RE: Monitoring Remotely
After poking around for several nagios installs and looking how it connects remotely we decided to go with Servers Alive newest version. It has a little agent that connects over any port with ssh, and then lets me do anything inside. The agents are 25 bucks, and the software was 400 dollars, but easy to setup and use and runs on one of our mgmt vms already running windows so from resource perspective its all good. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
RE: Monitoring Remotely
If you have a Unix machine to run it... John Hornbuckle MIS Department Taylor County School District 318 North Clark Street Perry, FL 32347 www.taylor.k12.fl.us From: Cameron [mailto:cameron.orl...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 9:42 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Monitoring Remotely Check out Nagios You can't beat the price! (free!). www.nagios.orghttp://www.nagios.org Cheers, Cameron From: Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] Sent: May-02-09 12:52 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Monitoring Remotely I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive *does* but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
RE: Monitoring Remotely
We use WhatsUp Gold. I believe it does all that you describe. From: Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] Sent: May-02-09 12:52 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Monitoring Remotely I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive *does* but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
RE: Monitoring Remotely
Check out Nagios You can't beat the price! (free!). www.nagios.org Cheers, Cameron From: Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] Sent: May-02-09 12:52 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Monitoring Remotely I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive *does* but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 10:06 AM, John Hornbuckle john.hornbuc...@taylor.k12.fl.us wrote: Check out Nagios You can’t beat the price! (free!). If you have a Unix machine to run it… There are these things called Virtual Machines, you should check them out... ;-) FWIW, this Google search yields some promising results: http://www.google.com/search?q=Nagios%20appliance -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
I don't think you understood Shawn, I have two separate Nagios installations, on here on my internal network, and one at our colo facility. We do use service groups/host groups in those separate instances, but they are on two different servers in two different locations. I have the colo Nagios instance monitoring some connections and such into my internal network, I have the internal Nagios doing the same kind of monitoring things to my colo. On my internal Nagios I have 203 hosts and 573 services being monitored, on the colo one it's 37 hosts and 503 services. Some of that monitoring is redundant, meaning the internal and external are monitoring the same things, just from different directions. If I bounce my Exchange server, both the internal and external Nagios monitoring notices it, and alerts on different things. This kind of redundancy means that we rarely have any surprises. On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Shawn Everett sh...@tandac.com wrote: Haven't finished reading the rest of the thread... Sherry: Why not just set up seperate service/host groups for each client. I use client config directories with all the config for a given client stored in that directory. Separate websites are only needed if you want an easier screen to look at or clients to see their own devices being monitored. Shawn +1 for Nagios. And you can use just about any old server/workstation you have sitting around for linux, you could even use a virtual server for it if you needed to. We use Nagios for monitoring our internal network, numerous web-sites, vpn tunnels and a bunch of servers at our colo facility. We actually run 2 instances of Nagios, one internal and one at the colo, they provide checks for each other, and a couple of ways of reporting it via Nagios web-site and emails. We use our internal linux box to run a variety of things including Nagios, LDAP, SyslogNG, Cacti and even an ET game server during lunch time ;) You would still have a separate web-site for each clients location with Nagios, however, you can centralize the email notifications. Nagios can monitor probably everything that you could think of that you would want to monitor. On a side note, Nagios actually stands for Notices All Glitches In Our Systems. On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Mayo, Bill bem...@pittcountync.gov wrote: We use WhatsUp Gold. I believe it does all that you describe. *From:* Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] *Sent:* May-02-09 12:52 AM *To:* NT System Admin Issues *Subject:* Monitoring Remotely I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive **does** but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks -- Sherry Abercrombie Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ -- Sherry Abercrombie Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke Sent from Haslet, TX, United States ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
Haven't finished reading the rest of the thread... Sherry: Why not just set up seperate service/host groups for each client. I use client config directories with all the config for a given client stored in that directory. Separate websites are only needed if you want an easier screen to look at or clients to see their own devices being monitored. Shawn +1 for Nagios. And you can use just about any old server/workstation you have sitting around for linux, you could even use a virtual server for it if you needed to. We use Nagios for monitoring our internal network, numerous web-sites, vpn tunnels and a bunch of servers at our colo facility. We actually run 2 instances of Nagios, one internal and one at the colo, they provide checks for each other, and a couple of ways of reporting it via Nagios web-site and emails. We use our internal linux box to run a variety of things including Nagios, LDAP, SyslogNG, Cacti and even an ET game server during lunch time ;) You would still have a separate web-site for each clients location with Nagios, however, you can centralize the email notifications. Nagios can monitor probably everything that you could think of that you would want to monitor. On a side note, Nagios actually stands for Notices All Glitches In Our Systems. On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Mayo, Bill bem...@pittcountync.gov wrote: We use WhatsUp Gold. I believe it does all that you describe. *From:* Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] *Sent:* May-02-09 12:52 AM *To:* NT System Admin Issues *Subject:* Monitoring Remotely I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive **does** but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks -- Sherry Abercrombie Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
RE: Monitoring Remotely
Finding a machine (physical or virtual) isn't the issue. The issue is that we're not a Unix shop. We have no Unix systems here, and no one has any experience with Unix. Learning a new OS to run a single app isn't in the cards for us. -Original Message- From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 10:26 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Monitoring Remotely On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 10:06 AM, John Hornbuckle john.hornbuc...@taylor.k12.fl.us wrote: Check out Nagios You can't beat the price! (free!). If you have a Unix machine to run it... There are these things called Virtual Machines, you should check them out... ;-) FWIW, this Google search yields some promising results: http://www.google.com/search?q=Nagios%20appliance -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
