On Wednesday 01 July 2009 02:18:56 david.peters at dpi.nsw.gov.au wrote:
I think I have posted this quite a while ago but it is still on my mind. We currently configure the hosts, pages etc using a windows database and windows front end that I wrote quite some time ago. I keep getting the urge to convert it to a linux database and a web frontend. However I would not do this if there is no interest in using it.
We don't (yet) manage our Hobbit configuration from a database, but we do have a lot of information in a configuration database that we use for asset tracking and automated deployment. We did this in Catalyst, as we get: -sessions -flexible authentication and authorization (e.g., members of some groups in LDAP are allowed to make changes, others are allowed to view all server details but make no changes, others see a limited set of details). -templating -Database ORM for very little work.
The point is that you never touch the bb-hosts file and all configuration of hosts and layouts is done via a user interface.
Is there any interest in this?
Yes.
Is there anyone willing to help?
Maybe ...
If so I was going to convert to mysql and either php or perl cgi. Any comments on this?
I would prefer a modern MVC-based framework, e.g. Catalyst. I would consider starting with an architecture that can replace the whole Xymon web interface, and have the configuration part only a small component.
For example, there should be a Xymon "Model" to get data from Xymon itself (by connecting to hobbitd to do a query or hobbitdlog or hobbitdxlog.
For now, I would pull in as many pieces of Hobbit as we can (e.g. still link to some of the CGIs), and later migrate to using native implementations (using Catalyst::View::RRDGraph)
We could also provide an API to allow 3rd-party integration (if people have other CMDBs).
We have 400 odd hosts here and have pages split by priority, service, location, and support group all on the front page but all configured via the database.
Currently the bb-hosts is built via a perl script that extracts the database and then generates a main bb-hosts file plus include files for each sub-page.
I would consider having the configuration generation done as part of a Catalyst app ...
Regards, Buchan