check_services -- server monitoring script

check_services

Current version: 0.27
Updated: 10 Nov. 1999

check_services checks several services to make sure they are up and running. The checks aren't thorough, but it does a reasonable job. If anything is wrong, it emails a notice (of course, you'd have it email to a machine that is on another network!).

You can add your local gateway/routers to check to see if they are up, before attempting to check outside services.

Use the --verbose switch from the command line to see what's happening.

Sample email:

Subject: Network/Server Problem Report

ROUTER: 192.168.1.12 (some router) appears to have a problem.
ROUTER: 10.1.228.29 (some other router) appears to have a problem.
DNS: 10.1.228.99 (another dns) timed out (can't find server name).
DNS: 192.168.0.5 (ns1.foo.bar) timed out (can't find server name).
HTTP: 192.168.99.100 (web.foo.bar) appears to have a problem.
MAIL: 10.5.5.5 (my secondary MX) appears to have a problem.
MAIL: 10.1.1.200 (mail.foo.bar) appears to have a problem.

It checks:

routers -- by pinging
terminal servers -- by pinging
domain name servers -- query the server (with nslookup)
web servers -- download a webpage with lynx
mail servers -- telnets to server's port 25 and sends "quit" command
news servers -- telnets to server's port 119 and sends "quit" command

Later, I may add ftp and POP3 checks etc...

For continuous monitoring, just use your crontab like:

*/15 *  * * *   root    /home/jcr/scripts/check_services

If you have any ideas, please email me at jeremy@reedmedia.net.

Current version download: check_services.0.27.txt.
Old version download: check_services.0.25.txt.

From the source code:

# Copyright (c) 1999 Jeremy C. Reed. All Rights Reserved.
# This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify
# it as long as you retain this entire copyright and notice.
# This software is provided as is and the author is not liable
# for anything resulting from its use.

If you need outside hosts for monitoring your services or more comprehensive monitoring solutions (with graphs and analysis), we may be able to help. Send us an email (sales@reedmedia.net).