Wordpress

Wordpress monitoring

This plugin piggybacks on the SQL Query plugin, allowing you to monitor your blog activity - in this version, you can monitor published posts, all posts (including drafts), comments, and users.

Download plugin

• wordpress-plugin.xml

Instructions

This document assumes you have Hyperic HQ already installed and running. I've also assumed that you're running HQ 3.2, which is currently in Beta, although very similar steps can be taken for 3.1.4. For help downloading and installing HQ, see these pages.

Make sure to read the Plugin Install Guide. If you have created a <hyperic home>/hq-plugins/ directory for hot deployment on HQ server, simply place the plugin there. If not, simply create it and copy the plugin there - but you'll need to restart HQ server. For the agent, place the plugin in <agent dir>/pdk/plugins/ and restart the agent.

Using the Plugin

To make sure the plugin is deployed, go to the platform name of the machine on which you installed the agent plugin. In the upper right of the screen, click the "Tools Menu" and select "New Platform Service". On the next screen, add the name of your wordpress instance, whatever descriptive text you feel is necessary, and select "Wordpress" from the "Service Type" drop-down list. If you don't find "Wordpress" in the list of Service Types, then something went wrong with your plugin - check your agent logs.

After clicking 'Ok' you'll come to a screen with the 'General Properties' section open. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, you should see 'Configuration Properties', which you should click. Select the 'Edit' button, and you will see a screen with 4 fields: jdbcDriver, jdbcURL, jdbcUser, and jdbcPassword. jdbcDriver is a drop-down menu of jdbc drivers for supported databases. In my case, I selected 'com.mysql.jdbc.Driver'. The jdbcURL field should be, for a MySQL-based environment, 'jdbc:mysql://database.host.name/database-name'. jdbcUser and jdbcPassword are the user and password needed to view your particular wordpress database.

Getting the Most From the Plugin

Once enabling the plugin, you'll start collecting metrics for users, posts, and comments, which is useful in its own right. However, to really make the most of your plugin, as well as spotlight a bit of what makes HQ so cool, we'll use this plugin as the central piece of a 'wordpress' composite application, that includes MySQL database information, CPU and network metrics, and any other services you may wish to add to form a complete picture.

1. Click 'Resources -> Browse' in the top navigation
2. In the Tools Menu in the upper right, select 'New Application'
3. Next, name your application, filling in whatever information is applicable - nothing else is required - then click 'Ok'.
4. You should see a 'General Properties' screen that is open. Scroll down to the bottom and select the bar for 'Services' (there should be none) and then click 'Add to List'
5. Select the services from this list that you want to include in your application, including the Wordpress service you just created. If you have trouble finding it, use the 'Filter by Name' box to search for it. I recommend you include, at the least, the database used by Wordpress

And now you should have an application that includes your Wordpress service and adjunct services you've just added.

Conclusions

The SQL Query style plugins are very easy to implement. The same steps could be taken for most database-backed PHP web applications, including MediaWiki, Gallery, etc.