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I need to monitor the health of a couple unmanaged servers (specifically Dell SC1425), preferably using WMI or SNMP. They are running Windows Server 2003 SP1.

Ideally I am looking for a single diagnostic signal that I can monitor.

I understand that it is not possible to install the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator package on these servers since they are considered unmanaged. I have used this on other Dell servers and then used the Status flag in the CIM_System element of root\cimv2\Dell through WMI. This nicely wraps up all the main system diagnostics so that any error can be flagged up for investigation. Similarly on HP servers I have used the .iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.compaq.cpqHealth.cpqHeMibRev.cpqHeMibCondition SNMP flag provided through the HP Insight Management Agents package to a similar effect.

Does anyone know what the Status flag in the CIM_System element of the standard root\cimv2 namespace actually monitors? It is currently showing 'Ok' but what would make it show another value? I have tried to search the documentation but couldn't find anything!

Alternatively, is there another way to provide simple diagnostics on an unmanaged server?

Any help is highly appreciated!

zelanix
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  • What is your definition of an "unmanaged server"? – EEAA Jul 26 '13 at 03:59
  • Honestly, I'm not really sure! Whatever Dell uses to justify not providing the OpenManage Server Administrator package for the SC1425 server - I suspect it comes down to price. I can see how it is misleading here though. – zelanix Jul 26 '13 at 04:19
  • I would bet you could probably still install OpenManage even though its not supported. If not, you would only be losing the Dell SNMP traps etc, like RAID controller info, power status etc. Like EhevuTov answered, OS SNMP mibs/traps are generally sufficient. – floyd Jul 26 '13 at 20:42

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Most Operating Systems support a SNMP agent that you can poll for general stats like CPU usage, memory usage, hard-drive usage, etc. This is called the HOST-RESOURCES-MIB and is a standard that most agents support. Windows supports this MIB in their SNMP agent service.

I suggest installing and starting the SNMP agent. You should then be able to poll the Windows machine using SNMP gets and the like; anything that is SNMPv2c and SNMPv1.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1514

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EhevuTov
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