Recommended host OS for HostMonitor

[alert]

Hello,

According to online manual:

System Requirements:
Windows 2000 SP4, XP Professional SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2/R2 or Windows 7
Recommended: Windows 2003 SP2
Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, Microsoft TCP/IP protocol
Free disk space: from 15 Mb (if you install HostMonitor only) to 31 Mb (for all components)

All above OS are 32-bit and I do not see Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 listed. Does that mean that 64-bit OS is unsupported or not recommended? How about W8 and W2012?

I have purchased a new PC I'd like to set as monitoring station. In addition to AHM, I may install/run another monitoring software that may require local SQL database and some of the latest tech that is available in latest version of MS Windows. 64-bit OS supports 4+GB of memory which is helpful in many cases.

Since XP and 2003 are nearing EOL, isn't it better to deploy the software on a latest version of OS?

I tested AHM on Windows 7 x64 and it seems to work fine. Generally speaking, is there anything that is limited (or will not work) on 64-bit OS compared with 32-bit? Is (and why) 32-bit OS is recommended over 64-bit?

Will ADH work better on server OS versus client OS? I am trying to decide which version of OS to install on new PC that is designed mainly for Windows 7 and 8 with up to 16GB RAM (Intel NUC) but may can latest server OS as well after some hacking.

Thank you in advance.

[KS-Soft]

64bit Windows not a problem.
Next paragraph on the same "system requirements" page shows:

Windows x64:

- HostMonitor is 32-bit application, however it can be used on Windows x64 Edition running on x86-64 (AMD64) systems (not on Itanuim/IA-64). E.g. you can start HostMonitor on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition or Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition.

- If you are using Windows x64 Edition and you want to setup ODBC Logging or ODBC test method, you should setup ODBC datasources using 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe).

>Is (and why) 32-bit OS is recommended over 64-bit?

Does not matter for HostMonitor. You may use 32bit OS or 64bit OS.


>How about W8 and W2012?

We tested Advanced Host Monitor on these systems, works fine in our network.
However officially we never support any new Windows before Service Pack release, usually there are too many bugs and not enough information.

Will ADH work better on server OS versus client OS? I am trying to decide which version of OS to install on new PC that is designed mainly for Windows 7 and 8 with up to 16GB RAM (Intel NUC) but may can latest server OS as well after some hacking.

If you plan to setup 1000 "lite" test items (like Ping, TCP, File Availibility), it does not matter.
If you plan to setup 20,000 test items using "heavy" methods like WMI, Dominant Process, Performance Counter then we would recommend server edition (Windows 2008)

Regards
Alex

[alert]

Will ADH work better on server OS versus client OS? I am trying to decide which version of OS to install on new PC that is designed mainly for Windows 7 and 8 with up to 16GB RAM (Intel NUC) but may can latest server OS as well after some hacking.

If you plan to setup 1000 "lite" test items (like Ping, TCP, File Availibility), it does not matter.
If you plan to setup 20,000 test items using "heavy" methods like WMI, Dominant Process, Performance Counter then we would recommend server edition (Windows 2008)

Regards
Alex

Could you please estimate number of tests that can run on Intel Core i3-3217U http://ark.intel.com/products/65697/ system? I am sure you have alot of statistical data collected over years that can be extrapolated.

Thank you, Alex.

[KS-Soft]

There are 100 factors to consider:
- most important how often do you want to perform these tests? Every 20 sec or every 5 min? That's a huge difference.
- what exactly tests? Ping? TCP? WMI? CPU Usage?
- what exactly settings? E.g. if you want to use Count Files test method to check folder with 5-10 files or you want to use the same test to count files on entire hard drive? Again - huge difference.
- and so on.

I cannot answer your question until I see your test list. On the other hand, if you have a list, you may use Auditing Tool to check for possible problems (menu View->Auditing Tool)

In average, 5000 various test items performed every 3 min should not be a problem at all.
If you perform "lite" tests like Ping, SNMP, File Availability, you may setup 10,000 items with the same interval...

Regards
Alex

[timn]

There are 100 factors to consider....

(omitted for brevity)

Regards
Alex

I'd like to offer some perspective on this as a long-time customer.

It's now been almost 10 years since I started using AHM (see my first post here ). I've now used it across all 3 employers that I've had during that 10 year period. I am currently working as the Network Administrator at medium-small company -- 400-500 employees. I cannot imagine being cost-effective at my job without using AHM.

I would offer just one suggestion... If you consider network/systems monitoring to be a critical function within your organization, then dedicate a machine to AHM (either real or virtual) and don't look back. And don't short AHM when it comes to resources (memory, cpu, etc.) Yes, AHM will run in an environment where the box has multiple roles and resources very limited. It plays nice with others and will do the best it can with the resources it's got. But if you dedicate a sufficiently powerful box, when something goes wrong, you'll not have to ask yourself if something else on the box could be the source of the problem. Let me tell you a short story

Only one time in the past 10 years have I had AHM repeatedly crash. The crash was due to a memory leak. In a set of very intense debugging sessions that went on for weeks, I repeatedly told Alex that there was nothing on the box except AHM. Then one day we found it. It was not AHM at all but a driver associated with a utility that I had installed without even thinking because I would only run it manually. Turns out it installed a service that began at startup which used the buggy driver... And yes, I gave Alex a well deserved apology. Even though the memory leak had nothing to do with AHM, I would have never found the cause without Alex's help. (If you like the gory details, here is the thread from that episode.)

I suspect you will be very pleased with the ratio of system resources to test performance/activity you end up with. You do not need a super computer with eleventy billion gigabytes of RAM, 891 quad-core CPUs and so forth. Exactly what you will need is highly dependent on a large number of factors but I'd go with mid-level server class box. I initially ran AHM on a hand-me-down Dell 1550 server. I'd bump it up (1650, 1750, 1950) whenever I had the opportunity. What you want is a server that will do the testing you want without breaking a sweat. It really does NOT take that big of a machine. Our current AHM box runs on a VMware machine. Perfmon shows %Processor_Time(_Total) hovering in the 10-25% range, running 35 tests/sec

This Audit tool has been a GREAT!! addition to AHM. It quickly lets you identify potential problem areas. It is your best friend as you begin to develop more tests.

The thing I find most interesting about AHM is that if you talk to IT folks working at very large global enterprises - places that purchase and deploy massively expensive enterprise monitoring tools, you will find many who also run AHM on the side.

[KS-Soft]

Thank you for review
I must admit - sometimes we make bugs as well. But we spend a lot of time to prevent this.

Regards
Alex

[alert]

This Audit tool has been a GREAT!! addition to AHM. It quickly lets you identify potential problem areas. It is your best friend as you begin to develop more tests.

What Audit tool you're talking about?

[KS-Soft]

HostMonitor menu View->Auditing Tool

Regards
Alex