Application to Show if Server re up or Down

[Steve_T]

Hi All,

 

Wonder if you can help,

 

I'm currently looking for an application with a nice GUI to show me whether my servers are up or down. The application will need to run on my server and send i would guess regular ping requests to ensure that there is still a response. Would need some GUI indicator with sound. Like Green for a server which responds and no sound and a red icon with a buzzer for a server that hasn't responded after the last three attempts.

 

Does anyone know of anything or written something that they would like to share.

 

Thanking in advance,

 

Steve

[dhicks]

The application will need to run on my server and send i would guess regular ping requests to ensure that there is still a response.

 

There's actually a whole dedicated protocol for this kind of thing - SNMP. You simply need an SNMP compatible application - lots of people on here use Spiceworks or similar:

 

Free Network Monitoring Software | Spiceworks Free Network Management Software

 

Any network printers should also report their status via SNMP, which can then be added to your monitoring list.

[elsiegee40]

I can tell by checking logmein... And it's free. I heave a sigh of relief every time I see those green icons. The one occasion I had red turned out to be the fault of a gas board digger driver who excavated the phone lines.

[Steve_T]

Many thanks for your quick responses, This will certainly prompt further reading. I hadn't thought about network printers yet so this will be an added bonus. I will check outside Spiceworks on Monday. My final question would be then, is there any down side to monitoring your network appliances in this way?

[Dos_Box]

The Dude: MikroTik Routers and Wireless

 

It's free and it montors and reports on printers, desktop PC's and lots of other network devices besides. Easy to setup and configure as well.

[kmount]

My final question would be then, is there any down side to monitoring your network appliances in this way?

 

Yes. - You will lose the feeling of surprise when users report printers with empty toner cartridges via the old way of "printer broken"

[IKWeb]

Is there a web version of this, which could run on a server running IIS, so you can make this amiable to everyone?? I know spiceworks is web based, but I am thinking of just a single webpage with server name, and then either text to say its online, or like a traffic light system, just something simple, and easy for staff to look at and get a heads up within a min of checking the page. maybe even host this page on an external server and get the information published to it??

 

Thanks

[Gatt]

Nagios?

Takes a bit of time to get the config files working depending on your setup but it certainly works

Can also email you when a monitored host or service changes (Critical, Warning, Recovery, etc)

Comes as part of Ubuntu (10.10 - not checked 11.04 yet) so majority of the work is already done - just need the config files and the nsclient++ for windows

[plexer]

If you don't have a helpdesk and want to integrate the two op smartdesk will do it from sept.

 

Ben

[mac_shinobi]

I've got a hta somewhere - you can add either the ip address or hostname and within the hta you can adjust how often it pings each device and it will show you if its offline or online depending on the outcome of the said ping result for each device.

[dhicks]

I am thinking of just a single webpage with server name, and then either text to say its online, or like a traffic light system, just something simple, and easy for staff to look at and get a heads up within a min of checking the page.

 

Depending on exactly what information you want to show, you could write a simple script to do this - for each server in a given list, ping server, generate HTML page with result. I've done the same in the past using SSH rather than a simple ping so you can run whatever commands on the remote server you like - handy for enumerating virtual machines on physical servers and so forth.

[Steve_T]

Again, thanks for all the replies, i will test these next time im on site.

[mac_shinobi]

Depending on exactly what information you want to show, you could write a simple script to do this - for each server in a given list, ping server, generate HTML page with result. I've done the same in the past using SSH rather than a simple ping so you can run whatever commands on the remote server you like - handy for enumerating virtual machines on physical servers and so forth.

 

Sounds like a nice project for me to do a hta - what are common network connectivity tasks ??

 

ping, nslookup, trace route any other ones ??

[glennda]

Search PHP Servermonitor on here - it pings each machine in the list then echo's the result either up or down

[dhicks]

Sounds like a nice project for me to do a hta

 

What's an hta?

 

what are common network connectivity tasks??

 

Ping won't always get you a result - Windows XP, with it's default firewall settings, doesn't respond to ping.

[Steve21]

What's an hta?

 

 

HTML applications (aka .hta) it's just a phrase for html files with scripting inside of them.

 

Like having vbscript in a html file, can be saved as a .hta file

 

e.g. (stolen from ze Web)

 

   BORDER="thick" 
  BORDERSTYLE="complex"/>
HTA - Hello World
<br />
window.resizeto 300, 150<br />
Sub Hello<br />
   MsgBox "Hello, world!"<br />
End Sub<br />





HTA - Hello World


<br />
  run_button_hello.onclick = <br />
     function(){alert("from (" + this.value + "): Hello, world!");};<br />

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/HTA-Hello_World_example.png

 

Steve

[dhicks]

HTML applications (aka .hta) it's just a phrase for html files with scripting inside of them.

 

Oh, I see. Is HTML/JavaScript going to be suitible for server monitoring - can you convince JavaScript to do ping (or SSH, etc) without some kind of server-side help?

[Steve21]

Oh, I see. Is HTML/JavaScript going to be suitible for server monitoring - can you convince JavaScript to do ping (or SSH, etc) without some kind of server-side help?

 

In terms of a pure "ping" no, however you can be cheesy and emulate same kind of behaviour. (JS cant anyway, not pure pings, VB can I think(

 

an example:

 

var ImageObject = new Image(); 
ImageObject.src = "http://www.edugeek.net/image/bluelight_logo.png"; 

if (ImageObject.height > 0) { 
// Yay it's alive! Do random magic/put pretty pics up!
} 

 

Simple example, but if you want it explained. Tests image on server, if it's larger than 0, aka it exists, server is online. Else it isn't.

 

Steve

[dhicks]

Simple example, but if you want it explained. Tests image on server, if it's larger than 0, aka it exists, server is online. Else it isn't.

 

Handy, but it's only going to work for HTTP servers.

[mac_shinobi]

In terms of a pure "ping" no, however you can be cheesy and emulate same kind of behaviour. (JS cant anyway, not pure pings, VB can I think(

 

an example:

 

var ImageObject = new Image(); 
ImageObject.src = "http://www.edugeek.net/image/bluelight_logo.png"; 

if (ImageObject.height > 0) { 
// Yay it's alive! Do random magic/put pretty pics up!
} 

 

Simple example, but if you want it explained. Tests image on server, if it's larger than 0, aka it exists, server is online. Else it isn't.

 

Steve

 

You can either use WMI to do the ping for you or you can do it through a command prompt and grab the reply info from the command prompt

 

There is a term for it but cant remember the name for it

 

WMI Method

 

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/vbstech_network_ping.php

 

Shell'ing the command prompt ping command and getting the output that way

 

http://hacktivision.com/index.php/2009/04/24/vbscript-to-ping-a-host?blog=2

Edited May 31, 2011 by mac_shinobi

[Steve21]

You can either use WMI to do the ping for you or you can do it through a command prompt and grab the reply info from the command prompt

 

True, but I took the assumption from the way it was asked, it want's it for end users to see. aka, just pretty display etc

 

Could do a VBS/html page I guess, but either way Lot of options, just depends how you want it setup/what servers/who's using

 

Steve

[RTFM]

Whats Up Gold is another option?

[SpuffMonkey]

I use this

 

Features of PeerMonitor

 

Its very small and tidy