Centralised Server (and Network) Monitoring

[StephenPink]

Hey all, 

So I know this has probably come up several times before, but hey, we're in a new age of AI now so perhaps things have changed.... 

Those that look after multiple sites, what are you using/how are you monitoring server and networks estates from a central dashboard? With alerting? More specifics on things to be monitored;

- Hyper-V Workgroup Cluster Hosts

- Physical Servers

- Hyper-V VMs

More than just a ping test - disk space issues, hardware errors etc. Perhaps it's more of a SIEM I'm looking for? 

Network wise I've got a mix of Aruba Central/Ruckus CloudPath so one would hope/assume there is an API out of both of those that can feed another system?

Oh and don't forget free/cheap as chips

Most of what I've thought about has come unstuck on one/some of the below; 
- VM based - so runs on said hardware that I want to get alerted on... 

- On-site - so then requires power/network etc - and then if there's a DNS/internet issue again can't alert

- Cloud-based - cost

- Crazy money... 

Also late night thought along the free/cheap lines - 
- an idea about building something but not sure if it would be a goer - some from of PC based appliance, that had it's own 5G connection as backup that could be placed at each site in some form of HA so no central repository more just replicated across each site... 

Anyway monday morning brain dump!

TIA

[DrCheese]

We use NetXMS - It's free & fairly straight forward to monitor.

 

[Rob_D]

Zabbix might work for you. Although you'd have to have proxy servers at each site to collect data, the central server should be able ping an alert if one of the on-site proxies drops out.

[ColonelPanic]

I use Checkmk - we have IPSEC tunnels to each site, but remote probes exist too

 

The thing that sold it to me was the monitoring of docker containers that we run

[StephenPink]

Thanks all so far for the swift responses - appreciated! A couple i haven't come across so will check them out

One other thing I forgot to mention - I don't actually have any "central" infrastructure which makes a centralised host tricker - @Rob_D that's where I got stuck with Zabbix, wasn't sure where to host a central server - or if I could have multiple HA central servers as an alternative... 

Cheers 

[FN-GM]

Also using CheckMK - Works well.

 

A SIEM is something totally different.

[StephenPink]

8 minutes ago, FN-GM said:

Also using CheckMK - Works well.

 

A SIEM is something totally different.

Oh yeah sorry I know - it was just where my mind went when I was thinking about monitoring for errors - monitoring event logs... security issues.. SIEM.. 

Is there not a product that does both? Given the data being collected would it not make sense for a unified platform/view?

It's Monday and I already feel scrambled!

[FN-GM]

1 minute ago, StephenPink said:

Is there not a product that does both? 

Not that I know. It's different data delivered over different protocols, so there isn't any overlap really.

[RobFuller]

Currently building out Check MK to do exactly what you have described @StephenPink. Currently building on prem but might push this to a cloud hosting provider with tunnels back to each site.

[StephenPink]

15 hours ago, RobFuller said:

Currently building out Check MK to do exactly what you have described @StephenPink. Currently building on prem but might push this to a cloud hosting provider with tunnels back to each site.

Oooh interesting! Let me know how you get on? Where would you look to host if you went down that path, as I'd imagine there's quite a lot of traffic being ingested?
I've booked a call with CheckMK later this week.

[TheHyperTechie]

You could use Action1 for this. I had it for our host, and few VMs. Reporting was good, this was a year or two ago now. I believe they offer more than just the basic management as well, and it would be free. We only stopped using it, as we migrated to full cloud.

Edited 6 hours ago by TheHyperTechie