C#: How to check whether API server is up or down
Introduction
In this article, we will create a small utility using C# which tells us, whether our API server is up or down.
Purpose
Our purpose is to check the API server so, we can make a request for our resources. It is recommended that before making any request to server (API server in our case), we should make sure that our server is ready and up to handle our requests.
Throughout this article, we will create a tiny utility to solve our purpose.
Requirements
So, what do we require? We just want to know the status of our Web API server.
Creation of Utility
Let's create a simple console app, which tells us about the status of our API server:
- Open Visual Studio
- Create a C# console application, name it ‘knowserverstatus’
Add the following method:
public static void ServerStatusBy(string url)
{
Ping pingSender = new Ping();
PingReply reply = pingSender.Send(url);
Console.WriteLine("Status of Host: {0}", url);
if (reply.Status == IPStatus.Success)
{
Console.WriteLine("IP Address: {0}", reply.Address.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("RoundTrip time: {0}", reply.RoundtripTime);
Console.WriteLine("Time to live: {0}", reply.Options.Ttl);
Console.WriteLine("Don't fragment: {0}", reply.Options.DontFragment);
Console.WriteLine("Buffer size: {0}", reply.Buffer.Length);
}
else
Console.WriteLine(reply.Status);
}
Do not forget to add the following namespace:
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
Call this method from main:
Console.Write("Enter server url:");
var url = Console.ReadLine();
Console.Clear();
ServerStatusBy(url);
Console.ReadLine();
Run and we will get the following output:
Elaboration of code
Let's elaborate on above code. Here PING sends an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) request to the requested server host/url and waits to receive the response back. If the value of Status is a success, it means our server is up and running.
Here PingReply returns all properties, described as:
Property |
Description |
Address |
Gets the address of Host |
Buffer |
Gets the buffer of data received, its an array of bytes |
PingOption |
It handles how data is transmitted |
RoundTrip |
Gets the number of milliseconds to send ICMP echo request |
Status |
Gets the status of the request. If not a success, means Host is not up |
Complete Source Code
using System;
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
namespace knowserverstatus
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.Write("Enter server url:");
var url = Console.ReadLine();
Console.Clear();
ServerStatusBy(url);
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static void ServerStatusBy(string url)
{
Ping requestServer = new Ping();
PingReply serverResponse = requestServer.Send(url);
Console.WriteLine("Status of Host: {0}", url);
if (serverResponse.Status == IPStatus.Success)
{
Console.WriteLine("IP Address: {0}", serverResponse.Address.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("RoundTrip time: {0}", serverResponse.RoundtripTime);
Console.WriteLine("Time to live: {0}", serverResponse.Options.Ttl);
Console.WriteLine("Don't fragment: {0}", serverResponse.Options.DontFragment);
Console.WriteLine("Buffer size: {0}", serverResponse.Buffer.Length);
}
else
Console.WriteLine(serverResponse.Status);
}
}
}
Conclusion:
In this article, we discussed all about the PingReply class and with the help of this class, we created a utility to know the status of our server.