At Netreo, we typically release new features very frequently, on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. The slowdown in the recent few months marks an exception, as the team has been working on exceptionally involved and architecturally significant features: enterprise single-sign-on (SSO) and support for Azure Resource Manager (ARM) API.
By February 1st, 2016 these and other corresponding features have been finally rolled out to production: SSO, ARM support, Backup Vault monitoring support, PowerShell-based metrics, and ability to execute on-demand actions directly from the dashboard.
Single Sign On (SSO)
Support for SSO was deployed on Jan 12th, 2016. We’ve partnered with Auth0.com to allow our users to integrate their Azure Active Directories, ADFS, PingFederate, and other corporate identity providers. Integration is simple: simply navigate to the “SSO Settings” screen in the Netreo portal and follow basic instructions. After SSO setup is complete and identity trust is established, other enterprise users can be invited into your Netreo account under the User Management screen.
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) API Support
As some may know, Microsoft is quickly migrating its Azure management API capabilities toward the new “v2” Azure Resource Manager (ARM) API. While ARM API is still work in progress for Microsoft, Netreo now supports monitoring new ARM-based Azure Storage accounts, Azure Windows and Linux Virtual Machines, and Azure Backup Vaults. We plan to start enabling support for more Azure resources thru ARM API on a regular basis.
There are many significant differences between this new API and the classic “Service Management” API that is based on certificate authentication. This is why other Azure resources, such as Cloud Roles, Web Apps, Service Bus, Scheduler, etc. remain monitorable by Netreo only thru Azure Service Management API.
To start monitoring ARM resources, simply run the Setup Wizard and choose the ARM API option.
Azure Backup Vault monitoring
Azure’s Recovery Services Backup service is a great addition to Azure platform. As of February 1st, 2016 Netreo can now monitor Azure Backup Vaults, their jobs and trigger alerts when failures occur, backups do not start, etc. Backup Vaults are monitored thru Azure ARM API. In order to add/configure Backup Vaults, one needs to use the Setup Wizard at least once, so that ARM authentication is enabled.
Ability to execute Actions directly from Dashboard
Core part of Netreo’s automation suite is the ability to execute actions based on certain conditions or schedule automatically. As of February 1st, users are also able to request executions of such actions on demand, via a click of a button. Look for new “Execute Actions” button directly on the dashboard.
PowerShell-based Metrics for Virtual Machines
Sophisticated systems often require sophisticated monitoring scenarios to indicate that everything is working properly. Netreo team often gets requests to enable monitoring on some pretty unique conditions. For example, there are requests to monitor sizes of folders, presence of specific files with specific age, state of Windows updates, and other nuanced and very specific scenarios. Creating specialized monitoring sensors in Netreo for every possible condition is impractical if not impossible. However, with PowerShell-driven metrics, users can now define their own conditions with a few lines of PowerShell and Netreo will track the results of such PowerShell scripts as metrics, allow for raising of alerts based on these metrics and visualize them on dashboards.
