Step missing to get XymonPSClient working? 🔗 link

Hi there,

I used to run big brother, like 12 – 15 years ago, and now I’m trying to setup Xymon. I’ve got the server side working (at least for pings, telnet checks, etc.), but I can’t seem to get XymonPSClient to work. I’ve downloaded the files from SF, installed the service and it’s running, but it doesn’t seem to be sending any data to my Xymon server. I can verify connectivity with XymonSend from the Windows host, but I don’t see any client logs, nor do I see any added checks on the web page.

Am I supposed to create a local config file on the Windows host? Or do I add something to hosts.cfg on the server? The README file wasn’t super explanatory and I can’t seem to find any other instructions. Do these exist and I just missed them?

Thanks,
Jason

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Jason Richards Pagh

On 11/12/2013 8:54 AM, Jason Richards Pagh wrote:

Do you see your host on /xymon-cgi/ghostlist.sh  ?

Unlike Big Brother, Xymon does not blindly accept client messages from arbitrary hosts. If you don't add an entry for your client to the hosts.cfg, your host will be listed as a "ghost" client and messages it sends will not make it to the web page.
-- 
    Do things because you should, not just because you can.

John Thurston    XXX-XXX-XXXX
user-ce4d79d99bab@xymon.invalid
Enterprise Technology Services
Department of Administration
State of Alaska

I did check that, but nothing showed up there. I also did check the config
on the client and it¹s name matches the name I have in hosts.cfg. The
Xymon server is pinging the Windows client just fine, so I do have the
minimal data.

I just ran a tcpdump and I can see traffic when I run the XymonSend ping
from the Windows client. Running as Local System as a Windows service
doesn¹t seem to be sending any data, but running it directly from a
PowerShell window does seem to work. I now see data. Any thoughts there?

P.S. I used to live in Alaska and worked for Internet Alaska and then GCI
Internet back when I used Big Brother. Funny coincidence to hear back from
somebody up there!

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Jason Richards Pagh


On 11/12/13, 10:10 AM, "John Thurston" <user-ce4d79d99bab@xymon.invalid> wrote:

On 11/12/2013 8:54 AM, Jason Richards Pagh wrote:

Hi there,

I used to run big brother, like 12 ­ 15 years ago, and now I¹m trying
to setup Xymon. I¹ve got the server side working (at least for pings,
telnet checks, etc.), but I can¹t seem to get XymonPSClient to work.
I¹ve downloaded the files from SF, installed the service and it¹s
running, but it doesn¹t seem to be sending any data to my Xymon server.
I can verify connectivity with XymonSend from the Windows host, but I
don¹t see any client logs, nor do I see any added checks on the web page.

I did manage to get this worked out. It looks like the parameters that get set on the service don’t work for me so I changed them.

The parameters that get set during “.\xymonclient.ps1 install” are as follows:
-nonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File C:\Xymon\xymonclient.ps1

For whatever reason, this didn’t work for me. However, changing it to the following worked:
-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoLogo -NonInteractive -NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -File C:\Xymon\xymonclient.ps1

The 3 differences are Bypass, instead of Unrestricted (for the Execution Policy), Not loading a profile and hiding the window. I don’t know which of them made it work, but I thought I would document this for anyone else that may run into the problem.

Furthermore, here’s a simple set of Powershell commands I can use to instantiate the Xymon components on new windows servers (assuming the original files are located on \\srcserver\c$\Xymon:

New-Item -Type Directory -Path c:\Xymon
CD C:\Xymon
Copy-Item ‘\\srcserver\c$\xymon\XymonPSClient.exe'
Copy-Item '\\srcserver\c$\xymon\xymonclient.ps1'
Copy-Item '\\srcserver\c$\xymon\xymonsend.ps1'
.\xymonclient.ps1 install
.\xymonclient.ps1 set servers xymonserver
.\xymonclient.ps1 set clientconfigfile C:\Xymon\xymonconfig.cfg
.\xymonclient.ps1 set clientlogfile C:\Xymon\xymonclient.log
New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\services\XymonPSClient\parameters" -name "Application Parameters" -Type string -Value "-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoLogo -NonInteractive -NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -File C:\Xymon\xymonclient.ps1" -Force
Start-Service XymonPSClient

Having run those, and assuming the server I’m running it on has already been added to hosts.cfg on xymonserver, it all works out.

---

Jason Richards Pagh

From: Jason Richards Pagh <user-6b86d54ccbcd@xymon.invalid<mailto:user-6b86d54ccbcd@xymon.invalid>>
Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 9:54 AM
To: "xymon at xymon.com<mailto:xymon at xymon.com>" <xymon at xymon.com<mailto:xymon at xymon.com>>
Subject: [Xymon] Step missing to get XymonPSClient working?

Hi there,

I used to run big brother, like 12 – 15 years ago, and now I’m trying to setup Xymon. I’ve got the server side working (at least for pings, telnet checks, etc.), but I can’t seem to get XymonPSClient to work. I’ve downloaded the files from SF, installed the service and it’s running, but it doesn’t seem to be sending any data to my Xymon server. I can verify connectivity with XymonSend from the Windows host, but I don’t see any client logs, nor do I see any added checks on the web page.

Am I supposed to create a local config file on the Windows host? Or do I add something to hosts.cfg on the server? The README file wasn’t super explanatory and I can’t seem to find any other instructions. Do these exist and I just missed them?

Thanks,
Jason

---

Jason Richards Pagh