March 2012 - Xymon - Xymon mailman web

Is it 'procs' or 'processes'?
by john.horne＠plymouth.ac.uk 26 Mar '12

26 Mar '12

Hello, Using Xymon 4.3.7, I am a little confused with the 'procs' test. As far as I can tell, after installation the 'procs' test will run and a column is produced. Also an RRD (procs.rrd) is created for each client and the server itself. However, the RRD graph is not shown (see my previous email about the 'zoom icon' alone showing), and this seems to be because the 'xymonserver.cfg' file in the TEST2RRD definition has 'procs=processes'. The comments in the file indicate that this means the column 'procs' will be created, but data for a graph comes from the 'processes.rrd' file. But that file doesn't exist, so no graph. If I change the 'xymonserver.cfg' file to just say 'procs' in the TEST2RRD section, then I get the graph name showing but still no graph. It seems that the 'graphs.cfg' file has a section for 'processes', but no section for 'procs', so Xymon does not know how to display the 'procs' graph. If I create a 'procs' section, then I get a graph. I'm not quite sure where the 'processes' bit comes from, but it seems that perhaps the 'xymonserver.cfg' and 'graphs.cfg' files should only refer to 'procs'. The 'procs' test runs, but produces no graph because, by default, Xymon seems to be expecting 'processes'. John. -- John Horne Tel: +44 (0)1752 587287 Plymouth University, UK Fax: +44 (0)1752 587001

2 3

http link in alerts
by kconnell＠ryerson.ca 24 Mar '12

24 Mar '12

How can I change it to show the link as https instead of http ? Ken Connell Intermediate Network Engineer Computer & Communication Services Ryerson University 350 Victoria St RM AB50 Toronto, Ont M5B 2K3 416-979-5000 x6709

4 5

Uptime doesnt work [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
by dennisw＠agd.gov.au 23 Mar '12

23 Mar '12

UNCLASSIFIED// Hi, I am using XYMON to monitor both Linux and Windows machine. Everything seems to be working very nicely bar UPTIME test for the Windows machines. When selected the Windows machines reports: System uptime performance counter query failed 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds Can anyone provide any details how to resolve this issue? Secondly it seems that uptime is reported in the CPU pages on my Linux machines. Is there any way of duplicating this in the UPTIME column for consistency reasons. Thanks Dennis UNCLASSIFIED// ________________________________ If you have received this transmission in error please notify us immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of information in the e-mail or attachments. ________________________________

2 1

poll period missed assign yellow
by sflanagan＠xand.com 23 Mar '12

23 Mar '12

I have been trying to google as well as searching the mailing list on how to do this and I am having trouble finding a suitable answer short of writing my own ping script. I have a bunch of gear that my clients have access to and reboot/work on. It is getting to the point where alerts are going off all day long due to these "false positives." I have tried to configure wait times in hobbit-alerts.cfg however, different machines and different OSes boot at different speeds. I would like to be able to have it so that when a piece of gear misses a poll, it goes yellow if it misses three then go red. Thanks so much for the help. Stephen

2 1

Separating Windows and Unix hosts and dropping bbd column from web page
by Martin.Ward＠colt.net 23 Mar '12

