Support
For questions and comments regarding the software, you can post a comment in the ‘comments’ section below.
If your issue requires more indepth support, please consider TeamViewer. This is an awesome utility that allows IQ Spiral to remote control your computer (temporarily). No need to purchase anything on your part, as IQ Spiral has licensed this software. We’ve got you covered. Download: TeamViewer
Other recommended tools for Web-based support is Skype. Skype is a great way to chat for quick questions as well as for voice and video calls. Website: Skype
Finally, if you’d like to make a call: Mobile: 210-643-3500
I have downloaded, licensed and installed on my replica server. The service in running and polling data (i can view the log).
a test email message arrives successfully.
Not sure if it sends an email every 15 minutes or just when a condition changes.
I paused replication for an hour and did not receive an email - I have never received an email beyond the test.
Am I misunderstanding the purpose of this utility?
Hi Robert,
If you installed this on a single server hosting the Virtual Machines, ensure your "Replication Monitor Mode" is set to "Primary" or "All". By default, the service monitors only incoming replication data when the mode is set to "Replica". Apply the settings and restart the service. If you installed the monitor on the server 'receiving' the replica information, it should be set to "Replica" or "All".
You will get an email, only when conditions change. When the service detects the replication health in a degraded state, you get more status updates - however they will only come at the "Replication Poll Frequency" specified. You mentioned you checked the logs, did you see the logs indicate that it attempted to send an email? You are welcome to send a copy of the log file to me at your convenience.
Hope this helps.
Issue above was resolved. The problem appears to have been the use of an internet open mail relay coupled with blank credentials. Since the mail relay works with or without credentials, placing dummy credentials in the application resolved the issue.
thanks again!
Brian
Do you have a trial version of your software?
Hi Andrew,
Sorry there is no trial version, however the website is designed to fully illustrate the user experience of Installation, Licensing Experience, and User Interface options. Each section should give you a very good idea of usage; see Installation Guide, Licensing Guide, and User Guide. Particularly the User Guide, as the graphical elements of the website convey your options. If your goal is to see whether it works or not, the final output of the product is simply an email. That much is self-explanatory.
One other consideration is that the latest version (not represented on the website's screenshots) includes a configurable status update. This allows you to know whether or not the service is still running with positive feedback about the status of your environment. The configurable option is another select-able field that allows you to enable status updates and configure them either daily or weekly at a time of your choosing.
Thank you for considering HV Replication Monitor for your environment :)
UPDATE: I have uploaded screenshots for the new status update fields as well as updated the User Guide with basic information about how to use those fields.
Does this software work as explained with Extended Replication as well? I have a Host server which replicates to a Secondary on-site server. The secondary server which receives the primary host's replications has extended replication enabled to send it's copy of the replications to a third off-site server. I want to make sure I can receive notification the same on all three servers.
Hi Andrew,
The software does support extended replication; however, the control is not as granular.
For the tertiary (your off-site) server, the interface does not have a special setting for "Extended", you have set the Replication Monitor Mode to 'All' which will pick up everything. If the tertiary server is also a Primary for something else, it will also alert on those as well, this is where the granularity of control is not a fine. In that case, you would just get more alerts.
The middle server is a 'Replica' server itself, with a relationship of 'Extended'. It has another identity of 'Replica' and a relationship of 'Simple'. Thus, if you set the monitoring mode to 'Replica' (as you should) - if one of those relationships have a problem, it will correctly report that the VM is both Normal on one side and degraded on the other. You will see this server in the report twice. It's recommended that you add additional properties to the content of the alert using the interface as follows: ReplRelationship, PrimSvrName, ReplicaSvrName
You need a license for all replica (receiving servers). If you need more monitoring then you can license the Primary as well, so if the rest of the servers disappear - it will tell you it is no longer sending replica data. This server would be set to "Primary", or "All" in the interface.
Thank you for your help. I finally got around to purchasing and setting it up on one of my servers and it has been working well so far.
I do have one question... From what I have gathered the polling frequency happens every 15 minutes and if the status of the replication has changed it sends an alert. There is also the status alert configurable for daily or weekly emails that I receive at the time I specified.
I would like to receive only 1 email per day at the specified customizable alert time. I found I cannot change the poll frequency to 0 (hoping it will only poll for daily alert.) Is there a way to disable the alerts triggered by the replication poll frequency settings detecting changes and only have 1 daily status alert sent at the specified status alert time?
The reason I would like 1 email per day is because the replication status changes when the local Windows Server Backup is running on the host. I get two emails (one from replication state and one later from extended state) notifying that the status of the replication is degraded every time the local backup starts and another two emails with normal status after it finishes. That temporary degraded time during the backups is normal and expected but confuses clients who receive multiple varying alerts. I would like to implement this service on more servers ,however, with my current settings there are too many emails and too much confusion for the clients.
