...
Once this is done,the next step would be to automate testing to see if:
- the monitor is pingable from the host running the script,
- whether the monitor can ping your host (traceroute.pl?function=ping), assuming it has a remote traceroute server
- what a traceroute shows
- the ping_data.pl form appears, also note version of ping_data.pl
If any of steps 1 thru 4 fail then no need to go to following steps you have already limited the scope of the problem.
Then craft an email with the information to review and send to the contacts. This email should identify what is working and where the failure is occurring. It should also point to the FAQ. The email needs to come from a real person in case it gets rejected since the email To: address no longer works.
Eventually if automated the script may run once a week. In such a case checkdata.pl will need enhancing to also add the number of consecutive days we have been unable to gather data from the monitor
Requirements
To make the pings one can look at the existing checkdata.pl since it provides the URL to make the calls to ping and can be extended to do a traceroute. However it is probably better to make the pings from the host running the script since it reduces the number of points of failure.