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Monitor server performance with NixStats and receive alerts by SMS, Push, Email, Telegram etc

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This is a draft post showing how you can monitor the performance of a server (or servers) with NixStats and receive alerts by SMS, Push, Email, Telegram etc

fyi: This is not a paid post, this is just me using the NixStats software to monitor my servers and send alerts.

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Finding a good host

If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog to the awesome UpCloud host (signup using this link to get $25 free UpCloud VM credit). I compared Digital Ocean, Vultr and UpCloud Disk IO here and UpCloud came out on top by a long way (read the blog post here). Here is my blog post on moving from Vultr to UpCloud.

Buy a domain name here

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Monitoring Servers

The post below will show you how you can monitor servers online with https://nixstats.com/ and send alerts when resources reach limits or servers fail.

https://nixstats.com/

I signed up and started a Nixstats (14 day free trial).

Start Nixstats Trial

After I created an account I was emailed by Nixtsats with agent install instructions for Linux (1 line). I was also advised to add contacts and to set up alerts.

I logged into the Nixstats settings and set up…

  • My Timezone
  • Default reporting period
  • First name and Surname
  • Reporting emails
  • etc

Nixstats Subscription Upgrade

Subscription options

  • Free (5 monitors, 1 server, 24-hour data retention etc)
  • Founder (25 monitors, 10 servers, 30-day data retention etc)
  • Business (100 monitors, 15 servers, 60-day data retention etc)

Subscription Options

I enabled the limited founder subscription so I can monitor 10x servers (this deal is too good to miss). I tried creating a status page myself last year and it is terribly hard.

Subscriptiosn page

I am now out of the free trial period 🙂 Let’s start monitoring many servers.

Subscription Activated

I enabled two factor Auth to Nixstats logins

Nixstats Two Factor Auth

I created a Nixstats API key for future use (watch this space)

Create API Key

I installed the Nixstats agent (the dashboard gave a 1 line command you can run as root to install the agent (on Linux)).

Instal Nixstats Agent

FYI: Command (######################## is a number linked to your account)

Output

nixstatsagent.sh 100%[====================================================>] 37.80K –.-KB/s in 0.1s

2018-10-02 09:53:56 (338 KB/s) – ‘nixstatsagent.sh’ saved [38708/38708]

Found Ubuntu …
Installing …
Installing Python2-PIP …
Installing nixstatsagent …
Generation a server id …
Got server_id: ######################
Creating and starting service
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nixstatsagent.service -> /etc/systemd/system/nixstatsagent.service.
Created the nixstatsagent service

Server Dashboard
below is a summary of all connected servers ( https://nixstats.com/dashboard/servers ).

Server Sumamry

Monitor Setup

I set up a number of monitors to monitor ping replies and https traffic

Monitors

Advanced Monitoring

I can also set the monitor credentials, timeouts, retries, auth methods, max redirects and frequency. If you server blocks login or resource GET attempts you may need to whitelist IP’s. IP’s of monitoring servers are located here https://nixstats.com/whitelist.php

Monitoring advanced options

Monitor Summary

The default dashboard is very informative. Feel free to create your own dashboards that focus on your own infastructure or apps.

Monitor Summary

Individual Server Reports

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You can click on a server and monitor it in detail.

Nixstats Graphs

Server Memory Graphs

Long-term memory graphs.

Memory Graph

Install Optional Nixstats Plugins

Nixstats offers many plugins to monitor software that is installed on your server (e.g NGINX, MySQL, PHP etc).

1) NGINX Monitoring (Plugin)

To enable NGINX monitoring I read https://help.nixstats.com/en/article/monitoring-nginx-50nu7f/

I edited my NGINX sites-enabled config.

I added the following

I tested, reloaded and restarted NGINX

The status page will only be available on the local machine, I tested the page on the local machine

It’s Working.

I edit /etc/nixstats.ini

I remove comments before these lines to enable the plugin

I ran the following command to see if NGINX monitoring is possible

Output

It’s Working

I restarted the nixstatsagent

I can now view NGINX properties like active_connections in my dashboard. 🙂

2) Enable PHP-FPM Monitoring (Plugin)

Looks like a PHP-FPM monitoring was recently added lets set that up too. Read my guide on setting up PHP child workers here.

