… I need a piece of software to monitor a server and shoot off emails to an account you set with various info, say, “System unexpectedly reset.” “CPU usages at 100% for more than 10 minutes.” etc. Anyone know of any free open source programs that do this?
do you have an smtp server? I just would write a perl script… or use sendemail
I have no experience with Perl at all.
Basically one of our clients is in NYC, and their employees have buttery fingers. They shut down one of their servers knocking DNS out for their whole office and we had no clue what it was 'till we realized that particular server was not up. Being that it’s remote, we’re looking for a way to get updates on it.
Isn’t there one called Watchdog or something? I’ll look into sendemail.
i prefer nagios over watchdog… alarmpoint is another mailer product.
perl is easy… download a .chm and rock and roll 
you can ‘monitor’ it in windows… just write a batch file to monitor a ping (i know ping != functioning server)
ping servername|findstr -i reply
if errorlevel != 0 goto smtp
:smtp
gbmail blahblahblah
run it as a scheduled task on some lowend server and be done with it.
GBMailer is a good windows batch smtp mailer
oh… do you use putty tools? pscp and plink are awesome for windows to linux scripting
so there are many ways to skin the cat… if you’re all linux enviroment then scratch windows… but typically places are not. I would suggest, that if i remember, you’re company likes the ‘free’ solutions which is no big deal, so maybe consider writing your own scripts for network management? I did that for a few places and while it pales in comparision to an enterprise level network awareness tool, it works.
let us know what you would prefer… i can shoot you scripts to give examples if needed.
Monitoring system administration/implementation is one of my primary job functions (both for security events and operations events/thresholds too).
For a free application, Nagios is THE way to go. It can be a bit dauting at first, but you’ll get it and once you do, it’s smooth sailing. It’s free. The sky is the limit with Nagios, but it will take you some time to learn the app before you really get moving with it.
If you have a (big) budget to work with the HP OpenView monitoring suite is better (I’m sure some would argue that). I’ve been working with OpenView for quite some time and I love it. Depending on the size of your organization you could probably get into OpenView for $20K (more depending on your size). The sky is the limit with OpenView and it’s fairly easy to start working with.
If you have a small budget and not much time, WhatsUpGold is pretty bare bones, but it’s cheap is retardedly easy to configure. You can get into WhatsUpGold for ~$1000. It’s SO easy to work with on a basic level (ie, deploying CPU usage monitorings and failed ping alerts). It doesn’t have near the framework that OpenView or Nagios do (can’t deploy your own scripts, can’t deploy your own custom CODA/WMI/ect monitors, can’t write your own PERL/VBS monitoring policies, ect), but for basic monitoring it’s outstanding.
Thanks Shawn!
After looking and playing with it, I’ve decided to go the Nagios way. I’m really impressed with it.
we still use nagios and own a ton of enterprise monitoring tools…
Cool, good choice and good luck.