If you run a web server, chances are you have some form of automated monitoring system in place. If you use MOM or another enterprise level thing then this post won't be of much relevance. If, like me, you have simpler requirements, read on.
I have been caught out a few times with my web sites being down because Windows Server 2003 automatically installed an update and something went wrong and IIS got stopped, or like this morning at 4am, SQL 2005 SP2 failed to install and left the SQL Service offline. i didn't find out till i got a phone call from a client.
My datacenter provide very good ping monitoring with SMS alerts etc., but this is not a complete solution because the web site may have a configuration error, and it will still respond to pings. similarly, you can't just check for an OK HTTP status code because your error ASPX page may not be configured to send an error HTTP status code.
I have used various online web site monitoring services, with varying degrees of success / satisfaction. My current provider are InternetVista.com and for €70 a year i get a 10 minute check for a single HTTP site, with a keyword match on the contents of the page, and an email/sms alert if the match is not found. You can pay for extra and more frequent checks, but €70 is as much as i think the service is worth. To have this level of checking done on 10 sites would cost a lot, so to save a few quid i wrote a very simple aspx page that does a series of tests on all the resources i want to verify on the server, e.g. SQL Server, MS Access, IIS web sites. The aspx code is listed below, i wrote it inline rather than compiled/dll because it is easier to deploy in an existing web site without any risk of any side effects (dll collisions), it should be straight forward to understand for a c# programmer. let me know if you have questions. It runs in a few miliseconds on my server so i'm not worried about polling all these resources every 10 mins.
Run_Server_Tests.aspx code:
<%@ Page Language="C#" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Collections" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Collections.Generic" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data.OleDb" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Net" %>
<script RunAt="server">
/* Server Monitoring Script:
* - test SQL databases by running an sql string against an SQL connection string
* - test Access databases by running an sql string against a JET connection string
* - test web sites by Regex matching a search string against the contents of a HttpWebRequest
*/
enum TestType {Sql_Server, Ms_Access, Http_Request } // different types of supported requests
/// <summary>
/// Container class to represent a 'test' object for a resource on the server.
/// </summary>
class TestObject
{
public TestType Type; // e.g. Sql_Server.
public string TestString; // e.g. connection string for a database. or URI for http request.
public string TestParam; // e.g. sql string for a database. or search string for a http request.
public TestObject(TestType type, string testString, string testParam)
{
this.Type = type;
this.TestString = testString;
this.TestParam = testParam;
}
}
void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
List<TestObject> tests = new List<TestObject>();
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Sql_Server, @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=DB1;Integrated Security=True", "select top 10 * from Table1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Sql_Server, @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=DB2;Integrated Security=True", "select top 10 * from Table1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Sql_Server, @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=DB3;Integrated Security=True", "select top 10 * from Table1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Sql_Server, @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=DB4;Integrated Security=True", "select top 10 * from Table1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Ms_Access, @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=c:\Inetpub\Database\DB5.mdb;Persist Security Info=True", "select top 10 * from Table1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Ms_Access, @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=c:\Inetpub\Database\DB6.mdb;Persist Security Info=True", "select top 10 * from Table1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Http_Request, "http://mysite1.ie/", "Site 1"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Http_Request, "http://mysite2.ie/", "Site 2"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Http_Request, "https://mysite3.ie/", "Site 3"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Http_Request, "https://mysite4.ie/", "Site 4"));
tests.Add(new TestObject(TestType.Http_Request, "https://mysite5.ie/", "Site 5"));
int numCompleted = 0;
int numFailed = 0;
// write the HTML header. (a result is flushed to the client after each test finishes.)
Flush(@"
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd'>
<html>
<head>
<title>Server Test</title>
<meta name='ROBOTS' content='NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW'>
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='ServerTestStyles.css' />
</head>
<body>");
foreach(TestObject test in tests)
{
try
{
switch(test.Type)
{
case TestType.Sql_Server:
runQuerySql(test.TestParam, test.TestString);
break;
case TestType.Ms_Access:
runQueryOleDb(test.TestParam, test.TestString);
break;
case TestType.Http_Request:
string pageContents = new WebClient().DownloadString(test.TestString);
if(!Regex.IsMatch(pageContents, test.TestParam, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase))
throw new Exception("Search string not found: " + test.TestParam);
break;
default:
throw new Exception("Test type not handled " + test.Type);
}
Flush(String.Format("<span class='pass'>Pass</span> <span class='type'>{0}</span> {1} <hr />", test.Type, test.TestString));
numCompleted++;
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
Flush(String.Format("<span class='fail'>Fail</span> {1} <span class='type'>{0}</span><BR><span class='error'>{2}</span><hr />", test.Type, test.TestString, ex.Message));
numFailed++;
}
}
if(numFailed > 0)
Flush(String.Format("<h1>{0} errors occured</h1>", numFailed));
else
Flush(String.Format("<h1>All Good!</h1>", numFailed)); // if you use this page with an automated monitoring service, look for "All Good" in the page contents. otherwise an error occured
Flush("</body></html>");
}
/// <summary>
/// Method to run an sql string against an sql database
/// </summary>
public static DataSet runQuerySql(string sql, string connString)
{
SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connString);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
SqlDataAdapter dba = new SqlDataAdapter();
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, conn);
try
{
dba.SelectCommand = cmd;
dba.Fill(ds, "Table");
return (ds);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
throw e;
}
finally
{
cmd.Connection.Close();
conn.Close();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Method to run an sql string against an Access database
/// </summary>
public static DataSet runQueryOleDb(string sql, string connString)
{
OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(connString);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
OleDbDataAdapter dba = new OleDbDataAdapter();
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(sql, conn);
try
{
dba.SelectCommand = cmd;
dba.Fill(ds, "Table");
return (ds);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
throw e;
}
finally
{
cmd.Connection.Close();
conn.Close();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Flush output to the browser (useful to indicate which tests are causing any delay)
/// </summary>
/// <param name="output"></param>
private void Flush(string output)
{
Response.Write(output);
Response.Flush();
}
</script>
ServerTestStyles.css: (just to make the output more legible)
body
{
font-size: 90%;
font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, Sans-Serif;
padding: .5em;
}
hr
{
color: #87ceeb;
background-color: #87ceeb;
margin: .3em 0 .3em 0;
padding: 0;
height: 1px;
}
.pass
{
color: Blue;
font-weight: bold;
}
.fail
{
color: Red;
font-weight: bold;
}
.type
{
color: purple;
font-weight: bold;
}
.error
{
color: Red;
font-size: small;
}
I have configured the test in InternetVista to search for "All Good" in the url for the test page. If this isn't present, i'll get an SMS/email alert and i can go and see what exactly is wrong. It should be fairly easy to add other test types if you have different resources you need to check on.
Enjoy.
