Hello All,
We have several client sites with servers that run backups which we would like to monitor in Hobbit. We are not running the BBWin client on most of these servers and would like to avoid going that route. Instead the servers send email alerts to a mailbox on our Exchange 2007 server (x64). Our current plan is to write a script that will look at the incoming emails and trigger events in Hobbit based on the content of the email. We will also trigger alerts if we don't get email for X amount of time. Below are the two potential methods I have found.
Install BBWin on the Exchange server and have the alerts sent by the script that processes the emails using BBWinCmd. Not sure if this is even possible or is it possible without using BBWinCmd? The documentation says that BBWin is a diag/test tool. Can we use the hostname parameter to specify which BB-Hosts entry this message should apply to (I think yes)? I know BBWin is not fully working on x64 so this option is probably not a good idea until then, however, in the long term it seems preferred over method 2 below.Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the Hobbit server. These files will then be processed by a server side script which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
I figure we are not the first to try and do something like this so any other experiences or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Josh
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Can I ask what backup software you are using?
Rather than processing the email, you may be able to get into the source of the email. If on backup completion you can run a script and you have access to the backup status and error message as variables, you would probably be better off writing a script here that calls bb to send a message up.
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to thescript
which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh # First line is "From sender date" read junk sender date while read token string do # Detect a blank line if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then break; fi # extract the Subject line if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then subject=$string fi done # pick up first line in body read text while read line do # pick up any other body lines text="$text\n$line" done # Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date` $MESSAGE" /home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com
Phil,
We are using Retrospect and yes it does provide the functionality you are talking about however, we don't want to install the BBWin client on all of these systems. That is why we are going the email route, it doesn't require any changes to the clients.
Josh
From: Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:16 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Can I ask what backup software you are using?
Rather than processing the email, you may be able to get into the source of the email. If on backup completion you can run a script and you have access to the backup status and error message as variables, you would probably be better off writing a script here that calls bb to send a message up.
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote: Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com<mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com>] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit at hswn.dk> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com<mailto:msgman at hobbit.myserver.com>. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0<http://0.0.0.0> "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk>
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Sorry, I wasn't clear... I was talking about the server.
Can the server run a script att he completion of every backup job?
Cheers
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Phil,
We are using Retrospect and yes it does provide the functionality you are talking about however, we don't want to install the BBWin client on all of these systems. That is why we are going the email route, it doesn't require any changes to the clients.
Josh
*From:* Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com] *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:16 PM *To:* hobbit at hswn.dk *Subject:* Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Can I ask what backup software you are using?
Rather than processing the email, you may be able to get into the source of the email. If on backup completion you can run a script and you have access to the backup status and error message as variables, you would probably be better off writing a script here that calls bb to send a message up.
Phil
On 27/02/2008, *Joshua Johnson* <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to thescript
which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh # First line is "From sender date" read junk sender date while read token string do # Detect a blank line if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then break; fi # extract the Subject line if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then subject=$string fi done # pick up first line in body read text while read line do # pick up any other body lines text="$text\n$line" done # Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date` $MESSAGE" /home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com
Phil,
I think we have a misunderstanding? We have many remote sites, each with a server running Retrospect to perform backups. BBWin is not running on the servers at these remote sites. Retrospect simply sends emails when the backups complete. Retrospect does have the ability to call a script when a backup completes but, that would require installing BBWin on all the remote servers and creating/configuring the Retrospect script, etc. To avoid doing that we want to trigger hobbit alerts based on the emails we are already receiving from Retrospect on the remote servers.
Josh
From: Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:25 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Sorry, I wasn't clear... I was talking about the server.
Can the server run a script att he completion of every backup job?
Cheers
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Phil,
We are using Retrospect and yes it does provide the functionality you are talking about however, we don't want to install the BBWin client on all of these systems. That is why we are going the email route, it doesn't require any changes to the clients.
Josh
From: Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:16 PM
To: hobbit at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit at hswn.dk> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Can I ask what backup software you are using?
Rather than processing the email, you may be able to get into the source of the email. If on backup completion you can run a script and you have access to the backup status and error message as variables, you would probably be better off writing a script here that calls bb to send a message up.
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com<mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com>] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit at hswn.dk> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com<mailto:msgman at hobbit.myserver.com>. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0<http://0.0.0.0/> "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk>
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
OK
Gotcha! I use Netbackup and have one master server controlling all the backups across many sites. This way we have a single console that shows the complete schedule and one point to monitor....
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Phil,
I think we have a misunderstanding? We have many remote sites, each with a server running Retrospect to perform backups. BBWin is not running on the servers at these remote sites. Retrospect simply sends emails when the backups complete. Retrospect does have the ability to call a script when a backup completes but, that would require installing BBWin on all the remote servers and creating/configuring the Retrospect script, etc. To avoid doing that we want to trigger hobbit alerts based on the emails we are already receiving from Retrospect on the remote servers.
Josh
*From:* Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com] *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:25 PM *To:* hobbit at hswn.dk *Subject:* Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Sorry, I wasn't clear... I was talking about the server.
