Windows Server

Learn how to monitor Windows Server hosts using the WMI ActiveGate extension.

Getting started

To get started, just click the chat button in the upper-right corner of the Dynatrace menu bar to contact a Dynatrace ONE Product Specialist. Dynatrace ONE will make sure you have what you need to monitor Windows Server hosts.

Prerequisites

  • A Windows Environment ActiveGate (version 1.155+) that has the ActiveGate plugin module installed and isn't used for synthetic or mainframe monitoring.

    • ActiveGate version 1.175+ is ready to accept and run extensions. If you are running an earlier version of ActiveGate, see Install ActiveGate plugin module for instructions on installing the plugin module.
    • For Environment ActiveGate installation instructions, see Dynatrace ActiveGate.
    • 1 environment ActiveGate can typically support 30-50 Windows Server hosts.

  • Windows Server host that supports WMI.

  • A user account belonging to both the Performance Monitor and Distributed COM user groups that has the following WMI rights:

    • Enable Account
    • Remote Enable
    • Read Security

    To verify the user account rights, run wmimgmt.msc, right-click WMI Control, select Properties, click Security, select Root, and click Security.

Extension installation

  1. Get the install file (custom.remote.python.wmi.zip) from your Dynatrace ONE Product Specialist via live chat. Don't rename the file.

  2. Unzip custom.remote.python.wmi.zip to the plugin_deployment directory of your ActiveGate host.

  3. If the resulting directory structure isn't .\plugin_deployment\custom.remote.python.wmi\, please make the necessary changes.

  4. Restart the Dynatrace Remote Plugin Module service by running these two commands in a Command Prompt launched as Admin:

    sc stop "Dynatrace Remote Plugin Module"  
sc start "Dynatrace Remote Plugin Module"

  5. Return to the Dynatrace web UI. Click Settings, the Add new technology monitoring button, and finally the Add ActiveGate extension button.

  6. Select Upload extension and upload custom.remote.python.wmi.zip.

  7. Enter the endpoint information requested for connecting to your Windows host:

    Setting Details
    Endpoint name Enter a meaningful endpoint name.
    Username A user account that belongs to the Performance Monitor user group.
    Password The password for the user account.
    Hostname/IP Hostname/IP and port of the server. Examples: 192.168.55.180[:1414], 192.168.55.181[:1414]
    Comma-separated list of the processes to be monitored For example: firefox,notepad++
    Comma-separated list of Event Viewer log files that are to be monitored for errors For example: Security,System
    Enable debug logging Select this only if Dynatrace ONE requests it so they can investigate an issue.
    Name of the group Used for visualization.
    Choose ActiveGate The ActiveGate where the extension resides.

Troubleshoot ActiveGate extensions

See Troubleshoot ActiveGate extensions.

Metrics

The IP address of all network interfaces and the ports used by the services is automatically captured, as are the following metrics:

Properties

  • Hostname
  • Domain/IP address(es)
  • Uptime
  • Number of logical processors
  • Number of enabled cores
  • Processor name
  • Current/Max clock speed
  • Windows version/build
  • Machine Architecture
  • Manufacturer/Model

Host

  • Availability
  • CPU load
  • Memory utilization
  • Error entries in event log

Network (per interface)

  • Bytes sent/received
  • Sent packets discarded/errors
  • Received packets discarded/errors
  • Output queue length

Disk (per logical disk)

  • Percent free space
  • Free MB
  • Disk read/write latency
  • Disk read/write queue length
  • Disk read/write bytes per second

Processes (max 100 /host)

  • Availability
  • CPU utilization
  • Memory footprint
  • Thread count
  • Page faults
  • IO read/write