RMA's and Non-Domain PC's

peterjwest · Post by **peterjwest** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:35 am

Hi there,

We've got a number of machines on a remote subnet which we wish to monitor using an RMA. We can achieve this because we have a single multi-homed PC sat at a remote location which has interfaces both on our primary subnet and also the secondary (remote) subnet.

Ping tests using this RMA work fine but we have some issues monitoring the processes on the remote machines.

Part of the problem is, I believe, due to the fact that the remote machines we are monitoring are not on the Domain. For security reasons they are simply in a workgroup.

I have tried to create a local Account on the machines concerned but it seems that the RMA always prefixes the logon name with the Domain Name, despite me specifying the login ID as 'remotehost\sysmon'.

Is it possible to do what i'm trying to achieve? Am I missing something simple?

Another possible way I could do this would be to write some VBScript to check the state of the processes and have it dump a logfile onto the multi-homed machine so that this could be parsed and reported back on. But of course it would be better if we could monitor the processes directly.

Thanks

Pete

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:41 am

Ping tests using this RMA work fine but we have some issues monitoring the processes on the remote machines.

What exactly status of the test? Unknown? What error do you see in Reply field of the test?

I have tried to create a local Account on the machines concerned but it seems that the RMA always prefixes the logon name with the Domain Name, despite me specifying the login ID as 'remotehost\sysmon'.

I assume you are using Connection Manager to setup accounts?
If you specify target host, login and password, RMA will use "login@hostname" for connect. I don't think it should be a problem

However if you want to use simple login name "login" for connection, you may mark "Connect as" option (Test Properties dialog) and specify login and password. Test item parameters will override Connection Manager settings.

Regards
Alex

peterjwest · Post by **peterjwest** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:03 am

Hi there,

A bit more information for you.

What exactly status of the test? Unknown? What error do you see in Reply field of the test?

I've configured two different tests because I generally find UNC-based tests easier to trouble-shoot. The UNC Path check is coming back with an error of '301 Access Denied', whilst the Process Check comes back with '301 - Cannot retrieve information'.

I will try to explain the process I have followed. Perhaps I have made a glaring mistake.

1. On the machine to be monitored (192.168.0.13) I have made a local account called sysmon which also has sysmon set as the password. I have made this account a member of the Administrators group.

2. The RMA is installed on a dual-homed machine so I have set this RMA to be the one which processes the test.

3. I've used connection manager to create two different connections. One specifies a resource of just '\\192.168.0.13' and is intended to be used by the Process Monitor task. I have specified the Server or Domain as being 192.168.0.13 and given the login name and password that was defined in Step 1. The second entry is basically the same but has the resource named as '\\192.168.0.13\c$'.

I have not used the 'Connect As' option in the Task definition because my understanding is that if you specify credentials in Connection Manager then the system will automatically use those when connecting to the appropriate resource.

The error still occurs and I have checked the Audit Log on the remote host to see if any Logon Failures occur. For some reason they don't. :|

I have, however, managed to find a temporary workaround. I've found that if I remote control the machine with the RMA and issue a 'net use \\192.168.0.13\c$' command I can provide the sysmon credentials there and the Host Monitor test then works.

Any clues as to why this behaviour is occuring would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Pete

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:16 am

3. I've used connection manager to create two different connections. One specifies a resource of just '\\192.168.0.13' and is intended to be used by the Process Monitor task. I have specified the Server or Domain as being 192.168.0.13 and given the login name and password that was defined in Step 1. The second entry is basically the same but has the resource named as '\\192.168.0.13\c$'.

Sounds good. Actually everything should work with 1st entry.

I have not used the 'Connect As' option in the Task definition because my understanding is that if you specify credentials in Connection Manager then the system will automatically use those when connecting to the appropriate resource.

Correct

The error still occurs and I have checked the Audit Log on the remote host to see if any Logon Failures occur. For some reason they don't.

RMA is started as application or service? If RMA is started as service, you should specify admins account for this service using standard Windows Services applet. That's because "local system" account cannot use network API...

Regards
Alex

peterjwest · Post by **peterjwest** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:30 am

Hi again,

RMA is started as application or service? If RMA is started as service, you should specify admins account for this service using standard Windows Services applet. That's because "local system" account cannot use network API...

That was exactly the problem. We run the RMA as a Service and we had not specified an account with appropriate priviledges.

I've now reconfigured the agent, created the necessary local accounts and set up the connections in connection manager. And it all works perfectly.

Thank you Alex for your help - the level of support you offer would put many larger Companies to shame.

Cheers

Pete

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:48 am

Thank you

Regards
Alex