To enable PHP-FPM monitoring I read https://help.nixstats.com/en/article/monitoring-php-fpm-1tlyur6/

I edited my PHP-FPM ini file

I added the following line

Restart PHP

I added the following to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default localhost server block added above Note I use php 7.2 below (read more here).

location /status_phpfpm {
access_log off;
allow 127.0.0.1;
deny all;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
log_not_found off;
}
}

I tested, reloaded and restarted NGINX

I restart PHP-FPM

Enabled the plugin in /etc/nixstats.ini

I tested the status page

Output:

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I tested the agent

Output:

I can now query PHP-FPM status values in Nixstats 🙂

Query PHP-FPM

Enable MySQL Monitoring (Plugin)

To enable MySQL monitoring I read https://help.nixstats.com/en/article/monitoring-mysql-1frskd8/

I edited the nixstats.ini

I enabled the mysql section in nixstats.ini and added my mysql credentials

I ran this command to test MySQL querying

I had an error.

A quick Google revealed I had to install a mysql python module.

Allow localhost to connect to MySQL

Edit /etc/mysql.cnf and allow all localhost and external connections (I could not bind to localhost and an external IP at the same time)

TIP: Ensure you have firewalled access to your MySQL server, never open it up without protection.

Let’s try again

Output

Nice,

I restart MySQL

I restart my Nixstats service

Now let’s monitor MySQL in Nixstats

I can now view MySQL metrix

MySQL MEtrix

Status Page

Nixstats allows you to create a status page ( https://nixstats.com/pages/overview ) where you can add any servers or monitors to that page. This stats page is truly awesome, it builds a live status page based on data coming from your installed agents.

You can even set up a custom subdomain that points to a Nixstats hosted status page too (e.g https://status.yourdomain.com).

FYI: An SSL certificate on your staus page may take a few hours to set up. Don’t panic if it is not instantatly available.

Custom Status Page

Nice.

This saves doing it yourself. The status page will look like it running on your server.

Status Page

You can create a status page that automatically aggregates collected data from monitors and displays them in a nice layout.

Status Page

This is great, I used to do my own status pages but not anymore.

Alerts

I added a contact so I could receive alerts. I could then add my mobile, email and PushOver key (to receive push notifications) and Telegram Bot API token.

Contact

Test Alerts

I sent a test alert to each service against the contact.

Test Alerts

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I activated a Pushover licence on my Android device for about $7.49 AUD (one off) to ensure I keep getting Push Notifications.

Bought licence for PushOver

Nixstats have links that show you how you can create a Telegram Bot and Pushover.net account.

Pushover will cost about $5 USD one off per device (see faq).

I created the following alerts

Alert: Disk Usage higher than 90%

Alert Disk Usage higher than 90%

Alert: Load greater than 90 per cent for 1 minute

Alert load greater than 90 percent for 1 minute

Alert: Less than 5 percent memory free.

Alert less than 5 percent memory free

Summary of alerts.

Alert Sumamry

I also added a CPU reached 95% one for 5 mins alert too (but it’s not pictured above)

I forgot to specify alert recipients and methods for each alert so I edited each alert and added the contact.

Selected Alert Recipients and methods

Now it’s time to test the alerts.

I shut down a server to test alerts

Alerts to my defined Email, SMS, Push and Telegram are working a treat 🙂

Alerts Working

After I rebooted the server I also received alerts about the server being back up.

The status page showed the server that was offline too.

Server Offline

Nice

Troubleshooting

I had an issue instaling the agent on Debian

I ran the following command

nixstatsagent.sh: line 508: [: Installer exited with error code 0. See nixstatsagent.log for details.: integer expression expected

An error occured, please check the install log file (nixstatsagent.log)!

Contents of nixstatsagent.log

I asked the Nixstats chat help and I was advised I had a dead repository (I removed this (editing the dead repo in the appropriate file in /etc/apt/) and all was ok)

I had trouble testing my Telegram alerts but it was my fault as I forgot to follow the bot account I created. Telegram does not allow message from a user (bot) unless you follow them.

A chat with the Nixstats staff sorted me out. Thanks, Nixstats chat team.

Nixstats chat

I had an issue with a missing python mysql package

I solved it by instaling python-mysqldb

Nixstats Help

Nixstats have a help subdomain: https://help.nixstats.com/en/

Nixstats Help

Error Logs Plugin

I did ask Nixstats on Twitter and they said they are working on a logging plugin, I can’t wait for that.

