Merge pull request #722 from ryanbreen/checks

Website: cleanup for getting-started/checks

website/source/intro/getting-started/checks.html.markdown

@@ -3,32 +3,31 @@ layout: "intro"
 page_title: "Registering Health Checks"
 sidebar_current: "gettingstarted-checks"
 description: |-
-  We've now seen how simple it is to run Consul, add nodes and services, and query those nodes and services. In this section we will continue by adding health checks to both nodes and services, a critical component of service discovery that prevents using services that are unhealthy.
+  We've now seen how simple it is to run Consul, add nodes and services, and query those nodes and services. In this section, we will continue our tour by adding health checks to both nodes and services. Health checks are a critical component of service discovery that prevents using services that are unhealthy.
 ---
 
 # Health Checks
 
 We've now seen how simple it is to run Consul, add nodes and services, and
-query those nodes and services. In this section we will continue by adding
-health checks to both nodes and services, a critical component of service
-discovery that prevents using services that are unhealthy.
+query those nodes and services. In this section, we will continue our tour
+by adding health checks to both nodes and services. Health checks are a
+critical component of service discovery that prevents using services that
+are unhealthy.
 
 This page will build upon the previous page and assumes you have a
 two node cluster running.
 
 ## Defining Checks
 
-Similarly to a service, a check can be registered either by providing a
-[check definition](/docs/agent/checks.html), or by making the
+Similar to a service, a check can be registered either by providing a
+[check definition](/docs/agent/checks.html) or by making the
 appropriate calls to the [HTTP API](/docs/agent/http.html).
 
-We will use the check definition, because just like services, definitions
-are the most common way to setup checks.
+We will use the check definition because, just like with services, definitions
+are the most common way to set up checks.
 
 Create two definition files in the Consul configuration directory of
-the second node.
-The first file will add a host-level check, and the second will modify the web
-service definition to add a service-level check.
+the second node:
 
 ```text
 $ echo '{"check": {"name": "ping", "script": "ping -c1 google.com >/dev/null", "interval": "30s"}}' >/etc/consul.d/ping.json
@@ -40,11 +39,14 @@ $ echo '{"service": {"name": "web", "tags": ["rails"], "port": 80,
 The first definition adds a host-level check named "ping". This check runs
 on a 30 second interval, invoking `ping -c1 google.com`. If the command
 exits with a non-zero exit code, then the node will be flagged unhealthy.
+This is the contract for any `script`-based health check.
 
-The second command modifies the web service and adds a check that uses
-curl every 10 seconds to verify that the web server is running.
+The second command modifies the service named `web`, adding a check that sends a
+request every 10 seconds via curl to verify that the web server is accessible.
+As with the host-level health check, if the script exits with a non-zero exit code,
+the service will be flagged unhealthy.
 
-Restart the second agent, or send a `SIGHUP` to it. We should now see the
+Now restart the second agent or send it a `SIGHUP` signal. You should now see the
 following log lines:
 
 ```text
@@ -59,24 +61,24 @@ following log lines:
 The first few log lines indicate that the agent has synced the new
 definitions. The last line indicates that the check we added for
 the `web` service is critical. This is because we're not actually running
-a web server and the curl test is failing!
+a web server, so the curl test is failing!
 
 ## Checking Health Status
 
-Now that we've added some simple checks, we can use the HTTP API to check
-them. First, we can look for any failing checks. You can run this curl
-on either node:
+Now that we've added some simple checks, we can use the HTTP API to inspect
+them. First, we can look for any failing checks using this command (note, this
+can be run on either node):
 
 ```text
 $ curl http://localhost:8500/v1/health/state/critical
 [{"Node":"agent-two","CheckID":"service:web","Name":"Service 'web' check","Status":"critical","Notes":"","ServiceID":"web","ServiceName":"web"}]
 ```
 
-We can see that there is only a single check in the `critical` state, which is
-our `web` service check.
+We can see that there is only a single check, our `web` service check, in the
+`critical` state.
 
 Additionally, we can attempt to query the web service using DNS. Consul
-will not return any results, since the service is unhealthy:
+will not return any results since the service is unhealthy:
 
 ```text
 dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 web.service.consul
@@ -86,9 +88,9 @@ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 web.service.consul
 ;web.service.consul.		IN	A
 ```
 
-This section should have shown that checks can be easily added. Check definitions
+In this section, you learned how easy it is to add health checks. Check definitions
 can be updated by changing configuration files and sending a `SIGHUP` to the agent.
-Alternatively the HTTP API can be used to add, remove and modify checks dynamically.
-The API allows for a "dead man's switch" or [TTL based check](/docs/agent/checks.html).
+Alternatively, the HTTP API can be used to add, remove, and modify checks dynamically.
+The API also allows for a "dead man's switch", a [TTL-based check](/docs/agent/checks.html).
 TTL checks can be used to integrate an application more tightly with Consul, enabling
-business logic to be evaluated as part of passing a check.
+business logic to be evaluated as part of assessing the state of the check.