Server Monitoring & Alerts

Proactive server monitoring helps ALCO USA catch issues before they impact users. This guide covers the tools we use, the metrics that matter, and how alerting works.

Monitoring Tools

• Nagios: infrastructure and service monitoring
• Zabbix: enterprise monitoring with dashboards
• Prometheus: metrics collection and querying
• Grafana: visualization and dashboards

Key Metrics to Track

• CPU utilization
• Memory usage
• Disk space and I/O
• Network throughput and latency
• Uptime and service availability
• Application response times

Setting Up Alerts

• Define thresholds for each metric
• Configure notifications (email, SMS, chat)
• Set severity levels to prioritize response
• Establish an escalation path for unresolved alerts
• Avoid alert fatigue by tuning noisy thresholds

Best Practices

1. Monitor both infrastructure and applications
2. Set meaningful thresholds based on baselines
3. Test alerts to confirm they fire correctly
4. Review dashboards regularly
5. Document runbooks for common alerts

Contact

For server monitoring support, reach our team:

Email: Team@alcousa.org

Phone: +1(208) 391-7176

Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 AM - 6 PM EST