How to test the uptime of a webserver?

[Redd Vinylene]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 8:58 PM, Redd Vinylene <reddvinylene at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Matthew Seaman <
> m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Redd Vinylene wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 2:22 AM, Moises Castellanos <m2o7i1 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 7:05 PM, Redd Vinylene <reddvinylene at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>>  I got this dedicated server which is exposed to DDoS attacks quite
>>>>> frequently. Say I need to host a website on it, is there any way of
>>>>> telling how often it is actually online (to the rest of the world)?
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe make some sort of ping script from a remote server?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>     You can install nagios and monitor the web server. It will send you an
>>>> email when
>>>> the server is down and when is up again. With this information you can
>>>> know
>>>> the uptime
>>>> of the web server.
>>>>
>>>
>>  I'd have to install Nagios on a different server then, right? I doubt
>>> the actual server knows when its ISP's link drops (or just slows down)
>>> due to an attack.
>>>
>>
>> Not necessarily.  You can install nagios on your web server and use it
>> to monitor a server at the other end of your wan link -- usually a
>> machine in your ISPs infrastructure[*] -- on the basis that if you can get
>> packets out, then other people can get packets in.  The trick is to monitor
>> something that isn't too far away, or you'll end up monitoring the
>> availability of other people's networks, rather than your own.
>>
>> There's a lot more can be done than just monitoring connectivity by
>> sending ICMP ping packets every so often.  There are any number of
>> ways a web server can go wrong -- processes can crash, critical disk
>> partitions can fill up, load spikes can overwhelm the machine's capacity.
>> You can develop a range of different nagios tests that should tell you
>> pretty much at a glance just what has gone wrong.  Takes all the fun out
>> of diagnosing the problems perhaps, but it does mean you'll be back to
>> bed sooner when the pager goes off in the small hours.
>>
>>        Cheers,
>>
>>        Matthew
>>
>> [*] Some ISPs provide machines specifically for this purpose.
>>
>> --
>> Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
>>                                                 Flat 3
>> PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
>>                                                 Kent, CT11 9PW
>>
>>
> Thank you guys. I'm looking for the simplest solution though, like a simple
> oneliner, or a shell script.
>
> Anybody have an idea?
>
> --
> http://www.home.no/reddvinylene
>

I'll try to write a simple shell script and report back to y'all.

-- 
http://www.home.no/reddvinylene