How can I get a constant snapshot of my servers?

I want to keep updated on potential problems.

[crosenblum]

Basically I am looking for ideas, or concepts or methods to help centralize all the different log data from ColdFusion, IIS and SQL Server, in a way that allows me to instantly see that there are problems going on.

There has to be someway to do this?

I want to be a better administrator. It would be better to have some kind of tool, to have a snapshot of letting me know to check xyz of whatever server that is having problems.

I don't want to wait for a problem to occur, I'd like to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't escalate.

I have been playing with a crazy idea of mine, to grab the log files, and convert them to rss format, and use some kind of headline viewer to help keep myself updated constantly.

Any other ideas or ways?

[Brett_Tabke]

Check into one of the site monitoring packages. They will allow you to set all sorts of parameters and queries with email alerts. There are a few that are OSS - check the big script archives.

[lorax]

A business associate of mine wrote most of his own monitoring tools in TPL and PERL. He put a web front end on it and was able to quite easily track web servers, bandwidth useage, packet traffic, disk space, errors, as well as spot any unusual activity that might preclude a POD or other illicit attempts to disturb the network. Most of tools were off-the-shelf software and he just wrote the glue in PERL. But in any case, it was highly customized for his needs with customized triggers based on knowing how his network should be perform and it's perforomance limits. Pretty cool.

[crosenblum]

Very interesting, but I think I am looking for a way to convert the logs from coldfusion, iis, and sql server into this rss format, so i can use my headline viewer.

I don't program in PERL. All though I love the ideas behind them, of just having all the necessary indicators.

It would be nice to have some kind of thermometer display to say, "Hey IIS is getting hot, here are some possible issues to resolve."

Any other thoughts or ideas?