Data that can be collected using SNMP Informant depends upon the type and version installed.  If the PDH (Performance) agents are installed, the information available will be different than if the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) agents are installed.  This is because the data sources are different.

Why SNMP Informant?

All Microsoft Windows Servers (and workstations) are composed of many systems and sub-systems that are responsible for carrying out certain tasks.

When under stress (i.e. low memory, insufficient disk space, high CPU or network utilization), these computer sub-systems provide feedback to the Host Operating System through the Performance Monitor sub-system.

Here's the Problem: If you are not actively monitoring the performance of your Windows servers, you're probably reacting to problem situations.  Disks can run out of space, processors can "max out", memory can drop to dangerously low levels, services can shut down and network bandwidth can be saturated.

The results can be catastrophic. Your servers (and the applications they support!) can grind to a halt.

And WE have the solution: Install SNMP Informant, and you can rapidly shift your server monitoring approach from REACTIVE to PROACTIVE, and:

    BE ALERTED when critical counters exceed threshold levels **
    KNOW IN ADVANCE when capacity will become an issue
    PLAN FOR UPGRADES, because you KNOW your utilization patterns

** SNMP Informant provides the data, and the Network Management Application generates the alerts.

By simply installing SNMP Informant "on top" of the SNMP service (which comes with the OS) on Windows 2000, XP or 2003 systems, you can monitor hundreds of performance counters using industry standard (commercial and open source) SNMP-based tools * such as EM&, PRTG, HP Openview NNM, Whatsup Gold, SNMPc, MRTG, RRDtool, Big Brother, Cricket and Cacti to name but a few.

Performance (PDH) Agent Technical Details

The diagram below illustrates the relationship between SNMP Informant, the MS SNMP service, other SNMP extension agents and shows how SNMP Informant PDH Agents access data from the systems' performance counter subsystem.

Operational (WMI) Agent Technical Details

The diagram below shows how SNMP Informant WMI agents access data from the Windows WMI subsystem.

Specialized Agent Technical Details

• The MSCS Agent behaves similarly to the WMI agent, but hooks into the Cluster Servers resource libraries to allow accesses to Cluster Service operational information.

Other Agent Technical Details

• The MBM Agent behaves similarly to the WMI agent, but accesses shared memory used by Motherboard Monitor.

As you can see, SNMP Informant gives your SNMP management application unprecedented access to low-level system information by translating standard SNMP GET/GETNEXT requests into local requests for performance counter, WMI or Motherboard Monitor data.  The responses to these requests are returned to SNMP Informant for reformatting, and are sent back to the requesting management application.

SNMP Traps

At present, our agents do not provide SNMP Trap services (although they will eventually).  Therefore, you must configure the management (polling) station itself to generate alerts based on data collected from SNMP Informant.  This design model works well for the vast majority of network monitoring products, including but not limited to:

• ScienceLogic EM7
• Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold/Professional *
• HP Network Node Manager *
• Paessler PRTG/IPCheck Server Monitor *
• LUTEUS SARL LoriotPro *
• Tobi Oetikers' MRTG/RRDTool *
• ipMonitor *
• Somix Denika and NMS *

SNMP SET Support

SNMP Informant WMI-OS Agent (from version 1.1.1) supports SNMP SETs to remotely pause, stop and restart services, initiate remote program execution and restart servers.  Check out the WMI-OS Product page for more information!

SNMPv3 Support

Our agents are SNMP extension agents, and as such require an SNMP stack in order to function.  The native Microsoft SNMP stack only supports SNMPv1 and SNMPv2, and NOT SNMPv3.  Therefore, our agents cannot process SNMPv3 commands.  This is not a fault of our extension agents, but a limitation of the Microsoft SNMP stack.

If implementing SNMPV3 is is a requirement, you may find success with a third party replacement for the MS SNMP stack.  One such example is the Agent Service for MS Windows by NuDesignTechnologies (http://www.ndt-inc.com).  These replacements claim to be 100% compatible with the MS stack, and support all extension agents.  Since SNMP Informant is such an extension agent, you may find that upgrading to SNMPV3 is less painful than you thought!  We suggest you get a demo of the third party agent, and the free SNMP Informant Standard edition, and try for yourself.  Our preliminary testing has been successful.  Look for us to provide more direction in this area soon.

Extensibility

Our agents are monolithic, meaning their functionality cannot be enhanced beyond what is provided (except by us).  Having said that, if you have the need, we have the skill.  Call us, and we can provide a quote to you for creating a custom SNMP Informant Application Plus Pack for your application!