Did you know that, using VBScript and powerful Monitis API, you can not only create monitors and feed them with data, but you can also manage your monitors and retrieve information? This group of scripts allows you to perform some tasks without using the Web Console.

All scripts share a common configuration file where your API Key and Secret Key are stored. You can store your keys with the command:

cscript KeyManager.vbs /cmd:set /APIKey:3TE4KFEAJICQDKRANI3IPTBLQK /SecretKey:5CK8P2176A21Q9ARDDRGEWSAK

You can check that your key is correctly stored with the command:

cscript KeyManager.vbs /cmd:get

Suspend external monitors

Sometimes your monitored websites may undergo maintenance, and during that period of time, you may prefer to go without receiving alerts. You can quickly suspend all or some of your monitors using a script, without accessing the web console.  You first have to gather the list of monitors this can be done for all external monitors:

Function GetAllExtMon
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=tests&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml"
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

 Set GetAllExtMon = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 GetAllExtMon.async = False
 GetAllExtMon.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)
End Function

Or you can do it by filtering them by tag. See below:

Function GetExtMonByTag(tag)
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=tagtests&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml&tag=" + tag
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

 Set GetExtMonByTag = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 GetExtMonByTag.async = False
 GetExtMonByTag.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)
End Function

One function or the other is called based on the parameters supplied by the user. See below:

if tag > "" then
 Set oResp = GetExtMonByTag(tag)
else
 Set oResp = GetAllExtMon()
end if

Once you have the list of monitors in an XML object, check to see if any are already suspended, if not, its ID will be added to a list:

for each oNode in oResp.documentElement.childnodes
 if oNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("isSuspended").text = "0" then
  IDs = AddList(IDs, oNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("id").text)
 end if
next
if IDs > "" then SuspendExt IDs

Function AddList(list, add)
 if list > "" then
  AddList = list + "," + add
 else
  AddList = add
 end if
End Function

Once we have the list of the monitors to suspend another API call is made. See instructions here:

Sub SuspendExt(IDs)
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api"
 objHTTP.open "POST", url, False
 objHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
 postData = "apikey=" + apiKey + "&validation=token&authToken=" + token + "&timestamp=" +             FmtDate(dtGMT) + "&action=suspendExternalMonitor&monitorIds=" + IDs
 objHTTP.send postData
 resp = objHTTP.responseText
End sub

Script with this command line:

cscript SuspendExt.vbs [/tag:<tag>]

Or, you can use this:

cscript SuspendExt.vbs /tag:"MyTag"

The /tag: parameter is optional. When not specified, all other monitors are suspended except those with the specified tag.

Here is what you will get:

Resume external monitors

In the same way, we can resume the monitors once maintenance is done.  In this case, the list of monitors will be filled based on currently suspended monitors:

for each oNode in oResp.documentElement.childnodes
 if oNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("isSuspended").text = "1" then
  IDs = AddList(IDs, oNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("id").text)
 end if
next

And an API call will be made with that list:

Sub ResumeExt(IDs)
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api"
 objHTTP.open "POST", url, False
 objHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
 postData = "apikey=" + apiKey + "&validation=token&authToken=" + token + "&timestamp=" + FmtDate(dtGMT) + "&action=activateExternalMonitor&monitorIds=" + IDs
 objHTTP.send postData
 resp = objHTTP.responseText
End sub

You can script with this command line:

cscript ResumeExt.vbs [/tag:<tag>]

for example:

cscript ResumeExt.vbs /tag:"MyTag"

The /tag: parameter is optional. When not specified, all monitors are suspended except those with the specified tag.

Here is what you will get:

List Internal Monitoring Agents

You may have deployed several internal monitoring agents, each monitoring several parameters on different computers.  At this point, you may need to take a quick view on what was deployed.
You can get the list of agents and load it into an XML object with this call:

url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=agents&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml"
objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
objHTTP.send

Set oAgents = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
oAgents.async = False
oAgents.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

Then you can cycle into that list and get further information about each agent. See below:

for each oAgent in oAgents.documentElement.childnodes
 wscript.echo "Agent ID: ", oAgent.selectSingleNode("id").text,
oAgent.selectSingleNode("key").text

url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=agentInfo&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml&agentId=" + oAgent.selectSingleNode("id").text + "&loadTests=true"
objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
objHTTP.send