I now have access to beta log features and can see log tabs in Nixstats

I had or check the version of my rsyslogd

I edited: /etc/rsyslog.d/31-nixstats.conf

I pasted

$WorkDirectory /var/spool/rsyslog # where to place spool files
$ActionQueueFileName fwdRule1 # unique name prefix for spool files
$ActionQueueMaxDiskSpace 1g # 1gb space limit (use as much as possible)
$ActionQueueSaveOnShutdown on # save messages to disk on shutdown
$ActionQueueType LinkedList # run asynchronously
$ActionResumeRetryCount -1 # infinite retries if host is down

template(name=”NixFormat” type=”string”
string=”<%pri%>%protocol-version% %timestamp:::date-rfc3339% %HOSTNAME% %app-name% %procid% %msgid% [5bb8825c3f0bc16aa068f144@5fJR7vuYTJOX6cEiyZlLv5By tag=\”rsyslog\”] %msg%\n”
)

action(type=”omfwd” protocol=”tcp” target=”log.nixstats.com” port=”514″ template=”NixFormat”)
#################END CONFIG FILE#########################

I restarted the rsyslog service

Live Log Output

I can see a live log from (unknown) logs.

I can see the firewall blocking access to certain ports.

Live Log

Search logs

Search

Blacklist Checking (Beta)

Nixstats tweeted “We just launched a new blacklist check feature. Monitor your IP and hostname reputation. Free during the Beta!”

I enabled it.

I received a Blacklist notification

I requested removal at junkmailfilter.com

Thanks Nixstats

Conclusion

This is one of the best software packages I have seen in a while. I have developed status

pages in the past (no more). Great work Nixstats.

Please check out Nixstats today, they are awesome. Signup for a free account and consider the limited time founder plan (it’s a bargain).

Nixstats Live chat support is awesome

Server Plug

If you need a server, consider using my referral code and get $25 UpCloud VM credit if you need to create a server online.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

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Revision History

v1.3 Blacklist beta

V1.2 Logs beta

v1.1 Logging Tweet

v1.0 Initial Post

Setting up GitHub on an iMac and creating a project

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Here is my quick guide on setting up new GitHub repository on an iMac adding files and syncing with a  repository. Read the GitHub 101 if you are a beginner. Read my BitBucket guide here.

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Why

Using git allows you to make backups, use code versioning, rollback code, use multiple development machines/have multiple users, auto merging code etc.

Github can be cheaper, more flexible and offer more features than something like Dropbox.

How

Create an account at GitHub and Login ( https://github.com/login ).

Don’t forget to set up Two Factor Authentication for extra security.

Login to GitHub (signup for a free account if need be).

Enter your Two Factor Authentication code every time you login.

Before you can read or write to your Git repository you need to set up a link between your computer (Mac) and GitHub by Setting up a Secure SSH Key with GitHub. About SSH.

If you have read any of my guides on setting up servers (e.g The quickest way to setup a scalable development IDE and web server, How to buy a new domain and SSL cert from NameCheap, a Server from Digital Ocean and configure it or Connecting to an AWS EC2 Ubuntu instance with Cloud 9 IDE as user ubuntu and root ) you will be familiar with SSH keys.

You can check your existing SSH Keys by typing the following.

Follow this GitHub guide on creating a new SSH key to use with GitHub.

I found I had to do the following in the Mac terminal to get this to work.

You can now add your SSH key to GitHub. 

You can then add your public key to https://github.com/settings/keys

Add the SSH Key.

You can then test the SSH connection to GitHub.

At first, I tried this but got an error.

This is what I got when I added my SSH Key to my GitHub account. This worked for me (this updated my known_hosts file).

Tip: Don’t forget to save adding your SSH Key to GitHub

If you need help contact GitHub.

GitHub Pricing

GitHub offers free public repository pricing or $7 a month for unlimited personal repositories for personal use. Bitbucket is the Atlassian owned alternative to GitHub, they have free repositories for up to 5 users with 1TB.

Read my Setting up BitBucket on an iMac and creating a project guide.

Read on the differences between GitHub and BitBucket.

Create your first test public Repository. 

Load https://www.github.com and click Start a Project, or go to https://github.com/new

To specify a Readme file and an ignore file if need be (we can do this later). You will need to be a paid Git member to create private repositories.

When your repository is created it will be ready to upload files: https://github.com/SimonFearby/testgitproject001

Creating a local folder

Create a local folder for the repository etc.

Liking the remote repository to the local folder.

First, we need to initialize git locally by typing the following.

Now we can add the remote “origin” repository to the local repo.

We can now see connected remote repositories by typing the following

Syncing (Pulling) the Repository

Generally, you want to pull all files from the remote repository after you create it (and the readme file).

This worked 🙂

Pulling, Pushing, Branches and Forking.

You can read more about pulling, pushing, branches and forking here.

This course helped me https://www.udemy.com/learn-android/

Adding your first local file(s) to the repository

Adding all files to the new directory.

Adding a single file:

Here is an example of adding a new file.

