Scripting library for monitoring server health?

Question

Is there a scripting library preferably in Python/Perl/Ruby that allows you to get information on disk, load, a list of processes running, cpu usage in a standard way?

I always end up parsing df, uptime, ps etc. Given that these differ on different Unix flavors and need to be done in a totally different way on Windows, I would have thought that someone would have already done this.

Nonentity

I think someone gave a talk at an Australian Railscamp about one. I can't remember any details, though. – Dreddy

you could call out to the "sar" command or others...linuxadmintips.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/… – Campney

Answer 1

(ruby) Daniel Berger maintains a lot of gems in this field. Look for sys-cpu, sys-uptime, sys-uname, sys-proctable, sys-host, sys-admin, sys-filesystem - all multi-platform AFAIK.

Gardie

Answer 2

Most simple is monit: http://mmonit.com/monit/

A step up, as @lawrencealan mentioned, is Nagios: http://nagios.org/

And here's a new interesting effort: http://amon.cx/

Megganmeggi

All three are not scripting libraries that can easily be incorporated into own code - or? – Encircle

Just in case I am missing something. Do any of the packages come with a scripting library that exposes the system info in a standard way? – Nonentity

Not that I know of -- I guess I didn't understand what you were looking for. :) – Megganmeggi

Answer 3

Have you looked into Nagios? http://nagios.org/

There are an abundance of agents: http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Addons/Monitoring-Agents

Chilly

Just in case I am missing something. Does Nagios come with a scripting library that exposes the system info in a standard way? – Nonentity