How do I check if a website is up?

[Andy Shellam]

Hi Josh,

You can, I believe, define a host using it's DNS name, however I and I'm 
sure the rest of the community would discourage that for the simple 
reason that if the DNS doesn't resolve, that host will be deemed down.

However to check a website you can still add the host via it's IP 
address and add a check_http service check to that host, and instruct 
check_http to check the host header of the website (e.g. 
www.example.com, using the -H option).

Regards,

Andy

Josh Wells wrote:
> Is it possible to define a host using URL rather than IP address?
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Ben O'Hara [mailto:bohara at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, October 20, 2008 12:34 PM
> *To:* Josh Wells
> *Cc:* nagios
> *Subject:* Re: [Nagios-users] How do I check if a website is up?
>
> What i have done in the past is,
>
> a) create a host for www.example.com <http://www.example.com>
> b) ceate a host group - "External"
> c) stick www.example.com <http://www.example.com> in Eternal group
> ) add service check to host
>
> Yu can then add numberous external checks into the group or check 
> other services on the host.
>
> Seemed to make sense that way for me back then
>
> Ben
>
> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:17 PM, Josh Wells <josh.wells at lionbank.com 
> <mailto:josh.wells at lionbank.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     Ok I defined the command as you specified in my commands.cfg file. I
>     then added a service definition in my localhost.cfg file using that
>     command. It appears to be working. How do I configure an alert for
>     this
>     type of check? I would like to be notified if the website is not
>     reachable for more than say 5 minutes. Also while this is functional I
>     don't really like that this website check is showing up under my
>     nagios
>     server host. I would prefer that it have its own host definition or at
>     least appear separately from the other hosts. Is it possible to do
>     this
>     using a URL?
>
>     Thanks for your help. I used the quickstart guide to get my server up
>     and running so still pretty green with nagios but I'm learning.
>
>     Josh
>
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: Assaf Flatto [mailto:assaf.flatto at ssp.uk.com
>     <mailto:assaf.flatto at ssp.uk.com>]
>     Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 11:03 AM
>     To: Nagios User list
>     Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] How do I check if a website is up?
>
>     No , you don't have to define a host .
>
>     you define a service check with the fix parameters ( as i gave in the
>     previous mail ) and assign this check to an existing host .
>
>     that host will execute the check and report the status returned
>     from the
>     command ( personally i'd run it from the nagios server itself) .
>
>
>     On Monday 20 October 2008 15:58:25 Josh Wells wrote:
>     > Ok so if the website is external to my network I need to create
>     a host
>     > definition? What would that look like for a URL? I've only made host
>     > definitions for internal hosts using the IP address. Because the
>     website
>     > is a hosted solution I would rather define it by URL than IP
>     address.
>     Is
>     > this possible?
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     > -----Original Message-----
>     > From: Assaf Flatto [mailto:assaf.flatto at ssp.uk.com
>     <mailto:assaf.flatto at ssp.uk.com>]
>     > Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 10:46 AM
>     > To: nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
>     <mailto:nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net>
>     > Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] How do I check if a website is up?
>     >
>     > Not nessaceily .
>     >
>     > If you have that website in your network , you can just define the
>     > check_http check to that host.
>     > also you can add in one of the parameters the specific URL you
>     wish to
>     > query .
>     >
>     > -u, --url=PATH
>     >     URL to GET or POST (default: /)
>     >
>     >
>     > Or you can define a check on the nagios server it self to query the
>     web
>     > site like this :
>     >
>     > # 'check_website' command definition
>     > define command{
>     >         command_name    check_website
>     >         command_line    $USER1$/check_http -H www.website.com
>     <http://www.website.com>
>     > }
>     >
>     >
>     > If not , then you need to build a new host definition and service
>     check
>     > for that host .
>     >
>     > On Monday 20 October 2008 15:18:53 Josh Wells wrote:
>     > > Do I have to define a remote host such as www.website.com
>     <http://www.website.com> in order
>     to
>     > > apply the check_http service against that host?
>
>
>
>     --
>
>     Assaf Flatto
>     SSP Ops Team
>     Linux System Administrator
>
>
>
>
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