Advice on pulling some basic info every month on remote servers

[bword]

For my day job...I've been tasked with grabbing some info from our remote servers that run our software. I dont need alerts or anything like that. Would be ideal to run a powershell script or batchfile to pull info and dump it into a basic notepad file, take that info put it into my ticket and move on to the next one.

Our servers are not direct RDP they are all using different vpns such as Citrix, Cisco, ect. We have about 50 sites we need to check on.

This is part of a monthly maintenance in which I would confirm the VPN works and essentially look for hardware failures among other things. The servers are all Windows mostly Server 2003/2008.

I've been looking at some paid software which honestly might be way overkill for the stuff I need.

Some of the things I would like to be able to have in a log or report would be

-Server uptime
-Free disk space
-Pending updates
-If possible if any services has failed/crashed (usually found in the event viewer)
-If possible any type of hardware failures (we usually use Dell open manage)
-SQL database file size (LDF and MDF)

 

[allstarit]

When i get into my office ill send you over this powershell script i used before having RMM it might be what your after.
1st script did a report on disk size, memory and cpu. Also shows processes using most ram and top folders on hdd with largest size.
Then i ran a second script which was for clients with local exchange..it ran a powershell script to list top mailboxes on server.

However based on what you want to check i think an RMM would be better suited..just install agent and away you go and all in one dashboard.

I tried the manual powershell scripts per server or per client but was very time consuming compared to RMM. Im using max focus.

 

[bword]

This is not the most optimal way of checking up thats for sure. I dread logging into each individual server/vpn/site. But because of all the different types of ways of accessing them dont think its possible any other way.

Most of these servers are on locked down networks that cant hit google or anything like that do you think RMM would still work?

Ill would def take any advice with Powershell for sure thanks!!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Most of these servers are on locked down networks that cant hit google or anything like that do you think RMM would still work?

Most RMMs have instructions on setting them up on super secured network....they'll have guides on what to put in the whitelist for sites to allow for the outbound heartbeats.
I'd vote for an RMM also. Time is money. Time is money. Time is money. Doing it the "manual way"....so much time spent.
Even some of the freebie entry level RMMs out there should be able to give the basic reporting you need.

 

[TAPtech]

Unless you're paid salary and just have a lot of time on your hands... RMM for sure.

 

[bword]

Unless you're paid salary and just have a lot of time on your hands... RMM for sure.

I am salary and free time is scarce but does happen lol

 

[bword]

Most RMMs have instructions on setting them up on super secured network....they'll have guides on what to put in the whitelist for sites to allow for the outbound heartbeats.
I'd vote for an RMM also. Time is money. Time is money. Time is money. Doing it the "manual way"....so much time spent.
Even some of the freebie entry level RMMs out there should be able to give the basic reporting you need.

Its a matter of convincing all these Admins to allow the RMM to get out. Especially with hospitals these guys are usually locked down hardcore. And to be honest my superiors are not worried so much about real time monitoring (I know they should be) mainly just monthly reporting.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Its a matter of convincing all these Admins to allow the RMM to get out. Especially with hospitals these guys are usually locked down hardcore. And to be honest my superiors are not worried so much about real time monitoring (I know they should be) mainly just monthly reporting.

Hence using a professional, well known RMM...that has security and proper setup as a first and foremost concern.

 

[allstarit]

Sorry been hectic week i didnt get a chance to get those powershell scripts. I think it was this i used if that helps

https://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmi...a-daily-systems-report-email-with-powershell/

However as mentioned above try to convince the bosses to go for RMM - you wont look back seriously.
Took a bit of convincing to get my boss to do it but now he sees a good reoccurring revenue come in and reports looks good.
Powershell was slow and had to fiddle with each site to get it to work. You also can use powershell scripts in RMM tools too so it does so much more than just checking diskspace and ram.

Sign up to a trial and demo it on your office or something - present it to the boss and see how you go. nothing to loose with a trial.
Since having the RMM in place its kept us techs busy doing proactive stuff that we are looking to get on more helpdesk staff to specifically follow up on checks in the RMM and another onsite guy. So its looking good

 

[fencepost]

It took me a little bit to track this down, but it was discussed on one of the Podnutz shows from either earlier this year or last fall. EventSentry may be a worthwhile option for you depending on how many machines you're looking at.

For 50+ machines you're probably in the $50-60/machine per year price range, with ongoing updates/support after the first year being 18% of the first year price. If it works out well, the $3000-ish price for the first year is probably cheaper than having you spend a bunch of time trying to duplicate the functionality.