Capabilities
* The WMI Wizard has been deprecated. Please see alternative methods.*
Nagios provides direct monitoring of Windows operating systems via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), including operating system metrics, service state, process state, file system usage, and more. WMI is a technology that allows for agentless monitoring of Windows servers and workstations. Agentless technologies like WMI and SNMP allow IT administrators to deploy monitoring solutions without having to install agent software on each monitored system.
Benefits
Implementing effective WMI monitoring with Nagios offers the following benefits:
- Increased server, service, and application availability
- Detection of server and operating system failures
- Detection of service and application failures
- Agentless monitoring
Alternative Methods
Monitoring Windows with NCPA
Nagios Cross Platform Agent (NCPA) is our powerful and flexible monitoring agent that can monitor Windows counters, running and stopped processes, as well as services! This agent also has a robust API and the optional ability to run remote plugins to gather server-side performance data. Learn more about NCPA.
Agentless Monitoring Options
Monitoring Windows with SNMP
If an agent is not an option, SNMP is an “agentless” method of monitoring network devices and servers and is often preferable to installing dedicated agents on target machines. Thousands of different network devices and operating systems from different vendors support SNMP for delivering critical information on health and usage metrics, service state, and more.
However, please be aware that Microsoft may deprecate SNMP. Learn how to monitor Windows with SNMP.
Monitoring Hosts Using SSH
Another agentless option is using OpenSSH, which Microsoft has ported to Windows. Our SSH Proxy Wizard allows you to retrieve metrics from Windows hosts with proper prep work and testing within your organization. Since this process may require plugins from the community, we are only able to provide the SSH Proxy Wizard, not the plugin itself. Learn how to monitor hosts using SSH.
Resources
Documentation
Recommended Software: Nagios XI

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