February 2015 - Xymon - Xymon mailman web

Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios?
by landrew＠pnnl.gov 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

I've been using Big Brother since 1999, and Xymon for the last couple of years (on a different project at the lab), but recently, a team member has suggested that we switch infrastructure monitoring to Nagios, which he's been using on other systems he manages elsewhere in the lab. He's using something called OMD (the Open Monitoring Distribution - from http://omdistro.org/ ), which is supposed to improve on the complexity of using Nagios. Our management would like us to do a comparison to see if we should switch from our old Big Brother monitoring (which is still running well) to a more up to date Xymon or convert instead to OMD/Nagios. Looking for information on Xymon and Nagios comparisons, I found this comment from Henrik in the Xymon mailing list archive: http://lists.xymon.com/archive/2006-June/007530.html that mentions the ease of setup and use of Xymon as compared to Nagios, but that comment is nine years old. Daniel's recent comments on this list about wanting to move from Nagios to Xymon: On Fri, 6 Feb 2015, LOZOVSKY, DANIEL L wrote (in part): > Subject: Re: [Xymon] Installing xymon/apache as a non-root user > [...snip...] > community. I have been pushing AT&T to utilize xymon instead of nagios. > I have been using BB open source version for almost 10 years and it > really saved us at Supply Chain. Of course, I had to make a lot of > modifications to it. Xymon is the next logical step to help make things > much better. [...snip...] has me wondering what I can point to as good reasons to use Xymon vs Nagios, as certainly, people do want to switch. So, what are reasons that folks like Xymon better than Nagios (besides all the helpful info from the great group of folks I've been reading during my years of lurking on the list...)? Best regards, -Andrew

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Xymon notifcations disappear due to base64 encoding
by lists＠benjamindsmith.com 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

This morning, one of our servers was down and we (the admins) didn't immediately know because of a long chain of events. After spending the morning drilling down step by step, the issue was that Verizon's SMS email gateway doesn't accept base64 encoded messages, and the message being sent was base64 encoded because of <CR> (aka "\r" or ASCII 13) in the message. We could reproduce this issue with the following PHP script used at the command line as a Verizon customer. I don't know if this is a recent change at Verizon, and don't really have a way to find out. // GENERAL ENVIRONMENT CentOS 6, recently updated. Postfix is the MTA PHP5 // THIS WON'T WORK Note the "\r" that causes postfix to base64 encode the message. file.php's contents, 1 line: <?php echo "Test of bad message\r\n"; ?> $ php file.php | mail -s test yournumber at vtext.php // THIS WORKS FINE, Note the lack of "\r", postfix sends this as text/plain, 7 bit encoding. file.php's contents, 1 line: <?php echo "Test of bad message\n"; ?> $ php file.php | mail -s test yournumber at vtext.php We've wasted time playing with a wrapper for the mail command that would strip out the "\r" in the alerts but this has, so far, proven fruitless. Messages sent via the Sprint SMS gateway go through just fine. Wondering if anybody else has seen this issue, or has any idea what the best way to handle it might be? Thanks, Ben

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using hobbitdxboard in xymon client
by anoopw14＠gmail.com 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

Hello, I need a help regarding generation of xml from the xymon status. When I run the below command in xymon server, It works fine. */usr/local/xymon/client/bin/xymon xymon_server "hobbitdxboard host=hostname test=testname" * But when I try to use the same command in a machine where xymon client is installed, its not retrieving any data. Thanks Anoop

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DNS
by rs＠sys4.de 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

Am 11.02.2015 um 20:23 schrieb Eli via Xymon: > _______________________________________________ > Xymon mailing list > Xymon at xymon.com > http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon > what exact do you mean with DNS performance i ve done this https://sys4.de/de/blog/2013/01/25/bind9stats-dns-xymon-ubuntu/ but thats not really "performance" monitoring.... Best Regards MfG Robert Schetterer -- [*] sys4 AG http://sys4.de, +49 (89) 30 90 46 64 Franziskanerstraße 15, 81669 München Sitz der Gesellschaft: München, Amtsgericht München: HRB 199263 Vorstand: Patrick Ben Koetter, Marc Schiffbauer Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender: Florian Kirstein

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DNS
by eliap09＠yahoo.com 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

