SNMP "Scan" causes floppy access every few minutes

Question

Hello,

I have enabled SNMP on some of our XP SP2 machines so that we can use Orion v8 to gather information from them. Every 2-3 minutes the floppy drive makes a noise as if it is trying to read a floppy disk in the drive. I know it is being caused by the SNMP "scan".

How do I make this stop?

Thanks,

--sn

solarNoob · Answer

I think i found a fix!

If you are using Microsoft products you can use Active Directory to change the following setting:

1) Open the domain policy that applies to your users
2) Browse to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options
3) Find the entry for "Devices: Restrict Floppy Access to locally logged-on user only"
4) Set it to enabled

It will take some time before your clients are pushed the change and they may need a reboot. That seems to have fixed the problem on my network.

--sn

TMPetersen · Answer

I called solarwinds on this issue. It is the way windows handles snmp polling. If you are monitoring any type of volume on the machine, like the hard drive, then it will poll the floppy drive. This is a microsoft issue that I really don't see getting fixed. If you can live with the noise, then great, or I would suggest disconnecting the floppy drive if you don't use it.

solarNoob · Answer

Floppy drive access is not enabled... I should have indicated that in my first post. Thanks for the reply!

I can verifiy this by opening the Orion network Performance Monitor, right clicking the appropriate node, and then selecting "List Resources". "A:\", under "Volume Utilization", is clearly not checked.

Any other ideas?

--sn

p.s. I appears to only happen on our Dell Optiplex GX520's... weird.