Comprehensive Mirth Connect Monitoring Guide
The Mirth Connect Interface engine (also known as NextGen connect) is an open-source interface engine extensively used for healthcare data interactions. It continues to be the healthcare industry’s favorite since its release in the mid-2000s.
Let’s take a look at a small but crucial part of the interface system — Mirth Connect Monitoring.
First off, Why is Mirth Connect monitoring necessary?
As Mirth Connect primarily deals with important sensitive healthcare information, it’s vital to ensure that the Mirth Connect servers are always up and running. Healthcare organizations are heavily dependent on healthcare information for providing the best possible care for their patients.
Therefore, it is indispensable to have a monitoring system that can detect and alert any performance issues of the server before it escalates and causes an adverse effect. It’s crucial to detect any underlying problems proactively so that course corrective decisions can be taken before any major issues arise.
Also, Mirth Connect monitoring helps in understanding the performance and resource usage of each channel/server. It empowers the IT team in enhancing overall output by building a plan for the maximum utilization of each server’s capacity.
So, What are the available options for monitoring in-built within Mirth Connect?
Mirth Connect monitoring uses an error-based, alerting system to listen for error events from selected channels.
In Mirth Connect Administrator, a GUI, the user can find the “ Alerts” tab which enables the user to set up monitoring for their servers/channels.
The Alerts View is a dashboard for currently configured alerts. It is divided into 2 parts as given below with the following functionalities:
“Alert tables” which include the following information in a tabular form:
- Status
- Name
- ID
- Alert
“ Alert tasks” — Wherein the following tasks can be performed:
- Refresh
- New Alert
- Import Alert
- Export Alert
- Export All Alert
- Delete Alert
- Edit Alert
- Disable Alert
The open-source version allows the user to customize their alerts in three defined ways:
By defining the error types:
The user can decide on the type of errors that can trigger an alert. They are given the option to choose from already existing categories of error types or use a regular expression to match with events having the same error source, message, or exception stacktrace to trigger the alert.
By defining the channels or connectors that can trigger an alert:
The users can select specific connectors or channels which can trigger an alert to customize their alerting experience.
By defining the actions to be taken:
The user can define the actions to be taken after an alert has been triggered. It allows different options such as sending emails to a single or multiple users, dispatching messages to different channels etc.
The users also have the option of choosing the paid Advanced Alerting Extension which includes metric-based alerts, different escalation levels, scheduling and notification throttling.
How can it be enhanced?
The in-built monitoring system of the open source version only provides basic channel-related errors and alerts. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give you the whole picture of what goes inside a server to ensure and detect any anomalies.
Control Center, a Mirth Connect monitoring tool, equips the users with a full scope of features to enhance their monitoring and safeguard their Mirth Connect instance. Developed by long-time users of Mirth Connect, the Control Center is intuitively designed to alleviate the pain points faced by Mirth Connect users.
Here are a few features absent in Mirth Connect but included in the Control Center to enhance your monitoring capabilities:
Unified dashboard:
Control Center provides a Unified dashboard where all the channels and instances are listed and the required parameters to be displayed are configurable. It facilitates a panoramic view of the entire system and enhances overall monitoring efficiency.
System information and performance metrics with Visualization: Topographical charts of the server connectivity and the health of various parameters such as memory metrics, disk usage and channel statistics are displayed using visual indicators. It helps in quickly analyzing and identifying deviations.
Customizable delivery system:
Control Center is equipped with the capacity to send alerts via emails and push notifications. It enables system administrators to stay connected and ensure the server is healthy. These alerts can also be customized to send to user groups defined by the administrators. It facilitates a personalized approach and ensures that the right alert is sent to the right person.
Scheduled notifications:
Notifications can be scheduled according to custom requirements. Notifications when a server needs to go offline and time-based alerts for routine maintenance can be configured and scheduled. It keeps the entire infrastructure team in the loop.
Alert dashboard with Channel Trends:
Control Center provides an Alert Dashboard to keep track of all the alerts received and their resolution statuses. Every alert received, action taken, resolution time and other such metrics can be displayed, providing the administrators with an eagle’s eye view of their entire system. Channel trends are graphically represented to improve monitoring and find inconsistencies instantly.
Alert analytics:
Furthermore, Control Center can be configured to drill down into frequent server-specific alerts to identify and list the alerts in order of their significance. It provides insights into urgent issues and helps the team manage its resources effectively.
Mobile app with notifications:
Control Center enables the users to stay connected to their server and act in a moment’s time with our mobile-friendly application.
As you can see, Control Center is a comprehensive Mirth Connect monitoring tool with all the right features to ensure your instance is safe and secure.
It is continuously evolving to provide 360-degree enhanced monitoring of Mirth Connect servers.
To know more about Control Center, please visit https://aigilxhealth.com/control-center/
