Enhancement for AIX monitoring. (Unix)

lcsw2013

We have a mix of HP Unix, A few flavors of Linux, And AIX. Along with a few other versions I'm not fully aware of.

1. HP UX was a headache to configure. But my unix admin was about to modify the snmp config file and now hp ux monitors correctly.

2. Some linux servers are not monitoring correct, and others are but display incorrect memory or cpu or hard drive space.

3. AIX. This is the trouble maker. All servers communicate via snmp just fine. But SolarWinds is pulling all the wrong values. My admins tell me that there are several values for memory for example. And the one that is important is not the one monitored. We had to create perl scripts make some odd modifications in SAM just to get the templates to show correct.

It would be best if NPM natively monitored the correct values of AIX so we don't need to rely on SAM or scripting to get the information we need. I'm not sure of the exact OID that corresponds to the values but figured if I opened a feature requests, if there are any Unix admins out there they could help fill in any gaps that I might not have the answer too off hand.

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Comments

jm_sysadmin

My unix admins decided to get most of what they want using perl scrpts run by SAM. I agree, it could be alot better.

lcsw2013

I worked along side with my Unix admin and we noticed that all AIX said 99% of ram was used when really the number was closer to 12%. But apparently AIX version of Unix is complicated in that they decided to break memory down into multiple components. Free, used, available, etc. So while technically yes 99% is used, it doesn't mean it's allocated, it's just that the system takes the memory but then allocates it accordingly per function. At least this is what I was told.

I figured this wouldn't help us but many others out there as going through scripting and SAM is just additional steps that shouldn't really need to be taken. Thanks for the Up vote!

lcsw2013

bump

lcsw2013

Bumping!

Better native AIX monitoring is a plus. Having to use workaround monitoring to get what we want out of the system defeats the purpose of owning this software if it won't natively offer it. I mean it does have AIX support but it's weak right now and requires a customized SAM template just to get the right parameters for things like memory for example.

Currently NPM is focusing on an OID that in theory is not correct. Apparently AIX has several memory parameters and doesn't use the standard used by many other OS out there.

Enhancements to AIX monitoring to fix this would be great.

noeltz

BUMPING AGAIN!

Everything said in this thread is really true.

We are evaluating NPM and SAM at the moment and the native possibilities to monitor IBM AIX are simply not enough to say "AIX is supported". It was very difficult to get the communication via SNMP working and after that our AIX administrators told us that most of the collected data is useless to them.

We would have to write a lot of customized scripts to monitor our AIX servers in SAM which could be a reason for not buying this software.

Windows and Linux support is really great and we would love to see AIX supported just like that.

lcsw2013

Bump!

Really there aren't other users or companies out there that could use this? I hate it that the number of views doesn't match the number of up votes. We need better AIX support. I hate having to create manual templates and having to involve so much manual effort to get things that should be simple functions expected from a company like solarwinds.

lcsw2013

bump

rionoskae

I would also love to see this feature added - I agree with lcsw2013, current functionality is not enough to say that "AIX is Supported'. Our AIX Admins said the same thing - data polled via snmpv3 is usless to them, it's all custom Perl scripts via SAM .