WMI Microsoft Server 2014 for Express?

Hello,

This sensor can monitor a express installation and can only be added to a device (computer) running a Microsoft SQL database.

Please use our WMI Tester , run it on the PRTG Host (or host of the Remote Probe) and scan against this particular target, usually the "Custom" Query" from the "Advanced" Tab of the Tool works best. Which result do you get?

Custom Query: SELECT Name,UserConnections,LoginsPersec,Timestamp_Perftime,Frequency_PerfTime,LogoutsPersec FROM win32_perfrawdata_mssqlcloud_mssqlcloudgeneralstatistics

Hi,

I used this with the user credentials I normaly take for WMI querys in PRTG (entered it on "Basic" tab, did not run the wmi tester itself in this user context - correct that way?). One of the standard-querys (for OS) run with no problem.

The response is this: Error: 80041010: The specified class is not valid.

May the express version use other namespaces? Might there be a problem with user rights, so I would have to do changes on the WMI security settings (as I wrote I do not use a windows admin-account)?

Thank you!

Hello,

The sensor you are trying to create needs valid credentials (an account which is part of the "domain-administrator" group or local admin rights) to monitor windows system using WMI. In the "Credentials for Windows Systems" settings of the PRTG device, please explicitly enter valid Domain and Computer Name, username and password. If you try to access a server that is not part of your domain, there are some difficulties to work around. We have a knowledge base article regarding this scenario.

Hi,

this is not fully correct in my understanding: For using WMI in PRTG for a server (everything in domain, btw), PRTG needs to use an account that has appropriate rights for WMI - this of course does not have to and should not be an admin-account or neither a domain admin account imho.

As I wrote: we already use WMI for various other sensors on this server and they work perfectly. For this we use an domain account explicit created for this purose and set this up in the security settings of WMI management (reading rights on the WMI namespace "Root") on the server.

But what I understand is that this sensor is not only about the normal WMI access righs. I tried adding our "PRTG-WMI-account" to the local admin group and it worked. So, as I do not want to have this monitoring account using admin-rights on the machine, neither having my admin creds in PRTG, I'd like to know how I can setup more granular rights for this accounts without giving full admin. Maybe you could describe what objects/methods are used to get this SQL data, so I can check this way along?

Br Dominic

Hello Dominic,

For some sensors like Windows CPU Load Sensor domain or local administrator rights are not requested. The other sensors like wmi SQL sensors it is necessary to use domain or local administrator rights. Unfortunately, it is simply very difficult to make WMI work for non Admin users.

Hi Jochen,

from my point of view using a WMI query does not have to use anything else than WMI with the rights that has to be given for this task. So it looks in this case there are more information needed than only WMI (because the useraccount have full access to WMI). If a am wrong with this suppose I'd be really interested in understanding why this is wrong.

I figured out that I can remove the used user-account from the local admins after creating the sensor - the querying works fine also without. So only the detection of installed instances of SQL server need some other rights than WMI. Maybe you could have a look in this. When there is no other way to get the instance names, maybe it should be optional to be entered manualy by the user when the right for detection is not given?

Br Dominic

Hello Dominic,

I'm afraid it's not us who lay down the access/permission rules to certain WMI/SQL Classes Counters. That's done by Microsoft, so they should be asked the question, and potentially the Windows administrators in your organization with the use of GPOs for instance. We have may the experience though that an admin account is the most reliable account to use, it has access to all the necessary WMI Classes, and all other account levels, were rather painfully to configure to get them working, if even it wasn't possible at all.

Hi,

I'm afraid this answer is not satisfying. Quering a WMI class is depending on the WMI permissions that are set - this is one of the purpose of abstracting this information from the source of this data, or am I wrong? Why should there be a dependency on other ACL when only using a simple WMI query?

Giving admin rights only because it solves problems is one of the most false thoughts of administrators these days, sorry, it cannot be the answer.

I would be ok to check my issue with Microsoft, unfortunately I still do not have any information about the way your instance detection works. So I'd be thankful if you could provide this - maybe the WMI query you're using and what WMI classes you are using or something like that? Only with this information I would be able to check and set the needed rights.

Br Dominic

Hello,

It differs from sensor to sensor which access rights are necessary if a non administrator user account is used.

In the sensor settings of the wmi sql server sensor you can enable the "DEBUG OPTION" "Write sensor result to disk(Filename: Result of Sensor [ID].txt" The log will be written on the probe that monitors that sensor under (C:\ProgramData\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor\Logs (Sensors)) In that log you can exactly see which query we are using for this sensor.

Hi,

of course this differs - so I do not want to know it in general, but espacialy for this particular sensor. So I guess some of the developers should answer this question.

The debugging would be a good way, but as I said the problem is when creating the sensor, so at that time there is no debug-option. May there also be a logfile that is written during the creation of sensors?

As I wrote: I guess it would be nice to get a developer have a tip on this ...?

Dear Dominic

The sensor must be allowed to access the namespace root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement12

Before the sensor is created, it performs this WQL statement and checks the result.

SELECT ServiceName,DisplayName FROM SQLService WHERE SQLServiceType = 1

You either need to provide the credentials for an administrator account, or lower the access rights for this namespace.