September 2012 - Xymon - Xymon mailman web

Custom Graphs
by novosirj＠umdnj.edu 25 Sep '12

25 Sep '12

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, I searched the web a bit and found the Xymon docs and there was mention of two ways of doing custom graphs: NCV and trends messages. NCV doesn't really suit me as my scripts have too much formatting in them and would require a rewrite to have the separate lines for values as is needed by NCV. I happened to check the docs on my 4.2.3 server however and I see that the part about sending trends messages is missing. So, I've got two questions: 1) Was sending trends messages added in Xymon 4.3.x and not available in 4.2.3? 2) At the end of this: http://www.xymon.com/xymon/help/howtograph.html ...there's a description of what to put in a trends message. There is not, however, any description of what one does with it. My expectation is that you do the following: xymon <display> `cat trends.file` ...where the trends file is like the one described in the manual (eg. starts with "data hostname.test"). Essentially, similar to sending a status message (but sending a data message instead). If this is the case, it might be helpful to have a note there in the manual, or at least a reference to the part of the manual I'm about to go hunt for that I assume mentions data messages. - -- - ---- _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ |Y#| | | |\/| | \ |\ | | |Ryan Novosielski - Sr. Systems Programmer |$&| |__| | | |__/ | \| _| |novosirj at umdnj.edu - 973/972.0922 (2-0922) \__/ Univ. of Med. and Dent.|IST/EI-Academic Svcs. - ADMC 450, Newark -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlBgyKgACgkQmb+gadEcsb7KRwCgnSF/ZHyyLuRFcgHPrn7WotPz Ik0An1gl+WN6UpaeNJ21GWb1rNRqbYTd =B2zv -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

3 5

default graphs in trends
by nicolas＠lienard.name 25 Sep '12

25 Sep '12

Hi Previously, to enable all vmstat graphs (and for any sub graphs) , it was possible to enable it with this global rule on the top of ~xymon/server/etc/hosts.cfg # Add Graph definition 0.0.0.0 .default. # TRENDS:*,vmstat:vmstat1|vmstat2|vmstat3|vmstat4|vmstat5,apache:apache|apache1,disk:disk|disk1,netstat:netstat|netstat1|netstat2|netstat3 But it doesn't seem to work anymore on xymon 4.3.7 (?). anybody got this issue ? Cheers Nico

2 2

Best way to monitor for configuration value?
by betsy.schwartz＠gmail.com 25 Sep '12

25 Sep '12

We want to monitor a configuration file to see if a certain value has changed, that is, green if var=foo and red if var!= foo. What's the best and simplest way to do this with xymon? Is a custom test the best/only way? thanks Betsy

4 9

Incorrect Uptime Calculation for Solaris Clients Causes Regular NaNs in la.rrd and users.rrd [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
by jason.mcavoy＠defence.gov.au 25 Sep '12

25 Sep '12

UNCLASSIFIED I have found an issue in xymond_client.c where it fails to detect the correct uptime from Solaris 10 clients (and it may occur with other versions). The symptom I had was that the charts for load and users & processes had regular NaN updates, at uniform spacing every hour. The cause was the following code; else if (strncmp(hourmark, "1 hr", 4) ==0) { uptimesecs = 3600; This line only looks for uptimes with "1 hr" in them. My Solaris 10 systems report uptime like this; 11:05pm up 830 days(s), 21:55, 0 users, load average: 0.18, 0.20, 0.20 11:10pm up 830 days(s), 22 hrs, 0 users, load average: 0.19, 0.20, 0.20 11:15pm up 830 days(s), 21:05, 0 users, load average: 0.16, 0.20, 0.20 Note that at 11:10pm it reported "22 hrs", instead of the expected "22:00", and that "22 hrs" does not match "1 hr". This was not matched in the uptimesecs calculation code, so the load and user graphs were not getting passed values (which I verified using the --processor switch to rrdstatus xymond_channel), and a Nan would appear in the la.rrd and users.rrd files, I also confirmed via a clientlog "section=uptime" query every 5 mins, which would return an empty set for uptime when the client sent uptime with xx hrs instead of xx:xx, but no one would notice this as the cpu doesn't go purple until it hasn't been updated for several polls, this is only missing one poll every hour. A patch to fix xymond_client.c is; 373,364c373,374 < else if(strncmp(hourmark, "1 hr", 4) == 0) { < uptimesecs = 3600; --- > else if (sscanf(hourmark, "%ld hr", &uphour) == 1) { > uptimesecs = 3600*uphour This stops the interuptions to load and user graphs, and ensures the cpu status is updated every time the client sends an update. -- Note: I am only at Defence Mondays and Tuesdays, so please cc: any response to jason.mcavoy at saltbushgroup.com<mailto:jason.mcavoy at saltbushgroup.com>. IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914. If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email.

