What is this?

This knowledgebase contains questions and answers about PRTG Network Monitor and network monitoring in general.

Learn more

PRTG Network Monitor

Intuitive to Use. Easy to manage.
More than 500,000 users rely on Paessler PRTG every day. Find out how you can reduce cost, increase QoS and ease planning, as well.

Free Download

Top Tags


View all Tags

WMI Sensors dont work for specific hosts at specific time

Votes:

0

WMI Sensors dont work for specific hosts at specific time. Almost every day, at specific time, WMI sensors for specific hosts don't work (are down). They go UP after a few minutes. I added SNMP sensors for same hosts, and they don't get to DOWN state.

On one host the error is always the same: (WMI) "hostname - Windows CPU Load (Windows CPU Load) " "WMI: Device sends inconsistent counter data. Please switch to alternative query in WMI compatibility options. (code: PE041) -- PerfCounter: Could not log in using the specified credentials. Please make sure they are not only valid for the target system, but for the probe system as well. (Performance Counter error 0xB0000004) "

On another host, all (WMI) sensors go down (exchange, cpu, etc..): For example: 1. [PRTG Network Monitor] host1 Windows Pagefile 30 (Windows Pagefile) Down ESCALATION (WMI: Connection could not be established (Timeout during establishing - Host: smtp01.uniqa.hr, User: administrator, Pass...)

2. [PRTG Network Monitor] host1 WMI Free Disk Space (Multi Disk) 30 (WMI Free Disk Space (Multi Disk)) Down ESCALATION (Connection could not be established (Timeout during establishing - Host: smtp01.uniqa.hr, User: administrator, Password:...)

3. [PRTG Network Monitor] host1 WMI Memory 30 (WMI Memory) Down ESCALATION (Connection could not be established (Timeout during establishing - Host: smtp01.uniqa.hr, User: administrator, Password:...)

I added SNMP sensors for memory, cpu, disk and they are UP at the time the WMI sensors go DOWN. Ping is also up, and the servers function correctly.

It's happening every day, but almost every day, and at is always at the same time.

We checked task scheduler, backup jobs and other automated events that could causing this to happen, event viewer doesen't show any errors or warnings when this happens.

Every help is appreciated

daily downtime prtg same-time snmp wmi

Created on Oct 11, 2018 6:20:19 AM



4 Replies

Votes:

1

Hello there,

SNMP and WMI are quite different in many regards, meaning SNMP is simply sending UDP packets and the target responds to the query also sending UDP packets back, while WMI uses a tcp connection that additionally requires authentication, using additional components like RPC and DCOM. Or in other words: SNMP is working usually way faster ^^

The fact that this happens on such a regular basis on the same time indeed raises the suspicion that something else is going on there, though you already did investigate in all directions that I would also have recommended. You could try using higher scanning intervals on those sensors, which also would give them more time regarding the timeout, though of course this does not explain the why this is happening in the first place.....

If there are no backups running on the affected hosts, are there maybe other scheduled jobs being in the network that maybe cause higher load in other involved components like switches, firewalls etc.?

Other than that I have to admit that I am also running out of ideas what else you could check.

Kind regards,

Erhard

Created on Oct 11, 2018 1:46:17 PM by Erhard Mikulik [Paessler Support]



Votes:

0

We will check the network. But in the meantime, i have set duplicate sensor for Windows CPU Load (WMI) (which fails daily at the sime time, with error "WMI: Device sends inconsistent counter data."), and now, that new sensor reported down state, while "old" didn't...

FYI, we have PRTG version 16...

Created on Oct 12, 2018 6:29:40 AM



Votes:

0

With late 17 versions a lot of WMI enhancements were introduced, you could give it a try by installing a trial/freeware of PRTG on a different host to check if the same issues occur there as well.

Kind regards,

Erhard

Created on Oct 12, 2018 9:12:50 AM by Erhard Mikulik [Paessler Support]



Votes:

0

Yeah, we tought about installing trial but new version of PRTG on a different host when we exhaust all other options... Seems like that time has come :-).

Created on Oct 12, 2018 9:18:14 AM




Disclaimer: The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.