March 2013 - Xymon - Xymon mailman web

Documenting servers, processes and stuff inside Xymon
by Martin.Ward＠colt.net 21 Mar '13

21 Mar '13

My thanks to the fast response from Steve and Everett and for their pointers, I hadn’t thought to look in the xymonserver.cfg file which directed me to the Notes directory and the tools to use it. @Everett, I like the idea of simply using the alert to send an email to the operator, it’s a nice simple solution! |\/|artin From: Steve Holmes [mailto:sholmes42 at gmail.com] Sent: 21 March 2013 11:15 To: Ward, Martin Subject: Re: [Xymon] Documenting servers, processes and stuff inside Xymon We use an addon called notes. There's a notes editor and some changes to the menus to make it work. Look on xymonton for it. Steve Wherever you go, there you are. On Mar 21, 2013, at 6:14 AM, "Ward, Martin" <Martin.Ward at colt.net<mailto:Martin.Ward at colt.net>> wrote: Hi all, Is there any way to provide a simple list of “how-to”s for a given server within Xymon? For instance I have a process that over time eats up memory so needs to be restarted. It would be useful to have a piece of text saying something like “If memory gets full over time then restart this process” in the Memory page for this server. I realise I could have an auto-restart script but I am chary of those because of the potential for it continually restarting a daemon due to memory usage if, for some reason, that daemon is not the actual cause of the memory problem. I know about the DESCR: and COMMENTS: options in hosts.cfg but they for short amounts of text on a page with lots of hosts. Is there anywhere that I can link or show more information, hints and tips, contact information and such like information for each server? |\/|artin [Colt Disclaimer] This email is from an entity of the Colt group of companies. Colt Group S.A., K2 Building, Forte 1, 2a rue Albert Borschette, L-1246 Luxembourg, R.C.S. B115679. Corporate and contact information for our entities can be found at http://colt.net/uk/en/Colt-Group-of-Companies/index.htm. Internet communications are not secure and Colt does not accept responsibility for the accurate transmission of this message. Content of this email or its attachments is not legally or contractually binding unless expressly previously agreed in writing by Colt _______________________________________________ Xymon mailing list Xymon at xymon.com<mailto:Xymon at xymon.com> http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon

1 0

xymon feature I would like to add
by henrik＠hswn.dk 21 Mar '13

21 Mar '13

Hi, On 14-03-2013 19:25, Tux Toes wrote: > I did float my feature suggestion on the regular mailing list - but I > think I was way to subtle. Here is the gmane archive link - it does > explain what I want to do. > > http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.monitoring.hobbit/32063 thanks for your mail. Good ideas for enhancements are always welcome, and it certainly makes sense to be able to split the disk-status reports the way you propose. I was planning this feature, in a more general fashion. It can equally well be used for other of the combined status-reports, e.g. "procs" would be an obvious candidate for splitting up this way. So it is something that I plan on implementing via an enhancement to the analysis.cfg file. Right now my plan is to add a STATUS definition at a level above the current HOST/PAGE/GROUP ... definitions, something like: STATUS=disk_sys HOST=* DISK / 70 90 DISK /var 80 95 STATUS=disk_db HOST=%^oraserv DISK %^/oradata 95 98 DISK %rollback 60 90 HOST=%mysql DISK /var/lib/mysql 80 90 so you can define the criteria that trigger a "disk_db" status by selecting on hostnames or any of the other criteria, and then defining the tests that go into the "disk_db" status. This would also allow you to combine tests that are now separate, e.g. all tests regarding a database instance: STATUS=dbw1 HOST=* DISK ^/oradata/dbw1 80 90 PROC ora_dbw1_wssu1 I expect this to be ready for the 5.0 release, since this release involves a lot of enhancements to the xymond_client / analysis.cfg code. I have cross-posted this mail to the normal Xymon mailing list, since I expect there may be others who are interested in this. I hope you don't mind. Regards, Henrik

3 3

dropping a column question
by traxler＠lsu.edu 20 Mar '13

20 Mar '13

When I do a command such as this: xymon 127.0.0.1 "drop node column"" I notice regardless of success or failure it returns a 0. Would it be feasible for it to return non-zero if host and/or column do not exist (preferably a different error code for each case)? -- Isaac Traxler AIX,Linux Admin Louisiana State University traxler at lsu.edu High Performance Computing 225-578-1923 LONI AIX Clusters AIX, Linux Support

