WMI collection and metric polling

In version 2.3.0, NetIM restored Windows Metrics support to the NetIM 2.x product line. Metric classes supported in NetIM 1.x are supported in NetIM version 2.3.0 and higher. The Windows Metrics Poller supports the following metric classes:

NetIM uses PowerShell remoting to collect Windows system model attributes and poll Windows metrics. This is different from the technology used to poll for Windows metrics and model attributes in NetIM 1.x, but the data is the same.

We estimate you should be able to poll approximately 300 Windows servers at 5-minute polling granularity with a single NetIM worker. This is an estimate and “your mileage may vary” in terms of scalability of each WMI poller service.

To ensure you are successful in Windows system attribute collection and metrics polling, use the following checklist.

• Remote Windows systems you are polling must support PowerShell 5.1.x or later.

• Remote Windows systems you are polling must support PowerShell remoting.

• A user must be created/added to the remote management user group for performing the Windows Metrics Collection and Polling. The user must also be in the Distributed COM Users group, Remote Management Users group, and in the Performance Monitor Users group.

If you are polling the Windows Services metric class, you must provide access to the data.

For successful Windows Metric polling, your Windows systems must comply with the-following prerequisites:

1. Check the version of PowerShell running on the target Windows systems that you will be polling.

– Make sure that PowerShell version 5.1.x or greater is installed. In the unlikely event that the PowerShell version is not at least 5.1, get the appropriate installer and upgrade the PowerShell from Microsoft at Installing Windows PowerShell.

2. Enable remoting in PowerShell, by entering the following command:

3. Configure and restart the WinRM, by entering the following command:

4. Check the WinRM service settings, by entering the following command:

5. Add a user (in other words, wmiuser) to the remote management user group for performing the WMI collection and Polling, by entering the following command:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Remote Management Users" -Member "wmiuser"

The user needs to be in the Distributed COM Users group, Remote Management Users group and in the Performance Monitor Users group. If the Windows user is setup as domain user, then skip the next steps.

If the user is configured as a local user on the computer, them make sure to add the DWORD property LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy in the following path and set it to 1 using regedit or using the following command in the PowerShell:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> New-ItemProperty -Name LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy `-Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System ` -PropertyType DWord -Value 1

6. (Optional) If you plan to collect the Windows Services metric class (Win32_Service) you must execute a supplementary command on the remote target system to allow access to and collection of the metric class.

Run from a command prompt with administrator privilege (do not run from powershell):

sc sdset SCMANAGER D:(A;;CCLCRPRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCRPWPRC;;;SY)(A;;KA;;;BA)S:(AU;FA;KA;;;WD)(AU;OIIOFA;GA;;;WD)

7. (Recommended) By default, some Windows systems may be configured with only 512 MB for PowerShell sessions. To avoid out-of-memory issues during collection and polling, ensure that the Windows systems are configured to have at least 1 GB of memory (2 GB recommended) for MaxMemoryPerShellMB. You can check the current settings by running this command within PowerShell:

To adjust the memory allocated per shell, perform the following steps within a PowerShell session:

– Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Plugin\Microsoft.PowerShell\Quotas\MaxMemoryPerShellMB 2048

– get-Item WSMan:\localhost\Plugin\Microsoft.PowerShell\Quotas\MaxMemoryPerShellMB

To troubleshoot a winrm firewall exception, see Troubleshooting winrm firewall exception.

To confirm that you can perform PowerShell remoting from NetIM core and workers to collect a class of Windows metrics, run the following commands in the PowerShell:

Log in to the NetIM core or a NetIM worker as netimadmin (the default password is also netimadmin) and invoke the PowerShell CLI by first entering the bash shell and then entering pwsh, as shown in the following screen:

Execute the following commands from NetIM core or a worker to confirm that PowerShell remoting works to a chosen target Windows system:

$PWord1 = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "<wmiuser_pwd>" -AsPlainText -Force

$Credential1 = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $User1, $PWord1

$session1 = New-PSSession -Name mySession -Credential $Credential1 -ComputerName <host_ip_address> -Authentication Negotiate -Verbose

Invoke-Command -Session $session1 -ScriptBlock {Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_System | ConvertTo-Json}

$PWord1 = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "NetIM1t1m123?" -AsPlainText -Force

$Credential1 = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $User1, $PWord1

$session1 = New-PSSession -Name mySession -Credential $Credential1 -ComputerName 11.46.249.1 -Authentication Negotiate -Verbose

Invoke-Command -Session $session1 -ScriptBlock {Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_System | ConvertTo-Json}

Invoke-Command -Session $session1 -ScriptBlock {Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_System}

You can also use NetIM GUI-based WMITEST utility for troubleshooting. The WMITEST tool is akin to NetIM’s SNMP MIBBROWSER test tool but geared toward Windows system attributes and metrics.

1. Log in to NetIM core as netimadmin/ netimadmin (default) and start xrdp, as follows:

2. RDP into the NetIM core as netimadmin/ netimadmin.

3. Launch the WMITEST tool from a terminal window, as follows:

4. Click Edit Options.

5. Select wmitest (Currently logged in user).

6. Click OK to save your selections.

7. Select a device from the list or add a new device. The list is populated from Device Manager.

A progress Indicator appears, until the Results window displays so you can browse the results, as follows:

For more information on resolving additional issues with WMI, see Troubleshooting WMI.

You can add Windows systems for collection and polling in many of the same ways you add devices for SNMP polling and collection and CLI (Command-Line Interface) collection. Add devices using the Configure > Add/Discover Devices wizard, as follows:

• Add device using Device Manager’s Import Device Access Info File, as follows.

The Device Access Info File’s file format has a format like the following:

• Add devices using Device Manager’s Import from LDAP Server, as follows.

• Add an individual device using the Device Manager’s Create Device, as follows:

Similar to NetIM 1.x, collection and polling can be monitored from within the Device Manager for individual device collection and within dedicated collection and polling status for summary and details.

The Device Manager provides detailed collection status for each device from the Statistics > View WMI History option, as follows.

The dedicated pages for collection and polling are updated to include Windows collection and polling status. The collection and polling status pages are accessed as follows.