# Server and domain monitoring tool I made



## nixstats (Apr 7, 2015)

For the past months i've been working on a website and server monitoring tool. I'm trying to keep it as simple to use as possible. Adding a server to your dashboard is as simple as running a single command (no need to add the server on the site, it's one code for all your servers). For website monitoring the only thing you need to submit is the domain name.

Everything on the panel is of course only accessible to your but there is an option to create a public status page or even multiple status pages (status page X with server A and B, status page Y with server C and D). Here's an example of a public status page

I'm currently running a private beta and looking for some more beta testers, if you have any domains and/or servers that need monitoring send me a PM and i'll send you an invite code.

Here are some more screenshots; https://nixstats.com/sc1.html https://nixstats.com/sc2.html https://nixstats.com/sc3.html


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## drmike (Apr 7, 2015)

Wowzers, that looks nice!


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## Nett (Apr 7, 2015)

Sounds interesting, will this be available as a self hosted solution?


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## Enterprisevpssolutions (Apr 8, 2015)

Looks good, how far back can you look at the stats?


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## robbyhicks (Apr 8, 2015)

You've got a PM!  This looks cool


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## k0nsl (Apr 8, 2015)

I'd be interested in this project. At a glance, I found it quite clean and immediately gives one a clear overview of the essential/s - just as it is supposed to do. Good luck with the project.

Could you perhaps tell us more about the specifics of it? Nothing too detailed, but a somewhat specific run-down of the ins-and-outs, what it is written in and if you're using any framework. Et cetera.

Details are always interesting.

Again, good luck. It looks promising!


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

drmike said:


> Wowzers, that looks nice!


Thanks 



Nett said:


> Sounds interesting, will this be available as a self hosted solution?


Probably not. I'm trying to make it as simple as possible, it's currently setup with php, mongodb, node.js, and some shell scripts. Unless I get a lot of requests for self hosted version.



Enterprisevpssolutions said:


> Looks good, how far back can you look at the stats?


Stats are not pruned so for now I'll keep them forever, this was a problem before but since mongodb 3 which has compression it's much easier to keep a lot of stats online.



robbyhicks said:


> You've got a PM!  This looks cool


Send you a message with the invite code etc.


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## rmlhhd (Apr 8, 2015)

I'd like to request a self hosted version (willing to pay a small amount), looks good.


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## That IT guy (Apr 8, 2015)

Looks awesome but https://nixstats.com/sc1.htmldoes not seem to work.


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

k0nsl said:


> I'd be interested in this project. At a glance, I found it quite clean and immediately gives one a clear overview of the essential/s - just as it is supposed to do. Good luck with the project.
> 
> Could you perhaps tell us more about the specifics of it? Nothing too detailed, but a somewhat specific run-down of the ins-and-outs, what it is written in and if you're using any framework. Et cetera.
> 
> ...


Thanks! The app runs on php5, mongodb some node.js and shell scripts. Currently not using a framework, probably will be using laravel for the next version. 



rmlhhd said:


> I'd like to request a self hosted version (willing to pay a small amount), looks good.


Sorry for now there will not be a self hosted version.



That IT guy said:


> Looks awesome but https://nixstats.com/sc1.htmldoes not seem to work.


Should work but the image is large, will take a while to load on slower connection.

Anyways I decided to make one invite code for vpsboard.com, you can sign up at https://nixstats.comwith the invitation code VPSBOARD

I'm wondering why is everyone so interested to have this as a self hosted solution? Aren't you better of having someone else host it and taking care of notifications etc? Is it a privacy issue? In a few weeks i'll also have a non root monitoring agent.


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## Nett (Apr 8, 2015)

nixstats said:


> I'm wondering why is everyone so interested to have this as a self hosted solution? Aren't you better of having someone else host it and taking care of notifications etc? Is it a privacy issue? In a few weeks i'll also have a non root monitoring agent.


Why would you give your server data to someone else? What if the database leaks?


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## comXyz (Apr 8, 2015)

Nett said:


> Why would you give your server data to someone else? What if the database leaks?


I think what he is making is similar to NodeQuery, there will be simple install script, you can open the script and see what info the monitor agent sends out.

Awesome UI @nixstats


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

Nett said:


> Why would you give your server data to someone else? What if the database leaks?


