Servers are the core of any business. They run your website and store your data. If they go down, you lose all that data, which could be devastating if it’s not backed up. You also lose the ability to run your business online and communicate with customers. And even if you have a backup system, it’s inconvenient to have your server go down.
Server monitoring tools can help prevent these problems by alerting you when anything goes wrong with your server. You’ll know about it before it gets out of hand so that you can take action quickly.
What is server monitoring software?
Server monitoring software is a program that monitors the health and performance of your servers. It can help you prevent downtime, identify problems, and ensure your servers run smoothly. You can use it to monitor all of the services on your server or just a few.
There are many different types of server monitoring software, such as:
- Host monitoring software: Monitors your entire host machine and all its services. This type of software will often have features like log analysis, process management, performance tracking, system reporting, etc.
- Application monitoring software: Monitors specific applications on your host machine (e.g., web servers). This type of software will often have features like log analysis, process management, performance tracking, system reporting, etc.
- Network monitoring software: Monitors the network infrastructure (e.g., routers, switches) that connects all of your servers together in order to ensure that data transfers from one machine to another without any issues occurring along the way (e.g., packet loss).
What is Open-source server monitoring?
Open-source server monitoring is a software system that allows you to monitor servers, networks, and applications in real time. It is free and open for anyone to modify and use however they wish.
Open source systems are different from proprietary ones because they don’t require you to pay licensing fees or other fees to use them. They also tend to be more flexible and customizable than proprietary systems, which makes them great for organizations with specific needs.
Best Open Source Monitoring Tools
Prometheus
Prometheus is an open-source monitoring tool focusing on real-time data collection, aggregation, and alerting. It uses a pull model rather than the traditional push model. It offers data storage, graphing, alerting and rule creation in a single solution. It also has an excellent alerting system and dashboards for visualizing metrics.
Zabbix
Zabbix is an open-source application that allows you to monitor just about anything—from servers to network equipment to laptops and everything in between. You can use it for monitoring processes, applications, networks, hardware devices, virtual machines, websites and more!
Nagios
Nagios is an open-source application that monitors network services like servers, websites or network hardware for downtime or problems. It is a monitoring tool that allows you to monitor one or more hosts from a single pane of glass. It uses a web browser or an interface like NConf (a web-based configuration manager with auto-discovery capabilities).
Cloud-based server monitoring
Cloud-based server monitoring is the latest trend in IT management. The cloud allows you to monitor your servers from any location, which means that you don’t have to be on-site for your staff to be able to manage the servers at all times.
There are many benefits to cloud-based server monitoring, including;
- The ability to access your servers from anywhere
- Easy setup/configuration
- Can be used by anyone with access permissions
SolarWinds server monitoring
SolarWinds server monitoring is an all-in-one solution for managing your network, servers, and applications.
With SolarWinds server monitoring, you can monitor all your servers from one place and gain real-time visibility into critical data like CPU load, disk space usage, memory utilization, email alerts, and remote control through RDP and VNC access to individual servers. Plus, dozens of preconfigured dashboards that let you see everything at once, so there’s no need to jump around between screens or apps.
What is Application Server Monitoring?
Application server monitoring is a way to ensure that the applications you use are up and running. When your application stops responding, or slows down to a crawl, you need to know about it fast. Application server monitoring helps you do just that by providing alerts about the performance of your applications.
Application servers are used for various purposes, from hosting web apps to serving up files over FTP. These servers run on an operating system like Windows or Linux. They’re typically installed on dedicated hardware so they can be accessed over a network connection. The most common types of application servers include web servers (like Apache), database servers (like MySQL), and file transfer protocol (FTP) servers.
What’s an Application?
An application is a program that runs on your computer and performs specific tasks at your request. For example, if you’re using Google Chrome as your browser then the Google Chrome browser application loads when you open up the browser window. Meanwhile, if you’re using Microsoft Office Word, then there would be another application running in the background called WordPad. It lets you view documents without having to launch Word every time.
Linux server monitoring
Linux server monitoring tools are a must-have for any IT professional. They help you monitor and improve the performance of your Linux servers. It ensures they are always running at peak performance, even under heavy loads.
What is Linux Monitoring?
Linux monitoring is gathering data about your Linux servers and then using it to make decisions about how you manage them. You can use monitoring tools to know how much memory or CPU each server uses, what services are running on each server, and more. Once you have this data, you can use it to make decisions about what needs more resources and what doesn’t.
What Tools Should You Use?
There are many different types of Linux monitoring tools available today. Some of the most popular include Nagios Core and Icinga 2. These tools are designed for large networks with many servers running different services. If you don’t need this level of detail, there are also more lightweight options like Zabbix and Munin. These tools can still give you valuable information without requiring much effort from an IT admin.
How do I check my server monitoring?
If you’re a server admin, you know that monitoring your servers is crucial in keeping them running well and preventing downtime. But how do you know if your monitoring is working? How do you check it?
There are a few key things to look out for:
- What kind of data is being collected? Is it enough?
- How often is the data collected? Does it happen too often or not often enough?
- How up-to-date is the data? Is there any lag time between an event and when it shows up in the reports?
- Are there any anomalies in the data? These could be indicators of problems with your servers or with your monitoring software.
Things to consider when choosing a server monitoring tool:
Cost: You have to pay for your monitoring tool, so it’s essential that the price is reasonable for what you get. Some companies offer free trials to help you decide whether or not the product is right for you, but if not, make sure it’s worth what you’ll be paying for it.
Reliability: If your monitoring tool isn’t reliable—meaning it doesn’t always work when it says it will—then, what good does it do? Ensure the company has a good reputation for reliability and customer service. So if something goes wrong with your account or subscription, they’ll be able to help fix it quickly and efficiently.
Features: Different companies offer different product features. Some include graphs while others don’t; some include alerts while others don’t.
Which is the best monitoring tool for servers?
If you’re looking for the best monitoring tool for servers, Monitis is the way to go.
Monitis is an all-in-one monitoring solution that gives you access to all your server metrics in one place. You can monitor and alert on CPU usage, memory usage, disk space usage, and more—all from one dashboard. You can also set up alerts for when your metrics reach a certain level (or multiple levels). So that you know when something needs attention before it becomes a problem.
Monitis is also great because it integrates with many other tools and services like Slack, PagerDuty, HipChat, Zendesk (and more). So you don’t have to worry about missing notifications or being unable to address issues immediately just because something isn’t happening directly through your Monitis account. Plus, it’s free for teams smaller than five users!
Monitis is compatible with various operating systems, including Windows (versions), Linux (Red Hat, CentOS/Fedora/Ubuntu) and MacOS X.
We hope our article has helped you learn about server monitoring tools.
Are you enjoying your time on JBKlutse?
Articles like these are sponsored free for everyone through the support of generous readers just like you. Thanks to their partnership in our mission, we reach more than 50,000 unique users monthly!
Please help us continue to bring the tech narrative to people everywhere through relevant and simple tech news, reviews, buying guides, and more.
Support JBKkutse with a gift today!