Network Management
Monitor a Microsoft Cluster with SNMP in the SolarWinds Platform
This article provides brief information on monitoring a Microsoft Cluster with SNMP.
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SNMP is only going to get information off the active Node. It’s SNMP agent will get the requests but will only respond with its own information. There is no way to get cluster wide info, as there isn’t a cluster snmp agent.
This is the limitation with Clusters and SNMP. If you were to monitor the Virtual IP and do a MIB Walk or rediscovery, the SNMP information would be coming back from the active Server. SNMP is not a cluster resource and there is no MIB for the MS cluster service and this will return back incorrect Monitoring information.
There are some OIDs you can use to monitor the Cluster, however it is limited. You will need to set these up through Universal Device Poller:
This OID is for which node owns the resources: 1.3.6.1.4.1.232.15.2.4.1.1.5
This OID is for the overall Cluster Condition: 1.3.6.1.4.1.232.15.1.3
Monitoring Clustered servers can be difficult if not impossible, since all members of the cluster use the same layer 3 address. Since Orion relies on L3 address to identify unique nodes in its database, this becomes a potential impossibility. However, there is a work around that you may wish to consider.
If you were to utilize a different available physical port on each cluster member server, and set up an Out of Band "OOB" subnet to use for the specific purpose of polling these nodes individually, you can connect against their SNMP Services separately and thereby collect performance metrics on each server independently. The added benefit to this (of course) is that you are not introducing additional traffic onto the production network by doing so. This would in turn give you better Statistics for the overall cluster performance not only in individual Server Member status, but individual CPU, Memory, Volume and Bandwidth Collection that would help in assisting Cluster and Server issues.
Note: You may be able to use APM and VB Custom Scripting to monitor the Cluster instance. Below is the beginning of a vbs script I was working on to call the MSCluster_Resource class. Your best bet to make sure the script works is to install Script-o-matic and just pull the counters and let it write the script itself.
Sample VB Script Code:
-- Scripts are not supported under any SolarWinds support program or service.
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-- disclaims all warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties
-- of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The risk arising
-- out of the use or performance of the scripts and documentation stays with you.
-- In no event shall SolarWinds or anyone else involved in the creation,
-- production, or delivery of the scripts be liable for any damages whatsoever
-- (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business
-- interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising
-- out of the use of or inability to use the scripts or documentation
On Error Resume Next
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\MSCluster")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from MSCluster_Resource",,48)
For Each objItem in colItems