System Monitoring with Xymon/User Guide: Difference between revisions
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! Product Name |
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! Company |
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! Development status |
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! Monitoring model |
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! Main Programming Language |
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! [[Software license|License]] |
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! Platforms supported |
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! Cost |
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! Big Brother |
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| [http://www.quest.com/bigbrother Big Brother - Quest] |
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| actively developed |
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| [[Client-server]] |
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| ? |
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| Proprietary |
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| [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] |
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| $79 |
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|- |
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! NetIQ |
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| |
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| actively developed |
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| [[Client-server]] |
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| C |
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| GPL |
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| [[Unix-like]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Mac OS X]] |
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| Unspecified |
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|- |
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! HP OpenView |
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| [http://h20229.www2.hp.com/ HP Openview] |
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| actively developed |
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| [[Client-server]] |
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| bash/C |
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| Proprietary |
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| [[Linux]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[iSeries]] |
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| Unspecified |
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|- |
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! [http://www.bmc.com/products/products_services_detail/0,,0_0_0_2001,00.html BMC Performance Manager] |
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| [BMC Performance Manager] |
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| actively developed |
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| Distributed<ref>Although Bazaar is a distributed version control system it can also be used in a [http://bazaar-vcs.org/Tutorials/CentralizedWorkflow centralized manner] using [http://bazaar-vcs.org/LockStepDevelopment lock step development] and [http://bazaar-vcs.org/CheckoutTutorial checkouts].</ref> |
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| Merge |
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| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]] |
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| [[Unix-like]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Mac OS X]] |
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| Free |
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|- |
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! |
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| |
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| actively supported |
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| [[Client-server]] |
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| ? |
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| Proprietary |
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| Server: [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] Server 2003; Clients: [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and Web included; Java client (for Eclipse IDE, MacOS, Unix) available |
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| Licenced through MSDN subscription or through direct buy [http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/howtobuy/] |
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|- |
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! |
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| |
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| actively developed |
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| [[Client-server]] |
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| ? |
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| Proprietary |
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| [[Unix-like]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Mac OS X]] |
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| $621 per seat, with volume discounts [http://www.codicesoftware.com/opproducts/oplicensing.aspx] |
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|} |
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[[Category:Hobbit]] |
[[Category:Hobbit]] |
Revision as of 11:19, 2 August 2008
System Monitoring Overview
What is system monitoring ?
A system monitoring for computer system include a server and clients. This tool is used to perform repeated tasks to help system administrator to be proactive on monitoring system health status.
To name a few metrics that system administrators are interested, CPU load average, system log message, disk space usage, network traffics etc. Without the system monitor tool like big brother or hobbit, a system administration would have to login to each machines to collect these information repeatedly. This kind of repetitive tasks can be automated by system monitor tool.
Generic System Monitoring Features
See Generic Monitoring System Features
Examples of some commercial system monitoring tools
Product Name | Company | Development status | Monitoring model | Main Programming Language | License | Platforms supported | Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Big Brother | Big Brother - Quest | actively developed | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Windows | $79 |
NetIQ | actively developed | Client-server | C | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | Unspecified | |
HP OpenView | HP Openview | actively developed | Client-server | bash/C | Proprietary | Linux, Windows, iSeries | Unspecified |
BMC Performance Manager | [BMC Performance Manager] | actively developed | Distributed[1] | Merge | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | Free |
actively supported | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Server: Windows Server 2003; Clients: Windows and Web included; Java client (for Eclipse IDE, MacOS, Unix) available | Licenced through MSDN subscription or through direct buy [1] | ||
actively developed | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | $621 per seat, with volume discounts [2] |
Examples of some open-source system monitoring tools
Why use hobbit ?
- The source code is open and in GPL license.
- There is no seat license fee.
- Hobbit Server is highly compatible with Big Brother client.
- It has a user and developer community.
Who uses Hobbit ?
Please see the hobbit Users list
Hobbit System Monitoring Tool Wish lists
- Delete a host from web page UI.
- GUI administration tool.
- Prepackaged binary for different OS with lots of add-on modules.
- E-mail or SMS notification
- Easily customizable.
- Has commercial support.
- Remote wake/die capabilities
Open Source System Monitoring Software Comparison
General comparsion
There many others system monitoring tools, please add them here if you got some free time. TBC. Pardon the wrong content below, I (TJ Yang) found following great template from other wikibook. Effort is needed to plug in system monitoring stuff.
