The Drive Space Monitor uses RPC or SNMP communication to test the amount of available drive space on a specified drive, share or mount. If less available space than specified is detected, a failure state occurs.

Using the RPC communication method, the Drive Space Monitor can monitor any host machine running:

• Windows NT
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows 2003

Using the SNMP communication method, the Drive Space Monitor can monitor any SNMP-enabled host machine running:

• Windows NT/2000/XP/2003
• UNIX and UNIX-like Operating Systems (Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, etc...)

Common uses of the Drive Space Monitor are:

• Ensuring critical resources do not run out of drive space.
• Automatically taking Recovery actions to free up drive space.

The Drive Space Monitor Wizard is designed to help you configure a Drive Space Monitor with the least amount of initial input. There are a number of benefits to this approach:

1. Configuration is fast and easy, allowing you to get the Monitor up and running quickly.
2. The Drive Space Monitor Wizard allows you to test all the parameters you enter along the way to make sure that the Monitor will work as expected immediately upon being enabled to go live in a production environment.

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The following example illustrates the configuration process for creating a Drive Space Monitor a drive share on a remote computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP.

1. Log in to the ipMonitor Administration interface.
2. Click the Monitors menu option, then select Add a Monitor.
3. Select the Drive Space Monitor Monitor from the Resource Based category and then click the Continue button.

IP Address / Domain Name
Specify the location of the server or device you want to monitor. Both IP Address and Domain Name are valid entries.

Examples of valid Domain Names are: www.ipmonitor.com and ipmonitor.com.
An example of a valid IP address is: 10.200.50.1

Use SNMP
The Simple Network Management Protocol allows the Monitor to perform a lightweight transaction in order to communicate with SNMP-enabled network devices. When using SNMP Communication, a Credential for Monitoring is not required.

Note: An SNMP Agent has to be installed and running on the server being monitored. If the remote system is running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003, you will need to install and configure the SNMP Service manually. The SNMP Service can be installed from the Windows Control Panel by clicking the Add or Remove Programs icon, and then selecting Add / Remove Windows Components. The SNMP component is located under the Management and Monitoring Tools category.

UDP Port
Specify the Port Number that the server or device responds on. By default, the standard Port Number used for SNMP communication (Port 161) is already entered.

Community
SNMP Community strings act like passwords for SNMP information. When ipMonitor issues a SNMP Get-Next command to the SNMP Agent at this IP address, it sends out the SNMP Community string. If the Community string is correct, the SNMP Agent processes the request and returns results for analysis.

SNMP default communities are:

• Private (Read / Write)
• Public (Read Only)

Some SNMP Agents allow you to use non-default Community strings. This is typically done to improve the SNMP security model, often in conjunction with a non-standard SNMP Port.

SNMP Version
Select the SNMP version used by the device to be monitored. Both ipMonitor and the target device must use the same SNMP Version. Available options are: SNMP Version 1 and SNMP Version 2.

Use RPC
The Microsoft Remote Procedure Call is an inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism that enables data exchange between client and server processes. Using RPC, a process running on one machine can communicate with a process running on a different machine on the network.

Note: The RPC call will consume one of the remote computer's allowed connections:

1. Any authenticated connection to a server OS will require a CAL (Client Access License) to be available.
2. Any authenticated connection to a workstation OS will consume one of the 10 available client connections.

Credential for Monitoring
Assigning a Credential for Monitoring is an optional setting that can be used with RPC communication when connecting to a Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 based machine. If you wish to take advantage of ipMonitor's security model, you can provide a Credential to have the Drive Space Monitor impersonate an account with the privileges required to access the drive or share on the remote Windows machine. When the Monitor tests the status of the drive or share, it will use the Credential's account and password information to authenticate to the target machine.

If a Credential is not assigned, ipMonitor will use the current account privileges of the ipMonitor Service on the local machine.

To select a Credential:

• Click the Select button to pop up the Credentials for Monitoring dialog
• Select an existing Credential from the Windows category
• To create a new Credential, click the New Credential button to start the Wizard

Note: For specific configuration details regarding configuration of a Credential to be used with the Drive Space Monitor, refer to Credentials for Monitoring :: Drive Space

Note: For more information about Credentials, refer to About Credentials.

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Communication Type
Select the communication method used by ipMonitor to connect to the specified computer or remote device:

Local - The Local communication method allows the Monitor to connect to the ipMonitor host machine directly in order to test the amount of available drive space on the specified Share.

RPC (Microsoft Network Calls)
The Microsoft Remote Procedure Call is an inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism that enables data exchange between client and server processes. Using RPC, a process running on one machine can communicate with a process running on a different machine on the network.

Note: The RPC call will consume one of the remote computer's allowed connections:

1. Any authenticated connection to a server OS will require a CAL (Client Access License) to be available.
2. Any authenticated connection to a workstation OS will consume one of the 10 available client connections.

