Test showing white instead of purple 🔗 link

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 6:41 AM, John Horne <user-e95f1ec2f147@xymon.invalid>wrote:

Hello,

Using Xymon 4.3.10, we had a problem with a client sending an oversize
message. This caused the 'procs' test to show purple, but it also caused
the 'files' test to show as white.

We have sorted out the oversize message bit, but I am concerned that
because a test showed white we were unaware of it because it doesn't
show on the 'non-green' page. (We were only aware of it because of the
purple 'procs' test and then looking at the 'Current status' page to see
all the tests for the client.)

Is there a way to report a test as purple if it changes from a colour to
white?

I'm not sure why it reported white and not purple. The status report
from the client was truncated, and I assume the 'files' test, therefore,
received no status.


Thanks,

John.

--
John Horne                   Tel: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX
Plymouth University, UK      Fax: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX

On Mon, 2012-09-17 at 07:59 -0400, Ralph Mitchell wrote:

I think white typically show up for tests that are dependent on some
other test.  For example, the network tests do that.  I've recently
had some ping failures, so ssh came up white, but the client tests
(cpu, memory,disk, ports, procs) all came through OK.

John.

-- 
John Horne                   Tel: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX
Plymouth University, UK      Fax: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX

On 09/17/2012 08:30 AM, John Horne wrote:

On Mon, 2012-09-17 at 07:59 -0400, Ralph Mitchell wrote:

I think white typically show up for tests that are dependent on
some other test.  For example, the network tests do that.  I've
recently had some ping failures, so ssh came up white, but the
client tests (cpu, memory,disk, ports, procs) all came through
OK.

Okay. But as far as I remember the 'procs' and 'files' tests
default to white. When the server is first installed there are no
defined processes or files to monitor so the tests go white.

For these tests the data comes from the client via the large status
text file sent to the server. Since we got an 'oversize' message,
not all the data was available. So I assume none of the 'procs'
stuff was there, so the test went purple because it hadn't seen
anything for a while. The 'files' test, I assume, had some data,
but not enough to give a result of the test. So the test went
white. (Note, I *assume* that is how it works :-))

Anyway, my point is that I would like to know if a test goes white 
regardless of the reason. It is an indication that 'something is
not right', yet because we tend to keep an eye on the 'non-green'
page we were unaware, in this case, that the 'files' test had gone
white.

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On 09/17/2012 10:56 AM, Ryan Novosielski wrote:

On 09/17/2012 08:30 AM, John Horne wrote:

On Mon, 2012-09-17 at 07:59 -0400, Ralph Mitchell wrote:

I think white typically show up for tests that are dependent
on some other test.  For example, the network tests do that.
I've recently had some ping failures, so ssh came up white, but
the client tests (cpu, memory,disk, ports, procs) all came
through OK.

Okay. But as far as I remember the 'procs' and 'files' tests 
default to white. When the server is first installed there are
no defined processes or files to monitor so the tests go white.

For these tests the data comes from the client via the large
status text file sent to the server. Since we got an 'oversize'
message, not all the data was available. So I assume none of the
'procs' stuff was there, so the test went purple because it
hadn't seen anything for a while. The 'files' test, I assume, had
some data, but not enough to give a result of the test. So the
test went white. (Note, I *assume* that is how it works :-))

Anyway, my point is that I would like to know if a test goes
white regardless of the reason. It is an indication that
'something is not right', yet because we tend to keep an eye on
the 'non-green' page we were unaware, in this case, that the
'files' test had gone white.

While likely not what you're looking for, the test is called
"clear" and you can search for it under "Reports / Event log
report" if you want to see all events involving clear (though at
least in my version, 4.2.3, it shows both coming FROM clear and
going TO clear).

You can at least use this to see if the issue is widespread.

- -- 
- ---- _  _ _  _ ___  _  _  _
|Y#| |  | |\/| |  \ |\ |  | |Ryan Novosielski - Sr. Systems Programmer
|$&| |__| |  | |__/ | \| _| |user-ae4522577e16@xymon.invalid - 973/972.0922 (2-0922)
\__/ Univ. of Med. and Dent.|IST/EI-Academic Svcs. - ADMC 450, Newark
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On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 11:41:07AM +0100, John Horne wrote:

Is there a way to report a test as purple if it changes from a colour to
white?

I'm not sure why it reported white and not purple. The status report
from the client was truncated, and I assume the 'files' test, therefore,
received no status.

On Tue, 2012-09-18 at 08:34 +0200, Thomas Kähn wrote:

Hi John,

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 11:41:07AM +0100, John Horne wrote:

Is there a way to report a test as purple if it changes from a colour to
white?

I'm not sure why it reported white and not purple. The status report
from the client was truncated, and I assume the 'files' test, therefore,
received no status.

according to the documentation it is possible to tweak the behaviour a
little bit:

http://xymon.sourceforge.net/xymon/help/manpages/man8/xymond_client.8.html

So if you set --no-clear-files the column probably would have switched
to purple instead of clear.

John.

-- 
John Horne                   Tel: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX
Plymouth University, UK      Fax: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX

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On 09/18/2012 07:03 AM, John Horne wrote:

Hello,

Thanks for this. However, the man page says:

=========== If there are no file checks, the "files" column will
show a "clear" status. If you would rather avoid having a "files"
column, this option causes xymond_client to not send in a clear
"files" status. ==========

which is a little confusing. We have files to check, and the
'files' column already exists (from previous results). So does this
option prevent a *subsequent* status for 'files' from showing
white/clear but will default to purple as with other tests. If so,
then yes this seems like what we want.

I think I need to experiment a little with it.

- -- 
- ---- _  _ _  _ ___  _  _  _
|Y#| |  | |\/| |  \ |\ |  | |Ryan Novosielski - Sr. Systems Programmer
|$&| |__| |  | |__/ | \| _| |user-ae4522577e16@xymon.invalid - 973/972.0922 (2-0922)
\__/ Univ. of Med. and Dent.|IST/EI-Academic Svcs. - ADMC 450, Newark
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On Tue, 2012-09-18 at 08:34 +0200, Thomas Kähn wrote:

Hi John,

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 11:41:07AM +0100, John Horne wrote:

Is there a way to report a test as purple if it changes from a colour to
white?

I'm not sure why it reported white and not purple. The status report
from the client was truncated, and I assume the 'files' test, therefore,
received no status.

according to the documentation it is possible to tweak the behaviour a
little bit:

http://xymon.sourceforge.net/xymon/help/manpages/man8/xymond_client.8.html

So if you set --no-clear-files the column probably would have switched
to purple instead of clear.

Hello,

John.

-- 
John Horne                   Tel: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX
Plymouth University, UK      Fax: +XX (X)XXXX XXXXXX