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Spong

Spong is simple but capable System/Network Monitoring package written in Perl. In is bigger and more complex package then mon and Perl code uses more advanced constructs. Development stopped in 2005. It is remarkable that the author (Ed Hill) tries to adhere to KISS principle to keep the package simple and the guy who overtook the development (Steven Johnson) remained loyal to this principle. 

While bigger then mon this is still a truly "open source" package. It has well documented user, administrator and developer guides. Almost 200K documentation is provided which is pretty unusual. You should read README file, it is unusually clear and conveys the history of the package and even tells us something about the personality of the initial author and subsequent maintainer ( Ed Hill and  Steven Johnson, respectively ).

You just feel how really good those two guys were and that they honestly tried to do something good to the community putting extra efforts in making sure that their source code is transparent and product can be adapted to different needs. Few open source authors spend so much efforts on documenting code and this effort should be definitely commended.  We should be all grateful for tremendous efforts in providing all those documents, not just a source code.

This is an agent based package and agents communicate with the server using TCP/IP messages using "Big Brother" compatible protocol.

• Among features:
  • client based monitoring (CPU, disk, processes, logs, etc.)
  • monitoring of network services (smtp, http, ping, pop, dns, etc.)
  • grouping of hosts (routers, servers, workstations, PCs)
  • rules based messaging when problems occur
  • configurable on a host by host basis
  • results displayed via text or web based interface
  • history of problems
  • verbose information to help diagnosis problems
  • modular programs to makes it easy to add or replace check functions or features
  • Big Brother BBSERVER emulation to allow Big Brother Clients to be used
• Key components:
  • spong Text based query program, reports information about hosts that are monitored.
  • www-spong Web based query program, reports information about host that are monitored.
  • spong-client Program that runs on each monitored server. Reports host based information (disk, cpu, logs, etc.)
  • spong-network Reports on network based services (smtp, ping, http, etc.)
  • spong-server Collects information reported and responds to queries about that information.
  • spong-message Called by the spong-server program to send out notifications when problems occur.

All-in-all this is a really impressive, really open effort unlike many other "open souce"  but closed minds projects.

Old News ;-)

Spong Perl System monitoring by Stephen L Johnson

A simple system-monitoring package. It features client-based monitoring (CPU, disk, processes, logs, etc.), monitoring of network services, grouping of hosts (routers, servers, workstations, and PCs), host-specific contact and downtime information, configuration on a client-by-client basis, results displayed via the Web, history of problems, messaging (via email or pager) when problems occur, and verbose information to help diagnosis problems. It communicates via simple TCP-based messages, and is written in Perl.

It is also discussed separatly...

[Sep 10, 2004] Spong - Systems and Network Monitoring

What is Spong?

Spong is a simple systems and network monitoring package. It does not compete with Tivoli, OpenView, UniCenter, or any other commercial packages. It is not SNMP based, it communcates via simple TCP based messages. It is written in Perl. It can currently run on every major Unix and Unix-like operating systems.

Feaures

• client based monitoring (CPU, disk, processes, logs, etc.)
• monitoring of network services (smtp, http, ping, pop, dns, etc.)
• grouping of hosts (routers, servers, workstations, PCs)
• rules based messaging when problems occur
• configurable on a host by host basis
• results displayed via text or web based interface
• history of problems
• verbose information to help diagnosis problems
• modular programs to makes it easy to add or replace check functions or features
• Big Brother BBSERVER emulation to allow Big Brother Clients to be used

Sample Spong Setup

This is my development Spong setup on my home network. It is Spong version 2.7. There are a lot of new features that have been added since verson 2.6f. But if you click on the "Hosts" Link in the top frame, you will get a good feel of how Spong 2.6f looks and works.

License

Spong is free software issued released under the GNU General Public License or the Perl Artistic License. You may choice whichever license is appropriate for your usage.

Documentation

Don't let the amount of documentation scare you, I still think spong is simple to setup and use.

Documentation for Spong is included with every release. For version 2.6f, the documentation is in HTML format located in the www/docs/ directory and is self contained (the links will still work if you move it), so you should be able to copy it to whatever location that you want. An online copy of the documentation is available here.

The documentation for Spong 2.7. is not complete. It is under going a complete rewrite into POD formation. This change will enable the documentation to converted into a multitude of different formats (i.e. HTML, man, text, etc.).

Release Notes / Changes

The CHANGE file for each release functions are the Release Notes and Change Log for each verion of Spong. The CHANGES file for Spong 2.6f is available here and the CHANGES file for Spong 2.7 is available here.