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2851 Views 5 Replies Latest reply: Sep 15, 2011 9:57 AM by jmp242 RSS
Milos Vujkovic Rank: White Belt
Milos Vujkovic
12 posts since
Aug 23, 2011
Currently Being Moderated

Aug 26, 2011 4:39 AM

Need help with monitoring Windows services (Exchange, AD, DFS, DNS...)

Hello everyone,

 

Name`s Milos, and I`m new to these boards, and Zenoss in general. Hopefully I`m here to stay. We have implemented Zenoss Core 3.0 in our environment, and I`m in charge of setting it up according to management demands. I am network engineer by profession, working mostly with Cisco, but I hope to add Zenoss skillset under my belt soon

 

I have read "Zenoss Core 3.x Network and System Monitoring" book by PacktPub, but I still have trouble meeting some criteria. For starters, I have to enable monitoring of certain Windows services, and be able to generate reports of their availability. To be more precise, I need to monitor Exchange services, DFS, DNS, etc. I am far from server admin, and would appreciate some more detailed guidance.

 

So.. I`ve read the chapter on monitoring IP and Windows services.. But is there an easier way to "collect" all Exchange services at once, for example, rather then adding one by one (there`s a million of them)?

 

Also, after adding some services, of which I`m sure are running on the server, their Monitoring field is blank, rather then True. Is there something I`m missing? I have attached the shreenshot of one troubling service that refuses to be monitored

 

After I somehow enable monitoring of these services, chalenge of generating services availability reports awaits.

 

Feel free to point me to some kind of documentation that`s dealing with these stuff, in you find it hard to type

 

Thanks in advance,

Milos

Attachments:
  • jmp242 ZenossMaster
    jmp242
    4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. Aug 26, 2011 8:54 AM (in response to Milos Vujkovic)
    Re: Need help with monitoring Windows services (Exchange, AD, DFS, DNS...)

    Have you looked at the Exchange Zenpack?

    docs/DOC-8506

    That may or may not help.

     

    Otherwise, yes I think you do need to add the services one by one. You should see if the service that you're trying to monitor is named correctly - the service name in Windows isn't the same as the display name - for instance in services.msc, you'll see the DNS Client listed, but the service name is actually Dnscache...

     

    Otherwise I can't provide much help as I've not tried to monitor Exchange myself.

    --

    James Pulver

    Information Technology Area Supervisor

    LEPP Computer Group

    Cornell University

  • Milos Vujkovic Rank: White Belt
    Milos Vujkovic
    12 posts since
    Aug 23, 2011
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. Aug 26, 2011 9:28 AM (in response to jmp242)
    Re: Need help with monitoring Windows services (Exchange, AD, DFS, DNS...)

    Hi James,

     

    Thanks for posting. Yes, I installed that Zenpack - works good and provides useful graphs, but is not exactly what I`m looking for since Exchange is not the only server I need to monitor.

     

    What about Domain Controllers for example? I add the server in /Server/Windows class, enter zWinUser and zWinPassword, wait.. and nothing happens I`m waiting for Components menu to show up, but it doesnt..

     

    Like I said, there might be some essential piece of the puzzle I might be missing since I`m quite new to Zenoss.

  • baggers Newbie
    baggers
    3 posts since
    Apr 12, 2011
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Sep 15, 2011 8:29 AM (in response to Milos Vujkovic)
    Re: Need help with monitoring Windows services (Exchange, AD, DFS, DNS...)

    Hope its not too late to chip in on this!

    The win username and password are used to grab the windows event log, but as standard will not affect your performance graphs. You have two main choice for monitoring windows machines:

     

    1. Install snmp on the server: I would seriously advise against using Microsoft's own snmp component as it tends to causes issues with SQL instances when it is being installed and I have seen some very bizarre memory leaks when playing with other systems on the server. Net-snmp is probably the way to go here.

     

    2. Install the WMI performance zenpack by big egor. This is what I use and it is fantastic, there is a new version currently in beta which addresses a few issues with the old version (it had a memory leak for me so I have a cron job to restart the daemon each night). I can't say enough good things about this zenpack, I went from 20 servers monitored with each one needing a very tedious setup process for each one to 150 servers monitored in about 1 working day! it was lovely!

     

    Hope this helps a little

  • Milos Vujkovic Rank: White Belt
    Milos Vujkovic
    12 posts since
    Aug 23, 2011
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. Sep 15, 2011 9:42 AM (in response to baggers)
    Re: Need help with monitoring Windows services (Exchange, AD, DFS, DNS...)

    Thanks Baggers! I tried with SNMP Informant. Even though I succesfully installed it, and it really is running on the server (tested with snmpwalk), I cant make perfomance to work in Zenoss. I know I`m doing doing something wrong. My Zenoss skill-set are quite limited, and I dont know how to "present" info gathered through SNMP in way I would like

     

    I already have Zenpack you suggested on one of my servers. Is there any chance to add some new graphs to it? It provides CPU, Memory and Paging, but I`m in great need for HDD monitoring also. Sorry in advance if my questions sound stupid

  • jmp242 ZenossMaster
    jmp242
    4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Sep 15, 2011 9:57 AM (in response to Milos Vujkovic)
    Re: Need help with monitoring Windows services (Exchange, AD, DFS, DNS...)

    There is also an Active Directory perf zenpack for your Domain Controllers. Also, I personally would drop SNMP Informant and the default /Server/Windows and instead use either Egor's WMI zenpacks (which it sounds like you're doing) or one of the native SNMP ones. You can get HD data from the HD Component (sometimes) - I don't see it always showing up and it's sometimes NAN for me on 3.1...

     

    --

    James Pulver

    Information Technology Area Supervisor

    LEPP Computer Group

    Cornell University

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