Privacy and security are just as important to me as they are to you. I give you the option to either monitor your own domains and servers or let me help you doing so.



comXyz said:


> I think what he is making is similar to NodeQuery, there will be simple install script, you can open the script and see what info the monitor agent sends out.
> 
> 
> Awesome UI @nixstats


Thanks! Yes it is similar to nodequery, the agent is open source. Currently the agent/installer are hosted on nixstats.com but will be moved to github later.

There are still some issues/bugs with the agent (depending on your servers os) that will be resolved this week.


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## joepie91 (Apr 8, 2015)

I'd not recommend using MongoDB. is why.


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

joepie91 said:


> I'd not recommend using MongoDB. is why.


You should never run mongodb on a 32 bit os in production. As for data integrity, i have read about that but it mostly came down to people not running it in the right setup (read the manual . MongoDB did used to write/update silently/blindly but since about a year it does (before you had to use writeconcern).

I wouldn't say it being non-relational is a "problem". I guess you could store all in a relational matter but that doesn't mean that's always the ideal way to do things.


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## joepie91 (Apr 8, 2015)

nixstats said:


> You should never run mongodb on a 32 bit os in production. As for data integrity, i have read about that but it mostly came down to people not running it in the right setup (read the manual . MongoDB did used to write/update silently/blindly but since about a year it does (before you had to use writeconcern).
> 
> I wouldn't say it being non-relational is a "problem". I guess you could store all in a relational matter but that doesn't mean that's always the ideal way to do things.


The 32-bits limit is dumb and purely a result of the design decisions made by the MongoDB developers (for "performance" - which as of yet is a completely unproven claim, as far as I am aware). Data loss was primarily because of poor default behaviour, and if the disregard for data integrity has been so bad in the past, I don't see why it would suddenly be better now - it's still the same developers with the same mindset. Not to mention that if you actually use MongoDB for its advertised purpose - a sharded, multi-system setup - it's not only a pain to maintain but will also very easily lose data, something that is described at length in one of the articles I linked. It being non-relational is a problem if your data _is_ relational - which almost all data is.

All this on top of the fact that there is nothing that MongoDB is particularly _good_ at, not even its commonly advertised features.

No, MongoDB is not a good choice. Some things are just objectively poorly engineered, and MongoDB is one of them.


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

joepie91 said:


> The 32-bits limit is dumb and purely a result of the design decisions made by the MongoDB developers (for "performance" - which as of yet is a completely unproven claim, as far as I am aware). Data loss was primarily because of poor default behaviour, and if the disregard for data integrity has been so bad in the past, I don't see why it would suddenly be better now - it's still the same developers with the same mindset. Not to mention that if you actually use MongoDB for its advertised purpose - a sharded, multi-system setup - it's not only a pain to maintain but will also very easily lose data, something that is described at length in one of the articles I linked. It being non-relational is a problem if your data _is_ relational - which almost all data is.
> 
> All this on top of the fact that there is nothing that MongoDB is particularly _good_ at, not even its commonly advertised features.
> 
> No, MongoDB is not a good choice. Some things are just objectively poorly engineered, and MongoDB is one of them.


mongodb has improved a lot and 3.0 has huge performance increases, also setting up a sharded cluster is a lot easier when using MMS. I suppose you're a postgresql fan their seems to be a lot of heat coming from the postgresql crowd 

choosing a database is also a personal choise, some programmers prefer postgresql others prefer mongodb, all depends on your way of thinking/solving problems.


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## joepie91 (Apr 8, 2015)

nixstats said:


> mongodb has improved a lot and 3.0 has huge performance increases, also setting up a sharded cluster is a lot easier when using MMS. I suppose you're a postgresql fan their seems to be a lot of heat coming from the postgresql crowd


Benchmarks please.



nixstats said:


> choosing a database is also a personal choise, some programmers prefer postgresql others prefer mongodb, all depends on your way of thinking/solving problems.


If you consider choosing a database a "personal choice" rather than a technical decision, then that's a problem.


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## Amitz (Apr 8, 2015)

Don't listen to joepie91. He's a bad boy who brushes his teeth only every second day and hangs around with dubious people outside in the dark. ;-)


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

Aah I see well time to get back on-topic then ;-)


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## MannDude (Apr 8, 2015)

nixstats said:


> Aah I see well time to get back on-topic then ;-)


Project looks great. Installed the agent on an idle dev-vps and have it pinging a domain for monitoring too. Simple to use system and setup was as straight forward as it could be.

