[requests_get]

Any recent version of collectd has the write_graphite plugin. Mix that with the ping plugin and you're all set. About five minutes of work (assuming you have a graphite stack already). My raspberry pi runs graphite / statsd and my personal servers write all sorts of useful system / network metrics to it via collectd.

[falcolas]

Collectd is pretty awesome for tracking the state of a machine. I use it all over the place.