Monitor Software | Maintainer | Development status | Monitoring model | Main Programming Language | License | Platforms supported | Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A2Monitor | A1 Tech, Inc. [3] | actively developed | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Windows | $79 |
Hobbit | Henrik , Inc.[4] | actively developed | Client-server | C | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | Unspecified |
Big Brother | Quest Software [5] | actively developed | Client-server | bash/C | Proprietary | Linux, Windows, iSeries | Unspecified |
Big Sister ] | Big Sister [6] | actively developed | Distributed[2] | Merge | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | Free |
Nagio [7] | Nagio [8] | actively supported | Client-server | ? | GPL | Server: | |
GroundWork | GroundWork [9] | actively developed | Client-server | ? | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | [10] |
- ↑ Although Bazaar is a distributed version control system it can also be used in a centralized manner using lock step development and checkouts.
- ↑ Although Bazaar is a distributed version control system it can also be used in a centralized manner using lock step development and checkouts.
- Repository model describes the relationship between various copies of the source code repository. In a client-server model, users access a master repository via a client; typically, their local machines hold only a working copy of a project tree. Changes in one working copy must be committed to the master repository before they are propagated to other users. In a distributed model, repositories act as peers, and users typically have a local repository with version history available, in addition to their working copies.
- Concurrency model describes how changes to the working copy are managed to prevent simultaneous edits from causing nonsensical data in the repository. In a lock model, changes are disallowed until the user requests and receives an exclusive lock on the file from the master repository. In a merge model, users may freely edit files, but are informed of possible conflicts upon checking their changes into the repository, whereupon the version control system may merge changes on both sides, or let the user decide when conflicts arise. Note that distributed version control almost always implies a merge concurrency model.
Features | Hobbit | Big Brother | Big Sister | OpenNMS | Nagios |
HomePage | http://www.hswn.dk/hobbit/ | http://www.bb4.org | http://www.bigsister.ch | http://www.opennms.com/site | http://www.nagios.org |
Commercial Support | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Main Programming Language | C | Shell | Perl | Java | C |
License type | Open source | Source code avaiable but only free for non commercial use | Open source | Open source | Open source |
Install base | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Development | Active | Stalled | Active | Active | Active |
Hobbit vs BB BTF
This is a detail comparison chart why a current BB site want to migrate to Hobbit. Opinions could be biased toward Hobbit.
Features | Hobbit 4.2.0 above | Big Brother BTF(Better Than Free, 1.9c version above) |
Home Page | http://www.hswn.dk/hobbit/ | http://www.bb4.org |
Community contributed addon modules. | Hobbit: http://www.trantor.org/theshire/, BB:http://www.deadcat.net, bb modules can be reused without much rewrite efforts. | http://www.deadcat.net |
Monitor Server on Windows | No. On Unix platform only so far. | Yes, only binary are available. |
Monitor agent for Windows | Yes. Opensource and use WiX for MSI packaging.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bbwin |
Yes, but only binary are available. |
Software in package format | Yes. Will have complete package for different OS over time. | No. due to license issue. |
Software Age | ? | ? |
Commercial Support | Yes. Available from the main author, Henrik Storner or cookit. | Yes. Available from Quest Software. |
Main Programming Language | C, use as much C as possible to improve performance. | Shell, use C only for bottleneck area of code. |
License type | GPL Open source. No need to have accurate count how many clients you have deployed. | BB BTF(1.9c above) version require seat-license of every deployed bb client. Source code is available but it is not open source. Only free for non commercial use for version 1.9c and below.1.9c above version is per-seat license. Need to match the license purchased and number of bb client deployed. |
Install base | Large. See HB users list. | Very Large. |
Development | Active. | Stalled. Active only in BB profession edition and BB PE is closed-source. |
Process alert differentiation | Yes. "oracle listener process died" alerts can be configured to send to oracle team only. | No. |
Disk Partitions alert differentiation | Yes. "/oracle partition is 96% full" alerts can be sent to oracle team directly while "/ is 96% full" alert sent to unix team. | No. |
Base features | Hobbit has larger basic features set. LARRD Trending is included by default. | BB has smaller features by default, need more customization works. |
Centralized configuration | Modify hobbit/bb client configuration from one central configuration. | Need to login to each hobbit/bb client to perform the changes. |
Client version update automation | Enhanced 1984 protocol to perform binary update automatically. | Need login into each clients to update binary. |
Performance | Hobbit can handle the number of monitored clients in the thousands range. | BB by default without tweaking can only handle hundreds of machines and thousands of machines with tweaking. |
Client report | Hobbit provide detail information about hosts monitored. | No. |
Search | Hobbit provide search ability to help get to a machine quickly. | Yes, available on http://www.deadcat.net |
Menu System | Hobbit provide better menu system for ease of browsing. | No. |
LDAP authentication | Yes. | Yes. |
RT Ticket system integration | Yes, via external module. | Yes, via external module. |
Remedy Ticket system integration | Yes, via external module. | Yes, via external module. |
BB messages compatibility | Hobbit server can accept BB messages from bb clients. | BB server can receive BB messages from hobbit clients. |
Alerts on different alert color codes | hobbit can act different color codes. | bb server can only act on yellow or red. |
subtests combination for SLA. | pingable + web process running + port 80 is answering request = web server is green. | Yes. Using bbgen (not under active development though). |
SNMP Integration | Not by default. http://devmon.sourceforge.net/ | Not by default. http://devmon.sourceforge.net/ |
Classification and actions on different priority levels of monitored hosts | default support. | No. may be via external moudles. |
References
Hobbit System Monitoring at home
- To monitor your computers at home,perhaps integration with X10 stuff.