1 0

External script set client hostname?
by novosirj＠umdnj.edu 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, I have an external script where the "dot" on the display would be better on the line with the vanity hostname for the server (eg. the service has a virtualhost name, but the server client tests all run and display as the real host name). I know I could override the client name for all tests on that server, but is there a way to set the client name in just one test, as in sent on the command line or something? Thanks. - -- - ---- _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ |Y#| | | |\/| | \ |\ | | |Ryan Novosielski - Sr. Systems Programmer |$&| |__| | | |__/ | \| _| |novosirj at umdnj.edu - 973/972.0922 (2-0922) \__/ Univ. of Med. and Dent.|IST/EI-Academic Svcs. - ADMC 450, Newark -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlBgqP8ACgkQmb+gadEcsb7tewCgs3tukFdQ5sOQq2qjqj43y3Bm qUcAn2CEYvo4RwkDhIliC3kU6B6RzNQy =gPG+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Issue with alerts and DISPLAYGROUP
by Patrick.Dubois＠bac-lac.gc.ca 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

Hi, I received no reply to my e-mail below. I would like to report that issue as a bug. Thanks! Pat From: Dubois, Patrick Sent: August-29-12 11:01 AM To: 'xymon at xymon.com' Subject: Issue with alerts and DISPLAYGROUP Hi, I'm using version 4.3.10 of Xymon and I'm experiencing issues with the DISPLAYGROUP parameter in alerts.cfg. The following is working well: DISPLAYGROUP=Sharepoint COLOR=yellow TIME=W:0700:1700 MAIL sharepointadmins at hotmail.com<mailto:sharepointadmins at hotmail.com> REPEAT=365d but the following is not working (not generating alerts): DISPLAYGROUP=Sharepoint COLOR=yellow EXSERVICE=cpu TIME=W:0700:1700 MAIL sharepointadmins at hotmail.com<mailto:sharepointadmins at hotmail.com> REPEAT=365d If I try to specify a service with SERVICE instead of EXSERVICE, I get the same behavior. SERVICE and EXSERVICE work as expected in the following scenario (but of course I'm missing the group filtering): HOST=* COLOR=yellow EXSERVICE=cpu TIME=W:0700:1700 MAIL sharepointadmins at hotmail.com<mailto:sharepointadmins at hotmail.com> REPEAT=365d I think it's a bug, unless I missed something in the documentation. Thanks!

2 1

Issue with xymongen?
by Tom.Moore＠sas.com 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

And I figured it out myself.. it would help to add the destination directory onto the end of the command ☺. From: Tom Moore Sent: Friday, September 21, 2012 5:16 PM To: xymon at xymon.com Subject: Issue with xymongen? I want to make sure I’m not crazy.. but when I run the following command, I indeed get a “csv” file at the requested location. However, it apparently then overwrites everything in my xymon homepage with availability reports (like if you generated a report from the menu and it stuck it under /rep). xymongen --reportopts=1348200000:1348258672:0:all --csv=/tmp/report.csv I ran it with the debug option and indeed it is writing out all the status files in the XYMONWWHOME directory. Am I missing something on using this command? Thanks, Tom -- Tom

1 0

Test showing white instead of purple
by john.horne＠plymouth.ac.uk 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

Hello, Using Xymon 4.3.10, we had a problem with a client sending an oversize message. This caused the 'procs' test to show purple, but it also caused the 'files' test to show as white. We have sorted out the oversize message bit, but I am concerned that because a test showed white we were unaware of it because it doesn't show on the 'non-green' page. (We were only aware of it because of the purple 'procs' test and then looking at the 'Current status' page to see all the tests for the client.) Is there a way to report a test as purple if it changes from a colour to white? I'm not sure why it reported white and not purple. The status report from the client was truncated, and I assume the 'files' test, therefore, received no status. Thanks, John. -- John Horne Tel: +44 (0)1752 587287 Plymouth University, UK Fax: +44 (0)1752 587001

4 8

Monitoring of ESX5i servers
by ray.reuter＠gmail.com 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

Just wondering if anyone has a good way of monitoring the statistics of an ESX5i machine?

8 8

Xymon 4.3.10 released - bugfixes and inode checks
by henrik＠hswn.dk 22 Sep '12

22 Sep '12

Hi, looking for a fresh beginning of the week ? Or perhaps an easy job to get going after the summer holidays ? Then upgrading to Xymon version 4.3.10 is just the thing for You. It is of course the best Xymon version ever released, and is just what you need to keep your systems happy. Grab it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xymon/files/Xymon/4.3.10/ The "killer feature" of this release is the addition (finally!) of inode-checking on all major platforms: Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OSX, Solaris, HP/UX and AIX. The build scripts have been vetted thoroughly, and Xymon 4.3.10 will build without any problems on Debian Linux, RHEL Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Fedora Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Solaris. If you run into problems, have a look at the new, detailed instructions on building Xymon on various platforms, available at http://www.xymon.com/xymon/help/install.html#commonsystems - it will tell you everything you need to know about what pre-requisites are required, and what special options you may need to configure. And to prove it, you can now download pre-built versions of Xymon for most platforms directly from Sourceforge. There is also a demo-installation VM image available, if you'd like to try it out first. (One note about the RPM-packages: They don't handle all issues automatically; you can use them, but some manual setup will probably be needed to fix SELinux issues and such. More advanced RPM-packages are available at http://terabithia.org/rpms/xymon/ although 4.3.10 isn't there yet). Regards, Henrik

11 10