Hi Mitsutoshi,
Fair point. Here's how I see it. The snowflake config is still ideally
configured by the config management tool, I agree. But instead it would
create the config file directly on the snowflake, as a standalone check.
I'm not a fan of having it on the Sensu server as one of the subscriptions,
because, suppose I have a "mysql" subscription for all my up to date DB
servers. Then out of my bunch of servers, I have 2 old MySQL snowflakes that
have different oddities going for them. I'd have to create a "mysql-oldapp1"
subscription only for one of the servers, and another "mysql-oldapp2"
subscription for the other server. That just seems like useless chatter
happening on RabbitMQ.
And actually it's good that you mention config management tools. I haven't
been in that situation recently, but sometimes the snowflakes aren't even
being configured with a tool like Chef... One more case where standalone
checks can be useful: a manual Sensu setup 
HTH,
Mat
On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 7:36 PM, Mitsutoshi Aoe <maoe@foldr.in> wrote:
Hi Mathieu,
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Given that we use Chef/Puupet to configure Sensu, why wouldn't you
like to put the irregular config into the sensu server?
Regards,
Mitsutoshi
Mitsutoshi Aoe
maoe@foldr.in
2013/11/28 Mathieu Martin <webmat@gmail.com>:
> Standalone checks are for special snowflakes, IMO. So you have swaths of
> servers you monitor more or less the same, for those the subscription
> model
> is perfect. But I use standalone checks for the janky old servers
> nobody's
> touched in ages, that's always running at 60% cpu and whatnot. You still
> want to monitor it, but you don't want to create a centralized config
> only
> for this one server.
>
> My 2¢
>
> Mat
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 12:04 AM, Mitsutoshi Aoe <maoe@foldr.in> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm wondering when standalone checks are useful. Initially I thought it
>> would increase availability such that clients could continue monitoring
>> even
>> if server is down. But it was not the case because handlers run on the
>> server anyway.
>>
>> One thing I've come up with is that they could be useful when the link
>> between the server and the client is narrow. In this case, we might
>> want to
>> save bandwidth by stopping triggering check events from the server. The
>> actual gain might be subtle, though.
>>
>> So my question is: when are standalone checks useful?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Mitsutoshi
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> I'm the founder of Rock Solid Ops, a web operations and development
> consultancy.
>
> I'm also the organizer of DevOpsMtl, a monthly event to discuss the
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>
> My main fields of expertise are web development with Ruby on Rails,
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> and a bit of mobile development. If you need help scaling, monitoring,
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--
I'm the founder of Rock Solid Ops, a web operations and development
consultancy.
I'm also the organizer of DevOpsMtl, a monthly event to discuss the
challenges, tools and the culture surrounding the movement.
My main fields of expertise are web development with Ruby on Rails, DevOps
and a bit of mobile development. If you need help scaling, monitoring,
securing or managing your web infrastructure (Rails or not), get in touch!
Connect with me and read testimonials on my LinkedIn, follow me on twitter
@webmat, or check out my blog at programblings.com.