Any info or insight is appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Andrew,
Glad to hear it's working. Here are a few suggestions:
1. You could change the replication poll frequency to a higher value rather than lower. The poll frequency is the amount of time between HVRM replica health checks. If you were to increase this value to something like every 8 or 12 hours (480 or 720 minutes - the interface accepts this value in minutes) - it likely would not check the status during your daily backup. Also keep in mind, the poll frequency time begins when you start the service, so ensure that when you start the service it's not exactly 8 to 12 hours before your backups start! You indicated you wanted it to only check once per day, and you attempted to use 0 to achieve that. It does accept a value as high as 1440 minutes, which is 1 day. So it is achievable to have the regular poll frequency daily. However, I must say, I like where you were going with that. Disabling the regular poller with a 0 and relying on a daily status only. I may consider implementing that for a future release.
2. Create a scheduled task on your server to stop the HVRM service and start it when you think the backups are likely to finish.
3. If you are using backup software that supports the running of a script at the start/stop of the backup job, you can use that to stop/start the HVRM service.
On this page: https://www.iqspiral.com/command-line/ at the bottom you will find examples of starting and stopping the HVRM service using the command-line.
Thanks!
Brian
Hey Brian,
Thanks for the quick response always!
I noticed I am running into an issue with the alert email. Regardless of how many email addresses I list for the Email alert, only the last email address listed is receiving an alert email.
I listed the email addresses according to the user guide by simply adding spaces between them i.e.
first@first.com second@second.com third@third.com
In this configuration only third@third.com receives the email.
If I rearrange the order, still only the last listed email address receives the alert.
Any ideas on this one?
Hi Andrew,
You compliment me on my responsiveness and for the first time I didn't answer :( Sorry about that - I had some personal and business issues arise that was taking all my time! Was working until 2AM at times. Anyway, I'm looking in to it now. I will get back to you soon.
Thanks,
Brian
Hi Andrew,
It looks like the website was wrong about the separator being a 'space'. I used a 'comma' and it worked. The User Guide as been updated to reflect this change. Try it and let me know!
Thanks,
Brian
Hey Brian,
I understand how things can be crazy at times!
I was able to figure out the comma solution by guessing and testing. Thanks for the confirmation and updating the guide!
As for the previous issue I created a task in Task Scheduler to restart the HVRM service at 11pm. Polling is set to 12 hours so 11pm when the service is restarted and 11am is the next poll. This is nice because I will get a notification during the day if the replication service didn't recover from the backups the night before but only on failures. If all is good the normal status updates arrive at 8pm.
I have only been using this service for a couple weeks now but so far myself and the client are quite pleased with the simplicity, functionality and reliability. Great job on the product! I will be ordering another license tonight.
Thanks for all your help!
Hi Andrew, you can login to your account and download a new version (v. 2.2.6963.34651) of the software which has the following new features:
1. A new mode added for Extended Replicas.
2. Ability to set the Replication Poll Frequency to 0 to disable this in favor of status only updates
3. Ability to check a box to get a status alert on Service start.
4. Bugfix where a rare timing condition could cause the re-use of resources internally to the service and produce unexpected results. (never actually seen this happen though)
5. Bugfix where the 'From' dialog box was being used as the credential for sending email in the service instead of the 'Username' field.
Just install right over the top of the old version.
Thanks,
Brian
Should I license all primary and replica servers? Or only license for primary servers is enough?
Hi Boshko,
The detailed answer to your question is in the user guide - in the subsection 'Replication Monitor Mode'. I have created a direct jump link to that specific area of text, here: https://www.iqspiral.com/user-guide/#ReplicationMonitorMode. You will find the various types of installation scenarios and the recommended amount of licensed installs for the type of replication topology you have.
Hello,
Just purchased this. I have configured it to send me a status alert at 9am each morning, but it doesnt seem to send anything. Test email works fine and also I have noticed the logs only appear if I restart the service. I have tried setting primary and all.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hi Tim,
It is possible to send a test email via the UI without clicking Apply. If you do not click 'Apply' and then 'Start' the service, the changes to the UI go away (meaning you tested your password but didn't save it). This allows you to test various settings without modifying the service. The interface will not show a blank password - it always shows dots. Please try:
1. Typing in the password once again, then select 'Send Test Email' to ensure it works.
2. Press 'Apply' to write that to the config file.
3. Stop and Start the service.
Let me know if that takes care of it.
Brian
Hi Tim,
Replying to you so everyone that reads this can know what the final resolution is/was.
There is a bug in the email function of HVRM Service where the 'From' email address is used as the 'username' credential when sending email during the Service runtime. This bug doesn't affect the 'Send a Test Email' because the bug exists in the Service side and not the UI side. Setting the 'From' dialog box to be the same as the 'Username' dialog box corrected the issue as a work-around. Alerts are now flowing. I will be publishing a new version with this bug fix soon.
Thanks Tim for your patience and I'm glad it's working now.
