Linux Server Monitoring with Monit

Monit is an open-source tool which we can use to monitor Linux servers:

1. Performance Metrics (CPU and RAM Utilization)
2. Disk space
3. Running Services (Databases, Web servers etc)

Also, we can receive email notifications at defined thresholds and take automated actions using scripts.

Prerequisites

1. Linux Server with privileged user access
2. SMTP service provider (Ex: SendGrid/Gmail) if you want to configure email notifications on changes

Let’s set up Monit on the Server

Step 1: Install Monit

Step 2: Edit the configuration file (/etc/monit/monitrc)

# Email Configuration

# Alert Subscriptions

# Monitoring Config

# Enable Web Interface
It is recommended to expose the web interface internally. If you want Monit to accept connections on any addresses, remove use address localhost

Step3: Check configuration and apply configuration changes

sudo monit -t # check configuration
sudo monit reload # apply configuration changes

You are all set now!!! 👏👏👏

Let’s see how we can see the Monit status from CLI and Web Interface

To see Monit status from CLI

sudo monit status

To see the Web Interface

# If you have GUI access then visit http://localhost:2812 from you browser
# Use SSH Port Forwording to see internaly exposed web interface of remote server from your computer
ssh -L [LOCAL_IP:]LOCAL_PORT:DESTINATION:DESTINATION_PORT [USER@]SSH_SERVER
(Ex: ssh -L 8080:ubuntu@12.12.1.X:2812 ubuntu@12.12.x.)

Home page

Root File System

Docker Service

Thanks for reading :)

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