Monitoring Windows servers?

LeaUK · 30th April 2007

Several packages are around but if anyone has some pointers then that of course would be much appreciated.

I've looked at Nagios, HostMonitor (http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/index.htm) and Catci and not convinced. Not looking to monitor hundreds of servers, more like <5 ;-)

Need SMS capability...

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Lea

midnightsoftwar · 30th April 2007

I use Nagios - its always been fine for my needs.

Jon-NC · 30th April 2007

I would have thought for just 5 servers it would be worth using some form of 3rd party monitoring service such as alertra etc.

I'm looking at a nagios solution at the moment. It looks very good.

JSamuel · 30th April 2007

Another vote for Nagios.
A tiny bit of work lets you get SMS alerts aswell.

andyb28 · 30th April 2007

THIS USER HAS BEEN GAGGED BY THE FORUM HOSTS FOR SPAM OR BREAKING THE RULES...
User will be ungaged in around 78 hours from this post.

Jon-NC · 30th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyb28

Hi Lea,

Have a look at Hybodus. There was a discussion on the forum about it going open source, not sure if thats happend yet.

i don't think much is happening with Hybodus. http://www.hybodus.org/hybodus/viewtopic.php?t=27

LeaUK · 30th April 2007

I guess by the responses, a topic close to your hearts...

Although Hybodus appears respected by many and a solid app (with minimal config) it's completely dead as Jon mentions

Alternatives also seem scarce..

alertra =>>>> expensive (for me)

But I take your point.

Will keep looking..

The nagios + Catcti Dashboard maybe worth keeping your eyes on..but seems like updates are not forthcoming. So many good projects, so little time!

http://cacinda.sourceforge.net/?page=overview
http://forums.cacti.net/about15267-0-asc-0.html

Cheers
Lea

RSH · 1st May 2007

I am a die-hard nagios fan and would love it to take control over any kind of network monitoring (small or large).. no matter if it is a windows server or a linux one..

LeaUK · 1st May 2007

I think the only reason for being wary is the time to configure and install. Have you any pointers, maybe have come across some informative sites to assist with setup? Challenges are great but if it's a week's investment I may need to find an alternative to get by for now.

Why move from websitemonitor?

Cheers
Lea

LeaUK · 1st May 2007

Hybodus will probably fit my needs, and the perpetual license is attractive. However I suspect there is now no formal route for payment

RSH · 1st May 2007

I agree nagios configuration is something to be done by an experienced sysadmin to save time and money. Thank God !! my sysadmin manages to configure it in less than 3 hours

On asking him, he asked me to refer the following documentation which is used as a common install method : http://nagios.sourceforge.net/downlo...t%20EL%204.doc

Jon-NC · 1st May 2007

Nice document RSH.

I also used: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ghlight=nagios as a guide.

Do you chaps have much luck with configuring nagios with Microsoft operating systems?

RSH · 1st May 2007

IMO as long as services and port monitoring is concerened with Windows OS it should be done with the normal configuration with nagios.

But not sure how to monitor services such as server load, disk usage etc. I am sure nagios forum must be a good place to search for the windows plugins.

Cameron Gray · 1st May 2007

NRPE_NT is a perfectly acceptable way of doing this, if not add SNMP to Windows 2003 and use the PerfMon counters.

RSH · 1st May 2007

Thanks Cameron.. was just expecting some kind of nrpe for windows.. Managed to find it at sourceforge.net!!