Server uptime monitors is critical for any serious webmaster.
We've covered the topic a couple of times on our blog, most recently on Pingdom's decision to go freemium.
Personally, I've used Alertra for several years and am currently test driving Pingdom.
Which uptime monitor do you use and why? What do you look for in these services? Interested to hear which services others use and why.
I'm currently using Pingdom's Freemium and I have seen fast results with Pingdom. The server that my website hosted on with HostGator went down and I got an e-mail within 10 minutes. When I contacted technical support, they didn't even know that the server was down. Pingdom is quick, easy to use, and a time saver. So i would say it's worth the try.
I believe if you upgrade to the 'paid for' version, you'll hear far faster than in 10 minutes. You can setup SMS alerts etc.
We've been using HyperSpin for many years. The service is very affordable and things are checked from multiple locations before we get notified.
Welcome to the forum, ffeingol. Never used HyperSpin, but looks like they've been around for a long time - always a good sign.
I use HostTracker for uptime monitoring and Server Density for load monitoring.
HostTracker because it's got a decent free plan (12.5 minute resolution) with a widget that displays your uptime percentage.
Server Density 's free plan gives you two alerts on one server. I've got it set up to e-mail me the current load whenever load goes above 2.0. If it's below three, I wait 5-10 minutes for it to clear. If it's above that, I ssh in. Saved me from going down a few times. Much lighter weight than nagios and easier to set up.
Thanks for the recommendations, lance. Just went to check out HostTracker, but their site is down. hehe. (I'm enjoying reading your website in the meantime, though).
Been looking at Server Density myself. It's on my 'to do' list to give that a spin, so interesting to hear more about it.
I think it's important to separate out (what we categorise as) the two different types of monitoring:
- Internal: Looking at the performance of the server resources e.g. CPU load, memory usage, process activity, disk space, etc
- External: Whether my website (/port/service) is responding from multiple locations or not
Both have their uses and we use Pingdom for the external monitoring part. This makes sure everyone around the world can access our services and alerts us when not.
Our own product, Server Density, is complements the external by looking at the internals of your server. This is useful for getting notified when your server is under heavy load, future capacity planning and troubleshooting events that have already happened.
Our "competitors" include Nagios and Hyperic as the big two, but we see ourselves as pitched lower than their target market - we're not as flexible or all encompassing but that means it's a lot easier to use and set up (minutes instead of hours)...plus it's hosted so you don't need to worry about maintenance and the like.
And @lance_ thanks for recommending us! I'll be interested to know how you get on @WhoIsHostingThis
BoxedIce has kindly contributed a guest post on the same topic over at our blog:
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