Hosts Tools

What is new in Process Operator 1.0.1:

• If the Process Operator writes something about w3wp.exe process to log files (CPU usage, priority etc.), it also writes the name of IIS Application Pool running in that process. It allows to see what pool caused high CPU usage.
• There are 2 types of log files now:
  1. Files named “date_here”.log (e.g. 11.07.2010.log): Process Operator writes some of its actions (most important ones) and error messages (if any) to these log files.
  2. Files named “date_here”-CPU-usage.log (e.g. 11.07.2010-CPU-usage.log): These logs contain information about total CPU usage and a list of 3 processes causing the CPU load. Process Operator writes CPU usage data once a minute. So you can see the full history of CPU usage and “heavy” processes. The log format allows importing it to MS Excel, sorting and building graphs.

The main purpose of Process Operator (Server Edition) is to enhance the responsiveness of Windows servers during periods of high CPU loads. You will also notice increased agility and stability of the server.

Process Operator is a Windows service. It adjusts priorities at which applications get CPU times. As a result the server becomes much more responsive. The priority adjustment process is fully automated, but server administrators can make appropriate settings to fine-tune the Process Operator for their specific needs.

The Server Edition of Process Operator is made specially for Windows servers, not for home PC’s. It is designed for Windows 2008 (x86, x64) and Windows 2003 servers and was tested on multiple web servers, mail and DNS servers, and SQL ones.

If some server process (application or service) “eats” too much CPU, the Process Operator sets a lower priority to that process. The process won’t be allowed to use 100% of CPU and other applications will be running fine. The server does not stall. All processes get their CPU time slices. The server becomes more stable and agile. If the punished process uses less CPU for certain time, Process Operator restores its priority back to its original level.

Often when a server has about 100% CPU load it becomes unresponsive and even does not allow the use of Terminal Services, you cannot log in remotely to fix the issues. The Process Operator prevents such cases too.

Just give it a try and you’ll like it!

For more information, please read the Process Operator guide.

Bandwidth Meter for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 is a unique tool for MS Virtual Server 2005 bandwidth usage monitoring, counting and reporting.

What makes it unique? It provides a bandwidth control on per virtual server basis for different protocols (ARP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, IGMP). With this tool you can see the amount of data used (downloaded and uploaded) by each virtual server. Thus you can bill your customers for the bandwidth usage or just find out which servers cause a high network load.

Installation is straightforward and only takes a minute by entering IP address of your server and clicking several buttons.

For more information, please read this document.

As you know, our company is an ISV (independent software vendor), but it is also an established web hosting provider. We provide Windows web hosting services for almost 7 years already (at www.DotNetpark.com) and our hosting business keeps growing.

At DotNetPark we offer shared hosting and virtual dedicated servers. And most of our virtual servers are powered by Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. Yes, we know, Hyper-V is here and we do use it. But MS Virtual Server 2005 is still actual and lots of companies use it.

If you provide VDS (VPS) hosting based on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 you know that it does not have a built-in bandwidth usage meter. You need to bill your customers monthly for bandwidth usage (or over usage), but MS Virtual Server 2005 does not make such a report.

Moreover, if you make your own piece of software and try to use MS Virtual Server API you realize fast that there is a bug in MS Virtual Server built-in bandwidth meter function making it just useless.

Fortunately, our programmers found a way to monitor and meter virtual server traffic usage and made an application for it. We use this program in our web hosting business and recently decided to make it a commercial product.

As you know, it is quite easy to make a program for yourself, but it takes a lot of time to make the same piece of software good enough (nice, documented, configurable) for public needs. Anyway, we polish the tool now and are going to show it to you soon!

DNS Inspector 1.0 is finally here!

DNS Inspector is a tool to check DNS health of your (and, of course, your clients’) domain names. It allows to check MX, SOA, NS, reverse DNS (PTR) and other records, compare results of primary and secondary DNS servers and much more. It can inspect multiple domain names at a time and gives you a detailed and easy to read DNS reports.

No installation required! No configuration required.
Just run it and enjoy.

1. Enter a domain name or several domains in “Domains:” field. One domain name per line.
2. Click “Test DNS” button.
3. Wait a little, the program will check DNS health of the domains and create appropriate reports.
4. When the test finished, click report names in “Reports:” list and view them.

SimpleDNS Client is a program that can remotely administer Simple DNS Plus servers. It is a Windows GUI application and its interface is similar to Simple DNS server. It allows to create, modify, delete DNS zones etc.

Current version 1.0.6 allows to work with primary DNS zones only. Secondary DNS zones support is coming soon.

This program is especially useful when you use GPRS to manage your Simple DNS server. It works 23 to 51 times faster than Remote Desktop!

No installation required! Just run it and enjoy.

Read more…