The Industry Standard In Infrastructure Monitoring

Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

Purpose
This document describes how to monitor Microsoft Windows using the NSClient++ monitoring
agent. There are two different methods for communicating with NSClient++ and this
documentation explains them both.

Target Audience
This document is intended for use by Nagios XI Administrators who are interested in monitoring Windows
machines using NSClient++.

Overview
NSClient++ must be installed on the target Windows machine before Nagios XI can monitor system metrics,
services, processes, or performance data on the target machine. If you haven't installed the NSClient++ agent
on the remote machine, please, refer to our documentation on installing the XI Windows agent:
Installing The Windows Agent NSClient++ For Nagios XI

The two methods for communicating with NSClient++ are explained as follows:
• check_nt
◦ This is the most common method used
◦ The Windows Server and Windows Desktop configuration wizards use this method
◦ It provides basic functionality, cannot be customized much
• check_nrpe
◦ Uses the NRPE communication protocol
◦ The NRPE configuration wizard uses this method
◦ It allows more advanced monitoring functionality and customization

You can use a combination of both methods in Nagios XI, it is not a choice of one or the other.

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 The Industry Standard In Infrastructure Monitoring

Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

Windows Server / Windows Desktop Configuration Wizards

To use the Windows Server and Windows Desktop configuration wizards you need to have NSClient++
installed as per the following our documentation:
Installing The Windows Agent NSClient++ For Nagios XI

No additional configuration steps are required after following this documentation.

To begin using one of the Windows wizards navigate via the top menu bar to Configure > Run a configuring
wizard and select the desired wizard. This documentation will focus on the Windows Server wizard. In the
following screenshot you can see how the search field allows you to quickly find a wizard.

On Step 1 you will be asked to supply

the address of the Windows machine
running NSClient++.

Click Next to progress to step 2.

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 The Industry Standard In Infrastructure Monitoring

Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

On step 2 you will configure all of the

options for monitoring.

To start off with make sure a valid

Host Name has been entered.

The Windows Agent section has a

field for the password you provided
the NSClient++ installer. If you did not
use a password then you can leave
this field blank.

Select the server metrics you wish to

monitor and adjust the thresholds as
required.

The Disk Usage checks allow you to

add the disks you wish to monitor,
adjust the thresholds as required.

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Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

With the Services checks, select any of the

predefined services in the list or add your own.

With the Processes checks, select any of the

predefined services in the list or add your own.

With the Performance Counter

checks, select any of the
predefined counters in the list or
add your own.

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Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

Once you've finished selecting all the items you wish to monitor click Next and then complete the wizard by
choosing the required options in Step 3 - Step 5.

To finish up, click on Finish in the final step of the wizard. This will create the new hosts and services and
begin monitoring. Once the wizard applies the configuration, click the View status details for <your host>
link to see the new host and services that were created.

This completes using the Windows Server wizard.

NRPE Configuration Wizard

To use the NRPE configuration wizard you need to have NSClient++ installed as per the following our
documentation:
Installing The Windows Agent NSClient++ For Nagios XI

Once that is installed you will also need to configure NSClient++ to enable the NRPE Listener, this is
explained in the following documentation:
Enabling the NRPE Listener In NSClient++ 0.4.x

To begin using the NRPE wizard navigate via the top menu bar to Configure > Run a configuring wizard
and select the NRPE wizard. In the screenshot on the following page you can see how the search field allows
you to quickly find a wizard.

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 The Industry Standard In Infrastructure Monitoring

Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

On Step 1 you will be asked to supply the address

of the machine running NSClient++.

You will also have to select the Operating System,

in this case it is Windows.

Click Next to progress to step 2.

On step 2 you will configure all of the options for

monitoring.

To start off with make sure a valid Host Name has

been entered.

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Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

The NRPE Agent section can be ignored

because you have installed NSClient++.

Under Server Metrics you can see that I've un-

checked the Ping box as I'm not interested in a
ping service.

The next step is to define the NRPE Commands you want issued to the NSClient++ agent. You will need to
refer to the online documentation for a complete list of the commands at the following location:
http://docs.nsclient.org/0.4.3/reference/index.html#windows-modules

Here are some example commands and their arguments, they provide similar functionality to that of the
previous wizard and the services it created.

Display Name: CPU Usage Remote NRPE Command: check_cpu

Command Args: 'warn=load>80' 'crit=load>90'

Display Name: Drive C: Disk Usage Remote NRPE Command: check_drivesize

Command Args: drive=C: 'warn=free<20%' 'crit=free<10%' show-all

Display Name: Explorer Remote NRPE Command: check_process

Command Args: process=explorer.exe show-all

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Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

Display Name: Logon Errors Remote NRPE Command: check_pdh

Command Args: 'counter:Login Errors since last reboot=\Server\Errors Logon'
'warn=value>2' 'crit=value>20'

Display Name: Memory Usage Remote NRPE Command: check_memory

Command Args: type=physical 'warn=used>80%' 'crit=used>90%'

Display Name: Uptime Remote NRPE Command: check_uptime

Command Args: 'warn=uptime<1d' 'crit=uptime<20m'

Display Name: USB Redirector Service Remote NRPE Command: check_service

Command Args: 'service=usbredirectorsrv' show-all

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 The Industry Standard In Infrastructure Monitoring

Nagios XI Monitoring Windows Using NSClient++

Once you've finished selecting all the items you wish to monitor click Next and then complete the wizard by
choosing the required options in Step 3 - Step 5.

To finish up, click on Finish in the final step of the wizard. This will create the new hosts and services and
begin monitoring. Once the wizard applies the configuration, click the View status details for <your host>
link to see the new host and services that were created.

This completes using the NRPE wizard.

Finishing Up
This completes the documentation on how to monitor Microsoft Windows with Nagios XI using NSClient++.
If you have additional questions or other support related questions, please visit us at our Nagios Support
Forums:

https://support.nagios.com/forum

The Nagios Support Knowledgebase is also a great support resource:

https://support.nagios.com/kb

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