Hardware Monitoring Made Simple
Hardware monitoring is inherently complex. Every manufacturer exposes hardware health in its own way, using proprietary drivers, vendor-specific APIs, custom or inconsistent MIBs, and specialized interfaces or protocols that can even differ between hardware generations.
Hardware Sentry KM is a vendor-agnostic hardware monitoring module that consolidates health metrics from servers, storage systems, network devices, and UPS, regardless of brand or model, into BMC Helix Operations Management.
No vendor lock-in. No blind spots. Just full visibility.
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The Inevitable Hardware Failures
Physical servers encounter issues more frequently than expected. Recent statistics show a 36% annual failure rate, meaning a server component typically fails every three years on average. This could be a disk, memory module, power supply, or most commonly, a fan. Proactive monitoring is not optional, it's essential.
From Fragmented Monitoring to Unified Visibility
With BMC Helix and Sentry, organizations centralize hardware monitoring for faster resolution
Customer Example
A leading North American telecom operator relied on three vendor-specific tools to monitor thousands of servers spread across dozens of datacenters. This fragmented approach led to long resolution times and up to 7 days of downtime per year.
They needed a single solution to monitor all their servers. Hardware Sentry KM stood out for its vendor-agnostic coverage, comprehensive hardware monitoring, and its ability to report on server power consumption.
After a five-month implementation, the results were clear: 99,5% monitoring coverage, 7% energy cost reduction, and 70% increased team productivity.
Gain Deep Visibility into Every Hardware Component
Achieve unparalleled visibility across the physical components of your IT infrastructure:
- Monitor the health of critical hardware components including, disks, RAID controllers, fans, power supplies, voltage and thermal sensors, network ports, processors, memory modules, and more.
- Detect early signs of overheating, wear, or failure with real-time metrics.
- Accelerate troubleshooting with detailed diagnostics: vendor, model, serial number, part number, FRU number, and chassis location.
- Extend visibility to external storage devices, SAN switches, network devices, UPS, and tape libraries. No device is left behind.
Standardize Hardware Monitoring Across 100+ Platforms
Leave vendor silos behind and monitor your IT infrastructure with just one solution:
- Supports over 100 hardware platforms, from legacy UNIX servers to cutting-edge GPU-accelerated systems: Cisco, Dell EMC, IBM, Hitachi, HP, Lenovo, NetApp, Pure, Huawei, and more.
- Leverages universal protocols: SNMP, IPMI, REST, WMI, WBEM, SSH, and vendor-specific agents.
- Standardizes metrics across brands, models, and generations
Unify Insights in BMC Helix — No More Fragmented Tools
Simplify your infrastructure monitoring and reduce operational complexity:
- Natively integrates with BMC Helix Operations Management (monitor policies, alarm policies, and dashboards).
- Visualize all physical infrastructure health and performance data in BMC Helix Dashboards.
- Say goodbye to complex vendor-specific dashboards and reduce tool sprawl.
- Lower total cost of ownership with a single, scalable solution.
What You Gain
- Prevent hardware failures before they occur through real-time, proactive monitoring.
- Resolve incidents faster with precise diagnostics and detailed device information.
- Ensure comprehensive coverage of all servers and devices.
- Use one unique product to cover all server vendors.
- Lower support costs and incident resolution time with clear, actionable diagnostics.
- Avoid vendor lock-in and negotiate better pricing.
Proven Results with Hardware Sentry KM
Monitoring coverage
Reduced Energy Costs
Increased Efficiency
How Hardware Sentry KM Works
Hardware Sentry KM is powered by MetricsHub®, the next-generation metrics collector for BMC Helix, responsible for collecting hardware metrics across servers, networks, and storage systems, regardless of brand or model.
To gather comprehensive hardware health and performance data, MetricsHub leverages a variety of sources, including manufacturer-specific hardware agents and standard monitoring protocols such as HTTP, SSH, SNMP, WBEM, and WMI. This enables Hardware Sentry KM to monitor virtually any datacenter device.
Once hardware monitoring is configured in BMC Helix Operations, the collected hardware metrics are seamlessly delivered to the BMC Helix console, providing a unified and consistent view of the entire IT infrastructure
Additional Resources
Solution Brochure
PDF (1.49 MB)
Technical Datasheet
PDF (1.47 MB)
Documentation
HTML
Training Material
PDF (1.49 MB)Knowledge Base Articles
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