winrpe - Nagios NRPE for Windows

Winrpe

Winrpe is a Nagios NRPE implementation for Windows systems. It is a packaging of Nagios NRPE addon, Xinet, Cygwin and a collection of Windows specific NRPE plugins for monitoring cpu, disk, memory, eventlog, services and performance counters. It can easily be expanded by other plugins.

The Nagios NRPE addon allows you to execute Nagios plugins on remote machines, enabling you to monitor local resources like CPU load, memory and disk usage. Since these resources are not usually exposed to other machines, an agent like Winrpe must be installed on the remote Windows machines. Xinetd is an open source super server daemon, which features a variety of access control (tcp wrappers) and configuration mechanisms (time and connection limits) and extensive logging. Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of a DLL (cygwin1.dll), which emulates substantial Linux API functionality, and a collection of tools.

Installation

Supported platforms : Vista/2008/7/2012/8/10/2016/2019

 

Winrpe is available as a zip file containing an installer. Simply unzip your downloaded copy and run the package "winrpe_x.x.x_Installer.exe":

 

  1. Accept License agreement.
  2. Specify an installation location.
  3. Installation starts. By clicking 'Details' button, you can get more detailed information about installation. Check if everything seems ok.

 

Winrpe is now installed and Xinet is activated as a manual service with a proper configuration to serve NRPE requests. Consult documentation from start menu for more information about components installed.

 

Usage

You need to update the configuration file nrpe.cfg (available from start menu) according to your needs and change the start mode to automatic. You can also enhance your Winrpe installation by other NRPE plugins.

Example use of Winrpe with Nagwin:  Basic monitoring of Windows hosts via Winrpe

 

Uninstallation

This one is easy too:

  1. Make sure that no monitors are connected.
  2. Choose Uninstall from Start menu. Again, you can monitor uninstallation process by clicking 'Details' button. 
How can I install Winrpe silently ?
  • Winrpe can be installed silently by using the switches below:

    (Pre-5.2.x) Winrpe_x.x.x_Installer.exe /u=user /p=password /S

    where user/password specify the service account credentials

    (5.2.x or later) Winrpe_x.x.x_Installer.exe /S

    You can also specify a new installation directory by the /D switch:

    Winrpe_x.x.x_Installer.exe ..... /D=C:\test\winrpe
How can I use Winrpe without SSL ?
  • You may be interested in using Winrpe without SSL as the NRPE communication flows through other secure channels like vpns or port forwarders.

     

    • On the monitored host with Winrpe: Update file etc\xinetd.d\nrpe and add option -n to server_args parameter:

    # default: on
    # description: NRPE
    service nrpe
    {
    type = UNLISTED
    flags = REUSE
    port = 5666
    socket_type = stream        
    wait = no
    user = SvcXinet
    server = /bin/nrpe
    server_args = -n -c /nrpe.cfg --inetd
    log_on_failure += USERID
    disable = no
    # only_from       = <ipaddress1> <ipaddress2> ...
    }

    • On the monitoring host: Add the option -n to your check_nrpe commands.

Winrpe 5.5.1

release date: 
Thu, 02/09/2023
2023

Winrpe 5.5.0

release date: 
Sun, 11/20/2022
2022

Winrpe 5.4.0

release date: 
Fri, 12/18/2020
2020

Winrpe 5.3.0

release date: 
Mon, 04/13/2020
2020

Winrpe 5.2.1

release date: 
Sun, 04/22/2018
2018

Winrpe 5.2.0

release date: 
Wed, 02/21/2018
2018

Winrpe 4.2.2

release date: 
Tue, 02/17/2015
2015

Winrpe 4.2.0

release date: 
Wed, 10/09/2013
2013

Winrpe 4.1.1

release date: 
Tue, 09/03/2013
2013

Winrpe 4.1.0

release date: 
Mon, 01/14/2013
2013

Release announcements