User:Narc/Host Monitor System

So, I'm thinking a setup like this:

Now, the tricky parts:

the Node needs to be able to ping its known Leaves, therefore it needs to keep a list of known Nodes
from the above, we discern a second need for Nodes to be listening for requests for information
but similarly, we don't want to poke more holes in more systems than we need to, so let's make this a TCP stream-based system, whereby Leaves connect to the Node and keep their connections active, periodically sending reports
ideally, this should be done with an asynchronous, event-driven approach whereby the node wouldn't eat CPU polling its sockets repeatedly, waiting for data to come through... but it can perfectly well be done with stream_select and the like instead. Need to see what PHP is capable of.