Hello team, Is there anyone monitoring DNS performance with xymon? Is there plugins or script if anyone can share idea that will be great. DNS is ruining on Linux server. "Ribeiro, Glauber" <glauber.ribeiro at experian.com> wrote: >_______________________________________________ >Xymon mailing list >Xymon at xymon.com >http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon

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XymonPSclient
by SKreien＠la-z-boy.com 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

Hey everyone, I'm trying out the PS client again after using it 1-2 years ago and it causing too many problems. I'm hoping the impact on the clients will have been lessened since I tried it last. I have the PS client installed and configured, but I never show any connection to the xymon server while monitoring with tcpdump. Also, I never get any files created in the temp directory. Here's the dump of the config below: PS C:\Xymon> .\xymonclient.ps1 config XymonPSClient config: servers : xymon.internal.hq loopinterval : 60 maxlogage : 30 clientlower : 1 Settable Params and values: clientbbwinmembug=1 clientconfigfile=C:\Users\skreien\AppData\Local\Temp\xymonconfig.cfg clientfqdn=1 clientlogfile=C:\Users\skreien\AppData\Local\Temp\xymonclient.log clientlower=1 clientname=corpvskreien.na.lzb.hq clientremotecfgexec=0 loopinterval=60 maxlogage=30 reportevt=1 servers= xymon.internal.hq slowscanrate=72 wanteddisks=3 wantedlogs=Application System Security The Xymon server is running as it is receiving messages from hundreds of other clients. This is an internal only server so iptables is off, Windows firewall is off, and I can successfully telnet from the client to the Xymon server port so there is nothing standing in the way. The server is Redhat 5.5, client is Win7. Any ideas? Scot Kreienkamp This message is intended only for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. It may contain privileged, confidential information which is exempt from disclosure under applicable laws. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that you are strictly prohibited from disseminating or distributing this information (other than to the intended recipient) or copying this information. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail or by telephone at the above number. Thank you.

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Externals Script
by john＠executech.com 10 Feb '15

10 Feb '15

I am managing a XYMON server of about 500 servers across different locations and networks. We've made the setup work well but I'm not starting to experiment with externals scripts. Because our network is so spread out, we have configured each host to have a unique hostname set up in the config file on each host using the pattern: servername.companyname. This isn't an issue until I need to feed the hostname back to the server in a custom script. Is there anything in bbwin.exe that will let me query for the hostname set in the .\etc\bbwin.cfg file and spit it out somewhere? I've also found a way to use findstr to look for the hostname line in the file but am having trouble using batch to remove everything from the line than just the hostname. It's returning <setting name="hostname" value="servername.companyname" /> but I don't have enough experience to narrow it down any further than that (primarily through batch files). Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thanks, John

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Message send via trends shows last_ds as UNKN.
by prashantkad＠gmail.com 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

With a simple script I’m trying to send message to Xymon using trends message. The RRD file get’s created with specified DS but the value for <last_ds> appears as UNKN. I have tried removing whitespaces and all but still no luck. Can anyone point what issue it could be ? This is what I have in script: /app/home/xymon/bin/xymon --debug smpapp-dt-a3s.net "data smpapp-dt-a1d.ula.net.trends [test.rrd] DS:XYZ:GAUGE:600:0:U 1323233 DS:ABC:GAUGE:600:U:U 12312312" -Prashant

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uptime report / grep cpu days
by dito74＠gmail.com 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

hi guys, I've been using XYMon for a while now, I've been running the old free BB 1.08 for a long time, I also purchased the Quest version for a year, but they kept making no improvements. My QA and DEV people didn't want to migrate too fast, and since I'm running a bunch of old Windows clients (1.08d for windows 2000, 4.30 and up for 2003 and over), when I chose to migrate my server to XYMon (because it was fully backwards compatible), they put an hold on migrating the agents to BBWin, so I migrated to XYMon and I have a bunch of mixed agents now (some I've migrated, some I didn't). Now old agents don't have "uptime" test, new BBWin do, so now to my question.... My problem is that XYMon by default doesn't write the logs (only hist and histlogs) and when I needed to run an uptime report of the servers, I used to grep the cpu logs for "days" and I would get all the servers in line with days next to it. I don't care if I need to run 2 reports, one for new and one for old agents, but I am still having the problem that I am not too sure how to do it now. Is there an uptime script or report that someone already have configured so I can deploy it? Thank you, Gab