+1 for Nagios. And you can use just about any old server/workstation you have sitting around for linux, you could even use a virtual server for it if you needed to. We use Nagios for monitoring our internal network, numerous web-sites, vpn tunnels and a bunch of servers at our colo facility. We actually run 2 instances of Nagios, one internal and one at the colo, they provide checks for each other, and a couple of ways of reporting it via Nagios web-site and emails. We use our internal linux box to run a variety of things including Nagios, LDAP, SyslogNG, Cacti and even an ET game server during lunch time ;) You would still have a separate web-site for each clients location with Nagios, however, you can centralize the email notifications. Nagios can monitor probably everything that you could think of that you would want to monitor. On a side note, Nagios actually stands for Notices All Glitches In Our Systems. On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Mayo, Bill bem...@pittcountync.gov wrote: We use WhatsUp Gold. I believe it does all that you describe. *From:* Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:li...@levelfive.us] *Sent:* May-02-09 12:52 AM *To:* NT System Admin Issues *Subject:* Monitoring Remotely I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive **does** but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks -- Sherry Abercrombie Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 10:33 AM, John Hornbuckle john.hornbuc...@taylor.k12.fl.us wrote: Finding a machine (physical or virtual) isn't the issue. The issue is that we're not a Unix shop. We have no Unix systems here, and no one has any experience with Unix. The point of the virtual appliance scenario is that the underlying OS is largely irrelevant. Just like many of the physical appliances you might have might run some form of *nix internally -- it's just a platform to deliver the application. You don't have to worry about installing/configuring/maintaining an OS, you're just using the appliance's application. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
We use hounddog. They provide a central hosted monitoring agents on client servers or desktops. Dashboard and email alerts etc , can config 5 10 or 15 min checks throughout the day. Plus seperate daily checks for av backup disk space etc. They are constantly adding new features like service start asset checks etc They are Dundee based but I cannot remember there ful URL Graeme On 02/05/2009, Benjamin Zachary - Lists li...@levelfive.us wrote: I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive *does* but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ -- Good news everyone, you have just received and e-mail from me! ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
RE: Monitoring Remotely
Looks interesting, as a SAAS solution. Any idea how much? They want me to fill out a form for a price guide. Im sure theres lots of different things, just trying to get a general idea. I see the new Servers Alive has a 'remote agent' feature. Looks promising too, an 800k service taking 2mb ram to relay alerts back to a central server. -Original Message- From: Graeme Carstairs [mailto:loonyto...@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 4:40 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Monitoring Remotely We use hounddog. They provide a central hosted monitoring agents on client servers or desktops. Dashboard and email alerts etc , can config 5 10 or 15 min checks throughout the day. Plus seperate daily checks for av backup disk space etc. They are constantly adding new features like service start asset checks etc They are Dundee based but I cannot remember there ful URL Graeme On 02/05/2009, Benjamin Zachary - Lists li...@levelfive.us wrote: I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive *does* but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ -- Good news everyone, you have just received and e-mail from me! ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
Re: Monitoring Remotely
Off the top of my head I cant remember, We have 15 different customers running approx 22 servers being monitored with hounddog. The costs vary depending if you want 5 or 15 minute checks, how many servers, client confidence notes etc. We have some customers getting notes. Basically we get the daily check results e-mailed to us by 9am, then have untill 10:30 to fix any alerts, then the client confidence notes are sent to the customer, saying that all tests are passed. Thenb throughout the rest of the day we get alerts if any of the 24 x 7 checks fail, service stopped, communication lost to agent and pings etc that can be configured. Works well for us and our customers like the client confidence notes (though we only offer it to those we think are intelligent enough to understand them :) ) I think our monthly houndog bill is approx £45 - 90 but then it was a long time ago i set up the deal with them, and the pricing may have changed. Also the agent can be branded so it installs and runs as Benjamins Monitoring Agent., as does the confidence notes etc., so client sees it as yours. Graeme 2009/5/2 Benjamin Zachary - Lists li...@levelfive.us Looks interesting, as a SAAS solution. Any idea how much? They want me to fill out a form for a price guide. Im sure theres lots of different things, just trying to get a general idea. I see the new Servers Alive has a 'remote agent' feature. Looks promising too, an 800k service taking 2mb ram to relay alerts back to a central server. -Original Message- From: Graeme Carstairs [mailto:loonyto...@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 4:40 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Monitoring Remotely We use hounddog. They provide a central hosted monitoring agents on client servers or desktops. Dashboard and email alerts etc , can config 5 10 or 15 min checks throughout the day. Plus seperate daily checks for av backup disk space etc. They are constantly adding new features like service start asset checks etc They are Dundee based but I cannot remember there ful URL Graeme On 02/05/2009, Benjamin Zachary - Lists li...@levelfive.us wrote: I have been using Servers Alive for a lot of my clients who I monitor their lan. However, its getting a little large and tedious to go in and out of remote clients and I was hoping for like a more centralized solution. The newest Servers Alive has a remote agent that talks over ssh that Im about to test, but was wondering if anyone else knew of something similar. Basically I would like to monitor cpu/ram/disk/a few services, and maybe event log would be nice. However, if the internet goes down I would like the central unit to determine that first (something that servers alive *does* but mostly for the LAN so far). Right now I simply ping and/or port test remotely and then SA runs internally so I have it covered but its too much at this point to manage effectively. Thanks ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ -- Good news everyone, you have just received and e-mail from me! ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~ -- Good news everyone, you have just received and e-mail from me! Steve Martin http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/steve_martin.html - I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/ ~
