Sending a test/example alert from monit?

Question

I've configured monit tests and alerts — but I want to make sure that everything in my alert stack (outgoing email servers, sms email gateways…) is functioning properly. Is there a handy way to fire off a dummy test alert?

Answer 1

I usually restart a trivial service (like ntp) that I'm monitoring in order to test the alerts.

I did find this suggestion in the mailing list archives...

It's a way to leverage the alert reminder functionality in Monit to ensure that the alert path is functioning properly. Basically, a periodic reminder. Tune the cycle to your liking and you'll be able to control the testing time.

  check file alerttest with path /.nonexistent
    alert address@hidden with reminder on 500 cycles

Answer 2

Even easier is to just reload the config file and wait for the "Monit instance changed.."-email. Just run:

monit reload