There are several builds of Net-SNMP for Windows available that are mentioned on the Net-SNMP web site. The implemented features vary depending on the build. One feature I was looking for on Windows was log parsing, which uses the logmatch directive in Net-SNMP. I'm using the Microsoft Visual C (MSVC) build which doesn't implement logmatch. So, I went looking for a solution to use from an extension. I consulted Google and my buddy Hal Rottenberg. Both seem to like logparser. It's been around and has an interesting sort of SQL query syntax. Yeah, it's from Microsoft. I'm not known as a big proponent of things Microsoft. But it does the job, is mature, and is free. So, that's what I'm using.

I like that logparser can get into Windows event logs as well. I was planning on using the Event Agent subagent that comes with the Windows SNMP service. But configuring Event Agent doesn't fit too well in the way I need to distribute such a configuration. So, I'm thinking logparser provides an option that will work just as well, maybe better, and provide consistency of implementation across all log files.

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First, let me say my experience with Python started a couple of months ago. So, I don't know much. But as a HUGE fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus, I was disappointed to find out recently that I didn't know that Python is named after "it". Even Python's online collection of packages is named after the famous Cheese Shop sketch.

Now that I know this, I'll have to say my interest in Python is invigorated.

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Hal Rottenberg was the speaker at the June ANSMTUG meeting. Hal's a Microsoft MVP for PowerShell?, and the author of the recently published book "Managing VMware Infrastructure With Windows PowerShell". Hal's very active online with his blog, on twitter, and facebook. I think Hal did a really good job of introducing PowerShell? (for us newbies) and getting into how it can be used, namely, to monitor and manage a VMware infrastucture. Here are the results of the meeting:

• PowerShell intro slides
• Managing VMware with PowerShell slides
• Video of June meeting

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SNMP is as strong as ever when looking at system (server) monitoring. I'm involved in a project to roll out Net-SNMP to *NIX and Windows servers, and some desktops, across an enterprise. The core functionality of the agent is solid and provides most of the information needed without extensions. However, the ability to extend the Net-SNMP agent really puts it in a strong position. We're using Python (on *NIX and Windows) and PowerShell (Windows only) scripts to go get information the agent doesn't provide.

Why use Net-SNMP? In one of my earlier posts, I went over the economics of commercial agent-based solutions. Net-SNMP (and other open source tools like Python) break the concerns of cost while retaining functionality. Is there work to do using open source tools that you wouldn't do with commercial tools? In this case, yes. Is there work to do with commercial tools that you wouldn't do with open source? Yes, such as muttering to yourself about having paid so much money for a solution and you still wind up doing a non-trivial amount of integration work on your own or with consultants. If you look at what I call the total cost of ownership of an open source solution then you can come out ahead. What's tricky is figuring out whether or not there are enough staff resources with the right capabilities to make the open source solution work. The cost savings help with this.

In some circles, it seems SNMP has lost favor. It may be old, in Internet years, but it's still got a fire in the belly.

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The next meeting of the Atlanta Network and Systems Management Technical User Group (ANSMTUG) is May 12th at The Home Depot in Atlanta, Georgia. Please register if you plan to attend (it's free!).

This month's topic is managing and monitoring virtualized infrastructure using VMware solutions. This is a hot topic, so please plan to attend!

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The next meeting of the ANSMTUG is set for 14 April 2009 at CBeyond. James Mellinger of IBM will present on the IBM Tivoli Netcool suite. More about this later!

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Well, I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise. Vendors selling agent-based solutions are beginning to price themselves out of the market in some situations. I'm seeing some customers do the math and find that, even if they have to maintain it themselves, that using a combination of open source technologies (Net-SNMP, Perl, and Python, to name a few) is going to work better for them. In one case that I know of, it was pretty much a no-brainer. The expense of the agents alone, never mind administration and management, was not going to work for them.

So, customers are using popular building blocks and producing their own solution. Tools like Perl, Python, and Net-SNMP are well-documented and finding folks who can handle all of them is not hard. Especially these days.

Think about it. If you were looking at putting an agent on tens of thousands of servers and scaling an administration infrastructure to deal with it then what do you think it would cost? Agents alone can be in the $1,000+ range. Let's say the agent is $1,000 and there are 50,000 servers. Done the multiplication? That's $5,000,000 dollars.

Agents = $5,000,000

How about the administration backend? Let's be generous and say you could administer 5,000 agents per server and that the administration software is $50,000 per instance. You'd need 10 servers with administration software. That's $500,000 in software and 10 servers at around $4,000 per server. So about $540,000 total. (I know there's more cost, this is a blog, not a business case.)

Admin software = $540,000

So, we're at roughly $5.5M. With even a 60% discount that's $2.2M. $2.2M!! And that's just the capital outlay. Let's say maintenance is 20% of the discounted amount (even though most vendors I know will calculate this on the list price of the products, not the discounted amount) and your recurring cost is $440,000 per year ($1.1M if you use list!).

Discount total = $2,200,000

Recurring expense = $440,000

How many full time staff can you hire for $2.2M for a year to develop something functional? If you pay well then a fully burdened employee expense may be $200,000. That's 11 people! And then you can have a couple of full time employees to maintain it for what your recurring cost would be.

See what I mean?

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I'm looking at what it's going to take to monitor VMware ESX server instances and virtual machines (VMs) using SNMP. It's not that vCenter Server (formerly known as Virtual Center) isn't around to do the job. It's that the architecture of vCenter Server servers and ESX instances is susceptible to some communication issues. So, as something of a backup, I'm looking at the VMware enterprise specific MIBs. Just now getting into it.

John Banerian, a long time friend and Technical Account Manager at EMC VMware has been incredibly helpful on getting into this. Thanks, John! And don't forget to look for John playing at Abbott's Bar and Grill on some Tuesdays.

I'll have more to say about VMware ESX and SNMP later.

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The March meeting of the Atlanta Network and Systems Management Technical User Group is being held on the 10th at Emory University. Check the registration page for details and to register to attend. It's free!

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Remember my post about Mage? The upcoming new iPhone game? Well, you'll now find that the company that produced Mage, Random Pirates, has changed its name to wizdgin. Why? Well, it seems that there's a group named Random Pirate Comics that produces some pretty cool comics. The name was a little too close for comfort for Random Pirates, so they "moved" to wizdigin. Check them, and Mage, out. Mage should show up on the iTunes App Store any day now.

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