Monitoring Active Directory

Abstract

This document describes how you can monitor domain controller. This monitoring covers typically:

  • Domain replication
  • etc...

Introduction

These instructions assume that you’ve installed Shinken according to the Installation tutorial. The sample configuration entries below reference objects that are defined in the sample config files (“commands.cfg”, “templates.cfg”, etc.) that was installed if you followed the quickstart.

Overview

Monitoring a domain controller is possible in an agentless way by polling via the network using the WMI protocol, like we proposed in the windows template.

Prerequisites

Have a valid account on the Microsoft Windows device (local or domain account) you will monitor using WMI queries and already get the windows server monitor with the windows template.

Steps

There are several steps you’ll need to follow in order to monitor a Microsoft Exchange server.

  • Add the good domain controller template to your windows host in the configuration
  • Restart the Shinken Arbiter

What’s Already Been Done For You

To make your life a bit easier, configuration templates are provided as a starting point:

  • A selection of check_ad_replication* based commands definitions have been added to the “commands.cfg” file. This allows you to use the check_wmi_plus plugin.
  • Some Exchange host templates are included the “templates.cfg” file. This allows you to add new host definitions in a simple manner.

The above-mentioned config files can be found in the ///etc/shinken/packs/microsoft/dc// directory. You can modify the definitions in these and other templates to suit your needs. However, wait until you’re more familiar with Shinken before doing so. For the time being, just follow the directions outlined below and you’ll be monitoring your devices in no time.

Setup the check_wmi_plus plugin

If you already follow the windows monitoring tutorial, you should already got the check_wmi_plus plugin. If it’s not done, please do it first.

Declare your host in Shinken

The domain controller template name is dc. All you need is to add it on your windws host.

Now it’s time to define some object definitions in your Shinken configuration files in order to monitor the new Windows machine.

We will suppose here that your server is named srv-win-1. Of course change this name with the real name of your server.

Find your host definition and edit it:

Under Linux:

::
linux:~ # vi /etc/shinken/hosts/srv-win-1.cfg

Or Windows:

::
c:wordpad c:shinkenetchostssrv-win-1.cfg

All you need it to add the good template for your host. For example for a Hub Transport server:

::
define host{
use dc,windows host_name srv-win-1 address srv-win-1.mydomain.com }
  • The use dc is the “template” line. It mean that this host will inherits properties from this template. * the host_name is the object name of your host. It must be unique. * the address is ... the network address of your host :)

What is checked with a domain controller template?

At this point, you configure your host to be checked with a dc and windows templates. What does it means? In addition to the windows classic checks, it means that you got some checks already configured for you:
  • Domain replication

Restarting Shinken

You’re done with modifying the Shinken configuration, so you’ll need to verify your configuration files and restart Shinken.

If the verification process produces any errors messages, fix your configuration file before continuing. Make sure that you don’t (re)start Shinken until the verification process completes without any errors!

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