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Just wondering if I'm the only one who's done this

5 messages in this thread

list Bruce Ferrell · Wed, 31 Aug 2016 22:33:58 -0700 ·
I've never ever seen it written up, and I've been a user since the days when xymon was BigBrother (yes, I know they aren't common code... xymon IS the spiritual descendant however)

Recently, I started monitoring a remote service that was failing regularly.  It would send me an alert and I'd go fix the service.  I got tired of having to do the restarts so I
looked a bit more into alerts.cfg.  Yes, I can send an alert via a script (do that all the time for sms)... Wait... Can that script do anything else?  Well, I'll be!  I wrote one
to ssh into the offending system (key based authentication) and perform simple diags, collects relevant logs then restart the downed service.

I have seen a number of times, "xymon/bigbrother doesn't restart things".

Thoughts?  Concerns? 

Bueller? Bueller??
list Jeremy Ruffer · Thu, 1 Sep 2016 11:50:11 +0100 ·
Good on you.

I can see no reason not to if it works for you.

Regards

Jeremy
quoted from Bruce Ferrell

On 1 Sep 2016 06:34, "Bruce Ferrell" <user-24fbf1912cfe@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I've never ever seen it written up, and I've been a user since the days
when xymon was BigBrother (yes, I know they aren't common code... xymon IS
the spiritual descendant however)

Recently, I started monitoring a remote service that was failing
regularly.  It would send me an alert and I'd go fix the service.  I got
tired of having to do the restarts so I
looked a bit more into alerts.cfg.  Yes, I can send an alert via a script
(do that all the time for sms)... Wait... Can that script do anything
else?  Well, I'll be!  I wrote one
to ssh into the offending system (key based authentication) and perform
simple diags, collects relevant logs then restart the downed service.

I have seen a number of times, "xymon/bigbrother doesn't restart things".

Thoughts?  Concerns?

Bueller? Bueller??

list Henrik Størner · Thu, 01 Sep 2016 14:01:44 +0200 ·
quoted from Bruce Ferrell
Den 01-09-2016 07:33, Bruce Ferrell skrev:
I've never ever seen it written up, and I've been a user since the
days when xymon was BigBrother (yes, I know they aren't common code...
xymon IS the spiritual descendant however)

Recently, I started monitoring a remote service that was failing
regularly.  It would send me an alert and I'd go fix the service.  I
got tired of having to do the restarts so I
looked a bit more into alerts.cfg.  Yes, I can send an alert via a
script (do that all the time for sms)... Wait... Can that script do
anything else?  Well, I'll be!  I wrote one
to ssh into the offending system (key based authentication) and
perform simple diags, collects relevant logs then restart the downed
service.

I have seen a number of times, "xymon/bigbrother doesn't restart things".

Thoughts?  Concerns?
Sure, you can do that if it suits your way of working. And I can certainly see why it would be nice to avoid restarting the same service again and again.

The reason that Xymon doesn't do that "out of the box" is this: Xymon has always been a "watch, but don't act" tool. And that is an inheritance from the Big Brother days.


Regards,
Henrik
list Richard Hamilton · Thu, 1 Sep 2016 08:42:12 -0400 ·
It's a useful enough possibility...and we all use workarounds from time to
time.  But as time permits, the real cause of the problem should be found
and fixed; and workarounds should not become permanent.  I'd worry that a
monitoring tool being used to implement workarounds could make that too
tempting.
quoted from Henrik Størner


On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 8:01 AM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Den 01-09-2016 07:33, Bruce Ferrell skrev:
I've never ever seen it written up, and I've been a user since the
days when xymon was BigBrother (yes, I know they aren't common code...
xymon IS the spiritual descendant however)

Recently, I started monitoring a remote service that was failing
regularly.  It would send me an alert and I'd go fix the service.  I
got tired of having to do the restarts so I
looked a bit more into alerts.cfg.  Yes, I can send an alert via a
script (do that all the time for sms)... Wait... Can that script do
anything else?  Well, I'll be!  I wrote one
to ssh into the offending system (key based authentication) and
perform simple diags, collects relevant logs then restart the downed
service.

I have seen a number of times, "xymon/bigbrother doesn't restart things".

Thoughts?  Concerns?
Sure, you can do that if it suits your way of working. And I can certainly
see why it would be nice to avoid restarting the same service again and
again.

The reason that Xymon doesn't do that "out of the box" is this: Xymon has
always been a "watch, but don't act" tool. And that is an inheritance from
the Big Brother days.


Regards,
Henrik

list Ryan Novosielski · Thu, 1 Sep 2016 13:54:10 +0000 ·
This is my feeling on this. It’s your business, but no service should need automatic restarting enough to make that an attractive option.

--
____
|| \\UTGERS,  	 |---------------------------*O*---------------------------
||_// the State	 |         Ryan Novosielski - user-46c89e614701@xymon.invalid
|| \\ University | Sr. Technologist - 973/972.0922 (2x0922) ~*~ RBHS Campus
||  \\    of NJ	 | Office of Advanced Research Computing - MSB C630, Newark
quoted from Richard Hamilton
    `'
On Sep 1, 2016, at 08:42, Richard Hamilton <user-af55987f6d56@xymon.invalid> wrote:

It's a useful enough possibility...and we all use workarounds from time to time.  But as time permits, the real cause of the problem should be found and fixed; and workarounds should not become permanent.  I'd worry that a monitoring tool being used to implement workarounds could make that too tempting.


On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 8:01 AM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Den 01-09-2016 07:33, Bruce Ferrell skrev:
I've never ever seen it written up, and I've been a user since the
days when xymon was BigBrother (yes, I know they aren't common code...
xymon IS the spiritual descendant however)

Recently, I started monitoring a remote service that was failing
regularly.  It would send me an alert and I'd go fix the service.  I
got tired of having to do the restarts so I
looked a bit more into alerts.cfg.  Yes, I can send an alert via a
script (do that all the time for sms)... Wait... Can that script do
anything else?  Well, I'll be!  I wrote one
to ssh into the offending system (key based authentication) and
perform simple diags, collects relevant logs then restart the downed
service.

I have seen a number of times, "xymon/bigbrother doesn't restart things".

Thoughts?  Concerns?

Sure, you can do that if it suits your way of working. And I can certainly see why it would be nice to avoid restarting the same service again and again.

The reason that Xymon doesn't do that "out of the box" is this: Xymon has always been a "watch, but don't act" tool. And that is an inheritance from the Big Brother days.


Regards,
Henrik