Brian
Hello, does this support Hyper V 2016 and 2019? Thanks.
It does!
Thanks.
Hello,
I have 2 X 5 node clusters
1 in our Main server Room
1 in our Disaster Recovery Server Room
As I have set replication on all VM's in our MCR hosts does this mean i only need to purchase 5 licenses to replicate from MCR > DR as we are only concerned about replicating one way ?
Or do I just need to purchase 2 licenses . One each for my Replica servers . 1 on MCR & 1 in DR
Regards
Karl
If I understand you correctly. You have a Server room with 5 servers running Windows Clustering (I'm guessing - cluster services fails over VMs to any of those 5 nodes). You don't replicate between any of those 5 nodes because you are using cluster services, but you do replicate all the VMs offsite.
If I understand this correctly, all servers in this setup run at least 1 VM which is being replicated offsite. So 5 primaries and 5 replica servers. If this is the setup, I would buy 5 licenses and install them on the replica servers at your DR site. The default mode of the software is that it monitors the "receiving" side.
Also, consider this - you can just buy a set of licenses you feel comfortable with and buy more if you find that doesn't meet your needs. No need to purchase all of it at once. I see a lot of customers come in and buy 1 to see how it works, then come back and purchase the rest.
Let me know if this helps out.
Thank you,
Brian
Refer To: C00654269
Hello Sales,
We are Qbs Software Ltd a software distributor/reseller. A customer requires a quote for:
URL - https://www.iqspiral.com/checkout/
Licences – 5
Could you provide us with a quotation?
Kind Regards
Ferenc
This software is 'web store' only. You'll have to generate your own quotes for any clients you have. If you navigate to the link https://www.iqspiral.com/checkout, you can select the amount (5), and click "Save Cart" - you can use the table there to generate any quotes you need.
Thank you,
Brian
Hi Brian
Thank you for your reply, however as we haven’t purchased from you before, could you please advise us on below?
In order to set your company up as vendor in our system, could you please advise on the following:
• May we purchase on behalf of the end user?
• Is there a reseller discount?
• Payment Method (e.g.: Paypal, credit card, bank transfer)?
• What are your payment terms? (e.g.: Net60, Net 90)?
If is Online:
• How do I register the product to the client?
• Would it be possible to email you their details after purchase for relicensing?
• It seems that an online account needs to be created in order to purchase. If so you would do that for us? As I can’t see any option to create it for ourselves.
• Would the end user have access to our account/billing details?
• Delivery Method (e.g.: ESD, CD, Dongle)?
• Delivery costs and delivery time?
• Is the licence subject to auto-renewal/automatic billing on our accounts? We would like to avoid it.
• Is maintenance/upgrades/support mandatory and/or included?
NOTE: Many of our clients do not purchase direct, only through their approved supplier.
Please provide me with any qualifying questions you may have on your part.
Kind regards,
Ferenc
• May we purchase on behalf of the end user? Yes
• Is there a reseller discount? No, but you are welcome to mark up the price to sell it yourself.
• Payment Method (e.g.: Paypal, credit card, bank transfer)?: Credit Card
• What are your payment terms? (e.g.: Net60, Net 90)?: Payment in full at purchase time
If is Online:
• How do I register the product to the client? Please register the product to the client, it is done at the moment of purchase. Also you would login with a new account per client. So at the moment of purchase, create a new user name and password. However, repeat business for that client, you would use the same credentials.
• Would it be possible to email you their details after purchase for relicensing? Re-licensing is on a per-client basis, licenses cannot be re-used from one client to another. However, in rare circumstances, an end user will rename a server and I have re-issued licenses for that purpose - this is done on a limited basis as this is part of the security in-place to prevent theft.
• It seems that an online account needs to be created in order to purchase. If so you would do that for us? As I can’t see any option to create it for ourselves.: The online account is created at the time of purchase. I cannot do it as the checkout process links an account to a transaction.
• Would the end user have access to our account/billing details? They would have that only if you give them access to this website by means of the account you created. They would know how much it is sold for as they could go to the check out cart.
If you are looking to hide that - then I would suggest you sell it to them, and install it yourself. The software runs as a Windows service isn't readily visible in any obvious way aside from perhaps the icon on the desktop - which you can disable at the time of install. You could sell this as a service and bill your clients annually or monthly or whatever you choose.
• Delivery Method (e.g.: ESD, CD, Dongle)? Download.
• Delivery costs and delivery time? Free to download
• Is the licence subject to auto-renewal/automatic billing on our accounts? We would like to avoid it. The license is perpetual and 1 time.
• Is maintenance/upgrades/support mandatory and/or included? So far all of my releases/upgrades have been free upgrades. At this time, if I were to create a significantly different version from what I have released - That would be considered a different product. However, as stated, the product, as it is, has been supported and upgraded free of charge. This product is not sold as a subscription. You can do that for your end users if you like.
