InSite hardware appliances are not available to new customers. New customers should use the virtual machine version of InSite instead. See Private Node Server for details.

InSite is a hardware appliance that works as a private monitoring location. InSite is delivered as a pre-configured server, ready to get up and running once installed. The VM version of InSite is Private Node Server.

This topic contains information specific to InSite hardware appliances. For general information and usage of private locations, see Private Node Server Overview.

Specifications

Note:

Specifications may change on an as-needed basis.

Enterprise Data Center Appliance
Up to 100 monitors

Height: 1.68" (1U)
Width: 18.99" (incl. rack latches)
Depth: 30.39" (incl. PSU handles and bezel)
Weight (max. config): 39 lbs.
Power (max. config): 1004W

Standard Data Center Appliance
Up to 25 or 50 monitors

Height: 1.68" (1U)
Width: 17.10" (incl. rack latches)
Depth: 24.00" (incl. PSU handles and bezel)
Weight (max. config): 33 lbs
Power (max. config): 350W

An upstream bandwidth of at least 20 Mbps is recommended for optimal performance.

Plans

When you purchase InSite, the corresponding plan is added to your AlertSite account. This plan matches the capacity of your InSite:

Plan	Description
INSITE-25	Up to 25 monitors.
INSITE-50	Up to 50 monitors.
INSITE-100	Up to 100 monitors.

You will need to specify this plan when registering InSite in AlertSite and when creating monitors to be run on InSite.

Monitoring capacity

Please consider carefully the number of monitors you expect to monitor prior to purchasing your InSite appliance to allow for future expansion. The load capacity of the InSite unit is a function of several factors:

The maximum number of monitors.
The number of transaction steps (actions).
The monitoring interval.

The maximum number of monitors refers to the number of monitors for which the monitoring data history is maintained, regardless of the monitoring status. For example, if you have an InSite-25 appliance, you cannot add more than 25 monitors even if the existing monitors are disabled, because they are still using monitor “slots’.

InSite capacity guidelines are also based on 5-step transactions running at 5-minute intervals. If you have an InSite-50 appliance and run, say, 45 10-step transactions at 5-minute intervals, you may find this exceeds InSite’s workload capacity; however, you should be fine with 50 3-step transactions at 3-minute intervals.

If you exceed the capacity of your InSite, you can:

upgrade to a higher-capacity InSite appliance (see the replacement instructions below),
replace transactions with the ones that have fewer steps,
increase the monitoring interval,
delete existing monitors from the current InSite unit before adding new monitors.

Deleting a monitor also deletes the monitoring history of this monitor.

Installing InSite hardware appliance

Unpack the appliance.
(Optional) Install server rails.
Connect a monitor to the video interface.
Plug in the network connector to the Ethernet port.
Plug in the power cord.
Press the power button on the front panel to turn InSite on.
After the boot is complete, note down the IP address of the InSite appliance displayed on the monitor screen.

Note: If you are not using DHCP, configure the IP address for InSite.
Configure the firewall rules to allow communication between InSite and the AlertSite platform.
Now you can access InSite’s web interface (Control Panel) at:

https://<IP address>

The default login and password are:

insiteadm / 1nSitePa$$ in Private Node Server 2.x

admin / password in earlier versions

(You can change the password later.)
Register InSite as a private location in AlertSite.
Configure InSite in your network – set the proxy settings and so on.
Configure ServerAgent to monitor the InSite appliance’s health and resource utilization.
(Recommended.) Change the web interface password to your own password.

If you need assistance with configuring InSite, please contact the Support Team.

Once InSite is configured and registered, you can create and configure monitors to run on your InSite.

The InSite appliance must always be powered on, otherwise, monitoring from your InSite location will stop.

Firewall rules

See Network Connectivity for the outbound ports that need to be open on your firewall for the InSite appliance to work properly.

Replacement

Before swapping out your InSite unit with a replacement or cold spare, please contact the Support Team.

Replacing your InSite appliance with another InSite unit supplied by AlertSite is simple and straightforward:

Before powering down your existing appliance, make note of any hard-coded network addresses and port information in the currently configured InSite Control Panel.
Move the Ethernet and power cables from the existing InSite appliance to the replacement and attach a monitor.
After the replacement appliance boots up, note the new IP address displayed on the monitor.
In your browser, open a new tab and enter http://<IP Address>, where <IP Address> is the one of the InSite appliance displayed on the monitor.

Note: If your InSite unit is running SSL3 3.0, you need to use https://<IP Address>
Log in using the following username and password:

insiteadm / 1nSitePa$$ for InSite 2.x

admin / password for earlier versions
Navigate to Manage Location > Register Location.
Enter your AlertSite login and password.
Copy the InSite location’s 32-character ID displayed on the AlertSite Console InSite Locations screen and paste it to the Location ID field.
Click Register. You will see a message confirming the registration.
If you are using a static IP address, or if you configured a DNS server or email relay host, see Configuring Private Node Server on Your Network for instructions on configuring that information in the replacement.

Your new InSite appliance is now functioning as a monitoring station.

FAQ

It appears the InSite appliances have multiple NICs. Does InSite support multihoming?

An InSite appliance does not support two NICs, despite the hardware being present. The interfaces cannot be teamed; this is something we do not support and the customers cannot do this themselves.

InSite Hardware Appliance