Incorporating Apache web server monitoring into your IT infrastructure management strategy can help identify performance bottlenecks preemptively. This proactive monitoring approach provides data necessary to ensure that your web server is up to the task and make optimizations if needed. Guaranteeing your customers a smooth and hassle-free user experience could go a long way into cementing their trust towards your organization.
What is an Apache web server and why does it need monitoring?
Handling around a third of all websites, Apache web server is one of the most widely used web server software in the market. One of its biggest advantages is its capability for customization, making it easily scalable. But it gets better. Apache HTTP server is free-to-use, open-source software, which has led to a large community that offers maintenance and support.
Paypal, Adobe, Facebook, and IBM are some of the few industry giants that employ the services of Apache web server. In addition, Apache servers also dominate most of the WordPress hosting space. However, it does come with its own shortcomings.
The fact that Apache web server has the flexibility to make custom modifications also paves the way for operational vulnerability. Significant customization in code can cause bugs and errors. As a result, this can snowball into performance issues and unnecessary resource consumption.
To handle such enormous responsibilities, monitoring tools are employed to ensure your Apache web server functions at optimum levels.
What are Apache web server monitoring tools?
Apache web server monitoring tools are software solutions that provide in-depth data on Apache server performance for identifying issues and troubleshooting them. A good monitoring tool aims to present information as simple and straightforward as possible.
When it comes to monitoring Apache web servers, there are a few native monitoring options. For example, Apache offers the mod_status module that provides decent information about what Apache is doing at any point of time. However, it is often not enough to know if the requests are returning correct information.
In most cases, IT operations teams will need a holistic monitoring solution that can offer additional perspectives from the point of view of individual components. Not only does a monitoring tool provide insights into the operating systems, servers, and databases being used, but the application performance too. This collection of data will provide better overall visibility into the health of an Apache web server as well as related infrastructure elements.
That’s why ITOps teams often opt for third-party monitoring solutions such as ManageEngine Applications Manager.
An Apache web server monitoring tool like ManageEngine Applications Manager has a dedicated Apache web server monitor that displays performance metrics in the form of easy-to-comprehend reports and dashboards. With the help of customizable dashboards and widgets, you can create your own workspace for a more hassle-free Apache server monitoring experience.
Apache web server monitoring with Applications Manager
Unlike most tools that require multitudes of configurations before deployment, Applications Manager supports agentless monitoring of your Apache HTTP server. This, coupled with the ability to integrate Applications Manager into your web portal, places performance monitoring in the palm of your hands.
Let us dive further into the additional features that Applications Manager has to offer in terms of Apache web server monitoring.
Performance metrics
In today’s environment, abrupt server crashes would be a catastrophe to business operations, especially those that solely rely on web applications. After an incident of such magnitude, you can very well bid your organization’s revenue stream and reputation farewell.
Using Applications Manager, you can obtain Apache web server performance metrics that could hint at potential issues, then take the steps necessary for avoiding a crisis. Latency rate, loading time, transfer rate, and server utilization are all crucial factors in maintaining a healthy and reliable web server.
A handy Apache monitor tool would measure these performance metrics to gain an overview on the health and availability of your Apache web server:
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Response Time
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Request Rate
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Bytes/Sec
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CPU Load
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Busy/Idle Server Count
These are all the factors that Applications Manager takes into account while performing Apache web server monitoring to keep track of web server uptime and help preserve the stability of your web application.
Alarms and thresholds
One of the major benefits of using monitoring tools is to ensure round-the-clock availability of your web servers. Monitoring Apache web server provides real time alerts that can help resolve an issue before it escalates. Without a proper alerting system, IT admins would be left in the dark about the status of their servers.
Using Applications Manager, you can configure alarms that trigger when an Apache server performance attribute value crosses the specified threshold. Upon threshold violation, the respective technicians will receive a notification (e.g. through email, SMS, or Slack), which can help them immediately take necessary corrective action.
If left unattended, through rule configuration, the alarm will be escalated and brought to the attention of relevant IT teams. With such reinforcements on all sides, Applications Manager is the ideal monitoring tool to ensure round-the-clock availability of your Apache web server.
Reports
Reports play a fundamental role in performance analysis and determining infrastructure upgrades. Without reporting, it becomes impossible to keep a clean track record of your web server’s historical data required for future performance optimizations.
Applications Manager’s Apache web server management tool takes reporting to a whole other level with trend analysis reports, capacity planning reports, forecast reports, and attribute reports of your web server.
Not only does Applications Manager provide historical data, it also empowers you with information required to make adjustments for more efficient web server resource usage. These reports can be easily embedded into customizable, interactive dashboards that can then be shared with various stakeholders in the organization.
Monitor Apache web servers in just a few minutes!
If you are looking for a comprehensive Apache monitoring tool, Applications Manager has the right solution for you.
Download 30-day free trial of Applications Manager’s Professional or Enterprise edition for the full Apache web server monitoring experience.
Do you need monitoring for other web servers like IIS, Nginx, PHP, Elasticsearch, or HAProxy? Check out the full list of web server monitoring capabilities that ManageEngine Applications Manager has to offer.
