Monitoring multiple, disconnected sites

On the client side, the only change was in
/home/xymon/client/bin/xymonclient.sh.  See attached diff.  You'll need to
fill in the destination server name.

On the server side, add the email alias to /etc/aliases and rebuild the db
files:

     xymonmsg: |/usr/local/bin/xymonmsg.sh
     newaliases

Install the attached xymonmsg.sh script to match the above path.  Check
permissions - it needs to be executable by your email receiver.

This is just a basic configuration.  Extra frills that could be added
include:

     1) encrypt the payload, especially if you send logs.
     2) send a second message with a cryptographic signature for
authentication
     3) add sequence numbers to the subject, then only accept a report with
a higher number than the last, because emails are not guaranteed to arrive
in the same order as they're sent.

Ralph Mitchell


On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 4:51 AM, Vernon Everett <user-b3f8dacb72c8@xymon.invalid>wrote:

Yes, I can see it.
It's working perfectly.
I forgot about using pipes and mail aliases, and my mind was darting off
down the more difficult tracks.
This is too easy.

So that Xymon server on you IP is receiving all it's status updates via
email?
Brilliant!

If you have any code snippets you can send me, it would be appreciated.
Thanks for bringing me back to the simple way of doing things.

Regards
Vernon


On 16 March 2013 15:16, Ralph Mitchell <user-00a5e44c48c0@xymon.invalid> wrote:

my laptop, running the xymon client, delivering the standard status
report via email to my server.  Both systems are on my home network.  The
laptop is on a wifi link.

The status message is about 80Kb, but I'm base64-encoding in-flight
because there seems to be a line-length limit, probably enforced by mailx.

Details tomorrow, if you're interested.  It's past 3am, and I need
sleep...

Ralph Mitchell


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 10:56 PM, Ralph Mitchell <user-00a5e44c48c0@xymon.invalid

wrote:

1) the xymon client script assembles the status report into a file, then
transmits that to the server over port 1984 using the xymon client program.
 You could pipe it through mailx instead, to send it to the xymon server.

2) on the Xymon server, use an email alias to pipe the incoming mail
through a script.  Or use something like procmail to handle it.  Add an
alias like this to /etc/aliases:

     xymonmsg: |/usr/local/bin/xymonmsg.sh

then run "newaliases" to recreate the alias db files.  Any email
addressed to user-f6305e1c5406@xymon.invalid will be piped through that script.

In the email, everything up to the first blank line is a header.  After
that blank line, the remainder is the body of the email, which would be the
xymon report.  That can be broken out and passed through the xymon command.

I've done this to deliver logs, but the principal is sound for xymon
reports as well.

Ralph Mitchell


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Vernon Everett <
user-b3f8dacb72c8@xymon.invalid> wrote:

Hi Adam and everybody

You are of course completely correct, and confirmed what I knew, but
didn't really want to accept.

IT people love problem solving within defined limited parameters, so
let's see if we can come up with an elegant solution to this one, because I
am sure I am not the first to encounter this.

The only "connection" I have between the sites, is email.
Is there a way to get the clients to send data to the server via emails?
Alternatively, we could get a local server instance to update the
master server with consolidated data via email.

I am thinking the core of the problem is 2-fold.
1. Send the data via email from client or local server.
2. Receive and interpret the data at server side by parsing the
incoming emails.

Unless I missed something, both these tasks are non-trivial.
Any ideas?

Regards
Vernon


On 15 March 2013 08:53, Adam Goryachev <
user-92fd6827f6ae@xymon.invalid> wrote:

On 15/03/13 11:19, Vernon Everett wrote:

Hi all

Here's an interesting problem that has been put to me.
A potential customer has a number of independent IT installations,
with no always-on link between them or central IT.
If there is an issue at a site, support staff will connect using VPN
or Citrix over the interwebs.
Is it possible to set up a central Xymon server to monitor these
remote sites?
If yes, then how?
Has anybody done this before?

Do you mean the sites have no "always-on link" like a dial-up
connection
? or do you mean there is no VPN always on, but they always have
working
Internet?

At the end of the day, if you want to get data out of the network to a
remote location (whether you use xymon or any other widget), you will
need to decide how that information gets there. Whether that is via the
Internet or sneakernet is up to you, but obviously sneakernet will be
less frequent and a bit more time consuming.

Once you decide on how the data can be transported, it is just a matter
of working out how to tell xymon to use that transport method. Let us
know what you come up with, and I'm sure someone will be able to offer
further advice.

Regards,
Adam

--
Adam Goryachev
Website Managers
www.websitemanagers.com.au

--
"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory"
- General George Patton

--
"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory"
- General George Patton