SNMP - The Simple Network Management Protocol allows the Monitor to perform a lightweight transaction in order to communicate with SNMP-enabled network devices. Select the Management Information Base (MIB) ipMonitor will use to connect to the specified computer or remote device. Three options are available:

• Host Resources MIB - The Host Resources MIB is loaded by default with the SNMP component.
• Informant - SNMP Informant is a popular extension agent developed by Williams Technology Consulting Services for the Microsoft SNMP Service that exposes performance counter-related data. The Informant method is recommended to administrators who are already using SNMP Informant to monitor other aspects of the remote system.

Note: An SNMP Agent has to be installed and running on the server being monitored. If the remote system is running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003, you will need to install and configure the SNMP Service manually. The SNMP Service can be installed from the Windows Control Panel by clicking the Add or Remove Programs icon, and then selecting Add / Remove Windows Components. The SNMP component is located under the Management and Monitoring Tools category.

WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) - The WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) communication method is recommended to administrators who wish to monitor drive space on a Windows operating system. When this method is selected, the Monitor connects to the WMI namespace hosting the WMI class corresponding to the drive or mount being monitored.

Note: WMI is preinstalled in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

Drive / Mount
Select the desired share to monitor from the list provided. You may need to adjust the default value of 500 MB based on the drive space being monitored.

The Analysis of Test Results section is used to define the threshold for remaining drive space that will cause the Drive Space Monitor test to fail.

Required Free Space
Enter the amount of drive space required on the system, either in megabytes (MB) or as a percentage (%).

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Monitor Name
Enter a concise, descriptive name for the new Monitor. The Monitor Name will be displayed in the Monitors List, Monitor Status, Reports and Logs pages. Names may not be greater than 64 characters. Since ipMonitor does not use the name field to identify the Monitor internally, Monitor Names can be changed at any time without data loss.

Selected Group
From the drop-down list, select one of the existing Groups to which the new Monitor will automatically be added upon creation.

Create Monitor Enabled
Once the Monitor is created, it will immediately start testing the available drive space on the specified share, using the configured settings. This option is enabled by default.

Store Monitor Statistics for Recent Activity and Historical Reports
ipMonitor will immediately begin to record test results, which are then used to generate Recent Activity and Historical Reports. This option is disabled by default.

Create
Click the Create button to exit the wizard and access the new Monitor in edit mode. You can make any final modifications to the Monitor in this mode, including setting Timing and Notification parameters.

Once you're satisfied with the configuration settings, click the OK button at the bottom of the page. The new Monitor will be displayed within the Monitors List, and can be accessed for further configuration adjustments at any time.

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When the Monitor is in an Up state, test results are reported as shown in the example below:

rtt - Round-Trip Time. This value indicates the time it took the test packet to reach the monitored resource and return a response to ipMonitor. Round-trip time is measured in milliseconds (ms).

space - The current available space on the share being monitored. Available space is reported in gigabytes (gb) and megabytes (mb).

avail - The current available space on the share being monitored, reported as a percentage (%) of the entire drive.

When the Monitor is in a Warn, Down, or Lost state, the Last Result field indicates the problem encountered. Different Monitor types generate specific Error Codes in accordance with the technical capabilities of the Monitor. Refer to the Error Codes section of this document for details.

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Note1: For Windows NT, comparison is made in relation to the drive size that hosts the UNC share. For Windows 2000, comparison is made in relation to the drive size that hosts the UNC share unless a disk space quota has been set for the share. In this case, comparison is made relative to the size of the quota.

Note2: The Drive Space Monitor Wizard allows you to configure Drive Space Monitors quickly and easily. However, if you'd prefer greater control over the process, you can Clone an existing Drive Space Monitor and make any required configuration changes manually.

Note3: For information on settings common to all Monitor types, such as Identification, Timing, Notification Control and Recovery Parameters, refer to General Monitor Settings.

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The following error codes are generated by the Drive Space Monitor. Error codes are displayed in Real-time and Historical Reports. They can also be added to Alerts using Tokens.

Message	Details
Configuration information for this item is missing some required fields	A required element(s) for Monitor connectivity or testing was not supplied to ipMonitor.
Access rights are insufficient	ipMonitor was unable to process the request because of insufficient permissions.
The returned query did not meet the specified parameters	The available drive space value returned did not match the expected result set as defined in the Monitor configuration.
Unable to connect to the remote device	The specified address to the connection-based Service is unavailable.
Could not obtain an IP address for the remote device	The supplied address was not a valid IP address OR the Server Domain Name could not be translated into an IP address. The Server Domain Name may refer to a local machine name, or to a fully qualified domain name.
The remote device sent more data than expected	The server sent more data than expected for this protocol. This is usually due to an error in the software being monitored.
The remote device timed out before sending a response	The resource being monitored did not respond within the maximum allowable time.
The response from the remote device does not adhere to protocol specification	The resource is either not adhering to the protocol standard or ipMonitor does not understand a proprietary change in the protocol.
The remote device failed to respond	The server did not provide any response before disconnecting.
The remote device provided an empty list of values	No data was returned from the remote server.
The response from the remote device was incomprehensible	The resource being monitored responded with invalid data.

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