Automated monitoring of a NAS system?

[Jester5510]

Ok, so a company I contract for I installed 6 NAS devices for nightly user backups. It's been working... decently. Thecus n4100pros are kind of giving us a hard time, but we've been able to be proactive thanks to the built in e-mail functionality when an error or warning occurs.

My client wants to go one step further. He believes in being safe rather than sorry, and so do I. If one of these NAS units just dies out of nowhere, it's not going to send an e-mail, obviously, and we'll not know unless we physically inspect the NAS or try to log into its web interface.

So the question is this: Does anyone have any suggestions on software or any other solution that would A) E-mail us B) Tell us if it dies or is powered down and C) Check once an hour or even real time? We want to be able to respond as quickly as possible in a complete failure event.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure there's something simple that I'm just overlooking.

 

[Martyn]

Well the one I installed recently emails me every night when a backup is successful so if I don't get an email then I'll assume something is wrong or am I missing something?

 

[Jester5510]

Well the one I installed recently emails me every night when a backup is successful so if I don't get an email then I'll assume something is wrong or am I missing something?

Was it the same model NAS? I have it set to e-mail me for all warnings, etc., but there's nothing about a successful backup.

 

[Martyn]

Was it the same model NAS? I have it set to e-mail me for all warnings, etc., but there's nothing about a successful backup.

Sorry not the same NAS but i would have thought it could be set to email you on a backup completion? I get two email one to tell me it's completed an Amazon S3 backup and one to tell me it's done a USB external hard drive backup. It's a Synology NAS.

 

[uprighttech]

With a GFI Max server agent installed on one of their machines, you can do a PING or SNMP check every so often to make sure it is up. If you know the correct OID's for the Thecus, you may even be able to monitor things like fan speed, drive state, free space and temp with the SNMP check too.

A quick Google search revealed a couple of ping monitoring utilities that are free for monitoring a limited number of hosts. I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
http://ping-monitor.com/
http://www.paessler.com/prtg/download

 

[Jester5510]

With a GFI Max server agent installed on one of their machines, you can do a PING or SNMP check every so often to make sure it is up. If you know the correct OID's for the Thecus, you may even be able to monitor things like fan speed, drive state, free space and temp with the SNMP check too.

A quick Google search revealed a couple of ping monitoring utilities that are free for monitoring a limited number of hosts. I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
http://ping-monitor.com/
http://www.paessler.com/prtg/download

GFI Max sounds nice, but I'm not keen on their lack of pricing information. Shot them an e-mail, because that could be useful for other clients as well. Those two ping monitoring tools, however, could prove extremely useful. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[MotzTech]

GFI Max is very affordable in my opinion. You can also get a discount if you are member of ACRBO (It's free to join).


http://www.acrbo.com/

 

[uprighttech]

GFI Max sounds nice, but I'm not keen on their lack of pricing information.

Jester, GFI does not make their pricing public because they do not want end users to know what their channel partners are paying for it. As a partner, you will get it for a certain price (it is very reasonable), and then you can decide what you want to charge your clients. Your clients do not need to know what your costs are.