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Introducing Simon 5!

Simon version 5 is now available. It is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs, plus a Simon Status service, a Link Checker filter, improved Find filter, iMessage and Speak Error notifiers, a new app icon, and much more.

Important: please note that Simon 5 requires a minimum of macOS 10.12 (Sierra), and is a paid upgrade from Simon 4. Purchasers since September 1, 2020 automatically get a version 5 license (that also works in previous versions).

Read the Simon What's New page for details.

Test for Simon app health? (Redux)

Mon, 2012-08-27 07:39 — JohnDCCIU

Back in 2008, I asked this question here:
http://www.dejal.com/forums/2008/03/17/test-simon-app-health

In the meantime, Simon has become ever more critical in our infrastructure, and if the process hangs or fails, it's a big deal because we're now no longer notified of a large range of critical issues.

Unfortunately, the "Pulse" service is not useful: detecting the *lack* of something (i.e. an email *didn't* arrive because Simon isn't running) doesn't work for quickly and proactively determining that something is awry.

We have Intermapper running and I would love for it to monitor Simon somehow, but Simon is completely silent: it exposes no ports and provides no services for an external monitor to check.

Please add something simple that another machine can check to ensure that Simon is alive. You could simply have Simon respond on a certain port (perhaps fixed or set by the user in the prefs) with the current timestamp or something like that.

This is the only reliable way to conclusively determine that Simon is working properly, and it's a part of the app that at this point is a bit overdue.

Thanks,
John

‹ How to move tests between machines? Filter script to find deleted content? ›
Mon, 2012-08-27 09:52 — David Sinclair
David Sinclair's picture

Re: Test for Simon app health? (Redux)

Hi John,

I do have some plans to make Simon able to monitor itself, by splitting it into multiple processes. But your suggestion of Simon opening a port for another app (including Simon running on another machine) is a good idea.