Monitoring Windows Operating Systems

Software

NSClient++ aims to be a simple yet powerful and flexible monitoring daemon.

It was built for Nagios/Icinga, but nothing in the daemon is Nagios/Icinga specific and it can and is used in many other scenarios where you want to receive/distribute check metrics.

It is entirely possible to use it stand alone as well as the core monitoring system though that is not recommended as it is rather limited.

NSClient++ does basically three things:

  1. Allow remote checks

    1. Allow a remote machine (monitoring server) to request commands to be run on this machine

    2. (the monitored machine) which return the status of the machine.

  2. Monitor system in realtime

    1. Monitor your systems and submit the findings and results a remote (monitoring server).

  1. Resolve your problems

    1. NSClient++ can take action either on its own monitoring or remotely from a central server and act on what happens and resolve issues.

Nagios Services

A Windows server can be fully monitored by the Nagios/NSClient++ services listed below.

WIN_CPU - This service checks the CPU Load

See doc: http://nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckSystem/checkCPU

check_nrpe_win_cpu

$USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -t 50 -c CheckCPU -a ShowAll warn=$ARG1$ crit=$ARG2$

WIN_DRIVE - This service checks the size (free-space) of a drive or volume

See doc: http://nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckDisk

check_nrpe_win_drive

$USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -t 50 -c CheckDriveSize -a Drive="$ARG1$" ShowAll MaxWarnUsed=$ARG2$ MaxCritUsed=$ARG3$ FilterType=FIXED

☛ Example

Drive ($ARG1$) = C

MaxWarnUsed ($ARG2$) = 90%

MaxCritUsed ($ARG3$) = 95%

☛ Note: some versions of the nsclient++ agent has a wrong output. Fix it by using a wrapper that do a:

sed 's,\\,,g;s,\: \%,_prct:,g'

WIN_RAM - This service checks the memory usage and generates a state if the memory is above or below give parameters. See doc: http://nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckSystem/checkMem

check_nrpe_win_mem

$USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -t 50 -c CheckMem -a MaxWarn=$ARG1$ MaxCrit=$ARG2$ ShowAll type=$ARG3$

☛ Example

MaxWarn ($ARG1$) = 90%

MaxCrit ($ARG2$) = 95%

type ($ARG3$) = physical

WIN_SWAP - This service checks the state of the page usage and generates a state if the memory is above or below give parameters. See: http://nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckSystem/checkMem

check_nrpe_win_mem

$USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -t 50 -c CheckMem -a MaxWarn=$ARG1$ MaxCrit=$ARG2$ ShowAll type=$ARG3$

☛ Example

MaxWarn ($ARG1$) = 90%

MaxCrit ($ARG2$) = 95%

type ($ARG3$) = page

☛ Note: some versions of the nsclient++ agent has a wrong output. Fix it by using the following wrapper:

#!/bin/sh

VAL=$(/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_nrpe $@)

RET=$?

echo "$VAL" | sed "\

s, %,_prct,g;s,; , ,g

s,'\(page[d]*\) \(file\|bytes\),'\1_\2,g

s,'\(physical\|virtual\) \(memory\),'\1_\2,g"

exit $RET

WIN_PING - This service checks connection statistics for a remote host.

See manpage: http://nagios-plugins.org/doc/man/check_ping.html

check_ping

$USER1$/check_ping -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -w $ARG1$ -c $ARG2$ -p 5

☛ Example

w ($ARG1$) = 3000.0,80%

c ($ARG2$) = 5000.0,100%

WIN_SERVICES_AUTOSTART - This service checks the state of the autostart services.

See doc: http://nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckSystem/checkServiceState

check_nrpe_win_service_autostart_except_common_and_extra

$USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -t 50 -c CheckServiceState -a CheckAll exclude=Service1 "exclude=Service2 with Spaces" <..add-more-excludes-if-required..> $ARG1$

where $ARG1$ is a list of extra services we want to exclude.

WIN_UPTIME - This service checks the uptime of a server and if the time is less then the times given as arguments a state is returned.

See doc: http://www.nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckSystem/checkUpTime

check_nrpe_uptime

$USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -t 50 -c CheckUpTime -a ShowAll MaxCrit=$ARG1$

☛ Example

MaxCrit ($ARG1$) 30d