We organize monitoring of the health of the web server

Web servers on the Internet are like patients in a hospital room, who need constant supervision. I did not see it at all - also my favorite server is not pinging any more, forcing the network ruler to excite my creative ideas about upcoming disassembly with equipment, provider, customers, management ... How to be? Non-stop to sit on duty at night on the computer? Or to conduct manual monitoring from a remote machine? No, this is not our method. We will try to find something automated, accessible also convenient. The Google Network Search Guru, after swallowing our "website monitoring" request, issued a walk around the Internet links to various resources offering their services to the audit districts also examining the health of the web servers. Monitoring systems (in the Basurman language they are often called uptime systems) is quite a lot - also paid, also free of charge. The latter we will not consider in view of the limitedness of their capabilities and the lack of security of the labor provided by them.

So, it is decided - we choose a commercial monitoring system. What else should care for? First, look at the presence of several monitoring points (monitoring checkpoints), preferably geographically distributed across different servers. After all, you see, it's silly to delay the detailed and reliable statistics gathered only from one computer (the survey point). Secondly, take an interest in the list of services provided and services. This list can exist very much - from testing HTTP, POP3, IMAP4, FTP, as well as other protocols, up to the control of DNS as well as other services. Look at the capacity and the quality of the statistics provided - it will help you to examine the history of the "ups and downs" of your servers on the entire fleeting gap of their monitoring. In addition, in the end, thirdly, it is necessary to carefully approach the task of analyzing the usability of the system. By querying your servers, the system will generate a walk of a variety of reports that you will have to work with, and also work out any conclusions.

Now we will try, based on the above tips, take at random for testing some commercial service.

For example, WatchMouse.

The first pleasant message, which at once rushes into the eye, is a free 30-day period of using a full-fledged monitoring system. Far-sighted developers of WatchMouse did quite cunningly, as the capabilities of their system bribe users, but it's hard to refuse lacquer. What blah blah does this "observational mouse" allow? We list the points.

• Analysis of servers using several monitoring points located throughout the universe. The speck of the poll to eat even in Rio de Janeiro - Ostap Bender would have been pleased.
• Detailed textual and graphical statistics, including the ability to export data to Excel.
• Powerful event filtering capabilities.
• Availability of a variety of online network tools (Ping, Traceroute, DNS Query, etc.).
• Notification of events via e-mail, ICQ, SMS also access to statistics via WAP, using the capabilities of a mobile phone.
Can you imagine what convenience modern IT technologies provide? It's terrible to think that only one SMS-message with information about the "fallen" web server can in one moment destroy the glamorous illusions of the system ruler to sit in some place in a cozy cafe and drink a nice cool beer ...

Well what is allowed to add more? In my opinion, we described all the main points of the intricacies of electing monitoring systems. Let us only note that the bazaar of such instruments is quite extensive, the variety is also varied, the election remains yours. In any case, it is better not to save money on statistics.