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[MordyT]

Hey all,
I was wondering if there was a way to modify/create/duplicate the heartbeats function so we could check the online status?
Meaning, the bot sends HB to master server daily, great. What about having it also send the HB to a second server (user configurable) every X (maybe 5) minutes (also user configurable) as well. The second server would have a page - same look and layout if possible - with a green/red dot to show online/offline. In short, a "gametracker.com" for B3...

I know it would be nice to find out if my bot is online without logging into terminal. And yes, I do monitor the bot with monit so it should always be online, but I have had some issues in the past.

[Courgette]

The status plugin would probably be more suited to monitor your bot/server as it will create a status file every minute (and optionality upload it on your FTP server)

[Freelander]

I guess you'd also need a small script on your web server to check the date/time of the status file(s) uploaded.

[MordyT]

@courgette, ok, that would probably work...

I guess you'd also need a small script on your web server to check the date/time of the status file(s) uploaded.

Have any ideas? Can you code a quick script, something that goes along the times of
-check current time
- check time in status file
-if time is different by more then x, display offline

Or any other ideas you have?
*Via my HTC EvO 4G*

[Freelander]

Here's a simple script that should work:

Code: php

error_reporting(E_ALL);

//Enter path or URL to your status file
$status_file = "http://www.example.com/status.xml";
//Enter allowed time difference between current time and status.xml time in seconds
$interval = "300";

simplexml_load_file($status_file)
or die("Cannot Open Status File!");

$xml=new simpleXMLElement($status_file,NULL,TRUE);
$time = $xml->B3Status;

$status_time = strtotime($xml['Time']);
$now = time();

$time_difference = $now - $status_time;

if($time_difference < $interval)
  echo "Your Server is Online";
else
  echo "Your Server is Offline";

[MordyT]

I am trying freelander, really I am, but I seem to n00b to get this to work...

Copy/paste the code, add it between the php tags, and nothing. White screen.

[Freelander]

You're probably having some errors and those are saved in an error_log file in your web folder. Please try the modified code above, it should show errors on the screen now.

[MordyT]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this project...

The page now works great. However, I have one small issue...

The game server is in the UK.
The bot server is in Texas (i think).
I am in Wisconsin currently.


In the status.xml, the time is currently: Tue Mar 29 22:33:31 2011
On my Clock (on the computer): Tue Mar 29 15:29:31 2011
In the b3.xml time is set to CST.

The problem is that the check looks for the status.xml and always reports as online - even if off. (btw, i modified your code to check every 31 seconds, because my status.xml updates every 30 seconds).

Does it compare it to my current time? Or to the b3.xml time? Or to the bots server time? Or to the webhost time? Where does the php file get the time?

From what I guess it is because the time is 7 hours ahead in the status.xml, thereby making it so the only time it will read as offline is when the bot is off for 7 hours...

Any ideas?

[Freelander]

Current time ($now) in the code is the time of the box the script is running on. Since we are comparing it with the time of status.xml, we have to return the time in the same time zone of status.xml.

I think you should add a line like this at the beginning of your code:

Code: php

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');

and change 'America/Los_Angeles' with the correct time zone. Here's a list of available time zones.

[MordyT]

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /home/dausain1/public_html/rvoclan.com/test.php on line 5
Attached php file. (rename from .py
thanks for all your help!

[attachment deleted by maintenance]

[Freelander]

Looks like you missed the semi colon at the end of the line.

I've changed the code a bit. Hope it works. You shoud set the interval at a greater value than the refresh rate of your status.xml.

Also note that, since things are running on different boxes and you are checking the time difference, you have to be synchronizing the time of servers. Although the hours are different, minutes and seconds have to be synced.

Maybe it's easier with monit?  

[attachment deleted by maintenance]

[MordyT]

Excellent, got it working.

Had to set the timezone to Europe/Samara, but the server and the status are about 40 or seconds apart, so 90 seconds as the timeout works.

More tweaking is needed, but now I can tell within a 45 or seconds..

I do have monit, however, my IP from the bot gets banned every now and then (the GSP has a very aggressive firewall) so I have to switch to my backup for a few days until it auto-releases it. Monit doesn't tell me when that happens, and this does, which makes switching IP's a 2 second thing...

[MordyT]

Ok, got it working down to the second....

Thank you very much.
In case you want to check your handiwork...
http://64.87.60.16/status.php

[MordyT]

Err, was working fine, but seems like there is a issue with the time settings somehow...

Take a look: http://64.87.60.16/status.php

Error displayed: Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /var/www/status.php on line 34

Notice: Undefined offset: 2 in /var/www/status.php on line 34

Warning: mktime() expects parameter 5 to be long, string given in /var/www/status.php on line 34
Time on status.xml is: 01-01-1970 04:00:00
Current Server Time is 01-04-2011 01:12:19
B3 is Offline

P.S. b3 is still running...

[Freelander]

Ok, we seem to have surprises  Here's a new version.

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