Server Monitoring Software

[keefe007]

What's the best server monitoring software?

I have looked at Nagios (Netsaint), but I hear it is really hard to setup. What is everyone else using?

[OxnardMontalvo]

We use Nagios and I don't find it difficult to setup at all. The config files are pretty straight forward and there is a tool that will take nmap's XML output and make a config file from it. That makes setting up a new server pretty easy.

=C=

[MadDancer]

It's quick and dirty, but works great... I suggest webmin's monitoring module (part of the core distribution).

I have mine set up to monitor all the necessary services, and it pages me if something goes down. Works like a charm.

In one instance, I had a web site with some buggy code that was eating up a bunch of processes in the mysql server, so I made a little shell script to do a manual database call from the server and write it out to a text file. Then, I have webmin set up to check the status of that text file. if the text file doesn't exist, then that would indicate the mysql server is choking. When the text file isn't found, i get a page. We finally stomped out the buggy code in the web site, but I kept this monitor in place for a little added comfort.

It's not flashy, and it's very very basic, but webmin works like a charm for me.

[bdk]

I use Big Brother (http://www.bb4.org). It works good for what I need. I don't think that it is being developed anymore. The last entry in CHANGES was 02 Jan 2003.

Now that I see how old this software is and how it isn't being updated or developed anymore, maybe I should start looking for something else.

Anyways, it's worked great and I really haven't had a need to check for a more updated version.

[jlasman]

Nagios, while not the easiest install in the world (we've been quoted thousands of dollars for the install, but now we do it ourselves and charge significantly less :) ), is free, even for commercial use (Big Brother is not free for commercial use), and IS updated regularly.

Jeff