If you get to any size at all you will probably find it hard to put any configuration together that will make sense to everyone.
I watch the non-green view, not the main view. After all, most of us (including me) can only look at one thing at a time. The "critical systems" view is a better version of the non-green view, but it is more trouble to set up. Once you get used to it, the non-green view looks better and better all the time!
GLH
On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 6:31 PM, Jamison Maxwell <jamison at newasterisk.com>wrote:
Currently, I’m with a rather small company with one site. So, my page layout is pretty simple. There are pages for production, development, network, storage, and external(DMZ). In production systems Unix boxes are all together, we have few compared to Windows, and Windows boxes are separated by function, i.e. database, file, web, email. Other pages are much the same way. The only reason I separate Unix from Windows, though, is because I think that putting the Unix stuff, which uses certain columns, and the Windows stuff, which bbwin gives certain columns is ugly because of the empty test columns. I use group-compress.****
Previously, I was with a rather large employer. At that company, there were pages for sites, and then subpages like described above.****
Jamison Maxwell****
Jamison at newasterisk.com****
*From:* xymon-bounces at xymon.com [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] *On Behalf Of *Steve Holmes *Sent:* Wednesday, April 04, 2012 2:51 PM *To:* Ralph Mitchell *Cc:* Xymon Email List
*Subject:* Re: [Xymon] Thought Process for Xymon Page Layout - Sanity Check****
Ralph,
Thanks for the suggestion. That sounds like an awful lot of work, though. Steve****
On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Ralph Mitchell <ralphmitchell at gmail.com> wrote:****
Steve,
On your side-note - I needed to do pretty much the same thing, for a dog-n-pony presentation to management. I don't know the *best* way to do it, but I got a second set of pages up by duplicating /home/xymon/server and changing a bunch of references in xymonserver.cfg in the copy to point to the copy structure. Then I replicated the [xymongen] entry in the original xymon/server/etc/tasks.cfg and pointed ENVFILE to the copy.
Some of the reports still pull up all the hosts, but the alternate all-non-green page only shows systems that are listed in the alternate's hosts.cfg. If you have your systems split out into multiple files under hosts.d, you could just link the relevant file to the copy to avoid duplication of effort.
I'm sure it can be done better, I just needed something *now* rather than *perfect*...
As for ghost entries, I have a script that converts the ghost list into an "Unconfigured Client" page so that any new system shows up there within about 10 minutes of first checking in. People in other groups were installing the client on a bunch of SuSE systems I don't have access to, and we're also installing the client as part of a RHEL kickstart from Satellite.
Ralph Mitchell****
On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Steve Holmes <sholmes42 at mac.com> wrote:
Don, We have wrestled with the same issues. We started with systems organized by OS (Unix/Windows) and then as more apps became multi-platform have moved away from the platform centric organization, with some exceptions. The reason for the change is so we can see at a glance when there is a problem in a service we support so when there is a problem the customers for that service can be notified, unless the problem is fixed before the customers have to be notified (which is the big payoff with using Xymon).
Our main page contains 3 groups:
Services Platform Support Infrastructure
Under Services there are sub pages: Production Non-Production Pre-production Decommissioned
Under Platform Support there is currently only: Platform Windows Servers
Under Infrastructure:
Authentication Network Server Provisioning
Prod and non-prod each have a list of application/service areas as sub pages, each of which is a list of hosts in logical groups with no respect for OS platform. Within the groups the hosts are listed in alpha order.
Pre-production contains hosts which are not in production yet, but will be heading there (with some arm twisting at times). The reason for this is the OPS center only calls support for alerts that show up on a production page. Hosts in pre-prod (as well as non-prod) can fail without causing a call.
Decommissioned is where we put host entries for hosts that are just that. We keep them there for a year after they've gone off line in case someone wants to see the history. They all have noconn and all the NOPROPS so they don't show up anywhere else.
The Infrastructure group is also production, but not application specific. This is an area currently under development so it is incomplete. There we have network devices, DNS servers, and the like.
Platform Support was a special request from the Windows admins to group all of the windows servers in one place (with duplicate entries) so they don't have to look through all of the application pages to find their servers. The Platform Windows Servers sub page contains sub pages for Prod and Non-Prod, each of which is grouped by application area. Yes, this duplicates the work I have to do when Windows systems are added, but they know that if they don't tell me exactly where to put the duplicate entry it won't go in. We could also put a page in there for Linux/Solaris admins, but that hasn't been requested, yet.
Many times when a new server shows up in the ghost report I have to ask the admins for information about where it should go. Our naming convention helps, but not totally.
Side note: OPS likes to watch the all-non-green page. But that contains non-green tests for non-prod as well as prod. I would really like to be able to provide them with an all-non-green-prod-only (for lack of better terminology) so they could easily see what they need to. Putting NOPROPS on all non-prod would prevent the admins from being able to use the same page to watch everything. Something I'm not willing to do.
HTH Steve
On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Don Kuhlman <Don.Kuhlman at schawk.com> wrote:
Hi folks. I have been modifying our xymon server host cfg file setups.
I
have been moving page layouts around. I thought I would send a note to the list to see what others are doing in their web page layouts just to have a sanity check…
Do you set up your main page to list things by OS, then by environment – like this: Unix - then Prod, Dev, Test, Uat, etc. Windows – then Prod, Dev, Test, Uat, etc.
Do you also use Application groups and then arrange them by OS and environment ? App1, Unix, Prod App1, Unix, Dev
Or
App1, Prod App1, Dev
Here's what I've been doing and I'm having second thoughts about the logic of doing it this way:
Main xymon page lists the following Pages
Server lists by hostname Applications Infrastructure Other Systems
Under Server lists by hostname – I have now made up UNIX-MAC and WINDOWS Under each of these I have PROD and DEV
Under the Applications I have several business Applications - App1 App2 App3
In each of the App1, App2, App3, I have Prod and Dev subpages
I'm creating include files for each category – like HostsApp1Prod.cfg, HostsApp1Dev.cfg, HostsApp2Prod.cfg, HostsApp2Dev.cfg, etc. Now that I've changed it, I will probably need to create new HostsApp1ProdUnixMac.cfg, HostsApp1ProdWindows.cfg
I would like to be able to setup base rules for monitoring the Prod & Dev systems – Prod disk, mem, cpu is different than Dev disk, mem, cpu, etc. That's why I thought breaking out by OS and then environment would make sense.
Then I want to create very specific service, process, or other monitoring for the application servers.
Does this seem like a good way to go, or am I making it too complicated by breaking everything down this way?
Thanks
Don K
-- If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. -Juan Ramon Jimenez, poet, Nobel Prize in literature (1881-1958)
I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. -Frederick Douglass, Former slave, abolitionist, editor, and orator (1817-1895)
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-- ****
If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. -Juan Ramon Jimenez, poet, Nobel Prize in literature (1881-1958)
I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. -Frederick Douglass, Former slave, abolitionist, editor, and orator (1817-1895) ****
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-- Disclaimer: 1) all opinions are my own, 2) I may be completely wrong, 3) my advice is worth at least as much as what you are paying for it, or your money cheerfully refunded.