23 Mar '12

OK, I think I see what you are after but there is a caveat. If you have a file APP1.cfg that has some servers and IP addresses specified in it and you include that more than once then you are effectively going to get two entries with the same hostname and IP address, which Xymon won't like. You can include a server more than once in the hosts.cfg files by specifying it once with its real IP address and then multiple times thereafter with an IP address of 0.0.0.0 - How you get around this is up to you, you could have two APP1.cfg files, one with the IPs and the other with 0-based IPs. You can include the second file multiple times and Xymon will be happy. To answer your question about having Unix and Windows servers, I would recommend having multiple include files, one for each O/S, like this: ---- page AllServers Server Lists by Hostname group-sorted UNIX_Systems include APP1_unix.cfg include APP2_unix.cfg group-sorted WINDOWS_Systems include APP1_windows.cfg include APP2_windows.cfg page Applications group-sorted APP1 include APP1_unix_0.cfg include APP1_windows_0.cfg group-sorted APP2 include APP2_unix_0.cfg include APP2_windows_0.cfg ---- In this manner you would have the servers all listed by O/S in the AllServers page, sorted by O/S, and in the Applications page they would be listed by application type. This assumes that the include files ending in "_0.cfg" are the same as the other include files but with the IP addresses zeroed out. Any instructions you specify in the hosts.cfg file you can also specify in the include files, so if you always divided your servers into O/S groups then you could include the "group-sorted" lines in the include files themselves. Does this help you any? |\/| From: Don Kuhlman [mailto:Don.Kuhlman at schawk.com] Sent: 22 March 2012 16:56 To: Ward, Martin Subject: Re: [Xymon] Separating Windows and Unix hosts and dropping bbd column from web page Hi Martin. Yes - you have it exactly! Thanks for the reply. Here is some more detail to further discuss... I have the hosts.cfg file with the Server list by hostname page. In this page I may have one or two hard coded servers that don't fit a particular group so they are actually typed right in that section. Then I have my groups of applications - say APP1, APP2 Each group could have PROD or DEV servers and in each of these groups they could have Unix or Windows or even MAC systems. I would like to just use an include APP1.cfg file on the "server list by hostname" page so I don't have to re-type or duplicate any hosts anywhere, and it also allows easier host management by having them in only one .cfg file. My confusion is that if in the APP1.cfg file I have Unix and Windows hosts, I don't know how to use that include file on the server list by hostname page and then have the Unix and Windows hosts from the include file separate out. For example, if I have a windows host named winserver1 and it's in the APP1.cfg file, when I include that APP1.cfg file in the hosts.cfg file page for servers by hostname, the winserver1 shows up in the Unix list (Or wherever I place the include APP1.cfg statement). Does that make sense or is it even more muddy now ? ;) Thanks again! Don K From: "Ward, Martin" <Martin.Ward at colt.net<mailto:Martin.Ward at colt.net>> Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:30:49 +0000 To: Don Kuhlman <don.kuhlman at schawk.com<mailto:don.kuhlman at schawk.com>> Subject: RE: [Xymon] Separating Windows and Unix hosts and dropping bbd column from web page Hi Don, I have not seen ".default." used more than once as you have done it so have no idea if that will work, however I use include files a lot so may be able to help you otherwise. As far as I can tell from your description you have a single page on which you want servers displayed in two separate groups, UNIX_Systems and WINDOWS_Systems. Looking at your config file I would hazard a guess that your page looks like (x x x x x are meant to be the green/yellow/red/purple icons): Server lists by hostname UNIX_Systems server1.domain.com x x x x x server2.domain.com x x x x x server3.domain.com x x x x x app1a.domain.com x x x x x app1b.domain.com x x x x x app1c.domain.com x x x x x app2a.domain.com x x x x x app2b.domain.com x x x x x app2c.domain.com x x x x x server3.domain.com x x x x x XYMON_Server x x x x x WINDOWS_Systems SERVER4-Domain-DC x x x x x SERVER5 x x x x x XYZCHIMEDAGT02 x x x x x Server6 x x x x x WinXP x x x x x Note that the columns listed for UNIX_Systems and WINDOWS_Systems will differ depending on the tests that each server does. Is this what you want as it looks like your config should give you what you need. |\/| From: xymon-bounces at xymon.com<mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com> [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] On Behalf Of Don Kuhlman Sent: 19 March 2012 17:10 To: xymon at xymon.com<mailto:xymon at xymon.com> Subject: [Xymon] Separating Windows and Unix hosts and dropping bbd column from web page Hi folks. I thought I was getting the hang of this but I seem to be missing something. I set up the hosts.cfg to use include files (see the snip below) to allow us to keep things more readable and managable. I am trying to figure out the best way to put the Windows systems and Unix systems in their own list on the "AllServers" page but still use the include files. Is there a tag or directive I can use on the #CLIENT line to have xymon take a Windows or Unix host and put in it the right group? Also, I'm having a problem getting one of the hosts to get rid of the purple status on bbd. I used the ./bb 127.0.0.1 "server2 drop bbd" command. I went into the hosts.cfg file for that server2 and tried !bbd, nobbd, NOBBD, but it still won't go away. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks! Don K 0.0.0.0 .default. # TITLE Server Lists byhostnames page AllServers Server Lists by Hostname group-sorted UNIX_Systems 10.1.nn.101 server1.domain.com # CLIENT:server1 10.1.nn.77 server2.domain.com # CLIENT:Server2 10.1.nn.81 server3.domain.com #http://server3.domain.com # These are the APP1 servers include /home/xymon/server/etc/hostsapp1prod.cfg include /home/xymon/server/etc/hostsapp1dev.cfg # These are the App2 servers include /home/xymon/server/etc/hostsapp2prod.cfg include /home/xymon/server/etc/hostsapp2test.cfg 10.1.nn.27 server3.domain.com #CLIENT:server3 http://server3.domain.com 10.1.nn.29 XYMON_Server #CLIENT:xyzxymon.domain.com http://xyzxymon.domain.com/xymon group-sorted WINDOWS_Systems 0.0.0.0 .default. # NOCOLUMNS:bbd 10.1.nn.11 SERVER4-Domain-DC #CLIENT:SERVER4 10.1.nn.67 SERVER5 #CLIENT:SERVER501 ftp ssh 10.1.nn.192 XYZCHIMEDAGT02 10.1.nn.10 Server6 #CLIENT:server6 10.1.70.100 WinXP #CLIENT:domain-27429192 dialup # Syntax for creating pages under subpages # subparent parentpage newpage [Page-title] page Applications Applications subpage app1 APP1 subparent app1 app12x APP1 2.x subparent app12x app12xprod APP1 2.x Prod subparent app12x app12xdev APP1 2.x Dev etc... [Colt Disclaimer] The message is intended for the named addressee only and may not be disclosed to or used by anyone else, nor may it be copied in any way. The contents ofthis message and its attachments are confidential and may also be subject to legal privilege. If you are not the named addressee and/or have received this message in error, please advise us by e-mailing abuse at colt.net<mailto:abuse at colt.net> and delete the message and any attachments without retaining any copies. Internet communications are not secure and Colt does not accept responsibility for this message, its contents nor responsibility for any viruses. No contracts can be created or varied on behalf of Colt Technology Services, its subsidiaries, group companies or affiliates ("Colt") and any other party by email communications unless expressly agreed in writing with such other party. Please note that incoming emails will be automatically scanned to eliminatepotential viruses and unsolicited promotional emails. For more information refer to www.colt.net<http://www.colt.net> or contact us on +44(0)20 7390 3900

