Great to see author of larrd participating hobbit discussion.
see below for my comments.
From: "Scott Walters" <user-2c405ccfe1ee@xymon.invalid>
Reply-To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] Highlights of the 4.3.0 version
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 21:34:11 -0400
On 7/21/07, Henrik Stoerner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:
In another thread, someone asked about what new features are planned for
version 4.3.0. I've summarized them below;
Great to see the summary, these features look great. I'd like to
request more RRDs and reports about the monitoring system and the
servers/services monitored. For example:
I think the following could be "gauge" metrics:
Number of devices monitored
Number of services monitored
Number of host.service in green state
Number of host.service in yellow state
Number of host.service in red state
Number of host.service in XXX state
I am thinking these could be done by creating counters within hobbit
(since boot):
Number of state changes
Number of state changes per server
Number of state changes per service
Number of notifications sent
I think the above metrics could help create reports over time periods
for review to help get to "management by facts" vs. "management by
feeling." Most admins that pay attention to their install will
"know", but its different when you can "prove." Plus, when
improvements are made, it's nice to see it.
Providing OS type and version metrics also, this will give us a clear view
of how many vendor unsupported OS version(ex. solaris 2.5.1,2.6,2.7, hpux
9,hpux 10.20 etc)
are still in an IT system.
Henrik showed me the command on this list last time I asked but it will be
good
if this can be done from hobbit server.
I am also thinking we could try and apply some Six Sigma terminology
and methodology to hobbit which may have value. Six Sigma keys on
statistics and defects. Six Sigma refers to having production quality
such that you only see 3.4 defects per million. Granted we are not
"producing" a physical item, but I am thinking that a defect could be
considered a purple/yellow/red state. With counters I suggested
above, we could to apply various statistical measures (control charts,
pareto charts, etc.) and see what makes sense or has value for
monitoring.
In Six Sigma, the availability is formated with 5 Nines(99.999),
There is some patches floating around to make HB's Availability report
showing 5 Nines format
This is a baby step but got asked by management why the bb/hb report is one
digit short of nines.
Associate Hobbit more with Six Sigma is definitely a good thing. Connecting
Hobbit with ITIL is even better.
tj
The goal is to improve consistency and reduce variance.
If you like, I could draft up some graphs and reports I'd like to see.
My above description might be hard to visualize. I definitely think
hobbit could benefit from internal counters, similarly to how on OS
keeps tracks of context switches and the like.
Scott
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507