Comments on: Is Your Site Down? Database? http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/24/site-monitoring-tools/ new media strategies and other marketing gems Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:11:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Douglas Karr http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/24/site-monitoring-tools/#comment-111357 Douglas Karr Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:57:03 +0000 http://www.douglaskarr.com/?p=2183#comment-111357 Hi Hovhannes, Those are definitely options and I actually do have a mon.itor.us account. However, the usability of Pingdom as an application is much simpler. I could not figure out how to do some of the checks using mon.itor.us. It appears monitis is organized similarly. Thanks! Doug Hi Hovhannes,

Those are definitely options and I actually do have a mon.itor.us account. However, the usability of Pingdom as an application is much simpler. I could not figure out how to do some of the checks using mon.itor.us. It appears monitis is organized similarly.

Thanks!
Doug

]]> By: Hovhannes http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/24/site-monitoring-tools/#comment-111088 Hovhannes Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:23:35 +0000 http://www.douglaskarr.com/?p=2183#comment-111088 I just want to introduce 2 more services - free <a href="http://mon.itor.us" rel="nofollow">mon.itor.us</a> and <a href="http://monitis.com" rel="nofollow">premium monitis</a> monitoring services. One of their advantage you can combine external page load monitoring with systems resource monitoring and be notified about low systems resource. Then you can really be proactive not only fixing but preventing a failure. Give it a try! I just want to introduce 2 more services - free mon.itor.us and premium monitis monitoring services. One of their advantage you can combine external page load monitoring with systems resource monitoring and be notified about low systems resource. Then you can really be proactive not only fixing but preventing a failure. Give it a try! ]]> By: Ade http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/24/site-monitoring-tools/#comment-108302 Ade Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:24:48 +0000 http://www.douglaskarr.com/?p=2183#comment-108302 Great review Doug. And you're dead right that just checking for HTTP port status is not enough. We've been using Pingdom with <a href="http://www.formspring.com">FormSpring</a> for over a year and are happy with the service. We setup a similar check -- created about a dozen unit tests against the application using our API (e.g., can a form be submitted, can we see the expected data in the database, etc.) and output a PASS or FAIL status to a file. Then Pingdom checks that file via HTTP to make sure that the message says PASS, else alerts go off like crazy. Great review Doug. And you’re dead right that just checking for HTTP port status is not enough.

We’ve been using Pingdom with FormSpring for over a year and are happy with the service.

We setup a similar check — created about a dozen unit tests against the application using our API (e.g., can a form be submitted, can we see the expected data in the database, etc.) and output a PASS or FAIL status to a file. Then Pingdom checks that file via HTTP to make sure that the message says PASS, else alerts go off like crazy.

]]> By: Amol Dalvi http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/24/site-monitoring-tools/#comment-108202 Amol Dalvi Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:06:40 +0000 http://www.douglaskarr.com/?p=2183#comment-108202 Thanks for that product review Doug. Please let me know how things go at the end of 30 days. That is about when we plan to put in our monitoring too. Thanks, Amol. Thanks for that product review Doug. Please let me know how things go at the end of 30 days. That is about when we plan to put in our monitoring too.

Thanks,
Amol.

]]> By: Roland Smith http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/24/site-monitoring-tools/#comment-108024 Roland Smith Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:12:06 +0000 http://www.douglaskarr.com/?p=2183#comment-108024 I was also surprised at the prices of some of the monitoring services and the fees they were charging. Pingdom looks to be a good service. I settled on AlertBot (about the same price) almost a year ago and have been pleased with their service. Since you do all of the setup yourself and everything else is automatic from there on, $50 per month should be buying an incredible basket of services. I'm looking for some of these monitoring services to include a Twitter interface for notifications in the near future. Using Twitter so that any number of people could "follow" the alerts would be an excellent capability, in my opinion. Thanks! Roland Smith http://www.techmatters.com/ I was also surprised at the prices of some of the monitoring services and the fees they were charging. Pingdom looks to be a good service. I settled on AlertBot (about the same price) almost a year ago and have been pleased with their service. Since you do all of the setup yourself and everything else is automatic from there on, $50 per month should be buying an incredible basket of services.

I’m looking for some of these monitoring services to include a Twitter interface for notifications in the near future. Using Twitter so that any number of people could “follow” the alerts would be an excellent capability, in my opinion.
Thanks!
Roland Smith
http://www.techmatters.com/ ]]>