1 0

Custom script and COLUMN name
by joel＠carnat.net 22 Mar '12

22 Mar '12

Hello, I want to monitor CPU using SNMP/WMI/Perl SDK rather than deploying xymon-client on my boxes (on some of them, it is even not possible to compile/run xymon). So I went for writing custom scripts. The first script I have is an SNMP Bash script that polls things like UCD-SNMP-MIB::ssCpuRawUser.0. In my "server/ext/snmp_cpu.sh", I have setup BBHTAG="snmp_cpu" and COLUMN="snmp_cpu". In the "etc/hobbit/hobbitserver.cfg", I have updated TEST2RDD adding ",snmp_cpu=ncv" and "NCV_snmp_cpu=”ssCpuRawUser0:GAUGE...". In the "etc/hobbit/hobbitlaunch.cfg", I have added: # Returns CPU statistics from SNMP [snmp_cpu] ENVFILE /usr/lib/hobbit/server/etc/hobbitserver.cfg NEEDS hobbitd CMD $BBHOME/ext/snmp_cpu.sh LOGFILE $BBSERVERLOGS/bb-retest.log INTERVAL 5m In the "etc/hobbit/hobbitgraph.cfg", I have added: [snmp_cpu] TITLE CPU Statistics YAXIS Usage (%) DEF:user=snmp_cpu.rrd:ssCpuRawUser0:AVERAGE (...) Then restarted xymon-server. Now, I have a "snmp_cpu" column with status updated and graphs generated. But what I would like is to have the column named "cpu" and not "snmp_cpu". If I simply set 'COLUMN="cpu"' in the snmp_cpu.sh script, then a new "cpu" column appears, show my script value but doesn't graph ; the reference to the graph is "service=la". Furthermore, the "snmp_cpu" column is still there. What do I miss so that my "snmp_cpu" service appears as "cpu" in the main view. The idea is to have a bunch of snmp_cpu, wmi_cpu scripts appearring as "cpu". TIA, Jo

