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Splitting up HTTP into separate individual tests - best practice?

11 messages in this thread

list Betsy Schwartz · Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:23:28 -0500 ·
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.

I can sort of do this with the "cont=" flag but that has two problems:

  -have to specify a return regexp for each tested URL instead of
using the default
  -test STILL appears under the server's http check

It's becoming a serious issue that we have http tests that show a
mixture of red and green tests.
And to make it worse, on some servers  sometimes http  just turns
*yellow* when only one URL out of three or four is down,  even though
all four are critical..

What are other people doing? Am I missing an easier way to do this?

thanks Betsy
list Ford Alan · Fri, 9 Nov 2012 03:47:53 +0000 ·
Try setting them up like this.. We have separate web pages from the same server but needed to monitor each page separately.

#hosts.cfg file

0.0.0.0       South02 # COMMENT:"<a href=http://utapp01/trader/all_states.php>Spot Market Summary</a>" prefer testip noconn nonongreen http://utapp01/trader/all_states.php

South02 is a pseudo host name that isn't pinged or tries to get its name dns resolved.
You can then use South02 as your host name in your analysis file. Added benefit is that the COMMENT causes the link to appear on the Xymon page :-)
quoted from Betsy Schwartz

-----Original Message-----
From: xymon-bounces at xymon.com [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] On Behalf Of Betsy Schwartz
Sent: Friday, 9 November 2012 1:23 PM
To: xymon at xymon.com
Subject: [Xymon] Splitting up HTTP into separate individual tests - best practice?

I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or another, the various URL's test very different functionality.

I can sort of do this with the "cont=" flag but that has two problems:

  -have to specify a return regexp for each tested URL instead of using the default
  -test STILL appears under the server's http check

It's becoming a serious issue that we have http tests that show a mixture of red and green tests.
And to make it worse, on some servers  sometimes http  just turns
*yellow* when only one URL out of three or four is down,  even though all four are critical..

What are other people doing? Am I missing an easier way to do this?

thanks Betsy


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list Ralph Mitchell · Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:53:19 -0500 ·
I had a fair amount of success running external scripts from cron to do web
server checkouts. I used curl to grab a page, then grep to pick out the
interesting bits and decide on a color to report. Using a script allows you
to drill down through several levels of web page. I used bash and all the
usual command line tools, but you could use perl, tcl or anything else
you're familiar with.

Doing it with scripts gives you a lot of flexibility.

Ralph Mitchell
quoted from Betsy Schwartz
On Nov 8, 2012 10:23 PM, "Betsy Schwartz" <user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.

I can sort of do this with the "cont=" flag but that has two problems:

  -have to specify a return regexp for each tested URL instead of
using the default
  -test STILL appears under the server's http check

It's becoming a serious issue that we have http tests that show a
mixture of red and green tests.
And to make it worse, on some servers  sometimes http  just turns
*yellow* when only one URL out of three or four is down,  even though
all four are critical..

What are other people doing? Am I missing an easier way to do this?

thanks Betsy

list Ryan Novosielski · Fri, 9 Nov 2012 03:30:47 -0500 ·
If there are different virtualhosts, I sometimes split them out when it matters, so I have an http test or two per virtualhost. That may not be your circumstance however. 
quoted from Betsy Schwartz


----- Original Message -----
From: Betsy Schwartz [mailto:user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid]
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 10:23 PM
To: xymon at xymon.com <xymon at xymon.com>
Subject: [Xymon] Splitting up HTTP into separate individual tests - best	practice?

I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.

I can sort of do this with the "cont=" flag but that has two problems:

  -have to specify a return regexp for each tested URL instead of
using the default
  -test STILL appears under the server's http check

It's becoming a serious issue that we have http tests that show a
mixture of red and green tests.
And to make it worse, on some servers  sometimes http  just turns
*yellow* when only one URL out of three or four is down,  even though
all four are critical..

What are other people doing? Am I missing an easier way to do this?

thanks Betsy
list Steve Holmes · Fri, 9 Nov 2012 09:11:37 -0500 ·
We also make heavy use of the pseudo host technique. 
Steve


Wherever you go, there you are.  
quoted from Betsy Schwartz

On Nov 8, 2012, at 10:23 PM, Betsy Schwartz <user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.

I can sort of do this with the "cont=" flag but that has two problems:

 -have to specify a return regexp for each tested URL instead of
using the default
 -test STILL appears under the server's http check

It's becoming a serious issue that we have http tests that show a
mixture of red and green tests.
And to make it worse, on some servers  sometimes http  just turns
*yellow* when only one URL out of three or four is down,  even though
all four are critical..

What are other people doing? Am I missing an easier way to do this?

thanks Betsy
list Henrik Størner · Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:30:36 +0100 ·
On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:23:28 -0500, Betsy Schwartz
quoted from Steve Holmes
<user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.
I have been thinking about making this configurable, so you could do

   http=App1;http://myserver/App1 http=App2;http://myserver/App2

and have "App1" and "App2" appears as separate columns.


Haven't done any code yet, though, since this would happen "automagically"
with the new network tester I have underway for Xymon 5.0. So putting it
into 4.x would be somewhat of a wasted effort.

But I have the same issue myself, so perhaps I should look at how much
effort it would take.


Regards,
Henrik
list Betsy Schwartz · Sun, 18 Nov 2012 13:03:15 -0500 ·
Cool!

