[PLUG] Monitoring Unix systems with open source

[Mike Connors]

> In my environment, we are monitoring a broad mix of FreeBSD, Windows, and
> various networking equipment. Using the above tools give us superb
> visualization and feedback on the performance and availability of our
> systems.
>
>
>   
As someone who's still very new to open source monitoring tools, I have 
to cast my vote for Munin. Quick and easy to setup, plug-ins are a dead 
simple to write with any scripting language. Also, 1 advantage I feel 
Munin has over other SNMP based systems is that it uses collects data 
info via sysstat, (a collection Linux performance tools such as iostat, 
sar, etc.) I feel this provides greater data accuracy and a deeper level 
of insight into your servers.

I introduced Munin at my last job with a small internet startup and the 
developers just loved it and wrote all kinds of plug-ins to get a better 
understanding of how the system they wrote was functioning.

--mike