Server availability monitoring with email notifications

I was searching for some tool to monitor availability of a computer in the network. Found some solutions, but they wasn't really satisfying. That's why I wrote this simple script inspired by one script I found.

My script is using ping to find out if a computer is available or not. If the state of a computer has changed an email notification is send and new log entry is added.
In the script, there are 3 variables you may want to change.
STATLIST - specify a file where hosts names and states are stored. Example of the STATLIST file:
myhost.site.com N
11.0.0.1 N
-here you can add your hosts and specify the initial state as "N" (Not available)
LOG - specify your log file location. The log file will be created if it does not exist.
EMAILID - your email address

Script:

#!/bin/bash

if [ "$1" == "-h" ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ] || [ "$1" == "help" ]; then
        echo "Script for server availability monitoring  based on ping reply with email notifications"
        echo -e "KrisKo 2011\n"
        echo "monitor.stat file formating: "<hostname> <state>" (without quotes); e.g. myweb.com N"
        echo "States: \"A\" stands for available, \"N\" for Not Available."
        echo -e "\nUSAGE:"
        echo "-h, --help, help  Display this help"
        echo "-v  Verbose, print info to standart input"
        exit 0
fi

STATLIST="/home/krisko/bin/monitor.stat"
LOG="/var/log/monitor.log"

#add ip / hostname separated by white space
HOSTS="`cat $STATLIST | awk '{ print $1 }'`"

#ping request count
COUNT=3

#email report when
SUBJECT="HOST Alert"
EMAILID="mymail@gmail.com"

for myHost in $HOSTS; do
        count=`ping -c $COUNT $myHost | grep 'received' | awk -F',' '{ print $2 }' | awk '{ print $1 }'`
        STATE=`cat $STATLIST | grep -w $myHost | cut -d " " -f 2`
        #if ping failed and the state was Available - notify
        if [ $count -eq 0 ] && [ "`echo $STATE`" == "A" ]; then
                if [ "$1" == "-v" ]; then
                        echo "Host: $myHost is down (ping failed) at $(date +'%b %d %T')"
                fi
                #send mail
                echo "Host: $myHost is down (ping failed) at $(date +'%b %d %T')" | mail -s "$SUBJECT DOWN for $myHost" $EMAILID
                sleep 2
                #write to the log file
                echo "$(date +'%b %d %T') $myHost changed state to DOWN." >> $LOG
                #change hosts state
                sed -i '/\b'$myHost'\b/s/.$/N/' $STATLIST
        #else if ping is successful and the state was NOT Available - notify
        elif [ $count -gt 0 ] && [ "`echo $STATE`" == "N" ]; then
                if [ "$1" == "-v" ]; then
                        echo "Host: $myHost is up at $(date +'%b %d %T')"
                fi
                #send mail
                echo "Host: $myHost is up at $(date +'%b %d %T')" | mail -s "$SUBJECT UP for $myHost" $EMAILID
                sleep 2
         P       #write to the log file
                echo "$(date +'%b %d %T') $myHost changed state to UP." >> $LOG
                #change hosts state
                sed -i '/\b'$myHost'\b/s/.$/A/' $STATLIST
        #else if -v parameter is specified, show host state info
        elif [ "$1" == "-v" ]; then
                echo -n State Unchanged for host: $myHost is
                if [ "`echo $STATE`" == "A" ]; then
                        echo " UP."
                elif [ "`echo $STATE`" == "N" ]; then
                        echo " DOWN."
                else
                        echo " UNKNOWN."
                fi
        fi
done

exit 0

##################
# ChangeLog/TODO #
##################
# 1.0.0 2011-01-01 Genesis
# 1.1.0 2014-06-07 Added -w opt to grep, \b to sed (bug fix: several matches were possible from monitor.stat file)
##################