Community
- Command Central
- MVP Program
- Monthly Mission
- Blogs
- Groups
- Events
- Media Vault
Products
- Observability
- Network Management
- Application Management
- IT Security
- IT Service Management
- System Management
- Database Management
Content Exchange
- SolarWinds Platform
- Server & Application Monitor
- Database Performance Analyzer
- Server Configuration Monitor
- Network Performance Monitor
- Network Configuration Manager
- SQL Sentry
- Web Help Desk
Free Tools & Trials
Store

Preferred method of polling?

What's the consensus on the preferred method of server polling? I have about 150 servers, most are Windows boxes but we have a smattering of Linux spread out there as well. Most are using SNMP polling, but a few are using WMI, and some of our SAM-monitored nodes are using the agent. WMI seems to be the best for Windows servers, but I don't like the prospect of losing all my historical stats when moving over to that.

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

All comments

brscott

I have every kind of polling: virtual, asa cli, snmp, wmi, agent (both client and server initiated), F5, ok so I thought of one... "Poll for Palo Alto", I don't use that one.

I cannot say that I actually prefer one over the others. SNMP on windows would be my least favorite and I don't think I have any of that left.

SNMP is de facto on Linux, routers, switches and many hardware appliances, so you will never be rid of it.

WMI is great for standard windows polling and with auto discovery because it just works on most windows setups. When you get complex with winrm and other things on windows, switching to the agent is easier.

Our security loves the agent, which I would not have thought. It's another thing installed which is inherently bad, the advantages well outweigh it. You can choose between agent and server initiated connections, which is awesome for security. You generally want the connection to be initiated from the "more" secure network into the "less" secure network. Many agents for other software only allow the connections to flow in one direction. Please Solarwinds, never lose this option. The agent communication is encrypted, which is way above snmp 1/2c and wmi. The rest of the advantages of using the agent are also disadvantages depending on your perspective. You can: run programs and scripts; kill programs; and control services, just generally unlimited power.

So to recommend a polling method as "best" is really going to depend on your needs.

jrouviere

For servers I'd always recommend the agent first, then WMI/SNMP for native OS polling for Windows/Linux respectively.

The agent is a bit more lightweight than WMI/SNMP and can utilize fewer resources overall.

It does introduce something else that may go wrong as now you add a layer with the agent, have to keep it updated, etc, but we switched nearly all of our servers to the agent and it's been a much better experience overall.

Monitor with Orion agents in SAM

SolarWinds Orion agent requirements

Bottom section talks about the resource consumption.

adam.beedell

The Agent's got the most detail, i've had a number of problems with it in the past though and havn't managed to get to the latest release yet, so It's mostly ruled out for now

SNMP is the most lightweight and tends to be easiest to setup in my environment

More recently I've been preferring WMI and RPC within application monitors to allow monitoring of mountpoints and ease of using the service control managers and event log monitors

So consensus - None to find from me!

cmatrask

My preferred method for Network nodes and appliances is SNMP v2c or v3. Windows servers is WMI, to utilize the Windows performance metrics, but can and have utilized SNMP for servers. I don't like to use agents, like most server engineers - we don't want to introduce any more variables or software that would conflict with the already sensitive applications (medical and/or financial).
SNMP best for Linux so far.