Remote Monitor Software

[MidnightShadow]

Need a software that can remotely:

- monitor CPU usage
- has historical logging
- will flag on certain threshold presets
- would prefer that the software can be licensed for a site versus per device

Caveat:
- CANNOT require domain admin credentials (SNMP trap preferred)

Things we've already looked at but aren't happy with for one or more reason:
- TeamViewer
- VNC

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. It's for an enterprise environment, but not sure it quite fits into security all the way so feel free to move the thread if needed.

 

[Lexluethar]

ManageEngine OPManager does all of that. You can also get it to monitor services but it does require a local admin account. It does NOT have to be domain admin though. Simply add a service account to your domain and add it to the local admins group on any servers / workstations you are wanting to monitor.

It will monitor CPU / Memory, logging, thresholds, ect. It is however licensed off usage not off site.

Not sure of your environment but if these are servers and if they are virtual vCenter can do all of that.

 

[1etherer]

We use Spiceworks Inventory, and uses SNMP traps PLUS its completely free and you host it internally on your server and it does log everything.

It not only monitors machines resources you can monitor; switches, software licences, flags when users access or try to access certain sites, e.g. hotmail, can schedule checks on storage and flag when HDDs are running out of space etc...


https://community.spiceworks.com/help/Spiceworks_Inventory

 

[carnageX]

+1 to SpiceWorks - have used it a bit in the past and was pretty nice.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

We run spiceworks as well, though I'm pretty sure it requires a domain admin account? At least I know we've got it set to run using one...

 

[MidnightShadow]

@Lexluethar, any idea the cost on that? Is it per machine? We've got a huge network.

I think based on the recommendations here we're going to start by looking at Spiceworks. You said that it is hosted internally, does it reach out over the Internet for anything, ever? Highly sensitive data on the network, which is why we don't really want to have to provide domain admin creds if we don't have to.

 

[Lexluethar]

Cost i'm not sure, it's per device and they sell it in chunks. We are monitoring 550 devices and 4000 interfaces with it (devices are both switch, physical server and virtual servers) and it costs about 3,000 a year.

It can use SNMP traps as well as WMI, it's a great tool for monitoring network devices with SNMP IMO. We took it a step further and use it for monitoring our server environment as well.

 

[MidnightShadow]

Awesome. I'm sure we'll look into that as well just to be thorough. I appreciate the information. May be in touch if we have more questions, if that's okay.

 

[iFargle]

My vote is nagios.

 

[Lexluethar]

Nagios is great as well. We almost went with Nagios but our hangup was it really required a dedicated individual / sme to implement and support it. Our long term goal is to get all server / device owners to own the monitoring piece of their server / device. OPmanager allows that because devices can easily be added / configured. What i found with Nagios was that for IT savvy people Nagios is easy, but if you want someone who's only world is a windows OS trying to get them to use Nagios was going to be a pain.

Some other's to look at: Nagios, Splunk, EGInnovations, OPManager, SCOM.