Python script to test/monitor if a Django site using authentication is up

gistfile1.py

# www.fduran.com
# python script to test/monitor if a Django site using authentication is up
# with logging output to a file including response times
# use in cronjob and output to log file, for ex: python /path/to/script.py >> /var/log/webmonitor.log

# bash: install pip if not already in system
apt-get install python-setuptools python-dev build-essential
easy_install -U pip

# bash: install requests
pip install requests 

# python script:
import requests
import datetime, sys

# constants
url = 'https://example.com/login/'
username = 'valid user'
password = 'valid password'
expected = 'string in landing authenticated page' # easier if not in login page
timeout = 2 # seconds

# send alert
def alert(message):
    print message
    # send email, SMS etc
    sys.exit()
# end alert

# main
t1 = datetime.datetime.now()
print "----"
print t1

r = requests.models.Response()
try:
    r = requests.get(url, timeout=timeout)
except requests.ConnectionError:
    alert("ALERT: page connection error")
except requests.Timeout:
    alert("ALERT: page connection timedout more than seconds: " + timeout)

t2 = datetime.datetime.now()
print "Request time: "
print (t2 - t1)

if r.status_code != 200:
    # alert page down
    alert("ALERT: Page down")
else:
    sessionid = r.cookies['sessionid']
    csrftoken = r.cookies['csrftoken']
    cookies = {'sessionid':sessionid, 'csrftoken':csrftoken}
    payload = {'username':username, 'password':password, 'csrfmiddlewaretoken':csrftoken, 'next':''}
    headers = {'Referer': url}
    t1 = datetime.datetime.now()
    try:
        r = requests.post(url, cookies=cookies, data=payload, headers=headers, timeout=timeout)
    except requests.ConnectionError:
        alert("ALERT: post connection error")
    except requests.Timeout:
        alert("ALERT: post connection timedout")

    t2 = datetime.datetime.now()
    print "Post time: "
    print (t2 - t1)
    if r.status_code == 200:
        if r.text.find('Please try again') != -1:
            alert("ALERT: Wrong username or password")
        elif r.text.find(expected) != -1:
            # all good
            print "All good"
        else:
            # alert
            alert("ALERT: expected content not found")
    else:
        # alert
        alert("ALERT: cannot authenticate/page not found")