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Old 06-25-2014, 09:30 AM   #1
thealmightyos
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Monitoring WINDOWS SERVERS from a LINUX DESKTOP


Before you ask, yes, I did type that right. And no, it was not my brilliant idea to use windows servers. That was some moron at my work.

But, in this very stupid situation, I find myself needing to monitor these servers to make sure everything is ok. I have to monitor CPU, Memory, Disk space, and a handful of services. There are, of course, windows tools to do this. Total Network Monitor does reasonably well though I wish there were historical charts for memory and cpu load and not just a OK/NOT OK chart. But I want to do this on my linux laptop.

Now, I have googled till my fingers bled. Google seems to think I am confused and keeps giving me windows apps to monitor linux servers and not the other way around. Help?
 
Old 06-25-2014, 11:01 AM   #2
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NSClient++

http://www.nsclient.org/

Here we use Nagios on a Linux master to monitor all of our systems (UNIX, Linux, Windows etc...). We install nrpe on UNIX and Linux servers and NSClient++ (using nrpe mode) on the Windows servers. For other systems (e.g. Air Handlers, Power Control units etc...) we might do something as simple as ping or as complex as running snmp checks.
 
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Old 06-25-2014, 11:40 AM   #3
Habitual
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Zabbix here with snmp
 
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Old 06-25-2014, 02:14 PM   #4
thealmightyos
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I forgot mention: The admins for these servers are a bit... touchy (being nice here). They won't let us install anything on them (example: NSClient++). However, the apps my department has to support are run from those servers so we need a way to monitor them other than remoteing in and looking around.

What I am looking for is something like this for linux: http://www.softinventive.com/product...twork-monitor/
That is what the rest of my team is using however they have Windows on their laptops and I have CentOS so I am out of the loop when away from my desk. I am sure there is something like this for linux. I mean, there is a linux app for monitoring everything +kitchensinc so why not this?
 
Old 06-25-2014, 02:21 PM   #5
TB0ne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thealmightyos View Post
I forgot mention: The admins for these servers are a bit... touchy (being nice here). They won't let us install anything on them (example: NSClient++). However, the apps my department has to support are run from those servers so we need a way to monitor them other than remoteing in and looking around.

What I am looking for is something like this for linux: http://www.softinventive.com/product...twork-monitor/
That is what the rest of my team is using however they have Windows on their laptops and I have CentOS so I am out of the loop when away from my desk. I am sure there is something like this for linux. I mean, there is a linux app for monitoring everything +kitchensinc so why not this?
There is, and Habitual touched on it: SNMP. It *SHOULD* (if the Windows admins are worth anything), be installed already. Part of what it can return is services, and an SNMP MIB for monitoring anything else should be easy to install, if it's even needed. You may be able to just use the snmpwalk command (man page can tell you more), and see what the Windows servers are returning now. Since all you need is read-only for monitoring, the Windows admins shouldn't care about the public community string. From there, you can use Nagios or Zabbix to monitor whatever you'd like via SNMP.

That said...political games are pointless. If you are responsible for those services, then either they give you the rights to do your job, or tell the Windows admins to do it. There needs to be a clear delineation of responsibilities, and either you're trusted (by your company), as an admin, or you're not. Make them decide, because you're in for a world of hurt the first time anything on those servers has a problem. The finger-pointing battles will be epic...and you will be the one held responsible.
 
Old 06-25-2014, 04:23 PM   #6
MensaWater
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It says it only needs the administrator login to monitor other systems which may mean it is using built in Windows "net*" tools to do the monitoring. I've used those a bit but not extensively. I note it also says it monitors Linux and MacOS which makes me wonder what it asks for to do those. I didn't see any mention of Linux on their site other than that but it is a lame site so you might get more by contacting their support (since it would appear you have a paid version).

You could try installing WINE on your Linux then run their exe under that to see if it will load that way. (Alternatively you could do a dual boot setup on your laptop and boot into Windows when you need this tool.)
 
Old 06-25-2014, 04:39 PM   #7
jefro
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I think there are ways to use mmc over network on linux too. I can't find that right now.

Remote desktop or ssh, telnet, vpn of some kind to mmc or system monitor or command line should work.

There are a few ways to run command line commands from linux on windows. In most of them they don't work fully as one does locally so you have watch that.

"said by greEd:

Just simple tasks such as querying running processes, killing processes, rebooting, etc, etc
I would use ssh to open a non-interactive shell and just use the Windows shell commands. You can script it from Linux, although if you want any sort of error control or exit status codes, you may be out of luck.

Here is a sample for what you listed:

- tasklist = list running processes
- taskkill = kill task by pid or name
- shutdown = halt/reboot machine

A very handy grep-like utility for parsing output on Windows is called findstr. For example:

C:\Users\Matt>tasklist | findstr cmd.exe
cmd.exe 6656 Console 1 3,616 K



You can also install the GNU Tools for Windows if you want to use the Linux tools you're familiar with. Add them to your path and you'll have all the excellent tools you're used to, like wget, grep, less, sed, awk, etc: »gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html"

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r233...-Line~start=30

also see this.

http://www.lylebackenroth.com/blog/2...ine-interface/

All of this needs security mentions.

Could go wild and make a html page on each server for some of the reports you need to look at.

Last edited by jefro; 06-25-2014 at 04:44 PM.
 
Old 06-25-2014, 04:50 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thealmightyos View Post
The admins for these servers are a bit... touchy. However, the apps my department has to support are run from those servers so we need a way to monitor them other than remoteing in and looking around. ...

I mean, there is a linux app for monitoring everything +kitchensinc so why not this?
That kitchen sink is called Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or snmp.

This is easy, have the app dept. Chief contact touchy admins Chief.

poop rolls down hill.
 
Old 06-25-2014, 05:19 PM   #9
thealmightyos
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TB0ne View Post
That said...political games are pointless. If you are responsible for those services, then either they give you the rights to do your job, or tell the Windows admins to do it. There needs to be a clear delineation of responsibilities, and either you're trusted (by your company), as an admin, or you're not. Make them decide, because you're in for a world of hurt the first time anything on those servers has a problem. The finger-pointing battles will be epic...and you will be the one held responsible.
I am well aware of this issue. I work for a state agency (not going to name the state or the agency) and right now everyone is practicing hot potato I have been screaming for permissions since I got here. However, simply monitoring the servers is helping tremendously. I agree with you: political games are pointless. However, given where I work, they are to be expected
 
Old 06-25-2014, 05:22 PM   #10
TB0ne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thealmightyos View Post
I am well aware of this issue. I work for a state agency (not going to name the state or the agency) and right now everyone is practicing hot potato I have been screaming for permissions since I got here. However, simply monitoring the servers is helping tremendously. I agree with you: political games are pointless. However, given where I work, they are to be expected
Gotcha, and have been there before, so I feel your pain. Harder to deal with at a state/fed agency, but be sure to document EVERYTHING, and keep hard copies. Those CYA emails can come in handy.

Good luck.
 
Old 06-25-2014, 06:06 PM   #11
thealmightyos
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Thank you everyone for your replies. Right now I am working on configuring Nagios. Will see how that goes. Will end up trying everything though. I will come back and respond when I find something that works out like I want.

Again, Thanks for the help
 
  


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