UNIX® Fault Management: A Guide for System Administration

Chapter 7. Monitoring the Application

Earlier chapters focused on the systems, networks, and disks that connect the end-users to the application. This chapter describes the tools available to an operator to monitor the application. Although the name would suggest that a system operator is responsible primarily for monitoring the operation of the system, in fact, the business application is what is most important. It doesn't matter that the system is up if the application itself is unavailable. Maintaining application availability means maintaining the availability and performance of all components that the application depends on, including databases, networks, storage, and the system itself.