Monitoring Windows Servers

[2canSAM]

Looking for a way to monitor a few Windows servers and 2 SQL Servers. Looking for Basic monitoring such as Disk Space, Memory, Processor, Network Connectivity, nothing too major. Right now I have my counters set up to monitor the required variables using performance monitor alerts but have not been able to automate the startup of that. What do you guys use, preferablly freeware or cheap, budget is really tight right now or does anyone know how to make an alert monitor star up automatically?

 

[jlazzaro]

i normally use NetIQ...unfortunately its not cheap or free ;x

you could always install the monitor as a service, that will it will always run even if no one is logged in. see this

 

[JDMnAR1]

We use IP Monitor at work. It isn't free, though, and some may say it isn't cheap. I think the base package (up to 500 configured monitors) is $995. They do have an eval version available on their site.

 

[RebateMonger]

I've been looking at HoundDog. It monitors all the services, etc. and sends daily reports, as well as an email in case of a critical event or if the computer goes offline.

You need Internet connectivity so the Server can report to HoundDog's servers.

HoundDog is very cheap if you only need to monitor a few servers. It's typically $10-$15 per month per Server, with a $30 setup fee. Most other monitoring services have large startup fees or require minimums.

There's a free 30-day demo.

 

[nweaver]

I think Nagios has a windows client (iirc). If it does, it would be the best imho. I use it to monitor hosts up/down (pingable) and services, such as SMTP, pop3, www, SQL, etc.

You could use MRTG to monitor long term (but no alerts)

 

[2canSAM]

Thanks all I'll give them a look. I figured this wouldn't be cheap but on the flip side if you lose 8000.00 per hour downtime then 1000-2000 isn't too bad. HoundDog could probably be pulled of quite easily. Thanks

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: nweaver
I think Nagios has a windows client (iirc). If it does, it would be the best imho. I use it to monitor hosts up/down (pingable) and services, such as SMTP, pop3, www, SQL, etc.

You could use MRTG to monitor long term (but no alerts)

Yes it does...NRPE. Nagios is awesome. All you need is a spare PC to setup linux on and you're good to go. It can be a little tricky to get setup at first with the config files and all but just start slow and add on to it when you're more comfortable with it.
I have mine monitoring everything the OP wants to monitor and more. Sends text message and email to me when a service fails. Best of all it's free.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: 2canSAM
Thanks all I'll give them a look. I figured this wouldn't be cheap but on the flip side if you lose 8000.00 per hour downtime then 1000-2000 isn't too bad. HoundDog could probably be pulled of quite easily. Thanks

If you try HoundDog, let me know what you think. Some consultant friends of mine are using it (in lieu of the much higher-end Level Platforms and Kaseya) because it's so easy and cheap to implement. I'm only running it on some virtual servers right now, but I'll be putting it into a client's Windows 2003 Server this week. Since HoundDog requires zero infrastruture, has a minimal setup cost, and setup takes only a few minutes, I think it has a place as a low-cost, quick-implementation monitoring system.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: ITJunkie

Originally posted by: nweaver
I think Nagios has a windows client (iirc). If it does, it would be the best imho. I use it to monitor hosts up/down (pingable) and services, such as SMTP, pop3, www, SQL, etc.

You could use MRTG to monitor long term (but no alerts)

Yes it does...NRPE. Nagios is awesome. All you need is a spare PC to setup linux on and you're good to go. It can be a little tricky to get setup at first with the config files and all but just start slow and add on to it when you're more comfortable with it.
I have mine monitoring everything the OP wants to monitor and more. Sends text message and email to me when a service fails. Best of all it's free.

Indeed, Nagios is another one of those WOW open source tools. It makes my life very easy. It's nice to have the boss walk up and ask "why is the server down" only to reply "oh, it's back up, I got a text message and found xyz happened". Makes you look good.

The other thing that is nice is for monitoring SLA/Uptime of service. Someone was whining that the server was down all the time. After adding that service, we showed 98% uptime, well within the 80% limit we were given (this is a testing server, that requires reboots, etc alot)

 

[Thor86]

You can search (and find) lots of basic VB scripts that can do what you need to start up with. Other than that most NSM is not cheap or very intuitive to install/run.

If you had a budget, I would recommend Operations Manager 2007, but this requires server 2003/sql 2005 as well, but all of which can be downloaded in trial versions.

Another poster suggested IPMonitor, and this is very slick NSM software, but not cheap.

 

[sieistganzfett]

we use serversalive. its a few hundred. and does that, and can send us emails when servers go down, or messages about low space, etc. etc
http://www.woodstone.nu/salive/purchase.asp

 

[cpals]

We use Solarwinds Orion (http://www.solarwinds.net/) to monitor 30+ servers and routers, etc...