- This section is about Hobbit and your home system monitoring.
- porting hobbit to linksys's nlsu2 or wrt54g.
Hobbit Support
Commercial Support
- Cook IT Services: http://cookitservices.com/index.html
- TWW offer Hobbit email support. The Server and clients are prepackaged for TWW supported OS via commercial subscription service. server and client package source are also available for download per GNU license. You can create your own package from the package source if you know TWW HPM system.
Free Community Support
Your questions will not necessary got answered.
- Maillist Archive: http://www.hswn.dk/hobbiton/
- Project page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/hobbitmon/
Hobbit Demo Site
Here are a few best hobbit implementation sites.
Sat Apr 21 06:25:43 CDT 2007 up: 07:35, 1 users, 70 procs, load=0.01 System clock is 0 seconds off PID USERNAME SIZE RSS STATE PRI NICE TIME CPU PROCESS/NLWP 407 root 1724K 976K sleep 59 0 0:01:16 0.1% vmware-guestd/1 542 root 10M 11M sleep 59 0 0:00:55 0.1% Xorg/1 8112 hobbitc 4440K 3948K cpu1 0 0 0:00:00 0.1% prstat/1 8081 hobbitc 1052K 796K sleep 0 0 0:00:00 0.1% hobbitclient-su/1 640 root 9572K 6868K sleep 59 0 0:00:18 0.0% dtgreet/1 8077 hobbitc 1048K 796K sleep 51 0 0:00:00 0.0% hobbitclient.sh/1 1 root 2004K 1080K sleep 59 0 0:00:01 0.0% init/1 474 root 8248K 2868K sleep 59 0 0:00:05 0.0% httpd.prefork/1 96 root 3424K 2324K sleep 59 0 0:00:03 0.0% nscd/24 1148 hobbitc 1056K 756K sleep 59 0 0:00:01 0.0% hobbitlaunch/1 459 hobbits 1080K 720K sleep 59 0 0:00:02 0.0% hobbitlaunch/1 461 hobbits 4844K 1540K sleep 59 0 0:00:04 0.0% hobbitd/1 256 root 1060K 632K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% utmpd/1 234 daemon 2336K 1540K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% statd/1 93 root 2132K 1268K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% syseventd/15 159 root 2480K 1560K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% picld/4 250 root 1884K 1092K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% ttymon/1 195 root 2236K 884K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% cron/1 373 root 2488K 1924K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% vold/6 222 daemon 2412K 1140K sleep 59 0 0:00:00 0.0% rpcbind/1 NPROC USERNAME SIZE RSS MEMORY TIME CPU 36 root 134M 86M 15% 0:02:56 0.3% 4 hobbitc 7596K 6296K 1.1% 0:00:01 0.2% 23 hobbits 104M 42M 7.5% 0:00:12 0.0% 4 daemon 10M 5996K 1.0% 0:00:00 0.0% Total: 67 processes, 182 lwps, load averages: 0.01, 0.01, 0.0
Hobbit System Monitoring Foundation
List of Donors
URL for donation to this project is at http://www.hswn.dk/hobbit/, look for PayPal icon.
2006
- T.J. Yang
2007
Hobbit Logo
- No hurry but we need a good logo. Put your design here for voting later on.
- The icon should/better be associated with Henrik's idea of Hobbit love green.
- We may consider using GNUStep's approach to contract out the logo design.
Renaming Hobbit
Why: What:
Product Name | Company | Development status | Monitoring model | Main Programming Language | License | Platforms supported | Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Big Brother | Big Brother - Quest | actively developed | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Windows | $79 |
NetIQ | actively developed | Client-server | C | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | Unspecified | |
HP OpenView | HP Openview | actively developed | Client-server | bash/C | Proprietary | Linux, Windows, iSeries | Unspecified |
BMC Performance Manager | [BMC Performance Manager] | actively developed | Distributed[1] | Merge | GPL | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | Free |
actively supported | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Server: Windows Server 2003; Clients: Windows and Web included; Java client (for Eclipse IDE, MacOS, Unix) available | Licenced through MSDN subscription or through direct buy [11] | ||
actively developed | Client-server | ? | Proprietary | Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS X | $621 per seat, with volume discounts [12] |
- ↑ Although Bazaar is a distributed version control system it can also be used in a centralized manner using lock step development and checkouts.