Need quick and dirty free server monitoring tool

[sygyzy]

Can anyone suggest a free piece of software that can monitor a server (by just pinging it)? I need to run it on my windows box. A firefox extension would be cool but so far I can't find one.

 

[DaiShan]

A quick search brought up http://www.download.com/P-Ping-Tools/3000-2648_4-10485931.html. I'm not sure how well it works, or if the license expires.

 

[nweaver]

not sure if you can run it on a windows box (maybe via cygwin) but nagios is one of the best longer term tools

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: nweaver
not sure if you can run it on a windows box (maybe via cygwin) but nagios is one of the best longer term tools

Nagios is fantastic and provides a wealth of information about running services, maybe a little over kill for determining if a site responds to ping heh. I was looking to see if there was a quick and dirty way to use php and rss to provide this functionality, but didn't come across anything ready-made.

 

[sygyzy]

Yeah, I don't need something overkill. I need something that can run on a Windows box. It's to monitor a 2003 Server box that seems to like to shutdown. We know the problem but there is no fix currently. I need to be notified when it goes down. The server itself couldn't email me obviously.

 

[nweaver]

I'm not familar with free software for windows, but you could probably just use perl or vbscript. Perl would be easy, set it up to run and email you if the box is unpingable x times in a row.

 

[sygyzy]

I think I might try doing it with Perl. Good suggestion nweaver.

 

[RebateMonger]

I use my ISA 2004 Servers to monitor other servers, both locally and across the Internet. It'll ping them, get web pages, etc. and issue alerts if there's a problem.

But it's not free.

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/EverWatch_Server_Monitor/everwatch.html

:sun:

 

[FreshPrince]

not free, but good

SiteScope

free

Cacti

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
Yeah, I don't need something overkill. I need something that can run on a Windows box. It's to monitor a 2003 Server box that seems to like to shutdown. We know the problem but there is no fix currently. I need to be notified when it goes down. The server itself couldn't email me obviously.

Do you have an email account on that server? I keep a pop3 client going, and when I get send-recv errors I know something is up.

 

[spikespiegal]

I use

http://www.tools4ever.com/products/free/freeping/

Works great.

Problem with the free tools is they tend to be limited in terms of notification. Most will simply netsend to a workstation account when there's a problem, which is fine if you are on that network.

You usually have to pay to get an E-mail notification.

 

[camara120]

http://www.programurl.com/software/uptime.htm