Sending a test/example alert from monit?
Solution 1:
I usually restart a trivial service (like ntp) that I'm monitoring in order to test the alerts.
I did find this suggestion in the mailing list archives...
It's a way to leverage the alert reminder functionality in Monit to ensure that the alert path is functioning properly. Basically, a periodic reminder. Tune the cycle to your liking and you'll be able to control the testing time.
check file alerttest with path /.nonexistent
alert address@hidden with reminder on 500 cycles
Solution 2:
Even easier is to just reload the config file and wait for the "Monit instance changed.."-email. Just run:
monit reload