Hello
I know your are trying to do this in perl (its more then I would want to attempt at this moment in time)
I myself have to monitor over 40 servers for an ISP and its customers. I use a very reliable program called IPSENTRY. Can be found at www.ipsentry.com. Its reporting capabilities ranges from send SMS alerts to running an application to fix the errors for you.
Any way have a look if anything it might give you ideas on what type of thing you want to monitor.

Regards,
Gareth