3.4.0 Matrix Server Administration Guide

Chapter 16: Advanced Topics 185

Integrate Custom Applications

There are many ways to integrate custom applications with Matrix

Server:

• Use service monitors or device monitors to monitor the application

• Use a predefined monitor or your own user-defined monitor

• Use Start, Stop, and Recovery scripts

Following are some examples of these strategies.

Device Monitor or Service Monitor?

When deciding whether to monitor your custom application with a

service monitor or a device monitor, first determine whether the

application provides a service over the network directly to the outside

world. If so, you should consider using a service monitor. Because a

service monitor is associated with a virtual host, it represents an IP

address provided to the outside world to access your services.

For example, one common use of Matrix Server is to increase the

availability of Web servers. The availability of the HTTP service is best

modeled by a service monitor associated with the virtual host to which

outside users connect. Matrix Server provides a built-in HTTP service

monitor for this use. The other built-in service monitors offer more

examples of services which are best modeled by service monitors.

Alternatively, if you want to monitor something associated with a

physical server, you should consider using a device monitor. Monitoring

the health of a disk drive, for example, is the job of a device monitor. The

built-in DISK device monitor is available for this purpose.

Similarly, if you have a Web server that communicates with a back-end

database, you might want to devise your own user-defined device

monitor to determine whether each server in the matrix has a good

network connection to the database server.