Dell server and storage systems are not only used in corporate data centers, but also by cloud providers who provide their customers with various services such as IaaS, PaaS or SaaS. Ensuring that all systems function smoothly is a decisive criterion here. Disruptions or even failures can quickly result in financial losses. In this post, I'll explain how you can use PRTG Network Monitor to monitor your entire Dell infrastructure, and thus ensure continuity. By using the appropriate sensors, you will never lose the overview and you will always be informed about the status of the systems.
Alongside data storage, servers are the central hardware components of any data center. They contribute a large part to the overall performance of the infrastructure - but only if they run flawlessly. To minimize downtime and ensure peak performance of your services, constant monitoring of your Dell server infrastructure is essential. PRTG provides a range of sensors for this purpose:
The SNMP Dell Hardware Sensor monitors performance counters on a Dell hardware device via the Simple Network Management Protocol and provides information about system management software, system status, chassis and BIOS and other hardware parameters.
The SNMP Dell PowerEdge Physical Disk Sensor* monitors a physical disk in a Dell PowerEdge server and displays the overall status and shows warnings about S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology).
Use the SNMP Dell PowerEdge System Health Sensor* to monitor the system health of a Dell PowerEdge server with details about battery, power supply, cooling, voltage status and much more.
* Requires at least iDRAC 7 or the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) installed on the monitored server.
By implementing these sensors, you can monitor your Dell servers in terms of accessibility, availability, utilization and general functionality. But you can also improve stability and performance by being informed at all times when defined threshold values (such as utilization of hard disks, processor or memory) are exceeded.
Dell EMC is a leading provider of storage systems for businesses of all sizes. PRTG provides out-of-the-box sensors to monitor your Dell EMC storage systems, whether you have PowerVault, EqualLogic or Dell EMC systems in use. These sensors provide details on capacity, the file system, and also VMware data stores. Let's take a look at a part of PRTG sensors for monitoring Dell storage systems:
By using the SNMP Dell EqualLogic Logical Disk Sensor you can monitor a volume of a Dell EqualLogic storage system and get details about average read / write latency, availability, connections and more.
The SNMP Dell EqualLogic Physical Disk Sensor monitors a disk in a Dell EqualLogic storage system and provides information about number of bytes read and written, disk status and failed transfers.
The Dell EMC Unity Enclosure Health v2 Sensor monitors the health of a disk-array enclosure (DAE) or a physical or virtual disk processor enclosure (DPE) on a Dell EMC storage system via the Representational State Transfer (REST) application programming interface (API).
With the Dell EMC Unity VMware Datastore v2 Sensor, you can monitor a VMware datastore on a Dell EMC storage system via the REST API. This sensor provides information about the free storage space, host count, virtual drive count and virtual machine count.
Use the Dell PowerVault MDi Physical Disk Sensor to monitor a physical disk (mode, status and downtime) on a Dell PowerVault MD3000i, MD3420, MD3620i, MD3000f, or MD3620f.
In addition to these sensors, PRTG Network Monitor offers many other predefined sensors for monitoring Dell storage systems. The complete overview of all Dell sensors can be found here. Additionally, WMI sensors for monitoring physical and logical disks are also available in PRTG.
Regardless of how large or small an IT infrastructure is, monitoring is essential to avoid negative effects on the business and its processes. Both server and storage systems and their performance play an important role and need to be monitored around the clock. PRTG is the ideal solution to monitor your entire IT infrastructure and fulfills more than just key requirements. In addition to the sensors mentioned above, which were developed specifically for Dell systems, many other native sensors are available to provide you with a central overview of your entire infrastructure.