2 1

xymon feature I would like to add too
by a.chervonets＠cominder.eu 20 Mar '13

20 Mar '13

I vote for the feature discussed. It can be very useful. Another thing I would like to offer is to add new dimension: target object and some king of screen display with grouping by target objects of user defined type or just per target level. For example, on some hosts we monitor databases (there may be several per host), on some application server instances. Now I have implemented loop at client side to test and show status for each database instance per host and calculate overall status for metric (dbup, dbpga, etc.) Problems with this are: a) when we have both databases and application server on same host - screen width is naturally to short to display all metrics (I use Opera browser and it just compact to display all the screen, so this a bit resolve the problem for me, but formatting is not so good). b) we can't see statistics and history per target (database/application server instance) , so if I need to check problems of the exact instance I have to check all events for the metric, check details for each event and filter out only required in my memory. So my offer is to add onether one dimension target object (that can be of user defined type, by default all is grouped by target type=host) I know it is not very simple to implement, but may be you will find this may be useful. Best regards, Andrey Chervonets ---------------------- SIA CoMinder http://www.cominder.eu/ Mobile: +371 26517848 Fax: +371 66066346

2 2

Flushing Stale messages?
by sean.clark＠twcable.com 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

I have a channel parser than looks at items in the 'stachg' channel It looks like it's working for me (it parses and does stuff properly) However – my log is filling up with this: 2013-03-15 11:08:29 Flushed 4 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:30 Flushed 4 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:31 Flushed 3 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:32 Flushed 6 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:33 Flushed 2 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:34 Flushed 2 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:35 Flushed 3 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:36 Flushed 3 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:37 Flushed 4 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 2013-03-15 11:08:38 Flushed 4 stale messages for 0.0.0.0:0 Is this telling my my parse can not handle the channel in a timely manner, and the message is growing "stale" and I am droping things? -Sean ________________________________ This E-mail and any of its attachments may contain Time Warner Cable proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, or subject to copyright belonging to Time Warner Cable. This E-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this E-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in relation to the contents of and attachments to this E-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copy of this E-mail and any printout.

3 8

xymon alert email
by poppy.ben＠marshfieldclinic.org 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

I recently moved one of my xymon servers from a CentOS 5 to CentOS 6.4 server. I have 1 alert configured to email me the details of any alert that is alerting longer than 30 minutes, and when it recovers. Before, on the CentOS 5 server, it would work as normal and the alert was in the body of the message. Now that it's on CentOS 6.4, it's having the alert in an attachment, and nothing in the body. Searching for a solution seems to indicate it's something with how the body of the message is created by xymon and new line carriage returns. But I wasn't able to see any solution other than maybe writing an external script to modify the alert before sending with mail, or mailx. Does anyone have an easy way to fix this with a setting in xymon itself? 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.

2 2

Using an actual logo instead of text?
by Michael.Beatty＠sherwin.com 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Is it possible to put an <img src> tag in the XYMONLOGO variable to display an actual logo instead of just text? I've tried a few different ways, but it doesn't appear to work. -- Michael Beatty

3 4

Option to chroot the Web part?
by joel＠carnat.net 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Hello, I would like to chroot/jail the Web part of the Xymon server. During the 4.3.10 install process, I have configured "/usr/local/xymon" as the destination folder. I saw the opportunity to modify the directories for the CGI scripts but not for the "static" Web pages. Is it possible to have the server stuff (/bin/, /etc/, ...) is some directory and the Web stuff (/web/, /www/) in some other directory, not sharing the same root? As an example, I'd like something like: /usr/local/xymon/client /usr/local/xymon/data /usr/local/xymon/server /usr/local/xymon/server/bin /usr/local/xymon/server/download /usr/local/xymon/server/etc /usr/local/xymon/server/ext /usr/local/xymon/server/tmp /var/www/xymon/cgi-bin /var/www/xymon/cgi-secure /var/www/xymon/server/web /var/www/xymon/server/www Thanks for help. Jo

1 0

how to reach the developer mailing list?
by bakgat8＠hotmail.com 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Can somebody please point me at how to get onto the xymon-developer mailing list. I have googled ... I see the Email Archive: xymon-developer (read-only) on sourceforge.net - but I want to suggest / discuss (and code) a feature I need. Bakgat

2 1

BBWin issue
by Neil.Simmonds＠express-gifts.co.uk 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Hi all, I wondered if anyone had noticed anything unusual in the memory usage of BBWin 0.13. We've a number of servers running this version of the client and also a number running BBWin 0.12. All the 0.12 clients are using less than 10Mb of memory, however some of the 0.13 clients are using a lot more (a large number using between 250Mb and 400Mb and even one that was using over 1Gb). Has anyone seen this behaviour on their systems? I've asked on the BBWin mailing list but it's very quiet on there so I thought I'd ask here as well. Regards, Neil Simmonds Senior Operations Analyst (Operations Support Group) Express Gifts Limited Express House Clayton Business Park Accrington Lancashire BB5 5JY T: 01254 303092 | E: neil.simmonds at Express-Gifts.co.uk 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

1 0