Practical Examples of Using Netwatch

1. Automatic Interface Restart

Suppose we want to automatically restart a router interface when we detect that the connection to a specific server is down. We can achieve this by configuring Netwatch to monitor connectivity to the server and run a script that restarts the interface if the connection is lost.

/tool ​​netwatch add host=my_server.com interval=10s timeout=5s \

    down-script="/interface ethernet restart ether1" comment="Restart ether1 if connection fails"

2. Connection Loss Notification

Instead of performing automatic actions, we can configure Netwatch to send a notification when connection to a critical resource is lost. In this example, we will send an email when a web server is unavailable.

/tool ​​netwatch add host=my_web_server.com interval=30s timeout=10s \

    down-script="/tool ​​e-mail send [email protected] subject=Alert! Web Server Not Available body=The web server is not responding." \

    comment="Notify loss of connection to the web server"

3. Automatic Response to Ping Loss

Netwatch can also be used to automatically respond to a device's loss of connectivity by running custom scripts. Below is an example of changing the configuration of a firewall rule when connectivity to a device is lost.

/tool ​​netwatch add host=critical_device interval=20s timeout=8s \

    down-script="/ip firewall filter set [find comment='Allow_Critical_Device'] disabled=yes" \

    up-script="/ip firewall filter set [find comment='Allow_Critical_Device'] disabled=no" \

    comment="Change firewall settings when connectivity is lost"

Conclusions and Final Considerations

Netwatch on MikroTik RouterOS is a powerful tool that provides network administrators with the ability to automatically monitor and respond to changes in the state of network resources.

The flexibility to run custom scripts in response to specific events provides granular control over the network infrastructure.

By strategically deploying Netwatch, administrators can improve the availability, efficiency, and responsiveness of their networks, reducing downtime and improving the user experience.

Understanding basic configuration and applying practical examples allows network professionals to make the most of this versatile tool in MikroTik RouterOS.