Monitoring Windows with SNMP

[mkeey]

Would like to setup a Host & Services to be monitored using the SNMP option. Started simply with the SNMP Wizard but quickly ran into a road block. I do not know what OID's I need to monitor things. How can I find out what OID's correspond to: Memory, CPU, Disk Free Space, Services, Processes, Port Numbers and so on?

[bolson]

Hello mkeey,

If you use the Windows SNMP wizard rather than the SNMP wizard, the task of selecting and implementing the proper OIDs is done for you. Try this and let me know if it resolves your issue.

Thank you for visiting the Nagios Support Forum.

[mkeey]

Used the Windows SNMP wizard on a Windows 2012 server. Got the following error...

The wizard detected that this server does not have snmpwalk permission on the target host. This will prevent the automatic scan of services and processes and prevent services from running successfully, but you can continue with the wizard manually. To troubleshoot this ensure that these OIDs are available on the target host: "HOST-RESOURCES-MIB::hrStorageDescr", "SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.77.1.2.3.1.1" and "HOST-RESOURCES-MIB::hrSWRunName"

Not sure how to proceed.

[tgriep]

It sounds like either SNMP service has not been installed on the Windows server, the Firewall is still enabled and blocking inbound UDP port 161 traffic or that the wrong community string is used.

I found these instructions for installing and configuring SNMP on Windows 2012. Take a look at them and verify the settings.
To install SNMP on a Windows 2012 Server:

From the Control Panel, in the Programs heading, choose Turn Windows features on or off.
Select the Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next.
Choose Select a server from the server pool and in the Server Pool area, select the server you wish to install SNMP on. Click Next.
Click Next on the Select server roles page.
On the Select features page, scroll down to SNMP Service in the Features box and check the box to the left. Click Next.
Click Install on the confirmation page.
Once the install completes, you can go in to Services and configure SNMP. You may notice that there are several familiar tabs such as Agent and Traps missing. These require an additional installation.

To configure SNMP on a Windows 2012 Server:

From the Control Panel, in the Programs heading, choose Turn Windows features on or off.
Click Next until you get back to the Select features page.
Expand Remote Server Administrator Tools
Expand Feature Administration Tools.
Select SNMP Tools and click Next.
Click Install on the confirmation page.
Reboot the server. The SNMP tabs and SNMP Trap service will be available.

Thanks

[mkeey]

Thank you for the information. I will review the firewall and server setup as described.

Second question... which wizard do i use to monitor a Linux Redhat servere?

[tgriep]

The a are a few wizards you can use depending on if you want to install an agent on the Redhat server or to setup the SNMP daemon.

If you are using the Linux Agent (NRPE) You would use the Linux Server wizard and more details are as follows.
https://support.nagios.com/kb/article/n ... s-721.html

If you are going to use the NCPA agent, you would use the NCPA Agent wizard.
https://support.nagios.com/kb/article/n ... s-110.html

If you are going to use the SNMP Daemon, you would use the Linux SNMP Wizard.
https://support.nagios.com/kb/article/n ... p-249.html

Take a look at the links and post if you have any questions.

[mkeey]

Thanks, this would be an SNMP connection. We are trying to see which will work best for the company. SNMP or NRPE. Both have reasons to touch the servers, userid/passwords or install the agent. At least with SNMP we don't have to ever upgrade, like we do with the Agent. But, we want to see if there are limitations with SNMP versus the Agent.

[tgriep]

Using an agent, if you need to create or use a custom command or plugin, you can add that to the configs / agent.
Using SNMP, you do not have that ability but if you just need to do basic checks, that would work for you.

[mkeey]

So, what I'm hearing you say is this... If we want to only used the predefined monitoring actions both the Agent and SNMP polling processes work just as well. But, if we want any customized monitoring for which we would write a program and/or script we would have to install the Agent. Am I understanding you correctly?

Also, does this apply for any environment? Meaning On Prem or Cloud (aka: Azure)? Or, would you recommend SNMP for the Cloud vs. Agent? Or, vice versa?

Regards - Martin

[tgriep]

Both the Agent and SNMP offer similar checks but if a custom plugin is needed, the agent allows you to use one easily but I did find a plugin that uses SNMP to run custom plugins on a remote server using SNMP.
To use it, you would have to setup the SNMP server with the plugins and custom settings in the config file.
https://exchange.nagios.org/directory/P ... ec/details


Not all environments would support running the custom plugins through SNMP so you may have to use an agent.
Most OS's have the ability to use SNMP so for basic checks, I would use that but is the need is there for customization's, I would use an agent upfront so I would not have to go back and add one later.
But is totally up to you in what you want to do.