Set your default commit username (help)

Set your default commit email address (help).

Double check config here

You will need to use vim to insert then save changes. I like the nano text editor better so I am changing the default editor.

Setting your default as nano (and not vim)

nano (and not vim)

Submitting (pushing) changes

The changes have been pushed (merged)

Adding another file.

This is how I added another single file locally and pushed to the remote (origin) server

Now we have two new public files in a repository and locally.

README.md and markdown 

Now we need to make the README.MD file look nice and reflect the changes.

More info in markdown formatting here, here, here and here. Here is a good markdown table generator.

I made some changes (see) and pushed to the repository (origin).

My local README.md markdown changes

This is what is looks like on GitHub after I commit and push

You can use pages on GitHub with markdown to create versioned documentation and help.

Commit and check the git status frequently

It is strongly advisable to frequently commit files (to a staging/not master repository) and check local it status for any issues. Commit as frequently as you remember.

You can push or delete changes if need be.

Adding many subfolders and many files.

Let’s say you have just added three subfolders (iOS Project Code (12 files), Android Projet Code (1255 items) and a Windows Desktop Project Code (.NET) folder (27 items) and you want to add them all to the remote repository (origin).

Now we need to add the 1,294 files to the local repository.

We can simply type the following to tell git we want it to manage all the local files.

Now you can merge the files top remote repository (origin).

Don’t forget to updates your README.md file with changes.

fyi: GitHub may take a minute or two to show changes.

Ignoring local files

You may want to ignore local files or folders.  In your git folder type.  I like to ignore all files with “secret” in the filename.

AWS recommend you ignore secret keys and logs to prevent inadvertent account access via sharing secret keys.

You can find other things to ignore here. You can setup global ignore list by reading this.

You can see I have created a few secret files and new thirdnewfile.txt (and added it to git) and committed and pushed and the secret files remain local (they will remain local while they match the ignored list).

GitHub view.

Local Git View

Note the secret files.

GitHub Desktop Application

I checked out the GitHub Desktop application at https://desktop.github.com/.

The downloaded compressed file.

I extracted and copied the app to the Applications folder.

Now I logged into to the application.

Much respect to GitHub for integrating Two Factor Authentication into the login.

Unfortunately, GitHub Desktop thinks I have zero repositories (I have 9 repositories when I log in via the web using the same email address). I contacted support on Twitter but have not had a response yet?

I was able to clone the repository I made via the command line earlier or add a local repository.

I added a new text file (afileaddedwithgithubdesktop.txt) to the folder and GitHub Desktop noticed this new file straight away. I added this file to the repository.

I pushed all local changes to the origin/remote master repository.

All local changes were merged with the remote origin master (I could never do this with Atlassian’s SourceTree application).

 

Conclusion

Now I can sync up my projects that to GitHub repositories from the terminal and GitHub Desktop application and benefit from the features of git (backups, versioning, rollbacks, multiple machines/multiple users, auto merging etc).

Next

I will add how to pull a repository to a $5 month Digital Ocean and or AWS (Ubuntu) VM.

Read my Setting up BitBucket on an iMac and creating a project guide.

Git repositories on Raspberry Pi’s.

Related guides

Setting up a development environment on Digital Ocean 14.04

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-git-on-ubuntu-14-04

Tips and Troubleshooting

GitHub has a good tips page here.  I had @GitHubHelp pro-actively contact me for support on Twitter. Contact GitHub here.

How to add all local files and commit all local files.

I hope this is helpful to someone.

20 essential git tips. 

P.S Don’t edit live code, use GitHub.

Agile Project Management

Read my blog post on developing software and staying on track here.

I highly recommend you follow Dmitri Iarandine at http://joinagile.com/ (Agile Coach, Trainer, Host of Lean and Mean Agile). Podcast. Author of GET HIRED as SCRUM MASTER).

Dmitri can be found here too.

Soundcloud (Lean and Mean Agile Podcast):
https://soundcloud.com/user-364782318

iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/lean-and-mean-agile-podcast/id1269551866

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC00OZqfM9VmznEOTVzrQQxw

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/iarandine

Udemy:
https://www.udemy.com/agile-coaching-101/

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/author/iarandine

 

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v1.7 added info on agile and staying on track,

How to setup and use push notifications to modern web browsers with OneSignal

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Summary: A customer browses to your site and agrees to receive notifications.  Days, weeks or months later you have something to tell the customer.  With OneSignal you can send messages to anyone who has visited your site in the past and agreed to receive notifications. Notifications are like SMS’s but they are delivered to web browsers and are free.

