After reading Douglas Toombs's "Web Monitoring Solutions" (April 2003, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc 38276), I started noticing a consistent trend with the Windows community in general. The subject of free (or open-source) tools rarely makes its way into the articles. I realize that this is a Windows-based magazine. But I know firsthand that having a tool that does what Ipswitch's WhatsUp Gold does for free would be a great tool.

In addition to the tools that are listed in the article, you need to add Nagios (http://www.nagios.org). Yes, it runs on Linux, but in a small shop, any old hardware would be able to monitor everything. I monitor 400 servers with more than 1400 services. I need multi-tier escalations, the ability to log Help desk tickets, and the ability to launch scripts against the Windows boxes to repair failed services if necessary.

A few years ago, I worked in a small shop in which I was the only IT guy. I would have killed to have this tool. Our company had no money to spend on WhatsUp Gold or any other tool like it. I'm very interested in the open-source movement because it often offers excellent products that cost only the time that you invest implementing them. If there is a tool that is just as good as a commercial product, Windows & .NET Magazine should present it even if it runs on Linux.

Andy Stein 1/15/2004 12:04:56 PM

What about a freeware solution like Servers Alive(freeware for 10 or less monitored services) from :

http://www.woodstone.nu/salive/features.asp

RedWolf3/26/2003 2:06:02 PM