“Linux systems administrators dread calls from irate users
saying the system is down. Careful administrators may try to keep a
step ahead of crises such as this by having a pager notify them
when things go wrong, but most sys admins prefer to employ more
proactive means to monitor their operations and avert
disaster.”
“The technology exists today to allow administrators to monitor
their Linux systems from virtually anywhere. Who wouldn’t opt for
the ability to whip out a Palm VII (or Palm V or Handspring with a
Minstrel wireless modem) while on the road and, after a few taps,
see the kind of system information illustrated in Figure 1. The
most pertinent system information is displayed: you can see that
the system has been up and running for over eight days and
currently has a load average of two running jobs; memory usage is
light, and the filesystems have plenty of space remaining.”
“In this article, I’ll run through all the steps you need to
do to get this monitoring capability working on a palmtop device so
that you can readily keep track of your Linux Web server.“