bearmon
=======

bearmon is a simple server monitoring tool designed to require minimal configuration.

* Checks each define one monitoring instance, for example a URL to make sure is OK.
* A contact is a communication instance, for example an email address or a phone number (for SMS).
* Alerts connect checks with contacts, so that the contact will be alerted when the check goes offline.

Installation
------------

Create a database from the schema defined in `install.sql`.

Setup
-----

First, look at config.php and configure database, mail, and other settings.

Define a check. The one below will make sure the URL contains the given substring.

    INSERT INTO checks (name, type, data) VALUES ('example.com', 'http_contains', 'url=http://example.com/critical.php&substring=GOOD');

Define a contact.

    INSERT INTO contacts (type, data) VALUES ('email', 'email=admin@example.com');

Define an alert.

    INSERT INTO alerts (check_id, contact_id) VALUES (1, 1);

Now, run bearmon:

    php monitor.php

Note: all "data" values above use URL encoding scheme to encode key-value pairs.
So, if your URL contains ampersand (&) symbols, they should be encoded as %26 in the database.
See monitor_decode in common.php for how the data is decoded.

Multi-source monitoring
---------------------

bearmon can be configured to monitor services from multiple sources.
This way, if the source crashes, you don't get extraneous notifications.

There are two steps to setting this up. You can do the first step without doing the second and get a decent system.

* Run monitor.php on multiple slaves with the same database setup.
* Configure your MySQL to run in clustered/HA mode.