Need a good (FREE) program to monitor servers.

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ZenDragon

[H]ard|Gawd
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I need a good free program to monitor servers. Nothing spectacular, just something to monitor free space, maybe memory usage and some other basic stats. Any ideas?
 
Windows or 'nix?

For Windows, you have built in tools which aren't great, but can give you want you want. Performance MMC snap in can do most of that.
 
MRTG--Believe it or not, you can do alot more than just monitor Bandwidth statistics.
 
Sorry I forgot to mention the platform.... most of the servers are windows 2000 server. We are (hides) on a NT4 domain so AD tools are out of the question.





(dont ask me... it was like this when I got here. Im working on upgrading everything)
 
Originally posted by TrueBuckeye
Windows or 'nix?

For Windows, you have built in tools which aren't great, but can give you want you want. Performance MMC snap in can do most of that.
Click to expand...

Actually Im kninda looking for something a little more hands off. Something that can run in the background or in a little window and just alert me when space is low on the servers, or something is hogging CPU time.
 
If you want a good quality (and free) network monitoring application, which monitors network throughput, ping and SMTP tests (amongst many others), network discovery and mapping, then look at downloading 3Com's Network Supervisor, it is an excellent product, I use it here to monitor my network 24/7, if a server were to response a little too slow, then it will appear RED on the network map and both an email will be sent to me (incase I am out of the office but available on my lappy) and a message sent to my pager (which is the most handy)..... you can view realtime stats of port statistics, ping stats, the whole works...

When you download this, you get something like a 30 day trial, but dont be put off with registering, as although you need to fill in a couple of personal registration forms (online), the unlock key (which unlocks the time limit) is completely free.... I have not come across any other network monitoring apps which are free and of such a high level of quality.... also, it saves off the network map onto your Palm PDA, so when you are not at your desk, for example at the router/switch/server, then you can look on your PDA and see what IP's are setup on what interface, which port its using on the switch, the route it takes (you can do a virtual traceroute on the PDA), a very cool app (you dont need a Palm with wifi or anything, its a standalone app)

However, it does not monitor system stats (for example CPU utilisation, disk space etc), but if you want something which can, then look at downloading HostMonitor, it is a free trial for a certain period.... has both network monitoring (but no mapping) and will give you stats on every part of the system (cpu, smtp, disk, network connections, everything you can think off, even monitoring of the event log for errors)
 
I don't know how well it would work with windows, but i know for some of my *nix systems, MRTG is good for monitoring, and I am searching sourceforge for the cool app i read about that can page you/email you of problems...
 
What's Up? Gold is a nifty little proggy we use extensively at work. Its like a mini-HP Openview ;)

If you add all the stuff for SNMP it can be one heck of a powerful tool.
 
I demoed Whats Up gold... unfortunately it costs money :(

Maybe ill just make something for myself... I might have to pull out the trusty old VB6.
 
Originally posted by CokeFiend
I demoed Whats Up gold... unfortunately it costs money :(

Maybe ill just make something for myself... I might have to pull out the trusty old VB6.
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hehe, and if you put in your phone number, you will get them ringing you up every week also !
 
Any linkage on the MRTG server interface? We run MRTG to monitor all our branches on the router level, but I would love to be able to monitor some aspects of our DC's and File Servers.
 
Originally posted by CokeFiend
Actually Im kninda looking for something a little more hands off. Something that can run in the background or in a little window and just alert me when space is low on the servers, or something is hogging CPU time.
Click to expand...
I've never monitored how much resources they hog... but the built in performance logs and alerts on a 2k machine can do this
 
MRTG can monitor disk usage, and other HOST RESOURCES MIB variables. Here's an excerpt from an older MRTG I set up to monitor NetWare:

Target[whatever]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.6.7&1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.5.7:[email protected]
MaxBytes[whatever]: 76683
WithPeak[whatever]: dwmy
ShortLegend[whatever]: Blocks
YLegend[whatever]: 64K Blocks
LegendI[whatever]: Used
Legend0[whatever]: Total
Legend1[whatever]:Used space on Volume
Legend2[whatever]:Total space on Volume
Unscaled[whatever]: dwmy
Options[whatever]: gauge
Title[whatever]: Servername
PageTop[whatever]: Disk Usage for "MYVOLUME"

Since you mentioned Microsoft, I don't think that they support the HOST RESOURCES MIB. It's an industry standard, so there's a good bet they do it some other way... That means you'll need to figure out what (if any) OIDs Microsoft uses -- that's the price for using an OS which doesn't follow standards.
 
Here's what I do:

Nagios - server, router, switch, printersetc monitoring
MRTG - bandwidth statistics/monitoring
What's Up? Gold - Workstation monitoring

I've decided to avoid a full-blown SNMP solution as some of my printers and servers have little to no support for SNMP.

Now that you mention using MRTG for system performance monitoring can anyone point me to an MIB list for the IBM iSeries (AS400)? Would be great to remotely monitor CPU usage, mem usage, disk space, etc etc etc.
 
that 3Com program is awesome, too bad it dosent seem to like non 3Com hardware :(
 
Originally posted by FLECOM
that 3Com program is awesome, too bad it dosent seem to like non 3Com hardware :(
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I have not had any problems with it and my BayStack 28200, although it does not detect what device it is properly, it does list out ports and shows utilisation and monitoring fine.... ;)
 
Originally posted by RichardParry
I have not had any problems with it and my BayStack 28200, although it does not detect what device it is properly, it does list out ports and shows utilisation and monitoring fine.... ;)
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hrmm, dosent detect anything but ping time to my accton and ibm switch :(
 
Originally posted by FLECOM
hrmm, dosent detect anything but ping time to my accton and ibm switch :(
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oh right, what OS are you using with Network Supervisor ?

if the IBM or Accton's switches dont work, try to find the SNMP MIB's for it and you should be able to import them into the Netwok Supervisor MIB database (in theory...)
 
OS is 2000 server

where can i get the MIB?

can i just SNMP walk the switch with some app?
 
Anyone else having issues with 3COM Network Supervisor? I am trying to install it on a Dell server running W2K advanced server. I can install it, but starting the program shows me the splash screen with an hourglass, and then it bombs out, no error message. Nothing in the event logs either. Installation executable is 4_0_1.exe.

Help files don't show much that should affect me. I do have a net adapter with two extra eth interfaces that are unplugged and disabled- which according to the readme can cause discovery issues- but I can't even get the program to come up after the splash screen.

Also on this server- Symantec Corparate AV console, MirkoTik Syslog, and SUS server.

You guys are getting me jealous with the love for this program in this thread, I'd like to check it out!
 
Ack... my thread was hijacked :p

Im just making my own app in vs.net. I have seen absolutely nothing anywhere for free that meets my needs. To many greedy bastards in this world. :)
 
Originally posted by EvilTwig
Anyone else having issues with 3COM Network Supervisor? I am trying to install it on a Dell server running W2K advanced server. I can install it, but starting the program shows me the splash screen with an hourglass, and then it bombs out, no error message. Nothing in the event logs either. Installation executable is 4_0_1.exe.

Help files don't show much that should affect me. I do have a net adapter with two extra eth interfaces that are unplugged and disabled- which according to the readme can cause discovery issues- but I can't even get the program to come up after the splash screen.

Also on this server- Symantec Corparate AV console, MirkoTik Syslog, and SUS server.

You guys are getting me jealous with the love for this program in this thread, I'd like to check it out!
Click to expand...

not surprising it does not work, as its not really designed for installation on a server anyway, its meant to be used on a dedicated network monitoring station/workstation....
 
Originally posted by RichardParry
not surprising it does not work, as its not really designed for installation on a server anyway, its meant to be used on a dedicated network monitoring station/workstation....
Click to expand...

i installed it on my main machine that runs 2000 server :p
 
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