 

[nweaver]

just curious....to those who are using commercial apps, what features do you have that something like Nagios lacks? Is it mostly learning curve to set Linux up and install it on linux? I checked a few, and didn't seem to see any "killer" features, that I would be willing to pay for, but I'm decent with *nix, and can set up nagios pretty quickly.

 

[SoulAssassin]

I suggest hiring a gimp to do it. They work for cheap and it's a conversation piece.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: nweaver
just curious....to those who are using commercial apps, what features do you have that something like Nagios lacks? Is it mostly learning curve to set Linux up and install it on linux? I checked a few, and didn't seem to see any "killer" features, that I would be willing to pay for, but I'm decent with *nix, and can set up nagios pretty quickly.

IPMonitor is client/agent-less monitoring.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Thor86

Originally posted by: nweaver
just curious....to those who are using commercial apps, what features do you have that something like Nagios lacks? Is it mostly learning curve to set Linux up and install it on linux? I checked a few, and didn't seem to see any "killer" features, that I would be willing to pay for, but I'm decent with *nix, and can set up nagios pretty quickly.

IPMonitor is client/agent-less monitoring.

NAGIOS can also be agentless (but then you lose the disk space/cpu usage type stuff, unless you move to using SNMP)

 

[JDMnAR1]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Thor86

Originally posted by: nweaver
just curious....to those who are using commercial apps, what features do you have that something like Nagios lacks? Is it mostly learning curve to set Linux up and install it on linux? I checked a few, and didn't seem to see any "killer" features, that I would be willing to pay for, but I'm decent with *nix, and can set up nagios pretty quickly.

IPMonitor is client/agent-less monitoring.

NAGIOS can also be agentless (but then you lose the disk space/cpu usage type stuff, unless you move to using SNMP)

Disk space utilization is actually pretty critical for us to monitor on several of our servers, CPU not so much. The thought of having to reinstall/upgrade a plugin on 300+ servers anytime an upgrade comes out isn't something I relish. IP Monitor can handle just about anything we throw at it (in terms of Windows-based servers) out of the box - SQL, IIS, Exchange, event logs, reboots, pings, services, etc - all without loading anything on the target server. Never having used Nagios, I am not sure how much functionality it has built in, and the online docs I read were less than exhaustive. However, I did read enough that in intrigued me so I may have to try and play with it some.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: JDMnAR1

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Thor86

Originally posted by: nweaver
just curious....to those who are using commercial apps, what features do you have that something like Nagios lacks? Is it mostly learning curve to set Linux up and install it on linux? I checked a few, and didn't seem to see any "killer" features, that I would be willing to pay for, but I'm decent with *nix, and can set up nagios pretty quickly.

IPMonitor is client/agent-less monitoring.

NAGIOS can also be agentless (but then you lose the disk space/cpu usage type stuff, unless you move to using SNMP)

Disk space utilization is actually pretty critical for us to monitor on several of our servers, CPU not so much. The thought of having to reinstall/upgrade a plugin on 300+ servers anytime an upgrade comes out isn't something I relish. IP Monitor can handle just about anything we throw at it (in terms of Windows-based servers) out of the box - SQL, IIS, Exchange, event logs, reboots, pings, services, etc - all without loading anything on the target server. Never having used Nagios, I am not sure how much functionality it has built in, and the online docs I read were less than exhaustive. However, I did read enough that in intrigued me so I may have to try and play with it some.

what does it use to query that data from the servers then?'

another advantage (imho) of nagios is that it can monitor alot of other things, such as *nix, routers, switches, etc.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: nweaver
what does it use to query that data from the servers then?

I thought most of that stuff is available using RPC and WMI. IF you can get WMI working correctly. And if Windows Update hasn't broken RPC.

 

[her209]

Try GFi Network Server Monitor.

 

[JDMnAR1]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: nweaver
what does it use to query that data from the servers then?

I thought most of that stuff is available using RPC and WMI. IF you can get WMI working correctly. And if Windows Update hasn't broken RPC.

Yep, RPC and WMI.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: JDMnAR1

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: nweaver
what does it use to query that data from the servers then?

I thought most of that stuff is available using RPC and WMI. IF you can get WMI working correctly. And if Windows Update hasn't broken RPC.

Yep, RPC and WMI.

Does it support nix/network devices (SNMP/telnet/ssh)?

 

[JDMnAR1]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: JDMnAR1

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: nweaver
what does it use to query that data from the servers then?

I thought most of that stuff is available using RPC and WMI. IF you can get WMI working correctly. And if Windows Update hasn't broken RPC.

Yep, RPC and WMI.

Does it support nix/network devices (SNMP/telnet/ssh)?

Yes and no. It does SNMP, and can do very basic *nix monitoring (ICMP, network traffic from them). It does have support for Cisco routers and Foundry switches, as well as environmental monitors and some vendor-specific server hardware monitors.

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