The service does not stay running and will not notify --Loaded on server 2019
Hi Brad,
In this instance, the most likely scenario is that there is some input as it relates to the UI that is causing this issue. If you'd like, I can assist by using TeamViewer on your server to inspect what's going on.
give me a buzz on the number you previously called.
Thanks,
Brian
Hallo Brian,
We are considering purchasing this software for our replica servers. Is it possible to monitor multiple replica servers with this package?
Is there also a possibility to request a trial so that we can try the software before purchasing a license?
There is no trial version, unfortunately. Please review the guide for an idea of how the software operates. The software can monitor as many VMs as there are per host, however it requires a license per replica server to monitor many of them. Thank you.
Hello,
I have imported the license file. Company Name is showing ok but server name ,license key or valid signature is set to No.
Please help
Hi Rachel, sorry to hear about your issue you are having. I *think I may know the reason. I noticed the license server name field has a username entered in that field instead of a valid server name. Please login to you account and change the licensed server name field to match the name of the host computer.
Hello,
I have done that but still it wont license correctly. Please can you connect via teamviewer as we urgently need to resolve this issue.
Yes please call me via Skype, my Skype name is: brian.williams28
My microsoft account is hieyeque1@live.com.
My phone number is +1 210-643-3500...
Hi Brian,
We have two licenses in use. I noticed that we are not getting daily notifications any more, and the service is stopping. When I manually start the service and send test email, it arrives, but with all variables and not showing the actual data.
We upgraded from 2016 to 2019. I am not sure whether the upgrade and the issue happened at the same time.
Anything to check?
Thanks,
Pavla
Hi Pavla,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. The test email should only show variables. However, if you have the box checked "Alert on Start" that should send you a fully populated email.
Can you send me the log file? Also, there have been times when I've been able to tell what has happened when by looking at the event logs. Lastly, which version on you on? The current version is 2.2.6963.34651.
Thanks,
Brian
Brian,
Thanks for the response. We are on the current version, and you are right, I now remember that the test email always did that.
How do you want me to send you the logs?
I was snooping around in the logs and see this error repeating since the last successful notification on 12/28:
System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at IQSHVReplMonService1.GetReplicationInfo.Update(String replMode) in C:\Projects\IQS_HVReplMonService\IQS_HVReplMonService\Service\ReplicationInfo\GetReplicationInfo.cs:line 104
at IQSHVReplMonService1.Service1.QueryReplicationInformation() in C:\Projects\IQS_HVReplMonService\IQS_HVReplMonService\Service\Service1.cs:line 834
Pavla
Pavla,
If you navigate to the following folder:
C:\Program Files\IQ Spiral\HV Replication Monitor\Logs
zip em up and send them to bwilliams@iqspiral.com
Thanks,
Brian
Hi Pavla,
I generally write the results on here in case it helps someone else. So the service was crashing after an upgrade from 2016 to 2019 with custom properties set. I had Pavla press the default button, which reset the properties to the standard ones, and the service is now running. We're trying to figure out which custom property selected is causing this. But base functionality is restored.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
Brian
Hi, ive just bought a licence and installed on my 2019 Hyper V Core server but the service wont start. Any ideas? thanks
Hi Tim, thank you for your purchase, sorry to hear about the problems. Does attempting to start the service produce a log file at all? it would be located in the installation directory: "C:\Program Files\IQ Spiral\HV Replication Monitor\Logs". You can get additional assistance with working with the command line here:
https://www.iqspiral.com/command-line/
Look for Examples 3 and 4, toward the bottom of the page.
If you have continued issues we can share a Skype session and I can remote control the machine with TeamViewer to diagnose the issue.
Please send the log file to bwilliams@iqspiral.com
Thanks,
Brian
Thanks for the quick response. Thats helped. Its a licencing issue becuase i completely forgot to licence the software. However i dont seem to be able to browse to the licence file under Server Core its just closes the windows. Is there another way? thanks
Right, the joys of Core Edition. Core edition is stingy when it comes to dialog boxes and the use of the graphic elements of Windows. Thus, although you can open a custom GUI, such as HVRM, when HVRM needs to display a dialog box that's reliant on the Windows OS, such as File-Open boxes, it cannot. Thus, the software can be successfully licensed by simply placing the iqshvreplmon.lic file you received via email in the folder:
"C:\Program Files\IQ Spiral\HV Replication Monitor"
This will have to be done at the command line using the command prompt or PowerShell commands. If you are using the command prompt, you can do something like this:
copy "\\someplace\someshare\iqshvreplmon.lic" "C:\Program Files\IQ Spiral\HV Replication Monitor"
or
copy "c:\temp\iqshvreplmon.lic" "C:\Program Files\IQ Spiral\HV Replication Monitor"
Note, the first argument for the copy command is the location you already have the file. The second argument is the destination.
Just placing the file in the appropriate location, and starting the service, will successfully license your server.
