Monitoring

Server status can be remotely monitored using the mtping application, which is included in the "Server Files" folder of each ExpeDat package.

Pinging servedat will return version, license, and runtime information.  The exact information available may vary depending on the version and configuration.

host-14# mtping dataexpedition.com ACT_IDSTR dataexpedition.com (70.164.67.132:8080) Response 0 of 200 bytes after 0 repeats in 1ms (Version 2/0): servedat - 1.14.0 January 2013 - DEI, DOC-1.13.1 MTP-osx-3.15.8 631 00000001: ExpeDat-1.14A Data Expedition Inc., DataExpedition.com Server Statistics (11400): Name: servedat Version: 1.14.0 Platform: osx Clock: Wed Jan 16 15:27:18 2013 Clock Skew: 0 seconds Delimiter: / Load: Current: 0, MaxConfig: 1, MaxStart: 1, TotalStart: 5 Capacity: 10 Up Time: 1.80 minutes Config Time: 1.80 minutes Idle Time: 1.35 minutes Errors: Errors 0, Failures: 0, Warnings: 0, Denials: 1

See the mtping section for more details on using mtping.

Action Scripts also have access to server configuration and load details through environment variables such as SV_SERVERLOAD.

Monitoring Server Health

The Load line tells you how busy your server is.  If the Current or MaxConfig loads are near Capacity, you may want to consider upgrading your server's capacity.  Comparing the TotalStart to the Up Time gives you a measure of how busy your server has been over time.

The Error line tells you whether the server is having problems.  Errors indicate potentially serious problems which should be investigated and corrected.  Check the server log for lines starting with 'E'.

Warnings are less serious than errors, but still should be investigated.  They may be caused by server configuration issues, or unusual conditions with individual transactions.   Check the server log for lines starting with 'W'.

A high number of Failures could indicate network problems.  A large number of Denials may indicate users having authentication or permission problems, or a security problem.

It is a good idea to check these values periodically, either with mtping or by looking for 'S' entries in the log file.