gistfile1.py

#!/usr/bin/python

from urllib2 import urlopen, URLError

metrics = ['ReqPerSec', 'BytesPerSec', 'BytesPerReq', 'BusyWorkers', 'IdleWorkers']

def get_metrics():
    try:
        u = urlopen('http://localhost/server-status?auto')
    except:
        print "status err can't talk to apache"
        return 

    print "status ok everything looks good"
    for l in u.readlines():
        key, value = (i.strip() for i in l.split(':'))
        if key in metrics:
            print "metric %s int %d" % (key, float(value))


get_metrics()