[TriLUG] Best way to monitor load average

[Scott G. Hall]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, Joshua Gitlin wrote:
> I'm looking for software that I can run on my linux server that will
> monitor load average, CPU usage, and other things... I thought MRTG was
> the answer but I'm confused as to whether that will do what I want or
> not. I'm looking for something that will generate graphs or logs of load
> average so I can see the effects of various scenarios on my server and
> how well my server responds. Thanks!
> -Josh

I just read an article in Linux Magazine (or maybe a pointer to an online
article) that discusses parsing logs generated by sar processes and another
utility the author wrote about.  It was an article from the "LAMP" column
author and the graphs and tables were generated from PHP.  I thought it was
a good use of PHP, and shows generating dynamic graphs web pages.  The
author mentioned that the utility gathers from all of his servers on his
network, and allows his sys-admins to monitor in a simplified fashion.  I
think there was also mention of triggers and sending to pagers as well.

If I can dig up the exact issue, I'll follow up here.  You might also search
their website: http://linuxmagazine.com/

The Ganglia load monitoring tools:
http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-08/extreme_01.html

Graphing in PHP:
http://www.linux-mag.com/2004-05/lamp_01.html

-- 
Scott G. Hall
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net