The Software Garden Servertest program lets you monitor how a web server responds to requests for web pages over a long period time. It sends periodic HTTP GET requests to one or more URLs in order to get an indication of the average response time and pattern of timeouts for each. The results of each poll are displayed on the screen and optionally logged to a file. Each time the program is run it can "restart" from where it left off to continue to accumulate statistics calculated with running totals.
Here is sample output:
n date time url fetchtime average (max) 33 2004-01-27 19:30:23 www.dom314.com 1 0.8 (30) 33 2004-01-27 19:30:24 www.dom314.net FAILED: 500 read timeout 34 2004-01-27 19:45:26 www.dom314.com 0 0.8 (30) 34 2004-01-27 19:45:26 www.dom314.net 1 0.6 (10) 4 timeouts (1.3%)
Some of the uses of Servertest include:
- Letting you know how your website has been behaving overnight.
- Keeping track throughout the day, so you'll notice when it isn't responding before your customers do.
- Keeping an ongoing log of website response over many weeks or months.
- Comparing hosting companies to see how the services differ.
- Testing your ISP by making requests of independent web servers and looking for timeouts from them all.
- Collecting log data for processing in another program.
Servertest is written in the Perl computer language and can run on most computer systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
What distinguishes Servertest from many other products for monitoring servers is that it is available in source form for modification, enhancement, and redistribution (subject to a license). The program is straightforward, and lends itself to modification. Also distinguishing is that it is designed to follow a traditional Unix style with simple output and optional command line driven input yet work on a variety of operating systems.
In addition to the Perl source version, it is also available as a single executable for computers running Microsoft Windows that don't have Perl.
Subject to the terms of its license, it is free for non-commercial and educational use, and inexpensive otherwise, with a 30-day trial period.
Servertest is for testing your own servers periodically. It is not for doing load testing or other stressing, nor should it be used to test other people's websites in an abusive way.
Servertest is available for download. It is provided with no support and NO WARRANTY OF ANY SORT.
The product is free for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires payment of a $10.00 fee. (There is a free 30-day Evaluation Period.) For details, please see the licenses in the Legal section of this web site.
Go to these pages for instructions on downloading and running the program for different systems:
As of 26Apr04:
- None at present other than those listed in the source.