It would be very helpful to have the following features in VC:

Add a was to check for a web site availability and server/IP ping results.

HTTP example:

Checks a web site via an HTTP GET request and search resutls for a key word specified by the task/job.
Every Time Interval (5 min fo example), send an HTTP request to a specified site via the task. The task will allow the user to enter the HTTP address and selects the GET or POST option. In additon to that, enter a keywork to search for.
VC will check the result from the task for success or failure
Notification via email and possibly a task can be triggered based on the result.
This is helpful to check a hung IIS website with a specific address and restaring IIS or the server based on the results.

PING Example:
Be able to perform a PING task to a specific IP address and send notification/perform action based on success or failure.

HTTP
You can use the tool 'wget' to accomplish this I think.

PING
I'm sure the ping task is already in place in the latest version.

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WGET seems to be focused on getting files from HHTP or FTP server. What I need is a test method to validate that a page actually exists. Being able to specify an http address and then search the content for a key word. A success or failure will trigger other tasks.

PING
There is a PING task but I am not sure how to check the results of the ping.

I think you still can use wget, here's how:

Enter this line in a batch file.
wget --spider http://www.xxxxxx.com (<-enter good URL)

Create a job which runs this batch file.
When running this script wget will return an errorlevel which you can check with conditions in Visualcron.
If the site is found, it gives a 0, if it is not found it gives a 1.

In your next task in the job you use a condition which looks at the exitcode of the previous task and continious the tasks if the errorlevel is 1.
This task in the job should trigger you to do someting.

So with two tasks you can manage what you want. (You can do it with only 1 if you use the notifications 😗 )


I think the ping task works the same. I didn't check it, but I think it gives an error when it isn't able to ping a website.

Good luck!

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thanks for the clarification. The piece that I am still missing is how to search for a key word from the desired site/page. Although, I can get to the site, sometimes, there is a problem and hence my needto search for a specific content.

I will try the errorlevel check for the ping as well.

I suggest using the HTTP Task in VisualCron. By adding a Condition you can check the output of that Task (check for a specific string). The output of the HTTP task is the page specified.

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thanks Henrik, will try your suggestion.

Life is soo easy...#-o

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