"Linux systems administrators dread calls from irate users saying the system is down. Careful administrators may try to keep a step ahead of crises such as this by having a pager notify them when things go wrong, but most sys admins prefer to employ more proactive means to monitor their operations and avert disaster."

"The technology exists today to allow administrators to monitor their Linux systems from virtually anywhere. Who wouldn't opt for the ability to whip out a Palm VII (or Palm V or Handspring with a Minstrel wireless modem) while on the road and, after a few taps, see the kind of system information illustrated in Figure 1. The most pertinent system information is displayed: you can see that the system has been up and running for over eight days and currently has a load average of two running jobs; memory usage is light, and the filesystems have plenty of space remaining."

"In this article, I'll run through all the steps you need to do to get this monitoring capability working on a palmtop device so that you can readily keep track of your Linux Web server."

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