Server Density is designed to be as easy to use as possible. Monitoring of key metrics is built into the agent out of the box to allow you to get started as quickly as possible. However, this lacked flexibility if you wanted to monitor something that wasn’t included in the metrics supplied by us. Whilst we will continue to add metrics into the core product, I am pleased to announce plugin support for our agent.
By writing a Python script, you can pass any data you like into Server Density to have it graphed and alerts triggered on your own metrics. You could write a plugin for an application we don’t yet support or for completely custom stats specific to your business or servers. Regardless, Server Density will display the graphs in the web UI and let you configure alerts for e-mail, SMS and iPhone push notifications.
There is no limit to the number of plugins you can have, and you can display multiple series on a single graph.
This is available right now in a new agent release, but only to trial or paid users. Read our documentation for more details about writing your own plugins.
Let us know if you have any problems.
Can I query my plugins via the API?
Not yet, this will be added soon.
Will my plugin data show up in the iPhone application?
Not yet. Whilst you can receive push notification alerts, plugins are not yet supported in the iPhone application. However, we are working on brand new mobile apps which provide the full functionality of our web UI. These will include plugin support.
Why Python?
The agent itself is written in Python so it makes sense for plugins to use the same language. Python provides a lot of good functionality, works on many different platforms and has great performance. Once a plugin has been run the first time, it will be compiled (a .pyc file will be created) so the next execution will be much faster.
Does it cost any extra?
No, it is included in the monthly fee for paid accounts and as part of trial accounts. Plugins are not available to free accounts.
If someone finds it useful I could probably convert my modification which adds basic network latency monitoring support (you could think of it as a simple version of ntop) to sd-agent to a plugin.
+1 ntop monitoring is useful
Ok, I have converted my modification to a plugin.
http://github.com/Kami/sd-agent-plugin-latency-monitor
The only “issue” with the plugin is that it returns a multi-dimensional dictionary, but I don’t think that Server Density can currently handle this.
P.S. In my first comment I wanted to write SmokePing, but some how I wrote ntop instead :)
What about authenticating hosts based on the server name (eg. entered hostname)? (You can do a reverse/forward lookup to be sure it’s the right ip).
One could upload the config file to all servers, without having to edit anything.
A coworker and I were just lamenting that there wasn’t a nice plugin architecture for SD. Very nice feature. Can’t wait to use it.
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