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DRBD monitoring
by mailinglists＠websitemanagers.com.au 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

I've spent some time using DRBD over the past few years, and have been slowly fixing how Xymon monitors that. I was hoping to share my work on xymonton, but while I've created an account, I'm not familiar with a dokuwiki, or how to create pages/etc. In any case, I'm not finished yet, so I'll post what I have so far, and perhaps someone else can upload for me, and/or discuss specific improvements.... One specific issue is that I am still using "Hobbit", rather than xymon, so a number of variable names, filenames, etc should probably be updated. The first tool I use is a perl script "check-drbd", I think I borrowed this from a nagios plugin or similar, but I have made significant modifications to it since then (see attached) The second tool is a shell script called drbd, this simply calls the check-drbd, and then reports the data back to xymon, as both a status message (to display on screen) as well as a data message (to save into the rrd files). Also, the file for the client to actually run the script clientlaunch_drbd.cfg Finally, on the server side, we have the graph definition for the hobbitgraph.d directory, which allows to see graphs of the data over time (very useful) in the file hobbitgraph_drbd.cfg Some things I would like to change/fix are: 1) to limit the graph to only one drbd device per graph. (There aren't enough colours, and the graphs are too messy to read anyway). 2) be able to graph all drbd devices on one graph, but only one of the values. eg, see all dw values on a single graph 3) be able to graph the sum of all the values, eg, similar to 2 (so only all the dw values at once) but stacked so I can see each individual colour as well as the total I'm not sure the best way to make the above happen. I suppose I could create another dozen graph definitions, but I'm hoping there might be a better way. Finally, now that the data is being added to the rrd, when I eventually upgrade to a current release, I'll be able to do alerts based on the values (eg, oos is too high - or non zero basically, or dw is too high and therefore users will be seeing slow performance, etc). Comments, suggestions, etc, greatly appreciated. If nothing else, I hope this will be useful to someone else. Effectively, this will display the data on the page like this (I have 18 drbd devices configured, 0 to 18 skipping 12): Fri Feb 6 13:27:03 AEDT 2015 DRBD OK 0 [OK], 1 [OK], 2 [OK], 3 [OK], 4 [OK], 5 [OK], 6 [OK], 7 [OK], 8 [OK], 9 [OK], 10 [OK], 11 [OK], 13 [OK], 14 [OK], 15 [OK], 16 [OK], 17 [OK], 18 [OK] drbd0 ns:59995764 nr:587 dw:59996747 dr:13440670 al:4315 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd1 ns:51177927 nr:1147 dw:51179332 dr:50184219 al:10914 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd2 ns:10390318 nr:0 dw:10390318 dr:17007325 al:2637 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd3 ns:473465956 nr:17032 dw:473475648 dr:1713963052 al:1850433 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd4 ns:5958452 nr:124 dw:5958580 dr:5663626 al:212 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd5 ns:413987326 nr:1531 dw:413989393 dr:245985408 al:158935 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd6 ns:17089136 nr:251116 dw:17342180 dr:116599072 al:1211 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd7 ns:0 nr:0 dw:0 dr:5662844 al:0 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd8 ns:63714682 nr:563 dw:63715479 dr:23877551 al:6582 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd9 ns:186293485 nr:362 dw:186293990 dr:480836789 al:59641 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd10 ns:59817651 nr:366 dw:59818057 dr:27584750 al:12039 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd11 ns:0 nr:0 dw:0 dr:664 al:0 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd13 ns:726120198 nr:474 dw:726126470 dr:1029163787 al:3647825 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd14 ns:783916639 nr:676 dw:783924754 dr:1103495545 al:4256267 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd15 ns:166529805 nr:0 dw:166529921 dr:83674337 al:139032 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd16 ns:0 nr:0 dw:0 dr:5661172 al:0 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd17 ns:1625540 nr:0 dw:1625540 dr:6601790 al:82 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 drbd18 ns:56091131 nr:705 dw:56091944 dr:37456802 al:77287 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 oos:0 I was going to include the image, but it is 241k... take a look at: graph image of drbd stats Note, all attachments are tar + bzip2, reducing the original 44k down to 4k... Regards, Adam

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