Set up server hardware monitoring

Successful server hardware monitoring for a customer depends on the appropriate vendor management applications installed on the customers' servers and successful SNMP communications between the Windows probe and the server. The Windows probe retrieves full asset information of Dell/HP/IBM/Intel hardware through SNMP and apply relevant hardware monitoring services automatically.

Prepare the servers

Ensure that SNMP Services are added and running on each server, and note the community strings in use. N-able N-central only requires a string with read only privileges so you can add a string as "public".

Ensure you select the Accept SNMP packets from any host option on the Security tab for SNMP Service Properties.

The following software packages need to be installed on the appropriate servers, and verified as working correctly:

  • Dell: OpenManage Agent
  • HP: Systems Insight Manager Agent
  • IBM: ServerRAID for RAID-level monitoring
  • IBM: Director Platform agent for hardware-level monitoring
  • Intel: System Management Software

Set up server monitoring in N-able N-central

Complete the steps below to configure server monitoring. All steps are performed at the SO level.

Create a filter for Dell, HP, IBM and Intel servers.

  1. Click Configuration > Filters and click Add.
  2. Enter a Filter Name of Servers - Dell-HP-IBM-Intel and click is available to Everyone.
  3. Click Advanced Mode and click Custom Expression from the drop-down list box.
  4. Enter (A OR B) AND (B OR C OR D OR E OR F) and click Generate.
  5. Create the filter with the following:

    6. A: Device | Class | Equal to | Servers - Windows

    B: Device | Class | Equal to | Servers - Generic

    C: Hardware | System Manufacturer | Contains | HP

    D: Hardware | System Manufacturer | Contains | Dell

    E: Hardware | System Manufacturer | Contains | IBM

    F: Hardware | System Manufacturer | Contains | Intel

  6. Click Save.

Enable SNMP monitoring for these servers

  1. Click Views >All Devices.
  2. Click Filter and select the Servers - Dell-HP-IBM-Intel filter created above.
  3. Select all the filtered devices and click Edit.
  4. In the Monitoring Options and select SNMP.
  5. Click Save.
  6. From the All Devices view, select all the devices again and click Add Services.
  7. Ensure Local Agent is selected within the Monitoring Appliance drop-down list.
  8. Find the SNMP monitoring service and enter 1, to add an instance of the SNMP monitoring service to each selected device.
  9. Click Apply.

Create a dashboard for Dell, HP, IBM and Intel servers

  1. Click Dashboards > Manage Dashboards and click Add.
  2. Enter Servers - Dell-HP-IBM-Intel as the name for this dashboard.
  3. Click the Devices to Target tab, and move Servers - Dell-HP-IBM-Intel into the Selected Filters column.
  4. Click the Monitoring Options tab, and move SNMP into the Selected Services column.
  5. Click Save.

The new dashboard appears in the Dashboards list. It shows the SNMP status of all your customer's Dell, HP, IBM and Intel servers.

If devices are showing that SNMP is not correctly installed, make sure that the SNMP community settings you have entered match those set up on the customer servers.

Initiate a Dell/HP/IBM/Intel hardware discovery for each customer

  1. Click Actions > Run a Discovery.
  2. Select the Customer/Site and select the appropriate Windows Probe.
  3. Select the IP Address of the Dell/HP/IBM/Intel.
  4. Click the SNMP Settings tab, and select the enabled profile, and ensure the SNMP Community String is correct for the customer. It is usually public.
  5. Click Finish.
  6. Repeat for each customer/site.

N-able N-central begins searching for servers with the specified IP address(es). Go to Views > Job Status to review the on-going status of the Dell/HP/IBM/Intel hardware discovery jobs. After the discovery jobs have completed successfully, go to Dashboards > Servers - Dell-HP-IBM-Intel and click the name of any server to review the applied hardware monitoring.