ESXi, SATA Disks, NO Raid: Disk monitoring
I'm working on an non-optimal rollout of ESXi 4.1. No budget, Poweredge SC1425 servers, SATA drives via the onboard ports without RAID = multiple single points of failure.
With the SC1425 and ESXi, is there any FREE way to monitor disk status, fan speeds and general system health and automatically alert via email if there's a problem detected?
If there's nothing free, what about commercial solutions that don't require a full vCenter Server?
Thanks
With the SC1425 and ESXi, is there any FREE way to monitor disk status, fan speeds and general system health and automatically alert via email if there's a problem detected?
If there's nothing free, what about commercial solutions that don't require a full vCenter Server?
Thanks
ASKER
Thanks Zeshanaziz. I've already researched Veeam. The problem with the free monitoring is that it doesn't have alarms. They need something automated, if a disk is looking bad, send an email.
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Thanks for the feedback.
If Nagios doesn't do SNMP (or does it?), would it be of any benefit if the main goal here is to monitor physical status of the hard drives? ESXi has SNMP ability?
Zenoss doesn't appear to be free on their website, but the appliance is free? The JumpBox service sadly isn't an option due to budget.
If Nagios doesn't do SNMP (or does it?), would it be of any benefit if the main goal here is to monitor physical status of the hard drives? ESXi has SNMP ability?
Zenoss doesn't appear to be free on their website, but the appliance is free? The JumpBox service sadly isn't an option due to budget.
Nagios only monitors common ports out of the box, and can monitor more if you are brave enough to create custom configs.
If you have a tech who is comfortable with Linux, just make a Virtual Machine with Debian or Ubuntu or whatever flavor you like and install the Zenoss package and all its dependencies and run with it.
The Zenoss application and source is free. http://sourceforge.net/projects/zenoss/
You can freely download and run the package yourself. If you want traditional enterprise protection or help you can pay them for protection. We chose Jumpbox because they build a complete Open Source Solution and patch and update on a regular basis. And we utilize (very rarely) a local Linux vendor when we get stuck (10 to 40 hours per year $800 - $3200 per year). These Jumpboxes have been so reliable, we are using him less and less. And I seem to be picking up more Linux skills the more YouTube I watch. :)
We have found 6+ Jumpbox applications and several more to be deployed this year that makes the case for the $49 per month. If you have not already looked, Enterprise network monitoring will not be this cheap even for small third party packages.
If you have a tech who is comfortable with Linux, just make a Virtual Machine with Debian or Ubuntu or whatever flavor you like and install the Zenoss package and all its dependencies and run with it.
The Zenoss application and source is free. http://sourceforge.net/projects/zenoss/
You can freely download and run the package yourself. If you want traditional enterprise protection or help you can pay them for protection. We chose Jumpbox because they build a complete Open Source Solution and patch and update on a regular basis. And we utilize (very rarely) a local Linux vendor when we get stuck (10 to 40 hours per year $800 - $3200 per year). These Jumpboxes have been so reliable, we are using him less and less. And I seem to be picking up more Linux skills the more YouTube I watch. :)
We have found 6+ Jumpbox applications and several more to be deployed this year that makes the case for the $49 per month. If you have not already looked, Enterprise network monitoring will not be this cheap even for small third party packages.
ASKER
Matt, I agree with your analysis of JumpBox. It's just not in the non-exisitent budget....
The real question now I suppose is does ESX(i) (the free version, not full ESX) have the abilitiy to be monitored with SNMP?
The real question now I suppose is does ESX(i) (the free version, not full ESX) have the abilitiy to be monitored with SNMP?
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All great news Matt. Looking forward to hearing how you fare with zenoss's vm and monitoring an esxi server!
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Matt, just a FYI. The url you gave for the vmware version is ver Zenoss 2.5.2. Looks like the current version is 3.0.2 Available here: http://community.zenoss.org/docs/DOC-3240?noregister
Yes, and it looks like the only one packaged as a virtual appliance. Just trying to help you get up and running asap if you were interested.
I will probably download the Jumpbox version since it will get patched and upgraded. I know I have pushed the $600 per year Jumpbox subscription. We have 15 Linux servers running in our 30+ server environment and have saved the $600 in vendor time alone to justify the price.
The other reason we like Jumpbox, they build their own management portal so we really never need to drop into command line/SSH to do common tasks. If you wanted to see what the management portal looks like go to (http://www.jumpbox.com/overview) and click the "Reduce Headaches" tab in the left side navigation. The page that comes up will show the management portal.
I don't think I told you about the "Ramp Up" videos that Jumpbox produces to help you get up and running ASAP. Here is the one on Zenoss. http://www.jumpbox.com/app/zenoss - scroll to the bottom of the page for the video.
Okay, I've beat this horse enough...I sure hope I've helped.
I will probably download the Jumpbox version since it will get patched and upgraded. I know I have pushed the $600 per year Jumpbox subscription. We have 15 Linux servers running in our 30+ server environment and have saved the $600 in vendor time alone to justify the price.
The other reason we like Jumpbox, they build their own management portal so we really never need to drop into command line/SSH to do common tasks. If you wanted to see what the management portal looks like go to (http://www.jumpbox.com/overview) and click the "Reduce Headaches" tab in the left side navigation. The page that comes up will show the management portal.
I don't think I told you about the "Ramp Up" videos that Jumpbox produces to help you get up and running ASAP. Here is the one on Zenoss. http://www.jumpbox.com/app/zenoss - scroll to the bottom of the page for the video.
Okay, I've beat this horse enough...I sure hope I've helped.
ASKER
You have helped. Thanks. Closing this thread out.
Oh, and 3.0.2 is packaged as a virtual appliance too. http://community.zenoss.org/docs/DOC-3240?noregister
Oh, and 3.0.2 is packaged as a virtual appliance too. http://community.zenoss.org/docs/DOC-3240?noregister
nice find thanks, i was not aware only old versions were on sourceforge. I will save this link for later.
http://www.veeam.com/esxi-monitoring-free.html