Starting point for new install of Monit server monitoring

monitrc

set daemon 60 #check services every 60 seconds
  set logfile /var/log/monit.log
  set idfile /var/lib/monit/id
  set statefile /var/lib/monit/state

#Event queue
  set eventqueue
      basedir /var/lib/monit/events # set the base directory where events will be stored
      slots 100                     # optionally limit the queue size

#Mail settings
 set mail-format {
     from: monit@$HOST
  subject: monit alert --  $EVENT $SERVICE
  message: $EVENT Service $SERVICE
                Date:        $DATE
                Action:      $ACTION
                Host:        $HOST
                Description: $DESCRIPTION

           Your faithful employee,
           Monit }
           
# set mailserver email-smtp.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com port 587   # depends of region, this is EU (Ireland)
# set mailserver smtp.gmail.com port 587
#  set mailserver smtp.mailgun.org
#     username "postmaster@example.com" password "very-difficult-one"
#  using TLSV1 with timeout 30 seconds                         # AWS SES needs that, Mailgun doesn't, Gmail IDK
set alert user@example.com not on { instance, action }  #email address which will receive monit alerts

#http settings
 set httpd port 2812 address 0.0.0.0  # allow port 2812 connections on all network adapters
#    ssl enable                   # use OpenSSL if you like
#    pemfile  /var/certs/monit.pem
#    allow 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 # allow all IPs, can use local subnet too
#    allow www.example.tld        # allow dynamicdns address to connect
#set httpd port 2812 and
#    use address localhost
#    allow localhost
    allow joedoe:"passwd"      # require user joedoe with password passwd

check system <ip-address>
    if loadavg (1min) > 4 then alert
    if loadavg (5min) > 2 then alert
    if memory usage > 75% then alert
        if swap usage > 25% then alert
    if cpu usage (user) > 70% then alert
    if cpu usage (system) > 30% then alert
    if cpu usage (wait) > 20% then alert

check filesystem rootfs with path / #Alert if low on disk space.
    if space usage > 90% then alert

#allow modular structure
    include /etc/monit/conf.d/*
    include /etc/monit/conf-enabled/*

When installing Monit, backup original /etc/monit/monitrc and use this instead. Read the original one anyway, there is a lot of info.