Features

SSC Serv is a service for Microsoft Windows, which collects system statistics and submits them to a central statistics server. It is similar to and compatible with collectd, a free and open-sourced solution for UNIX systems.

Overview

The purpose of SSC Serv is to collect performance data on Windows servers. This data is then sent over the network to a server which stores the data for later processing or visualization. The service is very lightweight and can collect high-resolution statistics without affecting system performance in any noticable way.

Fully integrated into Windows

SSC Serv is developed using the core Windows API. This allows for a very small memory footprint and avoids additional dependencies. SSC Serv is fully integrated in the system: The service can be controlled using the Services Control Manager. Configuration can be done using the "SSC Service" applet in the Control Panel. The configuration is stored in the Registry, so you can use existing tools for configuration management. And, in the best of UNIX traditions, the daemon can be uninstalled without any leftover files or dead registry keys clogging the system.

Lightweight

Efficiency is one of the top-most priorities of developing SSC Serv. It is designed to be lightweight and unobtrusive. After the initial set-up, it will get out of your way so you can go on and focus on more important issues. But when there are issues, the high-resolution metrics will certainly come in handy and help you identify the problem quickly.

Data sources

The following data sources can currently be collected:

Active Directory (AD)
CPU utilization
Interface traffic
Memory usage
Process information
Physical disk usage (throughput, operations per second)
Volume usage (available and used bytes)
Terminal services (sessions)
Generic PDH (any PDH counter)

Output plug-ins

SSC Serv is compatible to a number of projects and services. The following plug-ins are available to send metrics gathered by SSC Serv to a storage and graphing system:

collectd
Uses the “binary network protocol” to send metrics to a collectd server.
Graphite
Sends metrics to Graphite, an open-source time series store and graphing system.
Librato
Integration with Librato, a hosted graphing and alerting solution.
Write HTTP
Send JSON-encoded metrics to arbitrary web services using POST requests.

Compatible to popular open-source projects

The Network plug-in can send data to a collectd 5 server for further processing and storage. The data is structured and encoded for maximum compatibility with collectd version 5.0 and later.

With the Graphite plug-in you can send metrics directly from your Windows server to Graphite, a popular open-source graphing solution.

Librato output

Using the Librato plug-in you can send your metrics to Librato, a hosted metric storage, visualization and alerting solution. Take advantage of the features Librato offers without having to run your own metrics server.

System requirements

SSC Serv requires at least Windows Vista / Windows 2008. We support SSC Serv on all versions of Windows that receive “Mainstream Support” from Microsoft. Currently the supported versions are:

Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2
Windows 10
Windows 8 / 8.1

SSC Serv is available as x86 (32-bit) and x86_64 (64-bit) binary. Running the x86 binary on a 64-bit version of Windows unfortunately doesn't work. Other than a compatible version of Microsoft Windows, there are no further dependencies – the service can simply be installed by downloading and executing the setup utility.