1 0

Agentless monitoring against Win/*nix systems?
by Carl.Melgaard＠STAB.RM.DK 22 Mar '12

22 Mar '12

Hi, Has anyone done agentless monitoring with Xymon against Windows and/or *NIX systems? Regards, Carl Melgaard

5 9

test for existence of directory on Windows
by Neil.Simmonds＠express-gifts.co.uk 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

I'm trying to set up a test to check for the existence of certain directories on windows. We have automated transfers that run but our users sometimes delete or move the directories by mistake causing the transfers to fail. I've configured client-local.cfg and analysis.cfg and the test is working, however if the directory is empty it alerts at yellow and says "Could not determine size of directory E:\dirtest" I'd like to either fix it so that it correctly recognises the directory exists or stop the yellow alert somehow, I thought of perhaps using "delayyellow=file:10000000 which would give me about 20 years before it would turn yellow but this is not ideal. Has anyone had this issue and perhaps found a fix? Name & Registered Office: EXPRESS GIFTS LIMITED, 2 GREGORY ST, HYDE, CHESHIRE, ENGLAND, SK14 4TH, Company No. 00718151. Express Gifts Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority -------------- NOTE: This email and any information contained within or attached in a separate file is confidential and intended solely for the Individual to whom it is addressed. The information or data included is solely for the purpose indicated or previously agreed. Any information or data included with this e-mail remains the property of Findel PLC and the recipient will refrain from utilising the information for any purpose other than that indicated and upon request will destroy the information and remove it from their records. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Findel PLC. If you are not the intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of this email is strictly prohibited. No warranties or assurances are made in relation to the safety and content of this e-mail and any attachments. No liability is accepted for any consequences arising from it. Findel Plc reserves the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its internal and external networks. If you have received this email in error please notify our IT helpdesk on +44(0) 1254 303030

4 4

test for existence of directory on Windows
by malcolm.hunter＠gmx.com 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

> ----- Original Message ----- > From: Neil Simmonds > Sent: 03/21/12 10:08 AM > To: xymon at xymon.com > Subject: [Xymon] test for existence of directory on Windows > > I'm trying to set up a test to check for the existence of certain > directories on windows. We have automated transfers that run but our > users sometimes delete or move the directories by mistake causing the > transfers to fail. > > > > I've configured client-local.cfg and analysis.cfg and the test is > working, however if the directory is empty it alerts at yellow and says > > > > "Could not determine size of directory E:\dirtest" > > > > I'd like to either fix it so that it correctly recognises the directory > exists or stop the yellow alert somehow, > > > > I thought of perhaps using "delayyellow=file:10000000 which would give > me about 20 years before it would turn yellow but this is not ideal. You could create a small hidden file in the folder - then it's never empty. Malcolm -- BBWin Development - The Windows client for Big Brother and Xymon http://bbwin.sourceforge.net http://xymon.sourceforge.net

1 0

Purple storm
by poppy.ben＠marshfieldclinic.org 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

I have an interesting problem that happened last night. We are working on a DR test. Part of that test includes shutting down some DC's in our DR datacenter. When that happened, most tests that are initiated from the xymon servers (http, dns, ssh, ftp, etc) to the monitored server went purple. The servers that went purple were not all in our DR datacenter, it was at all of our sites, and even included some tests to the xymon server itself (we monitor the HTTP web page of xymon itself as well). Both of our xymon servers point to 2 windows DC's in our production datacenter in /etc/resolv.conf for DNS lookups. Has anyone run into this before? Any ideas how it could be related? Or how to fix/prevent it? We are running 4.3.4. Thanks, -Ben ______________________________________________________________________ The contents of this message may contain private, protected and/or privileged information. If you received this message in error, you should destroy the e-mail message and any attachments or copies, and you are prohibited from retaining, distributing, disclosing or using any information contained within. Please contact the sender and advise of the erroneous delivery by return e-mail or telephone. Thank you for your cooperation.

3 4