monit-windows-agent is a project that aims to reimplement a Windows Monit Agent from scratch, with the primary goal to push status reports to M/Monit.

Current Project Status

As of Jul the 29th 2016 We have pushed an update which fixes a few critical bugs and includes basic command line options. Logging with log4net has now been integrated and logs into the default location. Reloading the configuration file can now be done with the standard command

---

As of Dec the 4th 2015 I have pushed an update which is basically a rewrite of the C++ monit source code in C#. Extended functionality is given, we're using it in production since 2 months. The documentation below is outdated and will be updated soon!

(We need your help, see Please contribute.)

What already works

• Agent is already running on command line as well as a Windows Service
• Agent client is already reporting system status like CPU, HDD, Memory usage to M/Monit
• Agent server is running with basic functionality
• Current configuration takes place in a proprietary XML file
• Agent already alerts when Events occur
• Agent responds to /_doAction requests from the M/Monit server
• Services can be configured in child configs: *.Service.xml

Screenshots

• M/Monit view of the windows agent:

• Running monit windows service:

How to use

Install

• Open an admin cmd
• execute 'MonitWindowsAgent.exe --install' to install the Windows Service
• execute 'MonitWindowsAgent.exe' without arguments to start the Service
• to view all command line options execute 'MonitWindowsAgent.exe -h'

Uninstall

• execute 'MonitWindowsAgent.exe --uninstall' to stop (if necessary) and uninstall the Windows Service

What is still to do?

• Pending design decision if there should be a monitrc parser implemented in .NET, or if the configuration should be done proprietary* (XML file etc)
• Research
  • Which data and behaviour does M/Monit expect from its Monit clients?
• Specific (TODO: should be made an Issue): If the "controlfile" directive from the monitrc configuration is mandatorily needed by the M/Monit server, and if yes, what it does with it. That could limit our approach to utilize a proprietary configuration for the Windows Agent.
• Integration of Swap Memory status for Windows
• Setting up a proper community and getting some contributors (see below) ;)

Please contribute!

• I'm not going to achieve all the goals alone
• Not only developers are needed, but also folks who can provide insights into the API and internals of M/Monit.
• You are a pro in parser generation (like with Bison, grammar files, and it's piece of cake for you to generate a parser from this (monitrc grammar)?

How does developing the Monit Windows Agent work?

• Programmed in C# / .NET 4.5
• Using Monit source code as a (documentation) basis
• Monit Source Code is here: https://bitbucket.org/tildeslash/monit/src
• M/Monit source code is not available
• Using "sniffed" XML (and source code as the basis for the xml format (near to "reverse engineering" because no XSD available)
• Using NHTTP for the web server implementation
• The xml data classes are created by Visual Studio 2013's "Paste XML as class" - functionality. You have to switch to .NET 4.5 framework to gain access to that functionality. After pasting, revert back to .NET 3.5.

Development Goals / Paradigms

1. Reverse, Learn, Document
2. Get it running. Follow the KISS principle first.
3. Refactoring to patterns - make it reusable.