Knowledgebase

What is SIM

SIM is a system and services monitor for ‘SysVinit’ systems. It is designed to be intuitive and modular in nature, and to provide a clean and informative status system.

It does this by consistently verifying that services are online, load averages are in check, and log files are at reasonable sizes. Many other SIM modules sport different and in-depth features to bring a well rounded tool to your disposal to stop otherwise common issues daunting internet hosts.

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Installation:
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Login to your server via SSH as root.

Type: wget http://www.r-fx.org/downloads/sim-current.tar.gz

This will download the most current version of SIM (System Integrity Monitor)

Type: tar -xzvf sim-current.tar.gz
This will extract the tar.gz file at once.

The last line should look like "sim-2.5-3/CREDITS" everything before the / is the directory where the script was extracted too.
Type: cd sim-2.5-3
where sim-2.5-3 is the directory that SIM was extracted too.

Type: ./setup -i
Then press "Enter"
Then when it says MORE press the "space bar"
Then press "Enter"
Then when it syas MORE press the "space bar"

Now you will press ENTER one more time to do the auto-configuration script for SIM.
Please note the following config is what I use, and you can change some monitoring services if you choose.

Where is SIM installed ?
[/usr/local/sim]:
Press Enter
Where should the sim.log file be created ?
[/usr/local/sim/sim.log]:
Press Enter
Max size of sim.log before rotated ? (value in KB)
[128]:
Type: 512
Press Enter
The larger the file the more SIM (System Integrity Monitor) logs we can view. This is good for looking back.
Where should alerts be emailed to ? (e.g: root, user@domain)
[root]:
Type: youreamil@yourdaomin (One off server would be more secure.)
Press Enter
Disable alert emails after how many events, to avoid email flood ?
(Note: events stats are cleared daily)
[8]:
Press Enter
The below are configuration options for Service modules:
press return to continue...
Press Enter
Auto-restart services found to be offline ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[true]:
Press Enter
Enforce laxed service checking ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[true]:
Press Enter
Disable auto-restart after how many downed service events ?
(Note: events stats are cleared daily)
[10]:
Press Enter
Enable FTP service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Press Enter
Enable HTTP service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
Enable DNS service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true (if you are running ensim do not type true just press enter)
Press Enter
Enable SSH service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
Enable MYSQL service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
Enable SMTP service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
TCP/IP port that SMTP operates on ?
[25]:
Press Enter
Enable XINET service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
TCP/IP port that any XINET service operates on (e.g: pop3, 110) ?
[110]:
Press Enter
Enable ENSIM service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Press Enter
Enable PGSQL service monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
After an unclean HTTP shutdown, semaphore array's may remain allocated
and cause the service to fall into a looping restart cycle. Using this
feature clears semaphore arrays on HTTP restart.
Enable semaphore cleanup ?
[false]:
Press Enter
This is an implamented feature in the http module, its purpose is to
determine if/when the apache server locks up or otherwise stops
responding.
Enable URL aware monitoring ?
Type: true
Press Enter
URL path to a local file ? (exclude HTTP://)
Note: This URL should be valid and reside on the local server, otherwise
HTTP will loop restarting
[127.0.0.1/index.html]:
Type: site.com/index.html that resides on your local server
Press Enter
HTTP log files can grow large and cause the service to crash
(segfault), this feature will keep the main HTTP logs incheck.
Enable HTTP log monitor ?
[false]:
Press Enter
MySQL uses a /tmp symlink of its mysql.sock socket file. This
feature verifies that the symlink exists from the main mysql.sock
file, and if not it is recreated.
Enable MySQL Socket correction ?
[false]:
Press Enter
Enable NETWORK monitoring ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
interface to monitor ?
[eth0]:
Press Enter
Enable LOAD monitor ? (true=enable, false=disable)
[false]:
Type: true
Press Enter
Load level before status condition 'warning' ?
[25]:
Type: 5
Press Enter
Load level before status condition 'critical' ?
[45]:
Type: 10
Press Enter
Enable a global (wall) message at status condition 'warning' & 'critical' ?
[false]:
Press Enter
Renice services at status condition 'warning' or 'critical' ?
(3 values - warn, crit, false - false=disabled)
[false]:
Press Enter
Stop nonessential services at status condition 'warning' or 'critical' ?
(3 values - warn, crit, false - false=disabled)
[false]:
Press Enter
Reboot system on status condition 'warning' or 'critical' ?
(3 values - warn, crit, false - false=disabled)
[false]:
Press Enter

Now the SIM (System Integrity Monitor) has been configured we will add a cron.

Type: ./setup -c
If it says "Removed SIM cronjob." then you must type it again.
Type: ./setup -c
Now it should say Installed SIM cronjob.