Can the server run a script att he completion of every backup job?
Cheers
Phil
On 27/02/2008, *Joshua Johnson* <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Phil,
We are using Retrospect and yes it does provide the functionality you are talking about however, we don't want to install the BBWin client on all of these systems. That is why we are going the email route, it doesn't require any changes to the clients.
Josh
*From:* Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com] *Sent:* Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:16 PM
*To:* hobbit at hswn.dk *Subject:* Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Can I ask what backup software you are using?
Rather than processing the email, you may be able to get into the source of the email. If on backup completion you can run a script and you have access to the backup status and error message as variables, you would probably be better off writing a script here that calls bb to send a message up.
Phil
On 27/02/2008, *Joshua Johnson* <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to thescript
which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh # First line is "From sender date" read junk sender date while read token string do # Detect a blank line if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then break; fi # extract the Subject line if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then subject=$string fi done # pick up first line in body read text while read line do # pick up any other body lines text="$text\n$line" done # Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date` $MESSAGE" /home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
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Phil,
That is a nice setup. We are a consulting company and the many sites are our clients so central backup is not really an option.
Josh
From: Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 1:28 AM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
OK
Gotcha! I use Netbackup and have one master server controlling all the backups across many sites. This way we have a single console that shows the complete schedule and one point to monitor....
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Phil,
I think we have a misunderstanding? We have many remote sites, each with a server running Retrospect to perform backups. BBWin is not running on the servers at these remote sites. Retrospect simply sends emails when the backups complete. Retrospect does have the ability to call a script when a backup completes but, that would require installing BBWin on all the remote servers and creating/configuring the Retrospect script, etc. To avoid doing that we want to trigger hobbit alerts based on the emails we are already receiving from Retrospect on the remote servers.
Josh
From: Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:25 PM
To: hobbit at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit at hswn.dk> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Sorry, I wasn't clear... I was talking about the server.
Can the server run a script att he completion of every backup job?
Cheers
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Phil,
We are using Retrospect and yes it does provide the functionality you are talking about however, we don't want to install the BBWin client on all of these systems. That is why we are going the email route, it doesn't require any changes to the clients.
Josh
From: Phil Wild [mailto:philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:16 PM
To: hobbit at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit at hswn.dk> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Can I ask what backup software you are using?
Rather than processing the email, you may be able to get into the source of the email. If on backup completion you can run a script and you have access to the backup status and error message as variables, you would probably be better off writing a script here that calls bb to send a message up.
Phil
On 27/02/2008, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Ralph,
See I knew there was a reason I sent that message. Your 2 cents is way better than what I had!! Why didn't I think of this? It is so much simpler. To make it easier I will have the Exchange server just forward to Sendmail so I don't have to change the current setup and then we still get the backup notification emails. Thank you!
Joshua Johnson Consultant
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com<mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com>] Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:27 PM To: hobbit at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit at hswn.dk> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com<mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com>> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com<mailto:msgman at hobbit.myserver.com>. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0<http://0.0.0.0/> "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk<mailto:hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
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This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
-- Tel: 0400 466 952 Fax: 0433 123 226 email: philwild at gmail.com<mailto:philwild at gmail.com>
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
If you can't get the mail forwarding to work, or you don't want to have to open any new holes in a firewall, there's also the fetchmail option, where you have the hobbit server with a cronjob, polling the exchange server to collect mail from a specific mailbox, and delivering it locally. At which point it can be directed to a script, or whatever.
Steve Anderson
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: 26 February 2008 22:27 To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
script
which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email has been scanned by Netintelligence
http://www.netintelligence.com/email
BiP Solutions Limited is a company registered in Scotland with Company Number SC086146 and VAT number 38303966 and having its registered office at Park House, 300 Glasgow Road, Shawfield, Glasgow, G73 1SQ **************************************************************************** This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroyall copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained by BiP Solutions Ltd. E-mail monitoring/ blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.
Steve,
Thanks that is another good option that we will consider. Would it be possible to call fetchmail directly from the hobbit script and just process new mail on each run? I haven't used fetchmail so I don't know what the options for scripting with it.
Josh
-----Original Message----- From: Steve Anderson [mailto:Steve.Anderson at bipsolutions.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 5:35 AM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: RE: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
If you can't get the mail forwarding to work, or you don't want to have to open any new holes in a firewall, there's also the fetchmail option, where you have the hobbit server with a cronjob, polling the exchange server to collect mail from a specific mailbox, and delivering it locally. At which point it can be directed to a script, or whatever.
Steve Anderson
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: 26 February 2008 22:27 To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
script
which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email has been scanned by Netintelligence http://www.netintelligence.com/email
BiP Solutions Limited is a company registered in Scotland with Company Number SC086146 and VAT number 38303966 and having its registered office at Park House, 300 Glasgow Road, Shawfield, Glasgow, G73 1SQ **************************************************************************** This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroyall copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained by BiP Solutions Ltd. E-mail monitoring/ blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Whenever I've worked with fetchmail, I've just had it deliver the mail locally, through the local mail system.