Set oAgentInfo = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
oAgentInfo.async = False
oAgentInfo.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

for each oInfo in oAgentInfo.documentElement.childnodes
 ListNames oInfo.childnodes
next
next

The ListNames sub displays the details of each monitor:

Sub ListNames(oNames)
 dim oName, IP, name, str, pos, pos1, computer
 for each oName in oNames
  if oName.NodeName <> "#text" then
   if oName.selectSingleNode("ip") is nothing then IP = "" else IP = " IP: " + oName.selectSingleNode("ip").text

str = oName.selectSingleNode("name").text
pos = InStr(str, "@") -1
name = mid(str, 1, pos)
pos1 = InStr(pos + 2, str, "@") -1
computer = mid(str, pos+ 2, pos1 - pos -1)
wscript.echo "  " + name + " on " + computer + IP
end if
next
End Sub

You can script with this command line:

cscript ListInternals.vbs /apiKey:<your API key> /secretKey:<your secret key>

for example:

cscript ListInternals.vbs

Here is what you will get:

Dump External Monitors Results to a CSV file

You may want to export the results of External Monitors into a CSV file in order to analyze them in Excel or in another productivity application.  The script DumpExtMonRes.vbs will help you with this task, following are the parameters to run it:

[/tag:<tag>] the tag of the monitors to dump results for. This parameter is optional, by default all monitors results are dumped
[/name:<name>] the name of the monitor to dump results for. This parameter is optional, by default all monitors are dumped or all with the specified tag.
/dtStart:<YYYYMMMDD> the starting date for the period to export
[/dtEnd:<YYYYMMMDD>] the ending date for the period to export, by default ending date is today
[/locations:<location [,<location>]>] a comma separated list of locations to export data for, by default all locations are exported
[/outdir:<directryname>] the directory where result files will be stored, defaults to current folder

This is how the script works.  First we will have to get the list of configured monitors, and this is done the same way using script for suspending/resuming monitors.  Once we have the list of monitors, we further process it in order to filter by name, when specified:

for each oNode in oResp.documentElement.childnodes
 monitorName = oNode.text
 if name > "" then 'if a name is specified dumps only the corresponding monitor
  if monitorName = name then
   DumpMonRes oNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("id").text
  end if
 else
  DumpMonRes oNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("id").text
 end if
 next

Another optional parameter is locations, if this is specified the listed location will be translated in the corresponding location IDs:

if locations > "" then
 'Gets the current location list to decode locations to corresponding IDs
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=locations&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml"
 wscript.echo "Requesting location IDs"
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send
 Set oLocations = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oLocations.async = False
 oLocations.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

'Populates the locations arrays
 aLocations = split(locations, ",")
 redim aLocIDs(UBound(aLocations))
 for pos = 0 to UBound(aLocations)
  aLocIDs(pos) = GetLocID(aLocations(pos))
 next
end if

The export will also behave slightly different in locations that are specified or not:

Sub DumpMonRes(ID)
 dim oInfo, oNode, pos
 if locations = "" then 'if no locations list is specified gets the list from the monitor itself
  url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=testinfo&apikey=" + apiKey + "&testId=" + ID + "&output=xml"
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

 Set oInfo = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oInfo.async = False
 oInfo.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)
  Set oInfo = oInfo.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("locations")
  for each oNode in oInfo.childnodes
   WriteMonRes ID, oNode.selectSingleNode("id").text, oNode.selectSingleNode("name").text
  next
 else 'if a locations list is specified gets results for those locations
  for pos = 0 to UBound(aLocations)
   WriteMonRes ID, aLocIDs(pos), aLocations(pos)
  next
 end if
 End sub

Finally the results data will be retrieved for each date in the specified period and written to the export file:

Sub WriteMonRes(ID, location, locname)
 dim dt, oRes, filename, oCell, oNode, row, oFile, oLocRes

'Set the output file name
 filename = outdir + ID & "-" & locname & "-" & year(dtStart) & right("0" & month(dtStart),2) &   right("0" & day(dtStart),2) & "-" & year(dtStart) & right("0" & month(dtStart),2) & right("0" &  day(dtStart),2) & ".csv"
 Set oFile = oFso.CreateTextFile(filename, True)

dt = dtStart
 do while dt <= dtEnd
 wscript.echo "Dumping results of", monitorName, "(", ID, ") from", locname, "on", dt

