MoSSHe

MoSSHe (MOnitoring with SSH Environment) is an excellent software package for those who are looking for a simple and lightweight server monitoring application. This software is designed to provide secure and in-depth monitoring of typical and critical internet systems. The software is optimized to conduct 264 checks on 29 servers, with an average of 9 checks for each system.

MoSSHe supports email alerts out of the box, and you can also script whatever you need to. The web interface reflects this approach, and less than ten systems are ideal for the "big" (showall) web display. The tactical view is used for problem-centric purposes and is best for fewer than fifty systems. It should be possible to monitor more than 100 systems, although such an extended setup has not been tested.

Unlike many other Network Management Systems (NMS), it is not possible to overload a MoSSHe system. The minimum checkup intervals will simply extend with each added system. For the setup mentioned above, the time needed for 264 checks on 29 servers is 100 seconds. However, the time needed for your setup may vary.

You can view overall status, server status, and service history via the web interface. But you cannot modify anything, which makes it quite safe, even for non-admin multiuser use.

The system requirements for MoSSHe are minimal. You need SSH (client) with DSA key authentication support, Unix Shell (tested with BASH), standard Unix text tools, and "netcat" networking tool.

For additional checks, such as DNS check, memory display, printing check, samba check, SNMP check, motherboard checks, and Linux SoftRAID monitoring, you need specific networking tools.

For the web interface, you need a webserver supporting CGI scripting and a Python interpreter.

Finally, for each monitored server/system, you need SSH (server) with DSA key authentication support, Unix Shell (tested with BASH), and standard Unix text tools.

The latest release of MoSSHe includes several fixes and features, such as fixes for error messages, server identification, and adding an http_time check that returns the reply time in milliseconds. Additionally, there is a feature to cleanup stale (read: all) status files on startup.