Do any of you proactively monitor processes like the mySQL server and restart them when they go down?

I've a problem with a hosting company that seems to lose the mySQL server once a week or so, and it's down until I call them and tell them it's down.

Are there any simple ways to keep this stuff up and running?

-t

MySQL really shouldn't be going down... I've been running MySQL for three years, and it has *never* crashed on me.

That said, you can always run the process via your inittab, or use something like Dan Bernstein's (the qmail guy) services package.

If you want something easier, Webmin will monitor processes and restart them if necessary.

I have never had a mysql crash either -- you may want to check the version of mysql you're using and its config files and memory settings.

Bigbrother (bb) is a detailed process watcher that can send an email to you (i send it to my web-enabled phone) when things go wrong. I have not used it to monitor mysql, but this should be easy to add. It can take some time to get bigbrother configured properly so that it does not send false alerts. However, you really need two seperate machines to take advantage of BB's capabilites, e.g. email notification.

http://www.bb4.com

Here are a few others, but I've never used them as I went with bb.

Checkservice
A perl-based process checker with notification options.
http://www.linvision.com/checkservice/

Lifekeeper
A commercial product more geared at clusters, but works well
http://www.steeleye.com/

SMT
Another watcher monitor
http://www.doodlabs.com/smt/

PIKT
This one may automatically fix problems....
http://pikt.uchicago.edu/pikt/

NetSaint
I know this one is growing in popularity but I do not have the url.