Server Availability Monitoring and Metrics

Running head: SERVER AVAILABILITY MONITORING AND METRICS 1
Server availability monitoring and metrics
Name:
Institution:

SERVER AVAILABILITY MONITORING AND METRICS
2
Server availability monitoring and metrics
Introduction
Server availability monitoring is one of the major issues that various companies face in their daily
operations. However, at the company, there are some challenges including at what metrics the
applications, availability of hardware and services may be considered. Also, it's very crucial to get to
understand the resources which are required by servers and services in order to run its operations.
Comparison of server availability monitoring tools
Ganglia is monitoring tools which are highly distributed and scalable which is used in monitoring
the performance for networks. This software also is used to view live covering metrics which includes
CPU load averages. The disk usage for Ganglia varies according to the needs of the software. In terms of
bandwidth, monitoring can upload the request with higher speed. This software is available at any time
since when issues occur its send SMS to the administrator for it to be rectified.
OpenNMS is free source network management platform and also network monitoring tool. With
data usage of 1.5GHz, also its bandwidth monitoring is high since it processes the request after the
problem at high speed and sends it to mail. As shown by Hernandez and Gallardo [1].This tool is
available at any time it is needed for monitoring purposes. It offers commercial services, support, and
training, as elaborated in [4].
Nagios core is referred to a free powerful network and open source monitoring tool which
enables monitoring systems, networks, and infrastructure to run up efficiently. For it to install it requires
disk space of more than 1GB. Also, the Nagios core gives alerting services and monitoring services for
applications, switches, and servers. For instance when the problem arises in the network Nagios signal
the administrator about the problem and also it alerts them when the issue has been resolved, thus the
software is available all the time. Nagios core is always considered as the heart of application which is
consists of web-based UI and monitoring engines. Lastly, Nagios core performs the function of
monitoring all the host resources which include disk usage, processor load and all operating system such
as event logs, windows, and Linux.
Zabbix is referred to free monitoring tool which is installed on the UNIX, Mac OS, Windows, and
Linux. It requires disk usage of more than 1.2 GB. The tool monitors the health of the network devices
and also it tracks the alerts by sending them on by email or SMS and by displaying them on the

SERVER AVAILABILITY MONITORING AND METRICS
3
dashboard Thus it is available at any time. This tools also required high CPU processing. The monitoring
capabilities of Zabbix entails applications, server, and networks. It also gives monitoring capabilities on
the remote sites and also it can track remote resources connections such as cloud services.
Icinga is among the monitoring tools which was created from the Nagios core which requires
disks usage of 1.3GB. Also, it has high bandwidth monitoring because it has high uploading and
downloading speed. And since then the two tools have diverged in their use. This tool is an open source
and it is free to use. Moreover, this tool can be used to monitor the server using SNMP. And when there
is a problem Icinga used trap as an urgent notification mechanism thus it available anytime. When an
alert is sent then it is shown in the dashboard and can also be forwarded via email or SMS.
WhatsUp Gold as a monitoring tool runs on the windows and requires high CPU monitoring and
Disk usage of 1.6GH for it to function well. It also utilizes the SNMP and Ping to log on the entire
network equipment. The operational features of Whatup Gold tool include handling of alerts and
constant checking of status. It is very possible to receive alerts via the customized dashboard and also
through email, slack or SMS. It's monitor visibility which includes remote sites, cloud resources, and
wireless networks. Also, the tool can be extended by the use of add on modules that give the user, VoIP
monitoring, traffic analysis capabilities, and virtualization monitoring.
Spiceworks is a network monitor which is funded through adds which are display on the
interface. It requires moderate disk monitoring and less disk space and slightly high bandwidth
monitoring as compared to other tools. This tools usually runs on windows and is part of other
monitoring tools such as Spiceworks inventory, Spiceworks network mapper and Spiceworks help desk.
In addition, Spiceworks incorporates SNMP traps as an alert and are display in the dashboard and can be
sent again via email As stated by Guerrero-Contreras [5]. Also, it is very possible using performance
thresholds to create your own customized alerts. The Spiceworks dashboard is very friendly since data
can be represented by graphs and charts. It also allows an individual to check the speed and capacity of
the network devices in order to get information per applications. This means that OpenNMS has a wide
range of functionalities in the monitoring of virtualization platforms, operating systems, and hardware.
Cacti is an end graphical tool for system data, in addition, it can handle data collection and data
gathering and storing it at MySQL database. Cacti is mainly a front end graphing tool for system data,
but it can also handle data collection. Since it gathers a lot of data it requires well monitoring of CPU,
bandwidth monitoring and Disk usage of More than 1GB. Data gathering occurs at an external script that
feeds metrics, which Cacti stores in a MySQL® database. Moreover, cacti are usually leverage on
RRDTool, which is a graphing system for storing the data. As shown in the study [2]. The cacti