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Setup guide

Monitor a Linux server in four steps

From an empty account to a tested alert. You need SSH access with sudo to a Linux server: a VPS, a cloud instance or a dedicated server at any provider, or your own hardware.

1. 1

   Create your account or sign in

   Create your account with your email address or with GitHub, or sign in if you already have an account.

   With an email signup, confirm your address from the link we send, then sign in. With no server connected yet, Fivenines opens on the Start monitoring screen.

2. 2

   Connect your Linux server

   Choose Monitor an instance (later on, the Connect button on the Instances page). Give the server a name, for example its hostname, and continue. The wizard then shows the install command for that server. It looks like this:

   On the server, over SSH

   wget -T 3 -q -O fivenines_setup.sh https://releases.fivenines.io/latest/fivenines_setup.sh && sudo sh fivenines_setup.sh YOUR_SERVER_TOKEN

   Paste the command exactly as the wizard shows it, then select Continue. The token at the end belongs to that one server and replaces YOUR_SERVER_TOKEN: keep it private, like a password.

   The agent installs as a service running as a dedicated fivenines user. It pushes metrics out over HTTPS, so there is no inbound port to open in the server's firewall or your provider's security rules. The agent security page lists what it reads and sends.

3. 3

   Check the first metrics

   The wizard waits for the agent's first reports, then shows what it detected on the server. Finish it to open the server's Overview: CPU usage, memory, filesystem usage and network appear within the first minute, with the CPU, RAM, Network and Storage tabs for detail.

   Nothing after a minute? Check what the agent reports on the server with sudo journalctl -u fivenines-agent -f.

4. 4

   Configure and test an alert

   Every new account starts with an active Instance Status workflow: when a server stops reporting, it opens an incident and emails the members of your account, then emails again when the server is back.

   Test it end to end by stopping the agent on the server:

   On the server

   sudo systemctl stop fivenines-agent
   # wait for the alert email, then:
   sudo systemctl start fivenines-agent

   Three to four minutes after the agent's last report, the incident appears under Incidents and the alert email arrives. Once the agent reports again, the incident closes and a "Back online" email follows.

   To be alerted on load too, open Workflows, choose Templates, use CPU Usage Alert (it fires above 90% CPU), then select Activate. For Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Discord or Pushover alerts next to email (PagerDuty and webhooks come with Business), connect the channel under Integrations.