From: Aron Roberts (aron@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 14:19:45 PST
Hi Paul,
At 13:39 -0800 2002-01-23, Paul Garnett wrote:
>Do any of you know of a Microsoft function or 3rd party software
>that would automatically alert (via pager etc) an administrator
>if/when a server goes down or for other such events?
(I'm cross-posting this reply -- along with Ian Crew's and Ubirata
Coelho's responses, below -- to the MAGNet and Webnet lists, as this
topic is likely to be of general interest.)
For many years, we've used PageSentry
<http://www.maxum.com/pagesentry/>, a network service monitoring
application that runs under Mac OS 7.5-9.x and (recently) Mac OS X.
We currently use it, among other purposes, to monitor Web and e-mail
services running on a variety of Mac OS, Windows, and Unix/Linux
hosts. It's a great way to receive notification when one's home page
has become inaccessible, for instance, or when a CGI or servlet
starts malfunctioning.
We've found it tremendously helpful and nearly bulletproof, as well
as being extremely simple to use and configure. (The product's ease
of use is a big plus when many different people within a workgroup
are responsible for adding or changing configurations.)
The product has been regularly updated by its vendor over five-plus
years, so most of the bugs have been shaken out and many
user-requested features have been added. And, as Ian noted below, it
can happily run on a low-end Macintosh -- even a 680x0 based Mac or
early PowerPC-based model -- which might otherwise be sent to Excess
& Salvage ;-), or run in the background on one or more desktop
machines or multipurpose servers.
The educational cost for a basic version which monitors up to five
services is about $75, with prices increasing in several tiers with
the numbers of services you wish to simultaneously monitor.
There are other, similar 'network service monitoring' products
available for Windows and Unix/Linux, as well as additional products
for the Mac OS, but we haven't looked into these in quite a while.
As just one example, back in 1997, we investigated a Windows-based
product which is now known as IPCheck Server Monitor from Paessler
GmbH <http://www.paessler.com/products/ipcheck/index.htm>. This
product is in approximately the same price range as PageSentry.
Aron Roberts
Workstation Software Support Group
---------------------------------------------------------------
At 14:12 -0800 2002-01-23, Ubirata Coelho wrote:
>You may check Big Brother's web page!
>http://bb4.com/
>
>It is a good system monitoring tool, works in different platforms including
>WinNT and Win2k and is Free for Non-Commercial Use. This software has what you
>want and much more. You will find all necessary information on it's web page.
---------------------------------------------------------------
At 14:02 -0800 2002-01-23, Ian Crew wrote:
>We use a product called PageSentry
>(http://www.maxum.com/PageSentry/) for this purpose....it works by
>sending out an e-mail when a server goes down. Since most pagers
>these days have an associated e-mail address, that works pretty
>well. (There's also an add-on that'll allow it to use a modem to
>call your pager provider directly.)
>
>It does run on a Mac, but any mac with an ethernet card will do--the
>system requirements are VERY minimal. (It can, of course, monitor
>all kinds of servers...)
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