Distributed DNS/etc checking

Wed Apr 4 04:12:49 UTC 2012

Todd Snyder(todd at borked.ca)@Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 12:08:06PM -0400:
> Good day all,
> 
> There have been a few instances where we've wanted to check our external
> DNS servers from various external networks, so we've utilized the existing
> looking glass tools provided by many of you.  However, it's a very manual
> process, given that all LG's I've found say no automating/scripting.  If we
> want to check from a couple dozen sites around the world, it's a lot of
> clicking and typing and collecting.  If we wanted to create an tool that
> our NOC could use to verify our services, we would need something we could
> script.  Ideally, we'd be able to run this constantly to do health checks
> on our services, but one step at a time.

To suggest a service that I have no relation to (other than being a happy
customer), have you looked at Pingdom [http://www.pingdom.com/] ?  I'm not
using the DNS check type, but I have a dozen or so HTTP checks there.
Their system is super simple, no frills, and is priced like it :)  It
looks like you can list a domain to test, a server to check and what
result you expect.  They run checks from a bunch of different places (40
servers, seemingly half in the US, right now).  Pricing at the low scale
is $6/check/year, which is pretty compelling even against running some
VPSes if you aren't checking too many sites.

-- 
Bill Weiss