Monitoring Software. Should I use it?
There is a lot of buzz lately about how website owners should be using monitoring software to ensure your websites, and services are staying online as much as they are supposed to. However most end users or consumers don’t realize that web hosting companies themselves have very strict guidelines and allowances for downtime and outages.
Personally speaking, here at Punk Media we use 3 different types of monitoring software.
- Hardware Monitoring – This allows us to check on each system, and every part of the system to see if they are performing as they should be. The moment we notice something is not running at optimal we immediately notify our administrators to check it out.
- Network Monitoring – This monitoring service allows us to check the connections our machines have to the internet, and to each other. Our systems know these computers should be on 24/7/365, and should be constantly communicating with one another, any variance in that will immediately trigger a warning to our administrators.
- Temperature Monitoring – Each device in our server rooms are equipped with sensors that allow us to see live data on the operating temperature of the systems, ram, processors, and if the fans are operating properly. We also have the ability to speed up or slow down fans if the systems are running too hot, or too cold.
The problem with using monitoring software is simple, with Punk Media as an example, we are generally already working on an issue before the first customer support ticket about the issue comes in. Customers should be careful not to overload hosts with outage support tickets or phone calls as this could lead to a longer wait for the return of services (depending on the size of the company).
Now again, I can’t speak for every single host on this planet, however here at Punk Media we know your website is your livelihood, and we work hard to ensure that we minimize downtime with every step forward we take.