Brian
Bingo all sorted, thanks for the help and great little product
I have retired an old replica server. Can I transfer the license to its replacement or does a new license need to be purchased?
If you login to the website, go to MY Account, you can change the server name there and select the box "Send License File". There are limited number of times this can be done. It's on the honor system.
Thank you for the quick response!
This program has ran bullet proof for me for over a year now. I love it. Do you have any similar software or service that reports on the built in Windows Server Backup? I'd be a customer. Thank you!
Well, I haven't written anything commercial for that purpose, but about 5 years ago, I wrote some code in PowerShell to do that. I think I set it up as a scheduled task, and it emailed me the results. It looks like worked remotely against servers, you're welcome to give it a shot if you want to try it out. I can email it to you directly.
I've just installed and licensed on my 2 servers. My problem is with sending emails: every test ends up in a timeout error, like this:
30/12/2020 18:37:40 General status alert email...
30/12/2020 18:39:20 Error Sending Email, System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: The operation has timed out.
at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message)
at IQSHVReplMonService1.Mail.SendMail(String body, String subject, Boolean html) in C:\Projects\IQS_HVReplMonService\IQS_HVReplMonService\Service\Helpers\Mail.cs:line 68
30/12/2020 18:39:20 Next System Check: 30/12/2020 18:54:20
I've tried several configurations and email addresses, and I succeeded only once, with my private Gmail address, configuring Gmail account to allow less secure apps.
Can you help please?
Thanks, BR
In all the cases where I've assisted people with this issue it comes down to 1 of 3 things. 1. Credentials, 2. Wrong Port, 3. Wrong SMTP Host. In most cases it's actually some incorrect SMPT Host and Port combination. Who is the email provider you're trying to use? Is it something common like Microsoft / Google, or something else?
One troubleshooting technique I use to help users figure out their settings is to open a PowerShell command prompt and attempt to use the commnandlet: Send-MailMessage. If you can successfully send mail with that, simply use the settings from that commandlet in HVRM.
Here's a sample set of commands you can paste in to PowerShell. Use Notepad to modify the variables, then paste the command in to PowerShell. Remember you may need to search the internet for your mail providers SMTP settings. You'll need the SMTP host and correct port.
$Password = Convertto-SecureString 'yourpassword' -AsPlainText -Force
$Username = "youremail@yourdomain.com"
$Credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($Username, $Password)
[String[]] $To = "youremail@yourdomain.com"
[String] $Subject = "Test"
[String] $Body = "Test"
[String] $Smtp = "mail.yourdomain.com"
[String] $Port = 587 #Change this to match your mail providers port.
[String] $From = "youremail@yourdomain.com"
Send-MailMessage -From $From -To $To -Subject $Subject -Body $Body -SmtpServer $Smtp -Port $Port -UseSsl -BodyAsHtml -Credential $Credential
Just checking in, is your issue resolved?
Thx,
Brian
I'm working on it, but it seems that the problem is the access to smtps.aruba.it:465.
Trying to ping it I resolve the name, I'm sure about credentials, but I still obtain only a timeout error. I'm creating a new account on google, with gmail it should work. I'll let you know asap. Thanks a lot! Roberto
Sending mail works fine with Gmail. Issue resolved. Just another minor issue: sending test mail, I receive 2 emails.
The correct one is:
SERVERONE: Normal
and the status of the VMs
The other one is:
SERVERONE: ^OverAllHlthState^
and the body is:
^VMName^ ^ReplState^ ^ReplHlth^ ^PendReplSzMB^ ^AvgReplSzMB^ ^ReplMode^ ^VMId^
Thanks again for the support.
BR, Roberto
Each day at 3am, we receive the following warning email. This is happening because some SQL maintenance tasks are occuring on the VM and for some reason this is being picked up us a major 67GB (on average) change to some data on that VM. The replication is happening over WAN:
Last successful replication for virtual machine 'ABC' has been delayed. Delay has exceeded the defined warning limit. Replication might be encountering problems.
PendReplSzMB = 67,024.49
LastReplTime = 03:01:31
ReplErrors = 0
We know that the actual size of the pending replication is much smaller (perhaps the SQL tasks are confusing it?), because we then always receive another status change email to say:
ReplState = Replicating
ReplHlth = Normal
LastReplTime = 04:31:45
This shows a 1.5 hour gap each day in which the download speed on the replica server wouldn't allow a 67GB WAN transfer to happen in that time (more realistically around 11GB on 18Mbps).
Once the replication carry's on as normal at around 4.30am, it is then fine again until the next SQL maintenance at 3am.
Can anything be done to avoid these daily warnings at those times? For example, can we remove/extend the "defined warning limit" but only between the hours of 3-5am? It's important that we keep the standard warning limits during the working day so that we don't miss any replication problems.
Many thanks!
