Server Availability Monitoring Tools and Techniques

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Introduction
Monitoring availability of servers is one of the major concerns in the field of
information technology which faces by many companies in their day to day
operations. The monitoring system has the potential to control and improve the
performance of computer servers and services [1]. The major objective of this
study is to evaluate the fundamental principle of monitoring tools and provide
differentiations between types of server monitoring tools. The security is one of
the biggest issues occurred in server monitoring tools which impact on the
performance of the servers and networks used in companies. Mainly, this study
is categorised into a few parts such as the comparison between server
availability monitoring tools, monitoring architecture, the proposed solution for
reducing vulnerabilities in monitoring tools and impact of failure prediction on
monitoring systems.
Comparison of server availability monitoring tools
There are various kinds of server monitoring tools used for improving the
performance of computer servers and services. These monitoring tools are
described and compared below:
Nagios core
Nagios is one of the effective open sources monitoring systems which can be
used in companies for improving the overall efficiency of the networks. There
are major two kinds of Nagios tools used such as Nagios core, Nagios XI both
are used for monitoring IT infrastructures, for example, end user station and
active network components. The major feature of this monitoring tool is that it
can be used for process monitoring and resource measuring which increase the
level of efficiency in the system [2]. As compared to the other monitoring tools
Nagios core is more suitable for computer networks and it reduces the issue of
vulnerabilities by providing effective services to the consumers.
Ganlia
It is a part of a monitoring tool which is used for high performance computer
systems in order to monitor the effectiveness of the system. Such kind of tool
has the potential for reducing the security risks and improves the overall

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availability of the system rather than other monitoring tools. The key limitation
of this monitoring system is that it cannot be used for measuring resources in
the organizations and require more efforts for designing and implementing
networks services [3].
CollectD
The term collectD is defined as the server availability monitoring tool which is
used for large business sectors in order to maintain the availability of services
for consumers and employees. The key difference between ganila and collectD
monitoring tool is that collectD is less complex and easy for CPU and process
monitoring.
Spice works
It is one of the common types of monitoring tools used in the field of
information technology that has the ability for evaluating the availability of the
servers. The major difference between spice works and other monitoring tools
is that it improves the overall availability of servers which help companies for
managing the performance of networks system [4].
Cacti
The term cacti is a computer network graphic system which is designed and
implemented for monitoring the services provided by computer networks. As
compare with spice works this monitoring tool can be used for monitoring the
bandwidth and resource measuring of available servers and networks [5]. It has
the potential for creating unlimited graphics by using sources and SDEFs which
makes it better rather than other kinds of monitoring systems.
Zabbix
It is an open source system which is an advanced monitoring tool used for
high-level computer programmes. With the help of this monitoring tool
companies can take instance information from the computer servers and
provide a platform for managing multiple servers in the companies [6]. The
main difference between this monitoring tool and other is that it can be used
for process monitoring in the computer servers and services. However, it is a
very simple and easy approach that can be adapted for assisting the networks
and servers.