Frequently Asked Questions

What metrics does Server Density collect?

Loads! Check out our full metrics list, and don't forget plugins too!

Do I have to install anything on my server?

For website monitoring, no - this is us accessing your website from locations around the world. However, for the more detailed internal metrics you will need direct access (SSH or Remote Desktop) to the server to install the monitoring agent.

The agent runs as its own user and does not require root access. It is designed to be lightweight and runs as a daemon/service reporting back every minute.

You don't need any programming knowledge and installation takes just a few minutes using our OS packages for Linux (RPM / yum / apt) or the Windows installer. It's really easy! On Linux / OS X / FreeBSD the agent doesn't even need root - it runs as its own user.

The Linux / OS X / FreeBSD agent is written in Python and the Windows agent is C# .NET based. Both agents are open source (Github).

How often do you collect data?

Website monitoring - you can choose, but as often as every 30 seconds.

Server monitoring - every 60 seconds.

What are the system requirements?

We support all major forms of Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and FreeBSD.

The agent for Linux / OS X / FreeBSD requires Python v2.4 or above. The Windows agent requires .NET v2 SP1 or above.

Note that we do not officially support OSs which have reached their end of life e.g. Windows 2000, OS X 10.4, FreeBSD 7, etc.

Will Server Density tell me if my server is down?

Yes. There is an alert option to be notified if we stop receiving data from your server for a certain period of time. This could be used to tell you if your server is down or not.

Can you monitor my website?

Yes. You can add URLs to be monitored and alerted when things break. See here for more details.

What if my server is behind a firewall? Do I need to open any ports?

If you can access the internet from your server then the agent will work. It doesn't need any special ports.

Data is only sent one way - from you to us - over standard HTTP port 80 (outbound). We also offer the option to use SSL which requires port 443 (outbound) to be open. The agent will also use any proxy server you have set up.

How does your pricing work? Is there a free trial?

All accounts start on the free trial of the full service, which is unlimited for 15 days. After the trial expires you must pay to continue using the full service with all the cool stuff like our mobile apps.

Our pricing is based on packages depending on how many servers and websites you wish to monitor. A server is a something you install our agent on. A website is a single URL we are monitoring the availability of.

Fees exclude VAT where applicable.

How much do SMS alerts cost?

A full list of supported countries is available here.

When an alert is sent to your phone by SMS, your account credits are decreased. You must purchase sufficient credits in advance to send any SMS messages.

Can I pay in another currency?

All customers are billed in USD $

What forms of payment do you accept?

We accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit cards. We accept additional forms of payment such as bank transfer if you wish to prepay annually.

Can I get my data out?

Yes, you can use the API to get all your data.

How long do you keep my data for?

Forever! Graphs show data at 1 minute intervals for the last hour, 5 minute intervals for the last 3 days, hourly intervals for the last 6 months and daily before then.

What about security? What do you do with our data?

Data can be sent by the monitoring agent using encrypted SSL and the web interface can also be accessed using SSL. We store customer data on our servers within secure data centres using industry standard security practices.

See this article for detailed technical information about our security design.

Your monitoring data is stored based on the retention policy for your account, explained above.

We also collect anonymised statistics from the monitoring agent to help with our development but also commercial use. This includes blog posts about data in aggregate e.g. most popular Python version.

Boxed Ice Ltd. is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998, registration number Z1787867. For the legal details and full notification of data use, please see the Terms of Service section 8.