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Sep 2016 update: This guide was written 1 year ago, it is still valid but some parts are out of date.

http://www.onesignal.com is an awesome service for sending free push notification to iOS, Android etc. Now they offer Google Chrome/Safari push notifications
to your website (on android and desktop). The guide will be updated to offer Safari setup tips as soon as Safari support is out of beta.

Check out the summary of Web Browser notifications (https://onesignal.com/chrome).Web Browser Push Requirements

As of the 25th, you can send notifications to FireFox (daily build only).

Setting up your account (for newcomers to OneSignal)

You can use OneSignal to send push notifications to mobile apps and or just web browsers.  If you already have a iOS App configured in OneSignal skip the steps below (1.x ~ 3.6) and go to step 1 (“Setting up your account (when you already have a OneSignal app for iOS“) below.

1. You will need to have a one signal account (create one)

2. Go to https://documentation.onesignal.com/docs/web-push-setup and click “Generate a GCM API Key”. (in step 3.3 add a description but not an ip). Don’t forget to save you key.

3.1. Now login to OneSignal and click “Add a new app”

3.2. Enter a “name” and click “next“.

3.3. Then click “Website Push” then click “next”

3.4 Enter your “site url” (https://www.website.com), enter your “api key” and path to an 80×80 pixel image on your web server and click “next”

3.5. Click “Website Push” and click next.

3.6 Jump to step 4 below to setup the Website SDK and upload the files to your website.

5. After you complete the steps in 4.x (below) click the”Check My Progress” to test your  API key/SDK Setup and configuration.

6. Send a test push notification.

 

(or)

Setting up your account (when you already have a OneSignal app for iOS)

1. Open your app and click on App Settings then click Configure next to “Chrome Website  (GCM)” and add your Site URL, Google Server Api Key and Icon (80×80 px png).

tip: Do not use my https://cloud.fearby.com server and yes you should really have an https site as it is more secure and boosts SEO (see this guide on buying/configuring an SSL cert)

Push Configuration

 

4. One Signal Website SDK Setup

Next, we will follow the One Signal Website SDK  portion of the setup (I will be using the HTTPS guide but there is an HTTP guide).

4.1. Download the latest OneSignal Website SDK code from https://github.com/one-signal/OneSignal-Website-SDK/releases

4.2. Open the Zip and upload the following files from the SetupFiles folder to the root of your website ( https://yoursite.com/manifest.json, OneSignalSDKWorker.js, OneSignalSDKUpdaterWorker.js ).

4.3. Update your manifest.json to include the “name“, “short_name” and “gcm_sender_id“.

4.4 Add the following into any page on your website source code that you want notifications to work on. Don’t forget to replace the app id with your one signals app id (found in your OneSignal app dashboard).

4.5. Consider deleting “autoRegister: false” to have the following popup appear on your site.

Opt In Push Notification Warning

 

Sending Notifications

1. Login to your OneSignal dashboard, open your app dashboard and click on New Push Notification.

If everything is setup you will have a Google Chrome/Safari/iOS/Android/etc Push Notifications linked up to One Signal.

Browser Push

The message should appear on your desktop in seconds.

Push Message

When a user clicks the message they are taken to your website.

 

What happens when the user’s Google Chrome browser is closed and a message is sent.

The message does not deliver but as soon as the user opens Google Chrome the message appears (along with other notifications).

Closed Browser

 

How Uses Opt Out

To disable notifications users can opt out.

Opt Out

 

How to add a html link based opt-in.

You can add this code to allow users to manually subscribe to notifications on your website.

 

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Firefox Alpha Support

Firefox support is in Alpha testing mode but OneSignal inform “Firefox push notification support is in Alpha testing phase. It only works on the nightly channel of Firefox for Desktop OSes (version 44+). Firefox currently does not have a tray icon for missed notifications on Windows or Linux and clicking no a notification currently can not open a new tab yet. These 2 restrictions should be resolved once Firefox 44 is closer to release. Currently subdomain and ‘site url’ are shared with ChromeWeb. Please setup Chrome web before trying out Firefox push.”

 

 

 

FireFox

Troubleshooting

I copied the wrong project ID from google and when I accepted the browser request to accept notifications and I could not receive notifications?, I un-checked the project in the Google chrome notifications tray icon and then re-checked it and reloaded my page 🙂

Always make sure the Home link is highlighted in the Google Developers Console and look for the project number here (and not the number in the project drop-down area).

Project ID

Other

Google also allow you to send push messages directly via their servers (check out their guide: https://developers.google.com/cloud-messaging/ )

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