Informant

Informant is a lightweight way to monitor server resources in real-time. It can be used as an Express.JS middleware or standalone. When running as middleware each request is logged to the provided store.

Viewing the realtime interface:

Navigate to

http://<server where you are running informant>:2222/

How to Install

npm install -g informant

How to use

First, require informant:

var informant = require('informant');

If you are using it as middleware with Express:

var express = require('express');
var app = express.createServer();
app.use(informant.middleware());
informant.init();
app.listen(8080);

If you are using it as a standalone app:

informant

Alternatively with nohup:

nohup informant 2>&1 > informant.log &

Environment Variables

Setting these three environment variables effects the operation of informant:

INFORMANT_PORT         = 2222  # Port the server interface response (default is 2222)
INFORMANT_INTERVAL     = 5000  # Sample rate in milliseconds for data (default is 5000)
INFORMANT_MEM_STORAGE  = 2000  # Number of items the Memory Store will retain is 2000
INFORMANT_DB_HOST      = mydb  # Hostname of the db to run on
INFORMANT_DB_PORT      = 27017 # port the db is running on 

Store API

The Store API is a simple API designed to persist data. If no store is supplied then the in memory store will be used.

Stores conform to this interface:

	cb = function(err,records) {};
	var store = {
		insert: function(record) {},
		find: function(query,limit,cb) {},
		add_machine: function(record) {},
		get_machines: function(cb) {}
	}

The limit is the number of records you want to return. The first record received is the number of records to expect. The find callback (cb) should emit the total record first, then a null record when finished.

The supplied stores are:

var informant = require('informant');
var mem_store = new informant.MemStore();
var mongo_store = new informant.MongoStore();

To use a store, pass it into the init method:

app.use(informant.middleware());
informant.init(mongo_store);

MemoryStore example:

var MemStore = function() {
   var env_var_mem = parseInt(process.env.INFORMANT_MEM_STORAGE); 
   var mem_storage = env_var_mem || 2000; 

   this.machines = [];
 
   console.log('Using MemStore for Storage with a history of '+mem_storage+' items.');
   this.mem = [];
   this.insert = function(rec) {
      this.mem.push(rec);
      if(this.mem.length>=mem_storage) {
         this.mem.shift();
      }
   };

   this.find = function(query,limit,cb) {
      cb(null,{__total:this.mem.length});
		_.each(this.mem,function(item) {
			cb(null,item);
		});
		cb(null,null);
   };

   this.add_machine = function(rec) {
      this.machines.push(rec);
   };

   this.get_machines = function(cb) {
      cb(null,this.machines);
   }


};