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Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:28 am
by cfgriffith
Currently I am using NRPE to check memory on our windows boxes, this works fine in most situations but for SQL servers it doesn't seem to accurately gauge the memory that is in use. I believe this is caused by the way windows caches memory. Currently I'm showing 98% used on SQL boxes.


Currently I am aware for 4 different checkmem variables: Page, Paged, Virtual, and Physical. Is there another variable that might get around this problem, or a different check other than checkmem? Thanks.

Also do you think this would be a better question to ask the NSclient people?

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:09 pm
by lmiltchev
What is the output, when you use "Physical"?

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 10:36 am
by cfgriffith
alias_mem = checkMem MaxWarn=95% MaxCrit=99% ShowAll=long type=physical <-----

alias_page = checkMem MaxWarn=90% MaxCrit=95% ShowAll=long type=page

alias_paged = checkMem MaxWarn=80% MaxCrit=90% ShowAll=long type=paged

alias_virtual = checkMem MaxWarn=80% MaxCrit=90% ShowAll=long type=virtual


As far as output I will upload a screenshot. Sorry it took me a little long to get back to this, been busy.


The reason It shows as fully used is its a database server. I don't think it is actually utilizing that much, it just has that much reserved.

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 12:33 pm
by yancy
cfgrigffith,

Can you verify the memory available

From powershell:

Code: Select all

Get-Counter '\Memory\Available MBytes'
You can use NSClient to pull performance counters depending on what your looking for

to find performance counters related to memory

Code: Select all

 get-counter -ListSet *memory* | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Counter 
see here for more information:
http://www.nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/Check ... eckCounter


-Yancy

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:23 am
by cfgriffith
By Powershell, what do you mean? The Nagios server terminal? Thanks, again sorry for delayed response, quite busy these last few weeks.

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:30 am
by slansing
Powershell is something that may or may not be present on your windows server, it is a Windows command line shell, what version of Windows are you using?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 78526.aspx

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:00 am
by cfgriffith
Ah, I just didn't know what power-shell you meant.

As I do not currently have access to the main SQL servers I have setup a test server. I have power-shell working and have looked at the list

If I choose to use one of these commands available in power shell, how would I go about having Nagios call one of them up? An example would be must appreciated.

Thanks for your continued assistance

\Memory\Page Faults/sec
\Memory\Available Bytes
\Memory\Committed Bytes
\Memory\Commit Limit
\Memory\Write Copies/sec
\Memory\Transition Faults/sec
\Memory\Cache Faults/sec
\Memory\Demand Zero Faults/sec
\Memory\Pages/sec
\Memory\Pages Input/sec
\Memory\Page Reads/sec
\Memory\Pages Output/sec
\Memory\Pool Paged Bytes
\Memory\Pool Nonpaged Bytes
\Memory\Page Writes/sec
\Memory\Pool Paged Allocs
\Memory\Pool Nonpaged Allocs
\Memory\Free System Page Table Entries
\Memory\Cache Bytes
\Memory\Cache Bytes Peak
\Memory\Pool Paged Resident Bytes
\Memory\System Code Total Bytes
\Memory\System Code Resident Bytes
\Memory\System Driver Total Bytes
\Memory\System Driver Resident Bytes
\Memory\System Cache Resident Bytes
\Memory\% Committed Bytes In Use
\Memory\Available KBytes
\Memory\Available MBytes
\Memory\Transition Pages RePurposed/sec
\Memory\Free & Zero Page List Bytes
\Memory\Modified Page List Bytes
\Memory\Standby Cache Reserve Bytes
\Memory\Standby Cache Normal Priority Bytes
\Memory\Standby Cache Core Bytes
\.NET Memory Cache 4.0(*)\Cache Hits
\.NET Memory Cache 4.0(*)\Cache Misses
\.NET Memory Cache 4.0(*)\Cache Hit Ratio
\.NET Memory Cache 4.0(*)\Cache Trims
\.NET Memory Cache 4.0(*)\Cache Entries
\.NET Memory Cache 4.0(*)\Cache Turnover Rate

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:36 am
by slansing
Powershell can be used as a CLI, or as a tool to run powershell scripts, it would be required for certain checks, Yancy was just showing you a way to list that data straight from powershell, you can also view it by doing this:

Start > In the search box at the bottom of the start menu enter performance monitor > Click Performance Monitor > From the list on the left hand side, once again select Performance Monitor > Click the green "plus" symbol > On the scrolling list find Memory and click the expand button next to it > Select the performance tables you would like to monitor, and click Add >>> Let us know which counter(s) you selected that you would like to monitor through Nagios XI.

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:31 pm
by cfgriffith
Alright, I will look into my options in this regard. Again sorry for the delay, very busy lately. Should be back with analysis of which one I would like monitored sometime next week.

Re: Better Check for Physical Memory on Windows Servers?

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:41 pm
by sreinhardt
ok great! Thanks for the update