Monitoring Windows Server 2008 R2 with SNMP

So you have a new Windows Server 2008 R2 installed and now you’d like to start gathering statistics about how it’s performing. The SNMP protocol is a great way to get started. In this tutorial I will install the SNMP agent service on a Windows server and configure it to allow queries from a SNMP based management server. On the management server I will use a tool named Cacti that can collect this SNMP information and generate graphs from it in a fairly easy way. I will assume that you have a server with Cacti already set up. If not, details on how to set up an instance of Cacti on a CentOS Linux server can be found here.


 
Install and Configure Windows SNMP Agent
Okay first of all let’s install the Windows SNMP agent service.
Start Server Manager.

Scroll down to the Features Summary section and click Add Features.

Under Features open up SNMP Services and check SNMP Service. Click Next.

Click Install at the confirmation screen, then click Close when the install is complete.

Now it is time to configure the SNMP Service. Back in the Server Manager in the left pane open up Configuration and select Services. In the middle Services pane scroll down and double click the SNMP Service.

Click the Agent tab and enter your Contact and Location information. Click Apply.

For now we’ll skip any configuration in the Traps tab. This should only be necessary if you want to configure the SNMP agent to notify our monitoring server of any events without the monitor soliciting the information.
In the Security tab under Accepted Community Names click Add.

We’ll only be reading information (and not setting parameters) on the SNMP agent so keep Read Only and type a Community Name. Using a name other than “public” will help keep unauthorized clients from reading SNMP information from the agent but this is still not completely secure. Click OK.

Now click the second Add button under Accept SNMP Packets.

Type the IP address or hostname of the Cacti management server and click Add.

Make sure that “Accept SNMP packets from these hosts” is still selected, then click OK.