So:
Mail comes into exchange.
Something (a cronjob, or a regularly running hobbit script) calls fetchmail.
Fetchmail reads it's config file .fetchmailrc
set postmaster "hobbit" set bouncemail set no spambounce set properties "" poll myexchange.pop.server
user 'hobbit' there with password 'hobbits_password' is 'hobbit'here
Fetchmail contacts the exchange POP server, and downloads the mail, delivering it to the local MTA (sendmail) for local delivery
Sendmail's alias runs a script to handle the incoming mail.
Steve Anderson
-----Original Message----- From: Joshua Johnson [mailto:joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com] Sent: 27 February 2008 14:27 To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: RE: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
Steve,
Thanks that is another good option that we will consider. Would it be possible to call fetchmail directly from the hobbit script and just process new mail on each run? I haven't used fetchmail so I don't know what the options for scripting with it.
Josh
-----Original Message----- From: Steve Anderson [mailto:Steve.Anderson at bipsolutions.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 5:35 AM To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: RE: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
If you can't get the mail forwarding to work, or you don't want to have to open any new holes in a firewall, there's also the fetchmail option, where you have the hobbit server with a cronjob, polling the exchange server to collect mail from a specific mailbox, and delivering it locally. At which point it can be directed to a script, or whatever.
Steve Anderson
-----Original Message----- From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:ralphmitchell at gmail.com] Sent: 26 February 2008 22:27 To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Monitoring Backups
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Have the Exchange server script send files (ftp or SMB) to the
script
which could use bbhostgrep to check the files and send the alerts into Hobbit.
My $0.02 - is there a compelling reason not to just send email to your Hobbit server?? I've done it that way when it wasn't possible to deliver reports via hobbit/bb protocol over port 1984.
The way it works is, my (old, decrepit, Redhat 7.2) Hobbit server is running sendmail. In /etc/aliases I have:
msgman: "| /usr/local/sbin/msgman"which allows me to send email to msgman at hobbit.myserver.com. Any incoming email for that address is piped through the msgman script, which could be written in bash, perl, C, python, &c. What comes through the pipe via stdin is a bunch of headers, including From, To, Date & Subject, then a blank line, then the body of the message. Here's one way to break out the message into useful bits:
#!/bin/ksh
# First line is "From sender date"
read junk sender date
while read token string
do
# Detect a blank line
if [ "X$token$string" == "X" ]; then
break;
fi
# extract the Subject line
if [ "X$token" == "XSubject:" ]; then
subject=$string
fi
done
# pick up first line in body
read text
while read line
do
# pick up any other body lines
text="$text\n$line"
done
# Do "stuff" to discover the system name, the test name, thecolor and some message # ...
LINE="status $SYSTEM.$TEST $COLOR `date`
$MESSAGE"
/home/hobbit/server/bin/bb 0.0.0.0 "$LINE"I don't think you'd need to load the hobbit environment (I've got this running in an old BB hierarchy) just to deliver the report.
It's not exactly rocket science, but I then I already had email working and didn't want to have to maintain ftp/scp/smb across the company network. I imagine there's a way for Postfix (and other MTA's) to deliver to a pipe, but maybe not - I simply haven't tried because it ain't broke... :)
Ralph Mitchell
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email has been scanned by Netintelligence http://www.netintelligence.com/email
BiP Solutions Limited is a company registered in Scotland with Company Number SC086146 and VAT number 38303966 and having its registered office at Park House, 300 Glasgow Road, Shawfield, Glasgow, G73 1SQ
This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroyall copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained by BiP Solutions Ltd. E-mail monitoring/ blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.
To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to hobbit-unsubscribe at hswn.dk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
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On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 2:26 PM, Joshua Johnson <joshua at stenhouseconsulting.com> wrote:
Steve,
Thanks that is another good option that we will consider. Would it be possible to call fetchmail directly from the hobbit script and just process new mail on each run? I haven't used fetchmail so I don't know what the options for scripting with it.
[I'll say now I'm a long term user of fetchmail, not to mention one of the list admins for the fetchmail-users mailing list]
Yes, you could do that. You could easily configure fetchmail to pass the emails through a script which would give you a log of your choice to parse for your final Hobbit report. Something like the following (not tested, but should work) for your fetchmail config:
poll pop.my.net uidl user 'name' password 'secure' keep mda /usr/local/bin/myscript
Then call fetchmail as "fetchmail -f /path/to/config" from your hobbit script and configure your hobbit script to parse the results of "myscript".
(Note that the above will NOT delete the emails from the POP server)
-- Please keep list traffic on the list.
Rob MacGregor Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster. Friedrich Nietzsche
participants (5)
-
joshua＠stenhouseconsulting.com
-
philwild＠gmail.com
-
ralphmitchell＠gmail.com
-
rob.macgregor＠gmail.com
-
Steve.Anderson＠bipsolutions.com