Steps to Using Your Raspberry Pi for Network Monitoring

Featured blog by Xander Schofield, Independent Technology Writer

The Raspberry Pi has quickly made itself a staple in the tech world – the highly versatile miniature single-board computer is an extremely resourceful and remarkably cheap device. One such use of the Raspberry Pi is for network monitoring services. Formerly requiring wasteful systems setup and dedicated machines, network monitoring best practices for sysadmins is now completely possible with the little Raspberry Pi.

First, though, why would you want to set up a network monitoring system? What are the benefits? To start, you can keep track of the activity on all machines connected to your network, becoming aware of any anomalies or discrepancies as soon as they appear. These anomalies could be malicious use of your network and information, so it’s always a good idea to know what exactly is being done on your network over a given period of time.

You’ll also be able to track the status of any site you have up and running, removing the guesswork from hosting or site maintenance issues. You, not your customers or users, should know when your site’s malfunctioning (if it’s down, has long loading times, etc.), and networking monitoring is an excellent way to keep track of your web presence. This way, you’ll maintain a reputation for excellence and reliability for your company.

Convinced? Or already aware of the benefits of network monitoring for your home or business network (as well as your personal or professional website)? You’re ready to head into the world of using the Raspberry Pi for network monitoring, a formerly cumbersome task. Here’s how to get the setup up and running.

First, you’ll need a version of a software application, one specifically developed for the Raspberry Pi. Write the to an SD card with sufficient space, then connect that SD card to your Raspberry Pi. Connect the Raspberry Pi to your network, preferably via an ethernet rather than wireless connection, and you’ll be ready for the software configuration.

Use one of the computers on your network to navigate to the Raspberry Pi’s IP address, where you’ll see a list of options pop up. From there, you can choose which devices to monitor, how the information on the devices will be displayed, view the database using PHPMyAdmin, and more, giving you a wide variety of options and controls with the software.

The typical network performance monitoring solution has many different types of data and actions available to the end user – make sure you take it slowly and understand the checks and monitoring that you’re actually doing. If you’re having any trouble, or you’re not sure where to get started, seek out documentation, tutorials, and message boards, where you can reach out to other users for help or more information. Start slowly with simple tasks, such as viewing the activity of machines on your network and pinging your site to make sure it’s up and running, and you’ll get enough of a feel for the software that you’ll be able to graduate to more complex systems.

Whether you’re focusing on monitoring the status of machines connected to your network or keeping an eye on your network presence itself, the Raspberry Pi is a cheap and effective entry point into the world of network monitoring, especially if you don’t already have a Linux machine up and running on your network. With the power of a more typical network monitoring platform condensed down to the low price point and high portability of the Raspberry Pi, this kind of setup is a no-brainer for anyone looking to learn more about what it means to keep a closer eye on your systems and web presence.