'Requesting the monitor results
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=testresult&apikey=" + apiKey + "&testId=" + ID + "&day=" & day(dt) & "&month=" & month(dt) & "&year=" & year(dt) & "&locationIds=" & location & "&output=xml&timezone=" & timezone
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

Set oRes = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oRes.async = False
 oRes.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)
 if not oRes.firstchild.firstchild is nothing then
 for each oNode in oRes.firstchild.firstchild.childnodes
 if oNode.nodename = "row" then
 row = ""
 for each oCell in oNode.ChildNodes
 if row = "" then
 row = """" & year(dt) & "-" & right("0" & month(dt),2) & "-" & right("0" & day(dt),2) & " " & oCell.text & """"
 else
 row = row + ";""" + oCell.text + """"
 end if
 next
 oFile.writeline row
 end if
 next
 end if
 dt = DateAdd("d", 1, dt)
 loop
 oFile.close
 Set oFile = oFso.GetFile(filename)
 if oFile.Size = 0 then oFso.DeleteFile(filename)
 End Sub

Below is what you will wind up with:

Dump Internal Monitor Results to a CSV file

Just as with External Monitors, you may want to export Internal Monitor results to a CSV file in order to analyze them in Excel or in another productivity application.  The script DumpIntMonRes.vbs will help you with this task. Following are the parameters to run it:

[/agent:<name>] export data only for the specified agent. This parameter is optional, by default all agent results are dumped
/dtStart:<YYYYMMMDD> the starting date for the period to export
[/dtEnd:<YYYYMMMDD>] the ending date for the period to export, by default ending date is today
[/outdir:<directryname>] the directory where result files will be stored, defaults to current folder

This is how the script works.  First you’ll have to get the list of configured agents:

url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=agents&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml"
objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
wscript.echo "Requesting agents list"
objHTTP.send

Set oAgents = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
oAgents.async = False
oAgents.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

Then you can browse through the list and process the information for each agent. See below:

for each oAgent in oAgents.documentElement.childnodes
 agentname = mid(oAgent.selectSingleNode("key").text, 1, instr(oAgent.selectSingleNode("key").text, "@")-1)

if agent = "" or (agent > "" and agentname = agent) then
 'Get the list of monitors for the agent
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?action=agentInfo&apikey=" + apiKey + "&output=xml&agentId=" + oAgent.selectSingleNode("id").text + "&loadTests=true"
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

Set oAgentInfo = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
oAgentInfo.async = False
oAgentInfo.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

for each oInfo in oAgentInfo.documentElement.childnodes
 ListNames oInfo.childnodes
next
end if
next

Each agent may have one or more type of monitor configured, each with one or more instances:

Sub ListNames(oNames)
 dim oName, name, inst
 for each oName in oNames
 if oName.NodeName <> "#text" then
 inst = mid(oName.selectSingleNode("name").text, 1, Instr(oName.selectSingleNode("name").text, "@")-1)
 WriteMonRes oName.nodename, oName.selectSingleNode("id").text, inst
 end if
next
End Sub

For each instance you can extract the result for the specified period and write them to a CSV file:

Sub WriteMonRes(name, id, inst)
 dim dt, oRes, oNode, row, oCell, pos, hdr, oFile, filename

filename = outdir + agentname & "-" &  inst & "-" & year(dtStart) & right("0" & month(dtStart),2) & right("0" & day(dtStart),2) & "-" & year(dtEnd) & right("0" & month(dtEnd),2) & right("0" & day(dtEnd),2) & ".csv"
 Set oFile = oFso.CreateTextFile(filename, True)

dt = dtStart : pos = 0
 do while dt <= dtEnd
 wscript.echo "Dumping results for " + agentname + " " + inst, "(" + ID + ") on " & dt

url = "http://www.monitis.com/api?apikey=" & apikey & "&output=xml&action=" & name & "Result&monitorId=" + id + "&day=" & day(dt) & "&month=" & month(dt) & "&year=" & year(dt) & "&timezone=" & timezone
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send
 Set oRes = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oRes.async = False
 oRes.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)
 if not oRes.firstchild is nothing then
 for each oNode in oRes.firstchild.childnodes
 row = """" & year(dt) & "-" & right("0" & month(dt),2) & "-" & right("0" & day(dt),2) & " " & oNode.selectSingleNode("time").text & """"
 for each oCell in oNode.ChildNodes
 if oCell.nodename <> "time" then
 row = row + ";""" + oCell.text + """"
 end if
 next
 if pos = 0 then
 hdr = """datetime"""
 for each oCell in oNode.ChildNodes
 if oCell.nodename <> "time" then
 hdr = hdr + ";""" + oCell.nodename + """"
 end if
 next
 oFile.writeline hdr
 end if
 oFile.writeline row
 pos = pos + 1
 next
 end if
 dt = DateAdd("d", 1, dt)
 loop
 oFile.close
 Set oFile = oFso.GetFile(filename)
 if oFile.Size = 0 then oFso.DeleteFile(filename)
 End Sub

