Monitor when database goes down in your OCaml application

Almost every OCaml application requires some data persistence. In a good number of cases, we can go by using a simple JSON, CSV, or even a text file to store our data. However, in most cases, we need a more robust solution that can handle a large amount of data and many requests and allow us to perform complex queries.

This is where databases come in. Databases are a great way to store and retrieve data in a structured form. They are also a great way to perform complex queries and scale our application. However, databases can be a complex topic and can be challenging to set up and maintain.

One of the most common problems with databases is that they can go down and become unavailable for various reasons. As a consequence, our OCaml application will fail to work correctly and will not be able to retrieve or store data.

In such cases, it's essential to monitor your database activity and notify you and your team when something is wrong. This way, you can take immediate action and fix the problem before it becomes a significant issue.

Fortunately, LogSnag is an excellent tool for this problem as it trivializes tracking events in your OCaml application and monitoring database outages. With LogSnag, you can easily track your database outages in real-time and notify you and your entire team when something goes wrong.

Setting up LogSnag

1. Sign up for a free LogSnag account.
2. Create your first project from the dashboard.
3. Head to settings and copy your API token.

OCaml code snippets

Use the following code snippet to track your database outages with LogSnag. Please don't forget to replace the YOUR_API_TOKEN with your API token and update the project and channel names.

open Lwt
open Cohttp
open Cohttp_lwt_unix

let postData = ref "{\"project\":\"my-saas\",\"channel\":\"status\",\"event\":\"Database is Down\",\"description\":\"PostgresSQL is down in Oregon\",\"icon\":\"🚨\",\"notify\":true}";;

let reqBody = 
  let uri = Uri.of_string "https://api.logsnag.com/v1/log" in
  let headers = Header.init ()
    |> fun h -> Header.add h "Content-Type" "application/json"
    |> fun h -> Header.add h "Authorization" "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"
  in
  let body = Cohttp_lwt.Body.of_string !postData in

  Client.call ~headers ~body `POST uri >>= fun (_resp, body) ->
  body |> Cohttp_lwt.Body.to_string >|= fun body -> body

let () =
  let respBody = Lwt_main.run reqBody in
  print_endline (respBody)

OCaml integration details

LogSnag is a powerful real-time event tracking tool that works seamlessly with OCaml applications. It provides a number of features such as real-time event tracking, cross-platform push notifications, event filtering, user and product journeys, charts and analytics, and much more.

By being a use-case agnostic event tracking tool, LogSnag allows you to track any event in your OCaml applications in any way you want. You can track your database outages, system status, and even user activity in real-time.

Other use-cases for LogSnag

1. Monitor your CI/CD build status for your OCaml application
2. Monitor your CPU usage in your OCaml application
3. Monitor high disk usage in your OCaml application
4. Monitor when a user changes their email address in your OCaml application
5. Monitor failed logins in your OCaml application
6. Monitor failed payments for your OCaml application
7. Monitor memory usage in your OCaml application
8. Monitor MySQL downtime in your OCaml application
9. Monitor when a new feature is used in your OCaml application
10. Monitor your Postgres downtime in your OCaml application
11. Monitor Redis downtime in your OCaml application
12. Monitor suspicious activity in your OCaml application
13. Monitor when a user exceeds the usage limit for your OCaml service
14. Monitor when a user is being rate limited in your OCaml application
15. Get a notification when your OCaml code is done executing
16. Send push notifications to your phone or desktop using OCaml
17. Track canceled subscriptions in your OCaml application
18. Track your OCaml cron jobs
19. Track when a file is uploaded to your OCaml application
20. Track when a form is submitted to your OCaml application
21. Track payment events via OCaml
22. Track user sign in events in OCaml
23. Track user signup events via OCaml
24. Track waitlist signup events via OCaml