Tuning in with Hobbit, Nagios, and monit
FREE MONITOR
Open source tools such as Hobbit, Nagios, and monit provide system monitoring for large or small networks.
If you look after more than one computer, eventually you’ll realize you could benefit from some form of automatic monitoring – certainly after someone surprises you with the announcement that a system you are responsible for just crashed. In addition to reducing the response time for a downed system, system monitoring can also help you identify problems in advance – before the situation becomes an emergency. Even if you only have one computer, advanced notification that your disks are getting full or that sshd is down can save considerable time and stress.
If you have a specific service or situation you want to monitor, you could, of course, brew your own custom monitoring script and trigger it with cron. However, you really do not need to go reinventing wheels when several open source applications will handle the job for you. In this article, I look at three of the main contenders – Hobbit, Nagios, and monit. All are open source and freely available. All have good points and limitations. The ideal solution depends on your network, your experience, and your needs.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.
-
RingReaper Malware Poses Danger to Linux Systems
A new kind of malware exploits modern Linux kernels for I/O operations.
-
Happy Birthday, Linux
On August 25, Linux officially turns 34.
-
VirtualBox 7.2 Has Arrived
With early support for Linux kernel 6.17 and other new additions, VirtualBox 7.2 is a must-update for users.
-
Linux Mint 22.2 Beta Available for Testing
Some interesting new additions and improvements are coming to Linux Mint. Check out the Linux Mint 22.2 Beta to give it a test run.
-
Debian 13.0 Officially Released
After two years of development, the latest iteration of Debian is now available with plenty of under-the-hood improvements.
-
Upcoming Changes for MXLinux
MXLinux 25 has plenty in store to please all types of users.
-
A New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle, a Linux AI assistant, works with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.