An apparatus stores, in association with each of one or more services to be provided, a communication monitoring rule under which communication performed for providing the each of the one or more services is to be monitored. The apparatus communicates with another apparatus that is operable to run a virtual machine and run a virtual router relaying communication performed by the virtual machine. When a service to be provided by the virtual machine is selected from among the one or more services, the apparatus controls the virtual router to monitor communication performed by the virtual machine according to the communication monitoring rule associated with the selected service, by sending the communication monitoring rule to the virtual router.