Monitoring Setup Guide

This guide walks through installing, configuring, and running the TestimoX.Monitoring service for continuous Active Directory infrastructure monitoring.

Prerequisites

.NET 8.0 Runtime or later
Active Directory domain membership (for auto-discovery) or manual target configuration
Network access to domain controllers on required probe ports (53, 88, 123, 389, 443, 636, 9389)
TestimoX license (Community edition supports basic monitoring)

Installation

CLI (Standalone)

dotnet tool install --global TestimoX.Monitoring

Windows Service

# Install as a Windows service
testimox-monitoring install --service-name "TestimoX.Monitoring"

# Start the service
Start-Service -Name "TestimoX.Monitoring"

PowerShell Module

Install-Module -Name TestimoX.PowerShell -Scope CurrentUser

Configuration

Monitoring is configured via a JSON configuration file. By default the service looks for monitoring.json in the working directory.

Minimal Configuration

{
  "monitoring": {
    "interval": 300,
    "targets": {
      "discovery": "auto"
    },
    "probes": [
      { "type": "Ping" },
      { "type": "DNS" },
      { "type": "LDAP" },
      { "type": "Kerberos" }
    ]
  }
}

Full Configuration Example

{
  "monitoring": {
    "interval": 300,
    "timeout": 30,
    "retries": 2,
    "targets": {
      "discovery": "auto",
      "include": ["dc01.contoso.com", "dc02.contoso.com"],
      "exclude": ["dc-test.contoso.com"]
    },
    "probes": [
      { "type": "Ping" },
      { "type": "DNS" },
      { "type": "LDAP", "ports": [389, 636] },
      { "type": "Kerberos" },
      { "type": "NTP" },
      { "type": "HTTPS", "paths": ["/"] },
      { "type": "Port", "ports": [3268, 3269, 9389] },
      { "type": "Replication" },
      { "type": "Directory" },
      { "type": "ADWS" }
    ],
    "thresholds": {
      "latency_warning_ms": 500,
      "latency_critical_ms": 2000
    },
    "notifications": {
      "email": {
        "enabled": false,
        "smtp_server": "smtp.contoso.com",
        "recipients": ["ad-team@contoso.com"],
        "on_status_change": true
      }
    },
    "dashboard": {
      "enabled": true,
      "port": 8080,
      "bind": "localhost"
    },
    "history": {
      "retention_days": 30,
      "store_path": "./monitoring-data"
    }
  }
}

Configuration Reference

General Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`interval`	int	300	Probe execution interval in seconds
`timeout`	int	30	Per-probe timeout in seconds
`retries`	int	1	Retry attempts on probe failure

Target Discovery

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`discovery`	string	`auto`	`auto` for AD-based discovery, `manual` for explicit targets
`include`	string []	[]	Additional targets to include
`exclude`	string []	[]	Targets to exclude from monitoring

Probe Settings

Each probe entry in the probes array supports:

Setting	Type	Description
`type`	string	Probe type (Ping, DNS, LDAP, Kerberos, NTP, HTTPS, Port, Replication, Directory, ADWS, DnsService)
`enabled`	bool	Enable or disable this probe (default: true)
`ports`	int []	Override default ports for Port and LDAP probes
`paths`	string []	URL paths for HTTPS probes
`interval`	int	Override global interval for this probe

Dashboard

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	bool	true	Enable the HTML dashboard
`port`	int	8080	Dashboard HTTP port
`bind`	string	localhost	Bind address

Notifications

Setting	Type	Description
`email.enabled`	bool	Enable email notifications
`email.smtp_server`	string	SMTP server address
`email.recipients`	string []	Notification recipients
`email.on_status_change`	bool	Send only on status transitions

Running Monitoring

CLI Mode

# Run with default config
testimox-monitoring

# Run with custom config
testimox-monitoring --config ./my-monitoring.json

# Run with verbose output
testimox-monitoring --verbosity detailed

PowerShell

# Initialize monitoring service
Initialize-TestimoXService -ConfigPath './monitoring.json'

# Start monitoring
Invoke-TestimoXService -Mode Monitoring

# Check service status
Get-TestimoXService

As a Windows Service

# Check service status
Get-Service -Name "TestimoX.Monitoring"

# View service logs
Get-EventLog -LogName Application -Source "TestimoX.Monitoring" -Newest 20

Dashboard

When the dashboard is enabled, navigate to http://localhost:8080 (default) to view:

Overview -- aggregate health status across all targets and probes
Per-DC drill-down -- individual domain controller probe results and history
Probe timeline -- historical trend for each probe type
Alerts -- active and recent status change notifications

Branding

Premium and Enterprise editions support custom branding for the monitoring dashboard:

{
  "monitoring": {
    "dashboard": {
      "branding": {
        "title": "Contoso AD Health",
        "logo": "./assets/logo.png",
        "accent_color": "#1a5276"
      }
    }
  }
}

Next Steps

Probe Types -- detailed reference for each probe type
Monitoring Overview -- architecture and design concepts
Reports -- combine monitoring data with assessment reports