Here is what you will get:

Dump Custom Monitors results to a CSV file

You can do it for both External and Internal Monitors, and you can also dump results of Custom Monitors. You may want to export Custom Monitor results to a CSV file in order to analyze them in Excel or in another productivity application.  The script DumpCustMonRes.vbs will help you with this task, following are the parameter to run it:

[/tag:<tag>] the tag of the monitors to dump results for. This parameter is optional, by default all monitors results are dumped
[/name:<name>] the name of the monitor to dump results for. This parameter is optional, by default all monitors are dumped or all with the specified tag.
/dtStart:<YYYYMMMDD> the starting date for the period to export
[/dtEnd:<YYYYMMMDD>] the ending date for the period to export, by default ending date is today
[/outdir:<directryname>] the directory where result files will be stored, defaults to current folder

This is how the script works.  First you can get the list of configured custom monitors, and once we have the list of monitors, we further process it in order to filter by name, when specified:

url = "http://www.monitis.com/customMonitorApi?apikey=" + apiKey + "&action=getMonitors&&output=xml"
 if tag > "" then url = url + "&tag=" + tag
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 wscript.echo "Requesting custom monitors list"
 objHTTP.send

Set oResp = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oResp.async = False
 oResp.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

'Process each monitor
 for each oNode in oResp.documentElement.childnodes
 monitorName = oNode.SelectSingleNode("name").text
 if name > "" then 'if a name is specified dumps only the corresponding monitor
 if monitorName = name then
 WriteMonRes oNode.SelectSingleNode("id").text
 end if
 else
 WriteMonRes oNode.SelectSingleNode("id").text
 end if
 next

Since Custom Monitors have user-defined values, you need to first determine columns name:

url = "http://www.monitis.com/customMonitorApi?action=getMonitorInfo&apikey=" + apiKey + "&monitorId=" + ID + "&output=xml"
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

Set oRes = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oRes.async = False
 oRes.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)

header = "checktime"
 Set oRes = oRes.documentelement.selectsinglenode("resultParams")
 for each oNode in oRes.childnodes
 header = header + ";" + oNode.selectsingleNode("name").text
 next
 aCols = split(header, ";")

Then, simply request the result and write the CSV file:

dt = dtStart
 do while dt <= dtEnd
 wscript.echo "Dumping results of", monitorName, "(", ID, ") on", dt
 'Requesting the monitor results
 url = "http://www.monitis.com/customMonitorApi?action=getMonitorResults&apikey=" + apiKey + "&monitorId=" + ID + "&day=" & day(dt) & "&month=" & month(dt) & "&year=" & year(dt) & "&output=xml&timezone=" & timezone
 objHTTP.open "GET", url, False
 objHTTP.send

Set oRes = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
 oRes.async = False
 oRes.LoadXML(objHTTP.responseText)
 if not oRes.firstchild is nothing then
 for each oNode in oRes.firstchild.childnodes
 if oNode.nodename = "result" then
 row = """" & year(dt) & "-" & right("0" & month(dt),2) & "-" & right("0" & day(dt),2) + " " + right(oNode.SelectSingleNode("checkTime").text, 5) + """"
 for col = 1 to UBound(aCols)
 row = row + ";""" + oNode.SelectSingleNode(aCols(col)).text + """"
 next
 oFile.writeline row
 end if
 next
 end if
 dt = DateAdd("d", 1, dt)
 loop

Here is what you will get:

Scripts source code

You can find full source code for the scripts in an article on GitHub.
Was that information helpful? We at Monitis would like to know if the series of posts we’ve been writing lately on how to save time and be more efficient on the job has helped. For example, we recently posted on how to add Monitis monitors in bulk by simply using MS Office Excel. Please let us know if these posts are benefiting you in the comment section of this post.