Good work.


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## nixstats (Apr 8, 2015)

MannDude said:


> Project looks great. Installed the agent on an idle dev-vps and have it pinging a domain for monitoring too. Simple to use system and setup was as straight forward as it could be.
> 
> Good work.


Thanks! Currently working on a non-root monitoring agent. Simplicity was really important when developing nixstats


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## nixstats (Apr 15, 2015)

Little update:

- non root agent is now online.

- group your servers

- public status page with custom CNAME domain and custom logo

- Server overview page has been improved, now it actually is an overview instead of just a list.

- Just crossed the 300 servers mark, 108 beta users and 184 domains.

Here's a screenshot of the overview page:



Now onto making a server availability function (probably combination of time last received agent data and pinging of the IP's).


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## Clouvider-Dom (Apr 15, 2015)

That looks nice! Keep working on it and one day you might really do a great business with this app!


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## cspacews (Apr 16, 2015)

The UI is very sleek and attractive much on the new jquery!

Good work will try out in the weekend and let you know


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## nixstats (Apr 20, 2015)

It's been a little over 2 weeks now since I've started the beta of nixstats. Monitoring almost 500 servers now!

I noticed yesterday in my mandrill account that I send about 1400 notifcation in 24 hours, seems like a lot  If you guys have any feedback on the amount of notifications and if you noticed any false positives let me know.

Hope to cross the 500 servers mark today, 6 servers to go


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## AutoSnipe (Apr 20, 2015)

I've noticed some false positives when i selected downtime notifications. 

I was infact on the server which it was reporting as down and it had kept notifying as offline for ~30 minutes while i could ping your api etc.

But i have also installed this on a bare Dual L5520 with nothing on it, and it does take quite a bit of resources just gathering the information and sending reports (ie, load spikes up from 0.01 or so to over 2.00 Unsure if it's just this system or it is actually somewhat resource intensive for it gathering the information. but i currently have ~16 Servers hooked up.

But, unfortunately.. my RPi @ home can't be added due to some software it wanted to download not been part of the mirrors, and i'm just too lazy to compile it myself. But at least got my dev webserver (next to the RPi)  loaded up nicely


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## nixstats (Apr 21, 2015)

AutoSnipe said:


> I've noticed some false positives when i selected downtime notifications.
> 
> I was infact on the server which it was reporting as down and it had kept notifying as offline for ~30 minutes while i could ping your api etc.
> 
> ...


There were some issues last weekend on the backend due too some infrastructure changes (db server was very slow and under heavy load). On most system it won't cause very high load, even on very low spec servers with 128mb ram it seems to run without much interruptions. It might cause some load since it pings for statistics on the system every second, might change this in the future to for example every 5 seconds.

I'll take a look into the false positive alerts, was the server in question pingable by it's IP or was ICMP blocked?

Anyways I've just changed some config issue that I forgot about a few days ago, which cause every request on nixstats to be fetched from a server about 15ms away from the frontend, made everything very slow, it's a lot faster now.

I can see some people running nixstats on RP's


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## nixstats (May 11, 2015)

Just implemented SMS notifications for both domains and servers, will be free of charge during the beta (fair use policy).

Monitoring almost 800 servers now, still looking for more beta testers


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## MightWeb-Greg (Jun 2, 2015)

I'm going to see about getting a server or two on there. It seems pretty good with the screenshots etc. Do you have any idea on prices after launch etc?


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## nixstats (Jun 23, 2015)

I'm going to see about getting a server or two on there. It seems pretty good with the screenshots etc. Do you have any idea on prices after launch etc?

Cool! Not sure on pricing yet but planning to have a starting packing from $5-$10 per month with a few servers/domains included. Of course beta testers will get a bump up when signing up for paid package. There will also be a free plan with limited data retention.

For now I'm looking for some testers for a new python powered agent (requires python 2.7). This agent can monitor mdadm (software raid), nginx, apache and mysql. If you're willing to test the new agent sent me a PM/reply/or e-mail me at vincent at nixstats . com

(Monitoring 1200+ servers now!)


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## ATSLarry (Apr 4, 2016)

How do we get an invite code to get started?  I would like to sign up now for Beta Testing.  I have alot of experience in Beta Testing and want to get in on this.  Can you please send me an Invite Code, so that I can sign up?


Thanks,
Larry


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