Hi Josh,
The only thing I can think of is to stop the HV Replication Monitor service with a scheduled task daily at that specified time. You would also need to uncheck the box that says "Alert on Start" in HV Replication Monitor. The purpose of "Alert on Start" is simply to let you know the software is operational - but you could know that by specifying the time of your "Daily Status Alerts" to being fairly early in the day (if you desire those).
The reason the software cannot be configured to ignore those type of messages (in the case you specified) is the replication status has changed, and it's not "Normal". It's looking for "Normal" and if it doesn't see that, then it's going to alert.
I suppose there's one other way, you could set the Replication Poll Frequency to something like 2 or 3 hours and ensure the service was started at a time when the replication issues would fall in the interval (but I think that solution, while it may work, is a bit unreasonable).
Thanks,
Brian
Thanks Brian. I'll give it a go soon and let you know how we get on.
Seems to be working with the scheduled stop/start of the service. Thanks Brian!
Glad to hear it! Excellent.
Good Morning Brian, when sending a test email it shows up as this:
^VMName^ ^ReplState^ ^ReplHlth^ ^PendReplSzMB^ ^AvgReplSzMB^ ^ReplMode^ ^VMId^
Is this normal for a test email, and would it append/read and display the Hyper-V virtual machine's when the daily trigger email?
Hi James,
This is normal. Those are placeholders. The reason it sends out the placeholders is you are using the GUI portion of the program - it doesn't actually query Hyper-V for the status, only the installed Windows service does that. The purpose of the test email is to just ensure that communication is functional based on your email related input. The daily status email will contain actual values because it is generated by the service as well. If you want to see a real email right away, you can enable "Alert on Start" - and as soon as the Service starts you will get a real status email.
Thanks,
Brian
Hi, I've been using HVRM for a few years and recently it has stopped sending emails. When I attempt to send the test email it crashes ("IQSHVReplMonConsole has stopped working", Windows server 2016). I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program with no luck. Please help, thanks
Hi Justin, thanks for reaching out - and I'm glad that it has performed for you for 'years'! How about we meet tomorrow at around 10AM CST to resolve the issue? Also, check to ensure you are on the current version, which I believe is: 2.2.6963.34651 - if not you can log in to you account and download the current version. I believe you'll have to right-click the executable where it's installed to get the properties on the file to compare your version.
Thanks,
Brian
Hi Brian, thanks for the amazingly quick reply. I'm in Australia so that would mean 3am for me which isn't my first preference! Do you have anything else available please? Thanks mate
Sure thing, I can be available tomorrow evening (in my time zone) - you name the time...perhaps the same time as it is now - only tomorrow?
Brian
Any time from 4pm to 9pm CST works for me. Thanks!
Hi Brian, thanks heaps for your fast and professional help. Problem is now resolved and I am a very happy camper!
Glad to be of service! Thanks again for buying the software.
Brian
I have been looking at this product and not sure I have found an answer to a question I have. If I purchased 2 licenses could I install the product on Machine A (Not a Hyper-V Host) to monitor all the VMs running on Machine B and Machine C which are Hyper-V Hosts?
Hi Bryan,
The software only runs on Hyper-V hosts, it does not remote monitor. It is possible to install it only on Machine B, if Machine C is a replica partner. However, I generally recommend a license for both if they replicate both ways B to C and C to B. If it's a 1 way replication, you can get away with a single license, but I prefer having it on both machines to get alerts if one side has a problem and isn't responsive.
Thx,
Brian
Thank you for the fast response. Unfortunately my host operating systems are Hyper - V Server 2019 and not Windows Server so I do not believe this will work.
It will likely work, as it has been tested to run on Windows Core. Have a look at this page as it describe the various steps required to get it working from the command-line:
https://www.iqspiral.com/command-line/
So, in the past, I had tried in on Windows Server Core. In this case, I had to find an internet archive of Hyper-V Server 2019 as Microsoft isn't making it available anymore for download. I installed it, and tested HV Replication Monitor. It works just fine. If you need some help with setup, I can join a Skype call with you and use TeamViewer to remote in and help out.
Thank you. I fell pretty confident that it will also work on Windows Core after looking at the documentation you sent as I have done command line installs previously. I will reach out if I have any issues during the install or setup. Thank you again for the very quick replies and information you provided.
I am sorry but had one more question. If Host A is my primary replicating to Host B but I have backup machines running on Host B replicating back to Host A is there a specific way I should configure the interface or will I be able to monitor the B to A replication?
You can either install 1 copy on each server and have it in 'Replica' Mode; OR install 1 copy on one of the servers, and set it to 'ALL' mode.
For more detail, go here:
https://www.iqspiral.com/user-guide/
And look at the "Replication Monitor Mode" section....it's a couple of pages down.
