Monitoring Your Disk Utilization

Monitoring Disk Utilization

There are many ways to monitor your network for performance. With proper monitoring, you can be notified immediately via email when metrics fall outside of predefined limits and alarms are triggered.

You will want to be sure that the system you use sends email notifications to a designated individual who can adjust the database if needed. We strongly recommend using an email distribution group so multiple people receive the notifications.

At a minimum, we strongly encourage you to actively monitor your systems including the percent disk utilization for free disk space. If a disk runs out of space your VM might stop running.

If you do not have a system for monitoring and sending alarms, one good option is Spiceworks https://www.spiceworks.com; a free SAAS based monitoring solution.

Spiceworks is very easy to setup. You start by creating an account, installing a monitor, and specifying what you want to monitor. Your basic monitoring can be setup and running in under 20 minutes.

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How to Setup Spiceworks Monitoring

 www.spiceworks.com

When you first go to the Spiceworks page you might be asked for a Display Name to sign up for the Spiceworks Community. You can easily skip signing up for the Community, however we recommend you go ahead and sign up because advanced topics are all found in the Community.

 

• Enter your Display Name

 

 

• You can choose to fill in the boxes or “Skip this step’

 

 

 

 

Download the agent to your server. Be sure you are doing this from a web browser on your server and not your desktop!

• Select Products
• Select Inventory

 

 

• Click Download Inventory

 

 

• You will be asked to create an admin account
• Click Start App Download

 

 

If you are using Internet Explorer you might see the message below- other browsers won’t cause this to come up.

 

 

How to resolve the download issue in IE:

• Click the Gear in the upper right corner
• select Internet Options

 

 

• When the dialogue box opens click Security
• Click Custom Level

 

 

• Scroll down (or press the page down arrow 5 times) until you find what you see in this image
• Enable the setting and click OK.

 

 

• Return to the Spiceworks page and try downloading it again
• You might see the link shown below: It will allow you to restart the download

 

• In Internet Explorer: Click Run
• If you are using Chrome or Firefox you will need to locate the downloaded file and run it

 

 

• Once the install starts you will see the image below:

 

 

• When the installation is complete you will be asked to enter a port number- you can use the default
• Click Next

 

 

• Uncheck the box to install NMap and WinPCap as you will not need these components
• Click Next

 

 

• Let the Destination Folder path at the default
• Click Install

 

 

• The installation will begin

 

 

• Once completed you will see the following:
• Click Continue

 

 

• Spiceworks will prepare to start running

 

 

• Enter the account information you used previously

 

 

• Fill in the boxes: Be sure you give the system an email address to use for alerts
• You can change this later if you decide you want to use something else

 

 

Now you need to install an agent on the server. You will notice you need to give the system a username and password and it suggests using a domain admin account. In the next few steps we will show you how to create a local server administrator account.

 

To create a local server administrator account start by:

• Right clicking on the Start button
• Click Run #2

 

 

• When the Run box opens type “compmgmt.msc” and press OK

 

 

When Computer Management opens:

1. Locate Local Users and Groups
2. Locate and right click Users
3. Click New User

 

 

Give the new user a name and password. Be sure you check the boxes as shown in this image to ensure the password is not changed and never expires.

 

• After the user has been created right click the name
• Select Properties

 

 

You now need to add the new user to the administrators group:

1. Locate the ‘Member Of’ Tab
2. Click Add
3. Type Administrators in the box as shown
4. Click OK
5. Click OK

  

Now go back to the web page and use the account you just created as shown in this image.

Note:

• The username must entered using the format of “servername\username”
• You must click the radio button under Mac/Linux/Unix stating “I don’t have any”…

 

 

• The system will now complete the install and scan for your agent. Once found you will see something like this box (note that you can double click on the server name and see details about it).
• Click the Settings item in the upper right corner

At this point you should use the Community and other resources to learn more about Spiceworks as it is a very powerful server monitoring tool.

 

 

After you have entered the setup area you will want to setup your email.

• Locate “Email Settings” in the menu on the left side of the screen. If you need assistance click the link “How to Setup Email”. You can also log into the Community and locate additional information about setting up email alerts.

 

 

Within the Setup area you will find the “Monitors and Alerts” section where you control what is being monitored and alarmed on. You are interested in the % free disk space. You can also add your own Monitors in this area.

 

 

• By clicking the Pencil Icon you can edit the setting for monitoring the % free space on disk.