Server Monitoring Software

[BAW]

Hello All,

Im looking for a piece of software that can help me monitor all of the servers within my business to ensure they are alive and healthy.

We have in total around 44 servers, at many geo-graphical locations accross the country.

I want to be able to monitor all of these from one location, and ensure they are all alive, but also i want to be alerted via email should one of the servers go down.

What software would you guys recommend for this?

Any other features would be a bonus.

Thanks

[Emil Valsson]

www.nagios.org ?

[MagicMan]

I've used a few things in the past but I particularly liked PRTG Network Monitor plus the latest offering from Microsoft, Systems Center Operations Manager. Maybe something as simple as IP Patrol

I'm sure people will have many more suggestions but theres 3 that I have used and would use again.

Hope that helps!

[BAW]

Sorry, forgot to mention that it does not matter whether this is free or payware

[+John Teacake MVC]

Nagios

[Shaun N.]

+1 for Nagios here

[BAW]

Nagios...isnt this linux based?

Ideally, i want something Windows based, and where i dont have to install anything on the remote machines?

[Shaun N.]

It monitors Linux and Windows boxes

[punklefish]

Nagios is run on linux, then you need to install clients on the remote stations.

I've heard good things about IP Monitor http://www.solarwinds.com/products/ipmonitor/

[+BudMan MVC]

You do not need to install anything on the remote boxes to "monitor" them with nagios. What exactly are you looking to monitor on these boxes, simple ping that they are online, cpu usage, disk space, what?

Yes it runs on linux, but you could just run it on a virtual machine.

There are plenty of of these products out there.

http://www.cacti.net/ will run on either windows or linux

http://www.zabbix.com/ is another

http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products...ager/index.html

http://www.groundworkopensource.com/

etc.. etc.. etc..

Also he did not state he could not install something the on the machines he wants to monitor.

[+John Teacake MVC]

I posted a thread asking about this actually in the Internet and Networking sub forum. Thanks for those BudMan will take a look later.

[reap3r]

Cacti is Fantastic. We use it to monitor systems across 5 countries. never had an issue with it. will monitor everything. It's Open Source, Get around it :)

- www.cacti.net

regards,

reap3r

[Cyber Nemesis]

Depending on your level of technical skill, time to manage your management software and budget there are many choices available several of which as listed.

I would vote for http://www.activexperts.com/activmonitor/

Its simple to install, setup and configure, does server up/down, IP related services up/down (http, ftp, smtp, etc), runs on Windows, also I believe it can do Windows Services stopped/started/paused. Works of WMI queries and stack calls, so this does not require a remote agent.

If you are looking for performance reporting for trending and analysis allowing you to project future state, this is not the tool for you.

As far as Nagios goes, its been several years but I wrote a custom set of plug ins to monitor SQL Server counters and at that time you did need to install a remote agent on the Windows server to execute the commands on the remote node. It ran as a service on the Windows box. It was NRPE or something like that. Maybe to do simple ping checks for server up/down this is not required.

Nagois is a great solution, but if you have no linux experience on staff the learning curve is fairly steep in my opinion and SLA is not a place where I would suggest you rely on something you do not have complete confidence. Go with a product targeted for the SMB space and pay for support/maintenance.

[Joel]

Im looking for a piece of software that can help me monitor all of the servers within my business to ensure they are alive and healthy.

What does 'alive and healthy' mean? Do your servers themselves not email you if they have issues?

[Shaun N.]

i ran Spiceworks today, It doesn't make we wanna replace Nagios imo

[akp982]

Nagios does rock, i tried to setup Nagios before Spiceworks but found it confusing...

I do love the way Nagios works and has alot better realtime reporting and monitoring.

[reactionary007]

The one we use to monitor our 260 Windows Servers is PA Server Monitor - http://www.poweradmin.com/servermonitor/

It has a ton of great monitoring options and really good support from the vendor.