Re: [fw-wiz] Web Server Monitoring

From: Vladimir Parkhaev (vladimir_at_arobas.net)
Date: 09/14/03

  • Next message: Jim McAtee: "Re: [fw-wiz] Web Server Monitoring" 
    To: Tony Turner <tnyturner@mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 15:11:55 -0400

    Quoting Tony Turner (tnyturner@mindspring.com):
    > What is the best way to monitor these servers?

    Well, first you have to decide what 'monitoring servers' is...
    There are dozens of free/commercial tools out there. Big business
    uses tools like HP OV, BMC Patrol, Unicenter TNG which are totally
    useless tools IMHO considering the $$, their complexity and what they actually
    deliver. Free tools include BigBrother, Mon, etc. I personally recommend
    Nagios (formally NetSaint).

    Now getting back to defining what 'monitoring web server' is -
    - is the box itself s up and ruining ? i
      (ICMP ping test)
    - is web server software (Apache/ISS) up and running ? (
      (TCP connections to ports 80/443)
    - is your application is up and running ?
      (HTTP GET request)
    - is your web site serves the _expected_ content (or is it 0wn3d)?
    - can your customers login ?

    and if the answer is 'No' to any of these questions -
    - why not?

    Your monitoring should answer all these questions. There are multiple ways
    to go about it. Here is one:

    Use Nagios for ruining your tests and notification. Develop in-house
    Perl scripts (using LWP module) to script your typical customer session
    and run them from Nagios.
    Your script should:
    - get the splash page (tests connectivity && web server functionality)
    - login with a specially created test account (tests your application functionality)
    - fetch subsequent page or 2, generate MD5 sigs on them
      (well, provided they are not too dynamic)
      and compare against previously stored values (this is your content test)

    If any of these steps fail, indicate where the failure took place.

    Anyhow, this has nothing to do with firewalls... Good luck....

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  • Next message: Jim McAtee: "Re: [fw-wiz] Web Server Monitoring"

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