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Hi Guys,

We are a 5 person MSP and after much research into bloated, expensive RMM solutions, we decided on giving Spiceworks a try - and loved it.

I just have one important query which i hope some of you good folks (specially MSP’s) can help with :

Let’s say we have a customer with the below setup that we need to centrally monitor :

  1. Head Office with 5 servers, 1 firewall, 1 router, 50 desktops/laptops

  2. Branch 1 with 10 computers, 1 firewall, 1 router

  3. Branch 2 with 5 computers, 1 router and client-software vpn client for HO connectivity

Branch 1 is linked to HO via a site-to-site vpn whereas Branch 2 (having fewer users) only has vpn client software installed on each computer for HO connectivity.

We do not have any connectivity between our MSP office spiceworks server and the customer’s site.

Now imagine having 20 such customers that need to be monitored via spiceworks centrally

I am given to understand (but do let me know if i am wrong) that there are only 2 ways to be able to monitor my customer’s infrastructure via spiceworks:

  1. install an agent on each customer computer (very bandwidth heavy and may not be viable)

  2. install a remote collector server at each site which needs to be able to talk to our central spiceworks server via vpn.

I have my central server ready, however, i don’t understand how i can setup a site to site vpn between my office and each customer’s site since they already have a firewall that connects to their branches.

I can surely will be able to put in a spiceworks box at each customer’s site, but i may not get permission to setup a vpn to their box from my office.

Lastly, how am i supposed to setup a vpn form my office to multiple customer sites when most customers have different firewall brands (some have cisco, some juniper, some sonicwall)

Are there any MSP’s here that have been able to successfully setup a Spiceworks monitoring system for different customers with various locations.

Ideally, i would like an interface like GFI MAX which provides all customer monitoring info in a single pane of glass instead of having to connect to each customer’s spiceworks box individually.

I would love to hear from you.

Thanks - This community rocks.

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Hey Mohammed,

Spiceworks communicates with remote collectors via HTTPS so, technically, they could talk over the Internet if a VPN isn’t available. Now, for the disclaimer! :slight_smile:

Just opening up traffic so that your central server and remote collectors can talk over the Web using port 443 isn’t recommended is highly discouraged. You’d want to make sure you secure the connection so the bad guys out there can’t do anything nefarious.

I’ll let some other folks chime in with their setup and how they accomplish this, but wanted to let you know it’s possible, but potentially dangerous unless secured, to connect without a VPN.

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Hi Jon, Thanks for your response. I can understand the risks involved here and will wait for other members (specifically msp’s) to give some insights on how they were able to achieve this setup while mitigating risks in the best way possible. In the interim, could you plz direct me to some guides that explain the remote connector configuration in detail? Thanks again.

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Hey Mohammed,

Here’s a link to our documentation on remote collectors:

http://community.spiceworks.com/help/Remote_Collectors

You may have already seen that, but that’s the best single source of info. If you have any specific questions on RC’s, though, post them here or shoot over a message to support@spiceworks.com!

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