Thx,
Brian
Hi Brian, I've run into a situation several times where hyper V stop replicating altogether and from the best that I can tell after the initial notification was sent no more notifications are sent by your application. Seems to be an undesired effect as I would want to continually notified that replication is not working. Let me know if you run into this situation before or have any thoughts on it. Thank you
Dave
Hi David,
The behavior you described is actually as intended. I used to work for a large enterprise company, where I was on-call for over 4,000 servers. The worst thing is when several of them had a problem they were constant spamming me with alerts (sometimes over 200 alerts for basically 2 or 3 actual problems). Eventually, I'd become numb to my phone going off and started ignoring it so I could fix the problem(s). During that time, if I got another alert, from something new, I would miss it.
The way it's designed, basically the status is what it told you, until it tells you otherwise. There are situations where it will give you updates. For example, when the status is normal, you won't get sub-status alerts (like replicating). However, when it is warning or critical, you will get sub-status alerts, like replicating, or changes from warning to critical and vice-versa. Additionally, if you get a failure alert at noon, you can wait until the daily email (set at 5pm by default) - at which time it will force an updated alert. Given, those are only every 24-hours, but I have when away on a trip, used that to determine if things got better or the stayed broken.
I'll put this down as a feature request, but in all truth, I don't sell enough copies to warrant further development costs (sad, but true) - I've never made back my initial investment, but on a happier note, it's done a lot better than many have at first try attempts to sell software online. My biggest problem is likely SEO.
Brian
Is there any discount for 6 licences ?
Hi John,
I appreciate your interest in my software, but I do not offer discounts. I can say this, the licenses are not a subscription and are perpetual - which is a bonus imo. I actually do not even have a mechanism to provide one as the backend software would require a webpage layout redesign to do so.
Some folks have purchased a single license to test it out and come back to purchase the rest to ensure it meets their expectations. I've never had a complaint as the software does exactly what it says it does. What you see is what you get ;)
Hi, the mail sending does not work anymore. I'm using a google account, and I get the error "The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated.
Here is a log. Thanks for your support.
Hi Roberto, I removed your log information from your post - which I copied first. You had quite a bit of sensitive information in there - so I wanted to protect you. The short answer, is gmail has changed the way they allow mail clients to talk to them. I usually don't like to use them anymore for this type of thing (which I think that's what they want). Anyway, I'll give you a more detailed answer shortly.
It's as I suspected, Google refers to applications that do not use 2-factor authentication as "Less Secure Apps". They used to have a toggle in your Gmail account that allowed those application to function. But alas, they've done away with it.
Apparently they began phasing it out starting in April, per this: https://wpmailsmtp.com/gmail-less-secure-apps/
Anyway, I recommend using a different mail provider. For my alerts, I'm using a paid account through my web hosting provider - it's cheap, and it's easier than dealing with Google.
Hi Brian,
Sorry for my late reply. Trying to reply to our thread, but I just see a blank page on my browser, so I'm sending a new message. I tried to set up a new (paid) email account, but now I get a "timeout" error. Maybe this is my side fault? Thanks a lot for your support.
Alright, looking at your log file information now....
Hi Roberto,
I looked at your log file and found this setting suspect:
29/12/2022 11:08:00 SMTP Host: smtps.aruba.it
I did some searching and found that the correct SMTP address is most likely smtp.aruba.it - without the extra S.
Strangely I did find some sites that indicated the extra S, but more of the sites I found don't show that.
Here's a site that shows some code using the SMTP (the bottom of the page):
https://www.limilabs.com/blog/aruba-it-technet-it-imap-pop3-smtp-settings
Here's another site:
https://serversmtp.com/smtp-aruba/
Hi Brian,
I've tried with smtp.aruba.it, same timeout error. I will try with some other email account/provider and let you know. Thanks
Try to ping smtp.aruba.it from the server...I get:
Pinging smtp.aruba.it [94.177.209.30]
But no responses, which can be normal, sometimes the firewall is configured not to respond to pings the important thing here, is that smtp.aruba.it resolves to an IP. Can your server resolve that name to an IP address?
Thanks,
Brian
Good Morning Brian,
Sorry, but after a few months, I'm back on my emails sending issue (my gmail account doesn't work anymore, neither Aruba account. Can you please tell me a provider you know works fine with this? I'll buy an email account. Thanks, BR
Hi, the issue with Microsoft and Google type providers is that they're disabling the ability to send SMTP mail via regular authentication. The new process is very difficult to implement. I use a mailbox provided by hover.com that works flawlessly. A client of mine recently signed up for a sendgrid account because of this very same issue. None of their emails for dozens of application would work any more, using sendgrid has also worked flawlessly.
Thanks,
Brian
Good Morning Brian,
I can't reply to your message (when I try I obtain a blank page), but I tell you that I subscribed an account at Sendgrid and eveything works fine! Thanks a lot for your support. BR Roberto Conti
Excellent!
Thanks,
Brian
Hi, we would like to add another server to our account. Please could you let me know the correct method to upgrade our existing license to get the additional Hyper-V host added.
