System Center Operations Manager 2007 is what we use here - it has the capability to monitor ESX hosts and other .nix boxes as well as Windows servers (although getting the Unix stuff into the console is a bit of a fight, as I found out last week). It's only drawback from your point of view is probably the cost, but it does a fantastic job of aggregating everything that would normally come from Dell IT Assistant, Windows event log collectors, Citrix XenApp, VMWare VirtualCenter and just about every application we use, and displaying it all in one nice console on the wall. YMMV
On 16 April 2010 14:07, Michael Leone <oozerd...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm investigating server monitoring solutions for my enterprise. What > I'm interested in is real world experiences and recommendations, not > just sales pitches and product sheets that I can get from Google. > > The way I see it, I need 2 basic functions: I need to be able to > monitor various aspects of a server (CPU usage, free disk space, is a > service running, does the web service return a web page in a timely > manner, is the switch at that site being overloaded, etc - the usual > things you'd want to know from a server, I think) and then alert me > when certain triggers or thresholds are crossed; and also to provide > historical reports, showing trends over time. At a previous job, I > used to ServersAlive!, which suited my needs there. But now I am at a > place that has over 100 servers and switches, across multiple sites. > And so I think I'd need something with more heft, perhaps. > > We're an HP shop, and I am looking at HP's SIM (Insight Manager) > software, but that doesn't seem to monitor all the sorts of functions > I want, nor does it seem to present it in a timely manner. > > I'm also looking at PacketTraps PT 360 tool suite (which is free), and > that seems to show me some of what I need, but doesn't seem to have a > lot in the way of reporting, nor have I found a way (yet) for it to > alert me to configurable settings. > > I've also downloaded SpiceWorks, on the recommendation of a colleague, > but haven't had a chance to investigate it yet. > > We're a gov't agency, so I don't have a whole lot of money. But I have > a need, and at the moment, nothing in place to fill it. Getting an > alert email that tells me that my mail server CPU has been up over 80% > for more than xx seconds would be a good thing, so I don't have to get > phone calls from users, asking why mail is so slow, and that's the > first I've heard of it. I'm sure you get the idea. And the boss wants > reports over time, for capacity planning and the like. > > So any recommendations would be welcome, as would anything I've > forgotten. We're almost exclusively a Windows shop, but with 10 VMware > ESX hosts, a number of MS SQL servers (2000, 2005), and a number of > Cisco switches (and a couple Nortel ones scattered here and there). No > Exchange (we're a Notes shop). > > TIA > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > -- "On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
