How to monitor Window Servers with Cacti using SNMP
Would you like to learn how to do a Cacti Windows network monitoring installation? In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to install SNMP on Windows and how to configure Cacti to monitor a computer running Windows using Cacti.
Step 1: First, we are going to install and configure the SNMP service on a computer running Windows Server
Open the Server Manager application.
Access the Manage menu and click on Add roles and features.
Access the features screen, select the SNMP service option and finish the installation
On the following screen, click on the Add features button.
The SNMP feature was installed on your computer but we still need to configure the SNMP service.
Open the Windows service management screen and access the SNMP service properties.
Access the Agent tab, select all the options and enter the device contact information.
Access the Security tab and select the Accept SNMP packets from any host option.
You need to create a Read-only SNMP community.
Here is a summary of our configuration example:
The Greencloudvps Community has read-only permission on the Windows server.
The contact person responsible for this Windows computer was configured as Greencloud.
The location of the equipment was configured as the Los_Angeles
You have successfully installed the Windows SNMP service.
You have successfully configured the Windows SNMP service.
Step 2: Open the portl for the SNMP service
Please open port 161 in firewall to use for SNMP, you can see this tutorial on how to open port on Windows server: How to open a port in Windows Server Firewall
Step 3: Cacti Monitor Windows using SNMP
Now, we need to access the Cacti server dashboard and add the Windows computer as a Device.
Open your browser and enter the IP address of your web server plus /cacti.
In our example, the following URL was entered in the Browser:
• http://yourserver/cacti
On the login screen, use the default username and default password.
• Default Username: admin
• Default Password: admin
After a successful login, you will be sent to the Cacti Dashboard.
On the Cacti dashboard screen, access the Management menu and select the Devices option.
Click on the plus sign on the top right part of the screen to add a new device.
Perform the following configuration and click on the Create button.
• Description - Enter a description
• Hostname - Enter the IP address of your Windows server
• Device Template - Windows
• SNMP Version - 2
• SNMP Community - Enter your SNMP Community
• Downed Device Detection - SNMP Uptime
After clicking on the Create button, the top of the page will show the result of an SNMP communication test.
On the top of the screen, Click on the following option: Create Graphs for this device
Select the template that meets your network monitoring needs
Select the desired disk partitions.
Select the desired network interfaces.
Important! On the bottom right part of the screen, select the option named: In/Out Bits (64-bit)
Click on the Create button located on the bottom-right part of the screen.
Go to the Management menu and select the Devices options.
Wait 5 minutes and check if your Windows server device was added to the list.
Step 4: Configure Cacti Graph Tree
Go to the Management menu and select the Trees options.
Click on the plus sign on the top right part of the screen to add a new tree.
Add a description and click on the Create buton.
On the Tree properties screen, click on the Edit tree properties button.
Enable the Publish option.
Drag the desired device or specific graph to the left part of the screen.
Click on the Save button.
Click on the finish editing the tree button.
The Cacti tree configuration was finished.
Step 5: Cacti Monitoring Windows Server
Select the Graphs tab on the top left part of the screen.
Locate the desired Cacti tree where the Windows server was included.
Click on device name that you configured to the Windows server.
You are now able to use Cacti as a network monitor solution to monitor Windows servers using SNMP.
Good Luck!
