How do you monitor your managed server?

Andrea,

The first place I would suggest going is to the company managing your server. They are likely doing some monitoring and may provide you with a way to view the monitor (via a web page) and/or get notifications (cell, text or email). Aside from that, there are a lot of tools available (free, one time fee or monthly fee). Some are services, some are software that you install.

At a basic level, you want something that pings the server (make sure it is up) and that does an http get on the web site (make sure the site is up). Most managed service providers do this every 5 minutes. More complex monitors look at checking the database, the site response time (to see if it is up, but slow) and running simulated tasks (that a site visitor would do). The better monitors also do the monitoring from multiple locations on the Internet (to check availability and response via multiple networks). The downside with some of the free ones is that they often don't check the server as often as you would like (but they are free).

There are many, many choices out there (do a search on website monitoring and you'll see). If you can't get help via your hosting provider, I would suggest picking one in your budget (even if that means free). Some of the service based ones are pretty easy to use. You just register and give them your url. That's it.