Today I’m kick-starting a series of iPhone app reviews, beginning with one of the most valuable tools in my IT arsenal: the R-U-ON server monitoring app. For IT professionals or anyone managing servers, this app offers peace of mind by providing critical server status information directly on your iPhone.
About the R-U-ON Service
R-U-ON offers an excellent server monitoring service with both free and paid tiers. After using their free service for several years, I’ve now upgraded to the paid version for its additional features. The service works by installing a small program called an “agent” on your computers or servers, which then connects to R-U-ON’s servers to transmit monitoring data.
Key Monitoring Features
The service provides comprehensive monitoring of several critical system metrics:
- Disk space usage
- Virtual memory utilization
- RAM usage
- CPU statistics
- Server load metrics
All of these parameters can be customized with specific thresholds. When any metric exceeds these defined limits, you’ll receive an alert. For mission-critical systems, text message notifications are available for an additional fee—a feature I consider absolutely essential for responsive server management.
The iPhone App Experience
The iPhone app offers a simple yet effective interface that connects to your R-U-ON account and displays a comprehensive summary of your server environment. The main screens include:
- Alarms View: Shows which servers have exceeded notification thresholds (see screenshot below)
- General Server Status: Provides an at-a-glance view of all your servers—ideally showing all green indicators
- Trouble Tickets: Although I personally haven’t used this feature
Room for Improvement
The only significant limitation of this app is its inability to run in the background—a restriction imposed by Apple’s SDK guidelines. It would be tremendously useful if the app could continue monitoring or if it could leverage some kind of background notification system (which might be possible in the new iOS 3.0, though I’m not entirely certain).
Verdict
For anyone responsible for server management, the R-U-ON iPhone app is an invaluable tool that brings critical monitoring capabilities to your pocket. The combination of the robust web service with this mobile interface ensures you’re never completely disconnected from your server infrastructure, even when away from your desk.