Add Physical Servers

This module consists of the following exercises:

Install an Agent on a Server

Although agents will be installed, they require minimal configuration and management, and have a small resource footprint. They are a low-cost way to get more detailed metrics from, and greater control over, a monitored system. For example, a VM that is part of a vCenter Server can be monitored based on the metrics provided by that vCenter Server; however, an agent will allow you to see what is happening at the service/application level.

Prerequisites

• you have identified which test Linux server you will be installing the agent on
• an RPM utility has been installed (and is in path) on the test Linux server
• xinetd is installed on the test Linux server
• you have downloaded the agent for this platform (uptimeagent-6.0.0-linux-x86_64.rpm), and transferred it to the server

1. Log into the system as user root.
2. Run the following command: 
   rpm -i uptimeagent-6.0.0-linux-x86_64.rpm
   The agent install process will perform various steps, such as restarting xinetd, and verifying dependencies such as netstat and vmstat exist.
3. Confirm via the command-line feedback that the installation has been completed.

Configure Global Agent Collection

Now that you have installed an agent on a server, you could add it to up.time by using its host name. However, in a more realistic deployment, you would likely be installing agents on many servers. In this scenario, using auto discovery can expedite the process if you tell up.time how to find all servers with an agent installed.  

1. In the up.time Web interface, begin by clicking Config, then click Global Element Settings in the left pane. 
   On this page are configuration fields that let you define properties of different metric collection methods, allowing you to auto discover large groups that share the same properties.
2. In the up.time Agent Global Configuration section, click Edit Configuration. The port used to communicate with is 9998. By default, SSL is not enabled.
   
3. Click Save.

Validation Step: Test the global setting by entering the hostname of the Linux server you installed the agent on during the previous exercise.

This Linux server is now ready to be added to up.time as an agent-based Element. Before doing this, let's take a look at how enhanced metrics can similarly be collected for Windows-based servers.

Configure Global WMI Collection

As an alternative to the Windows up.time agent, Windows Management Instrumentation can provide deeper metrics for up.time that is similar with agent-based data collection. The advantage is that it makes use of your existing infrastructure, negating the need for agent deployment. All you need to do is provide the WMI administrator information to the up.time Monitoring Station, so that it is able to access Windows-based servers.

As with global agent settings, the WMI Agentless Global Credentials section of the Global Element Settings page lets you input WMI information once at a central point:

Configure the settings similar to those shown above:

• Windows Domain: The Windows domain in which WMI has been implemented.
• Username: The name of the account with access to WMI on the Windows domain.
• Password: The password for the account with access to WMI on the windows domain.

Validation Step: Test the global setting by entering a Windows host that the Monitoring Station can see in the Test Configuration section. 

You are now ready to find an agent-based Linux server, and WMI Windows server.

Add Agent and WMI Servers Using Auto Discovery

1. Click My Infrastructure, then click Auto Discovery in the left pane.
2. In the Auto Discovery pop-up, confirm that the selection is Discover Servers and Network Devices on your network, and click Next.
3. In the next step, select Servers with up.time Agent, and Servers with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). In both cases, select the Use [...] Global Configuration option that you have defined in the last two exercises:
   

4. Enter the subnet or IP address range, similar to above.

   Pro Tip

   Although we are keeping things simple, and using a single subnet or IP address range as shown above, there are other ways to point up.time at subnets and subnet ranges to expedite the Auto-Discovery process. See Using Auto Discovery for more information.

5. Click Next to start the Auto-Discovery process.

   

6. When all servers on the subnet or IP address range have been detected you will be able to make selections to add to your up.time inventory. Select the Linux server that's using the up.time agent, and select any WMI-managed Windows server.
   
7. Scroll to the bottom of the Auto Discovery list, and click Add. As a final step, you will receive confirmation that these are now part of your monitored inventory.
   

8. Click Done.

Review Your Current Inventory

After adding servers and closing the Auto Discovery window in the previous exercise, the main up.time UI window is at the My Infrastructure view. Refresh the page (or click My Infrastructure) to ensure the latest additions appear immediately:

If you followed the vCenter Server track, your inventory already included the vCenter Server Element and Infrastructure Groups created over those exercises. In addition, you will now see the Linux server and WMI-managed Windows server you added in the previous exercise. Your inventory is now a mixed virtual-physical, multi-platform mix (although a small one). Also note the platform-specific icons beside each Element type. 

Validation Step: Click a newly added server's gear icon. Then in the pop-up menu, click Graph Performance to go to its Quick Snapshot. 

In the VMware vCenter Server track, you viewed Quick Snapshots for the vCenter Server element, and a VM-type Element. Compared to the latter, the Quick Snapshot for an agent- or WMI-based server includes more detail, such as process information, which can be acted upon by up.time (for example, up.time's action scripts can restart a service as a follow-up remedy to an outage).

Because performance metrics are being gathered in real time by the up.time agent or via WMI, there is nothing yet to display in the Quick Snapshot graphs. After moving through more of this Getting Started Guide, we will return to this Quick Snapshot to view some data.