February 2015 - Xymon - Xymon mailman web

Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios?
by sys1002＠yahoo.com 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

I have almost completely phased out nagios. I work at a financial services Company and security is one of our top concerns.Having the agents send to the server and not having to open any additional ports is a big plus. I put together a powerpoint presentation for management explaining why I wanted to move to xymon, and after looking at alternatives. here are some of the text portions opsView - OMD - HTH

1 0

Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios
by y.goudetsidis＠mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

For me is simplicity. I find Nagios's GUI complex unlike Xymon which is simple and does the job just as well. On 09/02/15 11:00, xymon-request at xymon.com wrote: > Send Xymon mailing list submissions to > xymon at xymon.com > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > xymon-request at xymon.com > > You can reach the person managing the list at > xymon-owner at xymon.com > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Xymon digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios? (Andrew Rakowski) > 2. Re: Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios? (LOZOVSKY, DANIEL L) > 3. Re: Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > (Becker Christian) > 4. Re: Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > (Becker Christian) > 5. Re: Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios? (Olivier AUDRY) > 6. Re: Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > (Becker Christian) > 7. Re: Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase (Steve B) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2015 17:36:10 -0800 (PST) > From: Andrew Rakowski <landrew at pnnl.gov> > To: "xymon at xymon.com" <xymon at xymon.com> > Subject: [Xymon] Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios? > Message-ID: <alpine.LRH.2.11.1502081659100.33763 at spock.pnl.gov> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed > > 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 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 03:35:13 +0000 > From: "LOZOVSKY, DANIEL L" <dl1025 at att.com> > To: "<landrew at pnnl.gov>" <landrew at pnnl.gov> > Cc: "xymon at xymon.com" <xymon at xymon.com> > Subject: Re: [Xymon] Advantages of Xymon vs Nagios? > Message-ID: <49AD2AC0-173E-4285-BB90-91470E38812C at att.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I can tell you this much. I engaged a nagios team at AT&T at the request of my management. After showing the nagios SMEs what I needed to do in order to monitor the worlds biggest oracle e-business ERP implantation, the nagios SME told me that I would need to implement a farm of nagios servers to do the same that I am doing with my modified BB one solaris server. Right now with BB that is running on a 16 year old solaris server, I am monitoring server health, Oracle db health, network and complex internal Supply Chain logic. > > Nagios is a decent product, just does not work for what we need to do at supply chain. > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Feb 8, 2015, at 6:36 PM, Andrew Rakowski <landrew at pnnl.gov> wrote: >> >> 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 >> _______________________________________________ >> Xymon mailing list >> Xymon at xymon.com >> http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 07:43:25 +0000 > From: Becker Christian <christian.becker at rhein-zeitung.net> > To: 'Ralph Mitchell' <ralphmitchell at gmail.com> > Cc: "xymon at xymon.com" <xymon at xymon.com> > Subject: Re: [Xymon] Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > Message-ID: <51D96C1418C7434CA6423751C45C6EA8207E6196 at w2k8-ex-mb-2> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Can you shortly explain the „checkpoint“ file? > > Regards > Christian > > Christian Becker > IT-Services > > Christian.Becker at rhein-zeitung.net<mailto:Christian.Becker at rhein-zeitung.net> > _________________________________ > Mittelrhein-Verlag GmbH > August-Horch-Straße 28 > D-56070 Koblenz > Verleger und Geschäftsführer: Walterpeter Twer > Reg.-Gericht Koblenz HRB 121 > Finanzamt Koblenz Str.Nr. 22 65 10 285 2 > www.rhein-zeitung.de<http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/> > > Von: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] > Gesendet: Freitag, 6. Februar 2015 16:37 > An: Becker Christian > Cc: John Thurston; xymon at xymon.com > Betreff: Re: AW: AW: [Xymon] Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > > > If you stop Xymon, save a copy of the checkpoint file, then edit the file to change all the misspellings , that might do it. I don't know where else it might be "remembered". You might also need to rename and/or edit some history files. > > Ralph Mitchell > On Feb 6, 2015 9:42 AM, "Becker Christian" <christian.becker at rhein-zeitung.net<mailto:christian.becker at rhein-zeitung.net>> wrote: > Ralph, > > that’s what i’ve learned from that behaviour. > > But I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be possible to ->completely wipe out the word<- in UPPERCASE out of my Xymon data? > So that my script afterwards creates a Normalcase word? > > Regards > Christian > > Christian Becker > IT-Services > > Christian.Becker at rhein-zeitung.net<mailto:Christian.Becker at rhein-zeitung.net> > _________________________________ > Mittelrhein-Verlag GmbH > August-Horch-Straße 28 > D-56070 Koblenz > Verleger und Geschäftsführer: Walterpeter Twer > Reg.-Gericht Koblenz HRB 121 > Finanzamt Koblenz Str.Nr. 22 65 10 285 2 > www.rhein-zeitung.de<http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/> > > Von: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com<mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com>] > Gesendet: Freitag, 6. Februar 2015 12:48 > An: Becker Christian > Cc: John Thurston; xymon at xymon.com<mailto:xymon at xymon.com> > Betreff: Re: AW: [Xymon] Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > > > Well, yes, you can change the test name to a completely different word. However, the first report with the new name defines the uppercase/lowercase characteristics for that word. > > So, you can change the test name from DATANODE to dN, which is a different word, but you won't subsequently be able to change dN to DN or dN or Dn. > > Ralph Mitchell > On Feb 6, 2015 2:40 AM, "Becker Christian" <christian.becker at rhein-zeitung.net<mailto:christian.becker at rhein-zeitung.net>> wrote: > I think that’s not 100% right, since i was able to rename this test from “DATANODE” to “DN”; so this was successful. > But after that, when my script was reporting again to the Xymon server, there was an additional column “DATANODE” again. So, that part matches your answer, that the next upcoming messages will result in the “old” column name. > > > Regards > Christian > > Christian Becker > IT-Services > > Christian.Becker at rhein-zeitung.net<mailto:Christian.Becker at rhein-zeitung.net> > _________________________________ > Mittelrhein-Verlag GmbH > August-Horch-Straße 28 > D-56070 Koblenz > Verleger und Geschäftsführer: Walterpeter Twer > Reg.-Gericht Koblenz HRB 121 > Finanzamt Koblenz Str.Nr. 22 65 10 285 2 > www.rhein-zeitung.de<http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/> > > Von: Xymon [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com<mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com>] Im Auftrag von Ralph Mitchell > Gesendet: Donnerstag, 5. Februar 2015 18:24 > An: John Thurston > Cc: xymon at xymon.com<mailto:xymon at xymon.com> > Betreff: Re: [Xymon] Renaming a test from UPPERCASE to NormalCase > > > In my experience, it is next to impossible to rename a test column. Whatever it first shows up as, that's what is remembered. I guess subsequent reports are matched case-insensitively, so any other upper/lower case combination is mapped to that first record. > > Or maybe things have changed since I last tried, but that's how I remember it. Rename was for hostnames only. > > Ralph Mitchell > On Feb 5, 2015 11:48 AM, "John Thurston" <john.thurston at alaska.gov<mailto:john.thurston at alaska.gov>> wrote: > On 2/5/2015 6:52 AM, Becker Christian wrote: > All, > > i want to rename a test column from UPPERCASE to NormalCase. > > I tried this using the command: > > xymon localhost “rename MYHOST DATANODE DataNode” > > Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to work. > > Did you try the ol' two-step? > “rename MYHOST DATANODE foo” > “rename MYHOST foo DataNode” > > Is your test script reporting in as "DATANODE" or as "DataNode"? > > > -- > Do things because you should, not just because you can. > > John Thurston 907-465-8591<tel:907-465-8591> > John.Thurston at alaska.gov<mailto:John.Thurston at alaska.gov> > Enterprise Technology Services > Department of Administration > State of Alaska > _______________________________________________ > Xymon mailing list > Xymon at xymon.com<mailto:Xymon at xymon.com> > http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon >

1 0

Packaging, release of Terabithia 4.3.18 RPMs, and more
by cleaver＠terabithia.org 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

Hello all, After internal testing, I've moved the Terabithia xymon 4.3.18 RPM packages into the live repository at http://terabithia.org/rpms/xymon/. Packages are available for RHEL/CentOS 4 - 7, and Fedora 18 - 21, along with fping v3 packages for some of the older releases. For those who had been tracking the /testing/ packages, there is little additional change since the last release... But for those who'd only been installing the stable packages, there have been *significant* deltas in the past year. Although we're using them in production here on our central servers (~4500 msgs/s!), I'd encourage very thorough testing before updating in your environment. I do want to take this time to reiterate that these RPMs were never intended to be seen as "official" Xymon packages... and that THIS CONTINUES TO BE THE CASE. At the moment you should consider 4.3.18 existing solely in tarball form, downloadable from https://sourceforge.net/projects/xymon/. That being said, I do hope that many of the bug fixes, QoL improvements, and some isolated additional features will make it into the 4.3.19 release, and converge even more into 4.x as time goes on.... so the more people pounding on this code the better. :) I'd also like to encourage us to make a little more use of the xymon-developer mailing list for patch-level discussion and code review, leaving this primary list a little more general in scope. If you're not already subscribed to that, you can do so at https://sourceforge.net/p/xymon/mailman/xymon-developer/ Regards, -jc

1 0

Two servers from one agent
by jlaidman＠rebel-it.com.au 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

If you define XYMSRV=0.0.0.0 and use XYMSERVERS to list the two Xymon servers, then my understanding is that the client will send client data to both, in the order listed, and then keep the config from the last one. This is on a UNIX client, and I don't know if it's the same for BBWin. Also, I might have imagined it for the UNIX client, and I can't find any evidence to support my memory. I would say, test it and see. Please report back what you find. J On 31 January 2015 at 02:08, Neil Simmonds <neilsimmonds1808 at gmail.com> wrote: > I’ve got a requirement to run an agent reporting to 2 separate servers. > It’s a BBWin agent and is actually on a server belonging to our partner > company but because we support that particular system we need it to report > to our Xymon server as well as theirs. We run all our agents in Central > mode so I’m wondering what the implications of that are when sending to 2 > servers like this. > > > > Will it just pick up the config files from the first server or will it > pick both up? > > _______________________________________________ > Xymon mailing list > Xymon at xymon.com > http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon > >

2 1

webpage content monitoring - Salesforce status
by jlaidman＠rebel-it.com.au 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

On 24 January 2015 at 03:41, Kris Springer <kspringer at innovateteam.com> wrote: > I tried many different ways to enter the code in hosts.cfg, but all > content checks seem to get cut off at the first > and not use the entire > string that I'm entering. Try using "." instead of "<" and ">". It's not a precise match, but it's extremely unlikely to yield false-positives. Or maybe something really simple like: NA23.*dotGreen.*NA24 J

1 0

Please welcome the new Xymon v4 maintainer: J.C. Cleaver
by henrik＠hswn.dk 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

Hi, it is my great pleasure to announce that Xymon now has a new maintainer of the version 4 (production) branch: J.C. Cleaver. jc has been active in Xymon work for quite some time - he is perhaps best know for his work on the Xymon RPM packages available on terabithia.org. He has also been trying to feed a number of patches into the Xymon project, which hasn't worked as well as it should due to my being slow. So last year I suggested that we could split the work between us - jc taking over the version 4 branch, and myself working on the upcoming version 5. And that is what we are now implementing, starting with the release of version 4.3.18 which jc will be announcing shortly. Just to avoid any confusion: All of the Xymon "infrastructure" continues unchanged - the mailing list stays where it is, the xymon.com website will still be running, and the Sourceforge project stays remains the primary distribution site for new releases. I will also still be leading the developments in version 5 - hopefully I can start moving this forward, now that I don't have to attend so much to the production branch. But this truly is a watedshed event for me. Xymon has been my "baby" since it all began in november 2002 - back when it was called "bbgen" and could only do a tiny bit of what Xymon is capable of today. My original announcement of version 1.0 is still online at http://support.bb4.com/bbd/archive/200211/msg00027.html ... Thanks to CSC giving me time to work on Xymon, it evolved into what is is today. But since I changed job in mid-2013 I have not been using Xymon in my daily job - and that means my time to work on Xymon has been quite limited. As a consequence, the development work has mostly been at a standstill. It is the ultimate responsibility of an Open Source project lead to acknowledge when you must hand over the project to someone else. jc taking over the responsibility for version 4 is an important step along the way to make sure that Xymon will continue as a live project, and I am very grateful that he is willing to contribute time and effort to the project. And I know he has a lot of ideas and plans for making it even better. So please welcome jc as the new head of Xymon version 4! Best regards, Henrik

11 10

xymonnet - fatal signal caught
by jlaidman＠rebel-it.com.au 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

On 25 January 2015 at 13:36, Laurent ROYER <laurent.royer at autosgm.com> wrote: > > The "Task xymonnet terminated by signal 6" append every five minutes. > What version of Xymon are you running? There is a known bug in 4.3.18 that was fixed in January. > You should have a "delayred=dns:5" in the hosts.cfg. Perhaps combined with > a downtime. > Interesting work-around. In the past, this problem has been attributed to the use of the ARES DNS library. Some have had success adding "--no-ares" to the xymonnet command line in tasks.cfg. Cheers Jeremy

1 0

Scan xymon with Coverity
by feld＠feld.me 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

Can we get the Xymon project signed up for Coverity and get the source code run through it? It would be nice to see a list of defects so that we can motivate users to start poking at the codebase and get some patches submitted to further solidify Xymon. https://scan.coverity.com/ Thanks!

1 0

Have network tests report yellow instead of red?
by feld＠feld.me 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

On Sat, Jan 10, 2015, at 21:05, Laurent ROYER wrote: > Hello, > > > What a pitty. Some host like webapps are important but not so much in the > IT organisation. So when they go red and propage as red, it's too much > comparing the importance of other hosts in the group... > > Also, if you want to hide them from the "nongreen" view you can add the following to XYMONGENOPTS in xymonserver.cfg: --nongreen-ignore-columns="column"

1 0

Nitpicking / minor bug
by mailinglists＠websitemanagers.com.au 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

I just noticed (when referring to the xymon man pages that nobody ever reads): https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/ At the bottom of the page: Miscellaneous programs Running Xymon tasks (xymonlaunch) Xymon communiations program (xymon) Note, the type in the word communiCations Regards, Adam -- Adam Goryachev Website Managers www.websitemanagers.com.au

3 3