I will be providing a service to small businesses via web app via mod_perl pages. I would like another machine on the net somewhere else to watch the web server to ensure it is operating.

I am envisioning a "watcher" cron job on the other machine checking in with the web server (via a http call to a perl script via w/arguments, either LWP or WWW::Mechanize) every few minutes.

If the watcher can't get the right response to its request from the server, the watcher emails or pages me and alert.

Similarly, if the server doesn't hear from the watcher for too long, the server sends an alert that the watcher is down.

Couple of questions:

Any recommendations on reliable perl hosting companies? I would need cron, perl, LWP, mechanize, shell access on the watcher. Low bandwidth. Watcher would not serve web pages, just make requests and send email when something goes wrong.

Any suggestions on how to improve this monitoring idea?

Thank you very much

Phillip

In reply to perl monitoring and hosting by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.