate. Peeper is designed with a focus on quick installation and management, minimizing support costs.
• Centralized data collection. The system collects key data, including performance metrics from installed Eltex software products.
• Visualization. Built-in tools allow to visually represent data in the form of interactive dashboards, graphs, and tables for quick analysis of the system status.
• Proactive alerts. A flexible trigger system automatically notifies of critical events or deviations in service performance based on specified metrics.
• Backup. The system automatically creates backup copies of its configuration, protecting against loss of important information and ensuring quick recovery.

The system currently supports three Eltex software products: the ECCM network equipment management system, the ECSS-10 Softswitch IP PBX, and the SoftWLC wireless infrastructure management system. The number of supported products will increase in the future.

Peeper consists of two elements:

1. Peeper Client. The Peeper Client's task is to continuously collect hundreds of metrics about the server state: Linux operating system indicators (CPU load, RAM usage, disk space, network meters, etc.), the state of Docker containers, and specific indicators of Eltex software products.Peeper client is installed on the same server as the Eltex software system, such as ECCM, ECSS-10 Softswitch, SoftWLC. Peeper automatically recognizes the product and loads the corresponding monitoring profile with preconfigured metrics, dashboards, and alert rules.
2. Peeper Server. The Peeper Server is installed on a separate server. If the customer has deployed multiple servers with Eltex products, all metrics are consolidated into a single interface. The administrator sees a complete overview: which servers are under load, where anomalies occur, and what trends have developed over a certain period of time.

The visualization is built on Grafana with custom dashboards. The administrator sees all servers with Eltex products in a single interface. It is possible to switch between them, compare metrics, and build summary dashboards.

Alerts can be sent to email. When a metric exceeds the threshold, the engineer monitoring the infrastructure immediately receives a message. If necessary, notifications can be configured to other channels as well.

Peeper stores its own configuration. If the monitoring system fails, it can be restored from a backup along with all dashboard settings, alert rules, and historical data.

Infrastructure security is not a wish, but a mandatory requirement. And we considered this in developing Peeper.

Data is transmitted using HTTPS encryption via the Push method. The client initiates the sending of data to the server, eliminating the need to open incoming ports on the firewall and allow external connections to the system. This complies with network security policies, as it does not create new entry points into the protected perimeter.

Peeper is a new system, and its development is proceeding in parallel with the development of Eltex software products. As new solutions appear or existing ones are updated, we will add support for them and other features to new versions.

What Peeper is currently capable of:

• Collection and storage of metrics and logs
• Visualization of data in the form of dashboards, graphs, charts, and tables included in the product
• Sending alerts when a trigger is activated based on a metric
• Autodiscovery of metrics sources
• Autoprovision of dashboards and alerts
• Ready-made dashboards and alerts for every supported Eltex software product
• System dashboards and alerts for Linux, Docker, Postgres, MySQL (MariaDB)
• Monitoring the availability and performance of network services (HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, DNS, ICMP)
   

Peeper is our vision of monitoring. Easy to deploy and use on a daily basis, it is fully integrated into the ecosystem and tailored to the specifics of working with Eltex software products.

The system works out of the box, scales as your infrastructure grows, and integrates deeply with Eltex products. The system includes specific metrics and ready-made dashboards that cannot be created without understanding the inner workings of Eltex products.

Test Peeper in your infrastructure. Contact us for more details:  foreign.sales@eltex-co.ru