Auvik uses Windows Remote Management (WinRM) to access Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) data. WMI is useful for monitoring operating-system information and basic system resources, but native WMI does not provide complete hardware-health monitoring for every server component.
For more information, see:
- How to enable WMI monitoring on a single Windows device
- Troubleshooting WMI credentials
- What’s the difference between WMI and SNMP when monitoring Microsoft Windows devices?
What WMI can and cannot monitor
RAID controllers
Native WMI classes generally do not provide complete health information for hardware RAID controllers, virtual disks, failed drives, cache batteries, or degraded arrays.
RAID health usually requires a vendor-specific management agent or provider, such as:
- Dell OpenManage
- HPE Smart Storage Administrator or Insight Management
- Lenovo XClarity
- Intel or LSI MegaRAID management tools
If RAID health is important, install and configure the appropriate vendor management software on the server. Confirm that it exposes the required information through a supported provider or management interface.
Memory health
WMI can provide inventory information about installed memory modules, including information available through Win32_PhysicalMemory. It generally does not provide a complete health status for memory modules.
Memory faults are more commonly reported through:
- Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA-Logger) events
- MemoryDiagnostics-Results events
- Hardware-management tools provided by the server manufacturer
- Device or management-controller event logs
Use event-log monitoring or the vendor’s hardware-management platform when memory fault detection is required.
Disk health
Some Windows storage classes can report predictive-failure information for directly attached disks. This information may not be available for disks presented through a hardware RAID controller.
A disk-health result from Windows should not be treated as a complete replacement for the RAID controller’s own health status.
Recommended monitoring approach
Use WMI for operating-system and system-resource monitoring, such as:
- Logical disk capacity and free space
- Windows service status
- Operating-system inventory
- Performance counters
- Basic system information
For hardware-specific monitoring:
- Install the server manufacturer’s management agent or utility.
- Confirm that the tool can report degraded arrays, failed drives, cache or battery problems, and other hardware faults.
- Review whether the tool exposes a supported WMI provider or event-log entries.
- Configure monitoring for the vendor-specific health status or relevant Windows events.
- Test the monitoring with a safe, non-production condition where possible.
Auvik may not automatically collect or alert on information exposed only through a vendor-specific namespace or command-line utility. If the required health data is not available through an Auvik-supported data source, contact Auvik Support to confirm whether another monitoring method is available.
Configure WMI reliably
Before troubleshooting missing WMI data, confirm that:
- WinRM and the required WMI services are running.
- The Auvik collector can reach the Windows device.
- Windows Firewall and network security tools permit the required WMI or WinRM traffic.
- The WMI credential has the permissions required to query the device.
- The required namespace and class are available on the device.
- The vendor management agent or provider is installed if hardware-specific data is expected.
Common errors include:
- 0x800706BA: The RPC server is unavailable. Check network connectivity, services, and firewall rules.
- 0x8004100E: The WMI namespace is invalid or unavailable.
- 0x80041010: The requested WMI class or provider was not found.
A missing namespace or class may indicate that the required vendor provider is not installed, is damaged, or does not expose the expected data.
For additional troubleshooting, see:
Limit alerts to servers instead of workstations
WMI can monitor both servers and workstations. If hardware or operating-system alerts are intended only for servers, use alert scope to prevent workstation alerts from creating unnecessary noise.
In Alerts v2, you can use device tags or other supported entity filters to target the appropriate devices.
Recommended approaches include:
- Apply a Server tag to devices that should receive the alert.
- Exclude devices tagged as Workstation.
- Create separate alert definitions for servers and workstations when they require different thresholds.
- Use device types, groups, or other supported device properties to narrow the alert scope.
- Route workstation alerts to a separate notification channel when monitoring is still required but should not generate the same operational response.
Before saving the alert, review the entity count or selected devices to confirm that the intended servers are included and workstations are excluded.
For more information, see:
- Using Alerts v2
- Creating Alerts using Alerts v2
- Managing and Creating Tags for Alerts v2
- Alerts v2 Trigger Conditions, Device and Interface Properties
Summary
Native WMI is useful for Windows operating-system monitoring, but it may not provide complete RAID, memory, or disk-health information.
For reliable hardware monitoring:
- Use vendor-specific management tools for RAID health.
- Use Windows event logs or vendor tools for memory faults.
- Confirm that the required WMI provider or data source is installed and available.
- Scope Alerts v2 definitions to server devices or tags to prevent workstation noise.
- Contact Auvik Support when the required hardware data is not available through a supported monitoring method.