Many thanks!
I thank you for your business! All you need to do is login to your account (at the top of the screen "My Account"). After that, just go back to the home screen and select "Buy Now". After filling out the information (selecting the amount and adding your additional server name in the comma separated list), and purchasing, an updated license file will be sent to you.
Thanks,
Brian
Hi Brian, we're having an issue with our newly added server (our other server is fine in terms of sending email alerts).
The e-mails we receive from the new server don't show any of the replication information, but the columns are showing OK in the status reports (it's just blank beneath the column headings; see attached image).
Here is the log from that server:
12/01/2024 11:35:12 Querying replication information
12/01/2024 11:35:17 Cycle through the replication information, count: 0
12/01/2024 11:35:17 Overall Health State: Normal
12/01/2024 11:35:17 VMName | ReplState | ReplHlth | PendReplSzMB | AvgReplLatency | LastReplTime | ReplHlthDetails | ReplErrors |
12/01/2024 11:35:17 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12/01/2024 11:35:17 General status alert email...
I can see it says "count: 0", which suggests it's not detecting the VM's running replication?
Hi Brian, please see our previous post looking for support. Many thanks!
We purchased HV Replication Monitor yesterday. How do we get in invoice?
Hi, I see there are a few issues with this purchase.
The first being that 1 license was purchased, but 2 servers were listed in the license request.
An email was sent to notify you of this issue was rejected by your mail server.
The contents of the email were:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Computerhaus EDV-HandelsgmbH.,
We're sorry, the license information entered is incorrect for the number of licenses purchased. You have purchased 1 license(s), however you have entered 2 server(s). Please log in to your account and correct the license information. After correcting, be sure to select the "Send License File" checkbox!
Thank you,
IQ Spiral Support
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Undelivered Mail Report was this, from your server:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the mail system at host unirelay05.hostedemail.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.
The mail system
: host mx.mymailwall.com[91.212.136.1] said: 541
5.7.0 banned mail-content (in reply to end of DATA command)
Reporting-MTA: dns; unirelay05.hostedemail.com
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 3BC7F405E9
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; notify@iqspiral.com
Arrival-Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2024 13:56:00 +0000 (UTC)
Final-Recipient: rfc822; support@computerhaus.biz
Original-Recipient: rfc822;support@computerhaus.biz
Action: failed
Status: 5.7.0
Remote-MTA: dns; mx.mymailwall.com
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 541 5.7.0 banned mail-content
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Brian, not heard back yet regarding our issue requiring support (see last couple of posts). Even re-configuring replication from scratch hasn't resolved the issue.
Do you have a support e-mail address we can reach you on instead?
Kind regards.
I was having trouble posting comments in reply to user requests and that problem is now resolved. When you first posted your question, I did respond via email, I'm assuming it went to spam. Here's the contents of what I said:
I'm having trouble replying to your message you posted on my website, so I'll just answer here. The issue at hand could be one of perspective. If the machine you are monitoring is Receiving replicas, then your "Replication Monitor Mode" would need to be set to Replica. If it is the sender, the mode should be set to "Primary". If it does both, you can choose "all". There's a final mode which is much less common, that would be "ExtendedReplica" mode. This would be if the Hyper-V server were a tertiary replication member. My guess is you either need to choose "Primary" or "All". Then hit "Apply Settings", and then "Stop Service", wait a second or two, then "Start Service".
Thanks,
Brian J. Williams
Hi there,
the link to download the software downloads as 0 bytes :(
Tim
Oh no! Sorry to hear that - let me see what's going on.
I have sent you a direct link via email. Let me know if that works. Did you get your license file, I see some emails bounced back.
Thanks,
Brian
Have this installed on Win 2025 datacenter. When I try to send a test email, the app will close and I dont receive the email. Not getting normal emails from it either. Looking at the event log I found the below.
.Net Runtime event 1026
I fixed this problem and upgraded the code back in April, but never deployed it because the software doesn't sell anymore and I needed a code-signing certificate which is like $350!
Anyway, I will attempt to get you the new version, it'll just prompt you that the software is un-trusted.
Let me get back to you with a download link.
Thx,
Brian
It wont let me post the event log. I guess it too much text. I can email you if you give me your address. Thanks
Do you have a link? Still having issues
I installed the newer version and when I try to start the IQ Spiral service I get the below
Windows could not start the service....
Error 1064: an exception occurred in the service when handling the control request.
More from event log:
Faulting application name: IQSHVReplMonService.exe, version: 3.1.0.0, time stamp: 0x69c9cf2b
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.26100.33438, time stamp: 0xace796d3
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x00000000000c75fa
Faulting process id: 0x22C8
Faulting application start time: 0x1DD6BC6D4A90E08
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\IQ Spiral\HV Replication Monitor\IQSHVReplMonService.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 0554d6ce-a7f9-4fec-be6f-de0f2083120c
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID: