Hi
- Xymon WinPSClient - can it send custom status messages like BBNT and BBWin?
Not exactly like that. You may be able to do something similar using the 'log' directive. You can then define alerts in analysis.cfg/alerts.cfg as usual (https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html, under LOG).
- Also some points about making the installation process clearer and easier...
Noted - I will update the documentation.
- Xymon WinPSClient - can it monitor services like BBNT and BBWin?
Servicecheck is an addition to the standard.
Monitoring services is standard. You should receive 'svcs' data by default. See https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html, under SVCS.
Note that the XymonPSClient.doc only documents the additional directives, not the standard ones already documented in the Xymon documentation.
Thanks for your feedback.
Zak
From: Xymon [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] On Behalf Of SebA Sent: 27 August 2015 12:09 To: xymon at xymon.com Subject: [Xymon] Xymon WinPSClient - questions and comments
Hi,
- Xymon WinPSClient - can it send custom status messages like BBNT and BBWin?
In BBNT, we use the Saved Logs Location together with the Logs Timer to send custom status messages to the Xymon server. This is defined with different language in the readme file:
PluginTimer: Waiting period between plugins status files loading Default is 60 seconds This means that BBNT waits XXX seconds before checking if any status files were written to the plugin directory (the ExternalPath variable) by plugin programs
In BBWin, this also works with the:
<setting name="logstimer" value="60s" /> Although you have to set the tmppath in the BBWin registry folder.
BBNT more info:
ExternalPath: Directory where external programs can save BB status messages to be sent by BBNT. This key is set with the value entered in the "Saved Log Location" field using the bbntcfg utility. This acts as a plugin facility where external program create their own status messages. Files that have no extensions (the file name should be the service name) are sent to BB. So first create your file with an extension and when it's ready to be sent over then rename it to the service name only. After processing, the status file is removed. ... The full description is in the attached readme file.
Is there an equivalent in the XymonPSClient? Note that the client does not need to run anything, just look in a given folder for files (without extensions) and send any it finds to the Xymon server (preferably with an interval that is configurable separately to the normal interval).
- Also some points about making the installation process clearer and easier...
In the README.txt, in the 'Installing as service' and 'Client configuration' it is not clear if those commands should be run from a Command Prompt, Elevated Command Prompt, PowerShell prompt or elevated PowerShell prompt. This is much clearer (for installation anyway) in the XymonPSClient.doc file. Maybe the README.txt should say that fuller and more up to date instructions will be kept in the XymonPSClient.doc file? A note specifying that XymonPSClient.exe is actually ABC_SrvAny.exe and not used anymore might be helpful too.
Also, I was originally trying to install this on a 32-bit version of Windows. So the instructions didn't work as only a 64-bit version of nssm.exe was provided. This wasted a lot of our time when we first tried this. Either a note about this, or putting both 32-bit and 64-bit versions in subversion would be helpful here.
I think it was also necessary to unblock some files. When you download files in Windows, they start off blocked and you need to go into their file properties and unblock them. A note about this would be helpful.
- Xymon WinPSClient - can it monitor services like BBNT and BBWin?
The documentation has 'servicecheck:SERVICENAME:DURATION', but it only talks about restarting the service. I don't want services restarted automatically, I just want a red or yellow alarm. (And for some Windows services, they can't be monitored using procs.) In BBNT and BBWin it was much more configurable. In BBWin:
name
value
alarmcolor
You can set the default alarm color for the svcs rules. It should be set to red or yellow. Default is yellow.
alwaysgreen
Possible values are "true" or "false". If true, it will always send green status. Default is false.
autoreset
Possible values are "true" or "false". If true, it will try to restart each service in automatic startup state which would be stopped. A report with the default alarm color is sent when it try to restart one of these service. Default is false
comment
A simple string which appear in the report to add a small information about the services monitored if its name is not easy to understand. This parameter is optionnal
delay
Svcs agent will wait the period defined in the delay setting before doing monitoring if the computer has restarted recently. (It may be useful for services which would start later than BBWin or for services which take a lot of time to start). You can specify a unit after the numeric value : "m" for minutes, "h" for hours, "d" for days. Default is 5 minutes
testname
You can set the testname that will be sent to the monitoring server (column name in the bbdisplay) Default is "svcs"
The BBNT config is like this (so it is more similar to PS and more succinct, but the extra BBWin parameters are also helpful): Terminal Services:R:R:N;Automatic Updates:R:R:N - documentation in attached readme file.
Thanks for all your hard work! It would be really nice if all the functionality of BBWin is replicated in XymonPSClient as then the decision over which to go with is almost a no-brainer!
Kind regards,
SebA