Pingman

Theme: Configure
Who Is It For? System Administrator, Automation Engineer

What Is It?

Pingman is a utility that constantly pings a machine to determine network stability. It resides in the <Target Directory>\OpConxps\Utilities\ directory.

Configuration Options

Configuration

To configure Pingman, modify pingman.ini in the <Target Directory>\OpConxps\Utilities\ directory.

Setting	Default	Description
Cycle Time	30 Seconds	Seconds Pingman waits before pinging.
SendTo	1 second	Seconds to wait before a ping is considered "lost" on the way to the host.
RecvFrom	1 second	Seconds to wait before a ping is considered "lost" on the way back from the host.
Show Every Error	TRUE	TRUE: logs each error to pingman.log. FALSE: logs only changes in response from a machine.
Show Every Ping	TRUE	TRUE: logs each ping to pingman.log. FALSE: no ping information is logged.
Machine_1,Machine_2,Machine_3....	<None>	Host name of the machine to monitor. Add up to 250 machine lines.

Example

Machine_1=Host1
Machine_2=Host2
Machine_3=Host3

Running Pingman

To run Pingman, complete the following steps:

1. Browse to the Pingman.exe file
2. Select pingman.exe
3. Select Close ☒ to stop Pingman

Capturing Output from Pingman

1. Open a DOS prompt

2. Enter: cd C:\Program Files\OpConxps\Utilities

3. Press Enter

4. Enter: Pingman.exe > PingmanOutput.txt

5. Press Enter

6. Enter Exit

Operations

Monitoring

• Pingman continuously pings up to 250 machines defined as Machine_1 through Machine_250 in pingman.ini, using the configured Cycle Time (default: 30 seconds) between pings.
• Set Show Every Error=TRUE to log each failed ping to pingman.log; set Show Every Error=FALSE to log only status changes (up/down transitions).

Common Tasks

• To run Pingman, browse to Pingman.exe in <Target Directory>\OpConxps\Utilities\ and select it; close the window (☒) to stop it.
• To capture output to a file, open a command prompt, change to the Utilities directory, and run Pingman.exe > PingmanOutput.txt.

Alerts and Log Files

• Ping results are logged to pingman.log in the <Target Directory>\OpConxps\Utilities\ directory.
• Set SendTo (default: 1 second) and RecvFrom (default: 1 second) in pingman.ini to control the timeout thresholds before a ping is considered lost.

FAQs

Q: What does Pingman monitor and how does it report issues?

Pingman continuously pings configured machines to assess network stability. It logs results to pingman.log — either every ping or only status changes, depending on the Show Every Ping and Show Every Error settings in pingman.ini.

Q: How many machines can Pingman monitor at once?

Pingman supports up to 250 machine entries in pingman.ini, defined as Machine_1, Machine_2, and so on up to Machine_250.

Q: How do you capture Pingman output to a file?

Open a command prompt, Go to the Utilities directory, and run Pingman.exe > PingmanOutput.txt. This redirects all output to the specified file.

Glossary

OpConxps: The standard installation directory name for OpCon program files, configuration files, and output data on Windows machines.

Machine: A platform defined in the OpCon database that has an agent installed. OpCon routes job execution requests to machines via SMANetCom, and machines report job completion status back to SAM.