Web Server Status Console

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Web Server Status Console is a Python script used to alert an administrator if a web server is misbehaving. The script makes requests to a dictionary of URLs on custom-defined intervals and sends an alert email to the administrator if the response status code is 400+ or if another issue is encountered.

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/VirtualZero/web-server-status-console.git

Environment

Install Miniconda

wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

chmod +x Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

./Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

Create Environment

conda create --name 'web-server-status-console' python=3.7

Activate Environment

source activate web-server-status-console

Install Dependencies

cd web-server-status-console && pip install -r requirements.txt

Getting Started

Add the URLs to monitor to the server_list dictionary in settings.py. The dictionary keys should be an identifying name while the values must be URLs.

def server_list():
    return {
        'WebSiteName1': 'http://your-domain.com', 
        'WebSiteName2': 'http://your-domain.com',
        'WebSiteName3': 'http://your-domain.com',
    }

The script uses SMTP to send alert emails in the event of an undesired status code or other error. Any SMTP service can be used with the script. Update the email_settings dictionary in settings.py with your SMTP service credentials. Email recipients are also configured in the email_settings dictionary by updating the recipients list. An example using AWS SES is shown below.

def email_settings():
    return {
        'smtp_server': 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com',
        'port': 587,
        'username': 'LVYITZXYIQPJUVDU',
        'password': '6kFDuDcUUESOyargOS9AMx2ZZrnu98sE',
        'sender': 'alerts@your-domain.com',
        'recipients': [
            'example1@your-domain.com',
            'example2@your-domain.com',
            'example3@your-domain.com'
        ]
    }

The scan interval is configurable within settings.py. The scan interval must be an integer indicating the number of minutes between scans.

def scan_interval():
    return 15

The email interval is configurable within settings.py. The email interval controls how often alert emails are sent. After the defined amount of time has past, the script will send an alert email containing all errors that occured within the defined amount of time. The email interval must be an integer indicating the number of minutes between alert emails.

def email_interval():
    return 60

Error Logging

The script will record any errors encountered during exucution in errors.log. The error log will be created in the script's directory upon initial execution.

Example Usage

python3 run.py

AWS Credentials

The script requires valid AWS access and secret access keys. Although the keys can be added to the settings.py file included with the script, it is always best practice to use environment variables to store sensitive information.