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Services - System Monitor

[edit] Overview

The System Monitor checks the status of your gateway/server on a regular interval -- anywhere from every 2 minutes to every 3 hours. If a system problem occurs, an e-mail alert is sent to your inbox or e-mail-enabled pager service. Two types system checks are performed:

• The port monitor checks the connection to services (for instance, a web server)
• The resource monitor checks system load, disk space, and memory usage

[edit] Requirements

• The Web Services software module must be running and firewall open (resource monitor only)

[edit] Activation

• Login to your account
• Click on Systems in the top navigation bar
• Select the target system from the list of active systems in your account
• Click on System Monitor in the menu

[edit] Configuration

[edit] Port Monitor

In the port monitor section, select the ports that you wish to monitor. The service provides a standard list of ports:

• HTTP
• HTTPS
• FTP
• SSH
• TELNET
• SMTP
• SSH
• SUVA

Custom Port Monitoring -- Custom port monitoring is available to systems subscribed to the SOHO and SMB service level. Use this service to monitor any port (e.g. PCAnywhere, VNC, MySQL).

[edit] Resource Monitor

The resource monitor checks three resources on your server:

• System load
• Disk usage
• Swap memory usage

For each of the resources that you would like to monitor, you must i) enable the service and ii) set the threshold level.

[edit] System Load Average

The system load monitor tracks the load average over a 5-minute time span. Among other potential issues, this system check catches runaway processes, looping web scripts, and denial of service attacks. A load above 20 is busy, but manageable -- anything over 50 is trouble.

[edit] Disk Space

The disk space monitor checks the size of each partition and total disk space. (The check ignores your /boot partition and CD-ROM drives).

[edit] Swap Memory Usage

For speed and efficiency, the Linux operating system maximizes the use of physical memory (RAM) -- if your system has it, Linux will use it! A better indicator of memory usage is swap memory (definition: backing store/swap memory). If you find your swap memory stuck over 50%, you should either turn off unnecessary services or add more memory to your system.