Linux® on the Mainframe

13.2. Health monitoring

Most IT organizations try to anticipate and avert system problems before calls come into the help desk. The larger the organization and number of servers, the more likely it is that the organization has one or more display windows whose colored icons represent the health of components of various services provided to end users. These health monitors usually come with two functions:

• Agents that reside close to the service to be monitored and that send out either regular status or exception status

• A presentation manager that collects status information from various agents and aggregates that data into a meaningful presentation format (including, perhaps, a page or e-mail to the staff alerting them that a problem needs to be ...