How can I get an alert if my application is down?

Question

Is there a WinXP application/service that will monitor other applications for runtime?

I've seen the MS uptime monitor, but that just seems to be for server uptime, not for individual apps.

Haven't found anything searching in here, either. If this is a dupe, am I using the wrong search terms?

Answer 1

The normal solution to this kind of problem is to use some kind of server/network monitoring software.

That is basically a dedicated service running on a server, which will monitor multiple machines (and the S/W on them) via the network. They can also detect whether individual services are up.

See e.g.

http://serverfault.com/questions/44/what-tool-do-you-use-to-monitor-your-servers

http://serverfault.com/questions/1596/application-monitoring-tools

http://serverfault.com/questions/26685/server-monitoring

I have personally used ZenOSS, which can do monitor applications and send alerts, produce graphs etc..

Using a monitoring software for a single app might be overkill, but OTOH it's a standard solution, and most monitoring software is reasonably simple to set up for simple cases, and can run on the monitored machine, so it might be the best solution.

I am not aware of any app just for checking the status of a single, local application.