I'll probably go with the pseudo-host for now and use recognizable names

One of the big issues for us with h multiple tests  that sometimes
when there are multiple tests on one host and one web test fails, the
http test goes *YELLOW*. As we have client-facing web services, having
things that should go red go yellow is a serious failure.  I've set
alerts.cfg to treat yellow http alerts as red but it's still a bit
frustrating.
list Ryan Novosielski · Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:01:20 -0500 ·
I have not experienced this symptom and don't understand it really. When one is red on ours, it's red. 
quoted from Betsy Schwartz


----- Original Message -----
From: Betsy Schwartz [mailto:user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid]
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 01:03 PM
To: user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid>
Cc: xymon at xymon.com <xymon at xymon.com>
Subject: Re: [Xymon] Splitting up HTTP into separate individual tests - best	practice?

Cool!

I'll probably go with the pseudo-host for now and use recognizable names

One of the big issues for us with h multiple tests  that sometimes
when there are multiple tests on one host and one web test fails, the
http test goes *YELLOW*. As we have client-facing web services, having
things that should go red go yellow is a serious failure.  I've set
alerts.cfg to treat yellow http alerts as red but it's still a bit
frustrating.
list Thomas Eckert · Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:17:23 +0100 ·
Wouldn't using the 'httpstatus'-test solve the problem of separate status columns and alerting? P probably i didn't get the hardcase correctly but the following example gives 2 columns (h_app1 and 2) and allows separate alerting. In addition xymon " feeds" the data to the http- column - so all checks are aggregated there.

hosts.cfg:
1.2.3.4    appsrv.example.com     #
httpstatus=h_app1;http://appsrv.example.com:80/;200;3..|4..|5..|999
httpstatus=h_app2;http://appsrv.example.com:81/;200;3..|4..|5..|999

alerts.cfg:
SERVICE=h_app1
        MAIL user-5d4c7ac01393@xymon.invalid

SERVICE=h_app2
        MAIL user-37188eade3bf@xymon.invalid

Thomas
quoted from Henrik Størner

user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid schrieb:
On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:23:28 -0500, Betsy Schwartz
<user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.
I have been thinking about making this configurable, so you could do

  http=App1;http://myserver/App1 http=App2;http://myserver/App2

and have "App1" and "App2" appears as separate columns.


Haven't done any code yet, though, since this would happen "automagically"
with the new network tester I have underway for Xymon 5.0. So putting it
into 4.x would be somewhat of a wasted effort.

But I have the same issue myself, so perhaps I should look at how much
effort it would take.


Regards,
Henrik

list Thomas Eckert · Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:07:07 +0100 ·
(2nd try correcting from-address)
quoted from Thomas Eckert

Wouldn't using the 'httpstatus'-test solve the problem of separate status columns and alerting? P probably i didn't get the hardcase correctly but the following example gives 2 columns (h_app1 and 2) and allows separate alerting. In addition xymon " feeds" the data to the http- column - so all checks are aggregated there.

hosts.cfg:
1.2.3.4    appsrv.example.com     #
httpstatus=h_app1;http://appsrv.example.com:80/;200;3..|4..|5..|999
httpstatus=h_app2;http://appsrv.example.com:81/;200;3..|4..|5..|999

alerts.cfg:
SERVICE=h_app1
        MAIL user-5d4c7ac01393@xymon.invalid

SERVICE=h_app2
        MAIL user-37188eade3bf@xymon.invalid

Thomas

user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid schrieb:
On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:23:28 -0500, Betsy Schwartz
<user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.
I have been thinking about making this configurable, so you could do

  http=App1;http://myserver/App1 http=App2;http://myserver/App2

and have "App1" and "App2" appears as separate columns.


Haven't done any code yet, though, since this would happen "automagically"
with the new network tester I have underway for Xymon 5.0. So putting it
into 4.x would be somewhat of a wasted effort.

But I have the same issue myself, so perhaps I should look at how much
effort it would take.


Regards,
Henrik

list Thomas Eckert · Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:19:56 +0100 ·
quoted from Thomas Eckert
(2nd try correcting from-address)

Wouldn't using the 'httpstatus'-test solve the problem of separate 
status columns and alerting? P probably i didn't get the hardcase 
correctly but the following example gives 2 columns (h_app1 and 2) and 
allows separate alerting. In addition xymon " feeds" the data to the 
http- column - so all checks are aggregated there.

hosts.cfg:
1.2.3.4    appsrv.example.com     #
httpstatus=h_app1;http://appsrv.example.com:80/;200;3..|4..|5..|999
httpstatus=h_app2;http://appsrv.example.com:81/;200;3..|4..|5..|999

alerts.cfg:
SERVICE=h_app1
         MAIL user-5d4c7ac01393@xymon.invalid

SERVICE=h_app2
         MAIL user-37188eade3bf@xymon.invalid

Thomas

On 11/14/2012 01:30 PM, user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid wrote:
On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 22:23:28 -0500, Betsy Schwartz
<user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid>  wrote:
I have a high-visibility request to change all of our server http
tests so that they appear as separate tests per URL,  with the ability
to alert separately, sign out separately, etc.
As most of our web servers are application servers in one form or
another, the various URL's test very different functionality.
I have been thinking about making this configurable, so you could do

    http=App1;http://myserver/App1 http=App2;http://myserver/App2

and have "App1" and "App2" appears as separate columns.


Haven't done any code yet, though, since this would happen "automagically"
with the new network tester I have underway for Xymon 5.0. So putting it
into 4.x would be somewhat of a wasted effort.

But I have the same issue myself, so perhaps I should look at how much
effort it would take.


Regards,
Henrik

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