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using Twitter for server-monitoring

Posted on | April 14, 2007 | 13 Comments

if you think Twitter is all about personal micro-blogging and basically a waste of time, think again. with their recent API-extension, it’s now possible to integrate Twitter as a cost-free SMS gateway into your own applications (like the guys at Tupalo have already done).

of course there are loads of SMS-based monitoring services out there, but the good ones aren’t free, and most aren’t very customizable. my simple demo PHP-script monitors any number of web-servers and alerts me by direct SMS if one of them goes down. just insert you account-credentials and make it a 5min-cronjob. keep in mind that you’ll need two Twitter-accounts for this kind of application, with the sending-account added as a friend to the receiver. otherwise the script can be easily customized and extended for you own needs…have fun!

ps: it might be a good idea to simultaneously run the script on two independent machines on different locations!

Comments

13 Responses to “using Twitter for server-monitoring”

  1. Shane
    April 15th, 2007 @ 2:20 am

    Dude,

    U rock! Way to think outside the box. I’m definitely going to try this puppy out.

    Thanks ;)

  2. CharlesRowe.com » Blog Archive » Using Bash to badly monitor your servers
    April 15th, 2007 @ 5:56 am

    [...] was surfing dzone and I came across two links regarding site monitoring. The first link was “using Twitter for server-monitoring” and the second link was, in a nutshell, making a PHP poor man’s ping without using Net_Ping. [...]

  3. subnet
    April 15th, 2007 @ 10:19 am

    @shane: thx! glad you can use it…

  4. SPLJ 2.0 » CogDogBlog
    April 26th, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

    [...] When I first heard about twitter, it reminded me of the Dullest Blog in The World, but my spark was following Cole’s line of interest and experimentation. So I quickly talked over some of the growing list of twitter viewing/publishing tools and interesting things people are doing with twitter. Wow, the library in nearby Casa Grande Arizona has rigged a library RSS feed that auto twits. Twittervision is hypnotic and becomes yet anther net-addiction. John Edwards has 2228 friends. Andy Carvins ponders if twitter can save lives? Churches are tweeting while others look at ways to use it to monitor server status. [...]

  5. Cracked and Flimsy Slate » CogDogBlog
    May 9th, 2007 @ 8:48 am

    [...] around the world use it to update each other on their project or the way someone is using twitter to monitor a server or Andy Carvin’s ideas on how twitter might save [...]

  6. nonsmokingarea.com » Blog Archive » MoniTwitter: server monitoring again
    May 14th, 2007 @ 9:13 am

    [...] iterates on the idea of using Twitter to monitor web-servers. instead using the direct messaging API like my script, I guess MoniTwitter is posting to a [...]

  7. Twittermon: Twitter for server-monitoring » nonsmokingarea.com » Blog Archive
    July 15th, 2007 @ 10:42 am

    [...] on a little script I wrote few months back (and inspired by a recent server-crash :(   ) I have now put this script [...]

  8. subnet
    July 16th, 2007 @ 6:40 pm

    hi all… check out http://twittermon.com – basically the above script available to everybody as a web-mashup. enjoy!

  9. michael kamleitner » Blog Archive » Server-Monitoring mit Twittermon
    July 21st, 2007 @ 12:04 pm

    [...] auf einem kleinen PHP-Skript welches ich vor mehreren Monaten auf meinem english-sprachigen Blog (nonsmokingarea.com) [...]

  10. Idea: Using twitter to monitor MythTV - MythTV News
    August 14th, 2007 @ 7:49 am

    [...] twitter could be used instead of Vodafone. That would allow more people to set this up. Here is a script for monitoring your server and notifying you via SMS – all for free. It should be easy to customize for MythTV. Let me know if you do [...]

  11. Gracie
    November 11th, 2008 @ 10:34 pm

    Right on track about thinking outside the box, I agree. Trying this out, too, thanks for the heads up!

  12. Stephen Akins
    June 4th, 2009 @ 4:06 am

    Hey! Great Idea!

    I just did something similar; I made a server monitor that uses a Google Spreadsheet for it’s front end:

    http://stephenakins.blogspot.com/2009/04/google-docs-server-monitoring_8546.html

  13. Eeshay Sansthan Jabalpur » Blog Archive » twitter IMP Links
    July 17th, 2010 @ 7:04 am

    [...] Using Twitter for server-monitor [...]

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Michael Kamleitner

Michael Kamleitner

Vienna , 1170 Austria
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