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Monitoring paged and non-paged pools

One of the goals of our SW project is to consolidate the separate monitors we have for different types of systems [Win/Linux/Cisco/etc].  One of the items our server folks monitor with MOM is the Windows server paged and non-paged pool bytes.  This is not a simple matter of keeping tabs on real and virtual memory as I understand it, nor are my colleagues satisfied with the page file usage counters in the Windows Server Services and Counters template.  I've looked through the available SAM templates [including shared templates from Thwack], the Win Svr Services & Counters is as close as I could find but it's not exactly what they need.  As it was explained to me when these pools reach their limits connections are refused and the server eventually freezes so monitoring these pools is required, non-negotiable element if we're to retire MOM.

Is this a do-able thing to monitor?  Is so, how?  Please, and thanks...F

We're running Orion core 2012.1.0, SAM 5.0.1, NPM 10.3, NTA 3.9.0, NCM 7.0.2

  • Neither of these counters are included in our out-of-the-box application templates, but adding them to an existing template or creating your own to monitor these metrics is a fairly simple and straightforward process. From [Settings - SAM Settings] click on "Find Processes, Services, and Performance Counters" and select "Windows Performance Counter" from the drop down. Select a node you'd like to build this template off of and provide the necessary credentials and click "next". From the "Performance Object" select "Memory" and add the performance counters you'd like monitored and click "next"

    Paged Bytes.png

    Follow the wizard through the process and then decide if you'd like to add these components to an existing application template that's maybe already assigned to the nodes you want to monitor, or select the option to add these to a new application template. Either way you'll be given the option to assign the application template to your nodes as part of the wizard.

  • Aloha aLTeReGo;

    Excellent! And here I thought I’d have to go through creating custom pollers and looking up lengthy OID strings.

    I got it working on one test server . Having trouble getting auth’d to a test SQL box. Does this require WMI access or is SNMP read strings sufficient?

    Please, and thanks!....Fred

  • Windows Performance Counters use RPC. So generally TCP Port 445 should be open between the SAM server and SQL server you want to monitor.

  • According to the server techs there’s no port blocking in place although they’re wondering if permissions are involved. If I use the inherited credentials I get with “access denied” or “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”. If I use a Windows credential I get “access denied”. Kinda makes sense in a warped Microsoft way.

    Btw: the Windows folks are excited over the success getting these stats from the server that it does work on. Nice!

    Pls/Thnx…Fred

  • When I select any server other than the local SW server and click 'next' the message received is "object reference not set to an instance of an object".  As suggested we verified there's no firewall or ACLs between the systems.

    Searching the forum posts [particularly http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/1380] suggest a re-running the config wizard against the database but wanted to run that by the community before trying it.

    There were more than a few posts referencing the same error message but they addressed different situations.

    Also looked at this post but it doesn't seem relevent: http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/1264

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    Ran the config wizard against the db and had no effect on the error.  I need to get this working and will open a support ticket.

  • This error usually states that there's a problem communicating with the remote host. Either the credentials are invalid, the user account has insufficient privileges, a firewall is enabled on the remote host, or some other form of packet filter (router ACLs) blocking the traffic. Some things that you should try. Log into the server where SAM is installed using the credentials you're using to monitor the remote host. E.G. if you're assigned the credentials  "Administrator/password" to the component monitor in SAM, use these credentials to log into the console of the SAM server. Once logged in attempt to map a drive to the remote host. E.G. "\\myserver\C$". If that's successful then you've passed the first connectivity test.

    Next open perfmon.exe and attempt to monitor these same counters remotely from the SAM server using the tools built-in to windows.

    Remote Perfmon.png

    In the "Select counter from computer" field enter the name or IP address of the remote server. Browse for the counters you'd like to monitor in SAM and click "add" to start monitoring them. If this works then it should work in SAM too. If it doesn't, then there's something else going on in your environment. Check your credentials and utilize WireShark to see if the packets are making it to the remote host. If not, follow the connection up stream to the SAM server to determine where they're being dropped. 

  • All is now good, very good.  I learned a lot of other useful stuff along the way to getting these specific statistics, there's so much more available that we can do with these tools.  Thanks for your help, it is spot on advice and your efforts very much appreciated...Fred