monitoring windows services

[wingfieldj]

how do you monitor a windows server service that is set to start at boot time and flag it if it stops or did not start? For instance monitoring the MSExchangeFrontEndTransport service every 20 minutes and alert if it is not running.

[sandeepmakkena]

Here is are a couple of ways you can do it.

https://answers.splunk.com/answers/7193/easy-way-to-check-if-a-windows-service-is-running.html
https://answers.splunk.com/answers/7193/easy-way-to-check-if-a-windows-service-is-running.html

If you are getting through logs, you can do it by using transaction command or other commands to check for a string service_start after service_stop is found, if not you can generate an alert.

I hope this helps, thanks!

[eddieddieddie]

Here's a couple of ways of getting a list of Windows services and the status of these services into Splunk:

Windows Host Monitoring

In the inputs.conf file add a stanza like this:

[WinHostMon://Service]
interval = 600
disabled = 0
type = Service
index = windows

This will collect a list of services, and status, every 10 minutes, from the system running the Splunk Forwarder.

More documentation here: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.1/Admin/Inputsconf#Windows_Host_Monitoring

WMI

Create a WMI.conf file and add the following stanza:

[WMI:WindowsServiceState]
interval = 600
wql = select Name, DisplayName, Description, State from Win32_Service
disabled = 0
index = windows

This will collect the same data as the previous example, however its more customisable - for example you can use WMI to narrow down to collecting data on only specific services, or even querying a remote server.

More documentation here: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Admin/Wmiconf

[sandeepmakkena]

If this is helpful, accept the answer, please

[sandeepmakkena]

How are you getting those events into Splunk?

[wingfieldj]

I do not think i have the input yet. i am hoping that the Splunk add-on for MS Windows will help with this.

[patterc]

how'd it work out?