Computer and Device Monitoring

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Essential Business Server

The monitoring data for managed computers and devices in your Windows EBS domain appears on the Managed Computers and Devices page on the Computers and Devices tab in the Administration Console. This data is collected from Active Directory Domain Services and from System Center Essentials. To monitor computers in your domain that are running a Windows operating system, System Center Essentials must discover each computer and deploy a management agent. System Center Essentials monitors other network devices without agents, by using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Note

Either you can configure System Center Essentials to discover a new computer in your domain and to deploy a management agent automatically, or you can run the Computer and Device Management Wizard in System Center Essentials to perform these tasks. For information about how to deploy a management agent with System Center Essentials, see “Discover New Computers and Devices” at the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=131265).

You can use the tasks on the Managed Computers and Devices page to get additional information about managed computers and devices and to investigate and resolve alerts.

For more information about the administrative tasks that you can perform with managed computers and devices in Windows EBS, see “Managing Computers and Devices” at the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132081).

Alerts for managed computers and devices

For each managed computer or device in your domain, the results pane and the details pane show the number of current active alerts that have the following severity:

  • Critical

  • Warning

  • Information

Tasks to resolve alerts

You can use the following tasks on the Managed Computers and Devices page to investigate and resolve alerts for a managed computer or device.

Task Details

View recent critical alerts

Starts the System Center Essentials console to display critical alerts from at least the last seven days for all managed computers and devices.

View recent alerts

Starts the System Center Essentials console to display critical, warning, and information alerts from at least the last seven days for the selected computer or device.

View computer details

Starts the System Center Essentials console to display hardware and software details for the selected computer or device.

For more information about investigating and resolving alerts, see Investigate and Resolve Alerts in System Center Essentials.

Update compliance information for managed computers

For each managed computer in your domain, the results pane shows the status of the deployment of updates from Windows Server Update Services to the managed device. The Update Compliance status is one of the following:

  • Up-to-date.   All updates are installed.

  • Not contacted.   Windows Server Update Services has not contacted the computer in at least seven days.

  • Needs updates.   Updates are not installed, or the installation is in progress.

  • Unknown.   The update status is not known (for example, a computer does not have an agent installed).

In the details pane, in Updates, the following additional information appears about the number and status of updates from Windows Server Update Service to the managed computer:

  • Failed to install.   The number of updates with an installation status of Failed.

  • Needed.   The number of available updates that need to be installed or that are in progress.

  • Installed successfully.   The number of updates that were installed successfully.

Tasks to resolve update compliance issues

You can use the following tasks on the Managed Computers and Devices page to investigate and resolve update compliance issues with a managed computer:

Task Details

Manage updates

Starts the System Center Essentials console in the Unapproved Updates view.

Configure update-management settings

Starts the Update Management Configuration Wizard in System Center Essentials.

View Update Deployment Status report

Starts the System Center Essentials console to display a status report for Computer Update deployment for the managed computer.

Additional data on the Managed Computers and Devices page

The following table lists additional data about computers and devices that appears in the results pane and in the details pane on the Managed Computers and Devices page.

Note

You can also see detailed information about a managed computer in the System Center Essentials console. To do this, right click the name in the results pane, and then click View computer details.

Item Details

Name

The host name of the managed server or client computer. If no name is available, the name is blank.

The name is blank in two cases:

  • The device type that is identified by System Center Essentials is a network device, or a computer that is not running a Windows operating system.

  • The computer is discovered by System Center Essentials, but a management agent is not deployed. After the management agent is deployed, the host name appears.

IP Addresses

The IPv4 address of the computer.

If no IP address is available, Unknown appears.

If more than one IP address is assigned to the computer, the addresses appear in a comma-separated list, based on the order of the Ethernet number of the network adapters.

Device Type

The category of device, based on membership in the following predefined computer groups in System Center Essentials:

  • Client.   A member of the All Clients group.

  • Server.   A member of the All Servers group.

  • Other.   A member of the Network Devices/Other Computers group.

Agent Installed

Whether a management agent is installed on the computer.

Maintenance Mode

Whether the managed computer is in maintenance mode in System Center Essentials. Maintenance mode suppresses the generation of alerts and notifications from the computer:

  • On.   The computer is in maintenance mode.

  • Off.   The computer is not in maintenance mode.

For more information about maintenance mode, see Put a Monitored Computer in Maintenance Mode, later in this document.

Operating System

The version number of the Windows operating system that is installed on the computer.

If the computer does not have a Windows operating system, or if a management agent is not deployed to the computer, Unknown appears.

Installed Server Technologies

(Windows EBS servers only) The server roles and applications that are installed by default on the server.

For a summary of the server roles and applications that are installed on the servers for Windows EBS, see the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128032).

Disk Space Usage

Statistics for the space that is used and available on the disk drives on the managed computer.

Device Information

Details about the device, in addition to the IP Addresses and Operating System data, that are shown in the results pane:

  • Full name.   The fully qualified domain name of the device.

  • Manufacturer.   The manufacturer of the device.

  • Model.   The model number of the device.

  • Memory.   The amount of system memory (RAM) that is installed on the device.

  • CPU.   The manufacturer and type of processor on the device.