Random hobbit newbie questions

6 messages in this thread

list Doug Linder · Thu, 22 May 2008 12:49:00 -0400 ·

Hi Everyone, I'm relatively new to Hobbit.  I like it a lot, but I do
have a few random questions.  I've been reading the documentation a lot
and haven't found the answers, so I hope the answers don't turn out to
be "see the man page". :)
 
I have to say I really like the documentation to Hobbit.  At first
glance it seems a bit short, but on reading it I find that it manages to
be packed with information which is written in a nice concise,
efficient, jargon-free, and human-readable way.  The comments in the
config files are also excellent, although sometimes the information in
there is slightly different from what's in the documentation page for
that file - sometimes there's info in one place that isn't in the other.
I wish more documentation in the IT field were written like this.  My
only suggestion is that it would be helpful for us new folks to have
some kind of general overview that describes (or better yet, shows in a
flowchart) how data flows between client, server, the various tests, the
web server, how the various config files fit in, and so on.  The
information is currently in there but it takes a good bit of reading and
experimenting before you really start to "get it".
 
Questions:
 
1) In the hobbit-clients.cfg file, I this is in the comments:
 
 
#             Defaults: MEMPHYS warnlevel=100 paniclevel=101 (i.e. it
will never go red)
#                       MEMSWAP warnlevel=50 paniclevel=80
#                       MEMACT  warnlevel=90 paniclevel=97
#  Note: The words "PHYS", "ACT" and "SWAP" are also recognized.

And then later on, there is this bit:
 
# These are the built-in defaults.
# SWAP    20 40
# MEMSWAP 50 80
 
Is there a difference between MEMSWAP and SWAP?  If not, why is it
listed twice in the defaults?  If so, what is the difference?
 
 
2) In the documentation page for hobbit-clients.cfg, there is this
statement:
 
"CLASS=classname  - Rule match by the client class-name. You specify the
class-name for a host when starting the client through the
"--class=NAME" option to the runclient.sh script. If no class is
specified, the host by default goes into a class named by the operating
system."
 
Unfortunately I can't find any details about what the default names of
the "classes named by the operating system" are, so I don't know which
strings to put after "CLASS=" in my hobbit-clients.cfg file.  Is there a
list somewhere?
 
 
3) There are a couple columns in the default configuration that I don't
want, like "files".  On the page in question, the status icon for every
system is "clear" (white).  I want to use the "drop" option to the bb
command to do this.  I issued this command for every host on the page in
question:
 
bb localhost "drop <hostname> files"
 
That works for a minute or two.  On the next page refresh, almost all of
the hosts have the column empty (just a dash), but a few of them are
back to "clear" already.  After one or two refreshes, all the systems
are back at clear status.  How can I get hobbit to drop the column
forever, permanently, completely, without leaving old history files
around and stuff?
 
Thanks for any tips!
 
 
---
Doug Linder
UNIX Systems Administrator
CompuCom Systems, Inc.
 
SABIC Innovative Plastics
T: XXX XXX XXXX
D: *838 7563
E: user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid

list Josh Luthman · Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:55 -0400 ·

Not sure about 1 and 2.

3 - When you issue bb host "drop host files" you drop the historical data of
the host:files.  As it is reappearing it shows that it is still being
updated, via bb-hosts (or since it is files) from a client.  The files test
is done by the client and reported to the Hobbit server.

Josh

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 12:49 PM, Linder, Doug (SABIC Innovative Plastics,

▸ quoted from Doug Linder

consultant) <user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid> wrote:

 Hi Everyone, I'm relatively new to Hobbit.  I like it a lot, but I do
have a few random questions.  I've been reading the documentation a lot and
haven't found the answers, so I hope the answers don't turn out to be "see
the man page". :)

I have to say I really like the documentation to Hobbit.  At first glance
it seems a bit short, but on reading it I find that it manages to be packed
with information which is written in a nice concise, efficient, jargon-free,
and human-readable way.  The comments in the config files are also
excellent, although sometimes the information in there is slightly different
from what's in the documentation page for that file - sometimes there's info
in one place that isn't in the other.  I wish more documentation in the IT
field were written like this.  My only suggestion is that it would be
helpful for us new folks to have some kind of general overview that
describes (or better yet, shows in a flowchart) how data flows between
client, server, the various tests, the web server, how the various config
files fit in, and so on.  The information is currently in there but it takes
a good bit of reading and experimenting before you really start to "get it".

Questions:

1) In the hobbit-clients.cfg file, I this is in the comments:


#             Defaults: MEMPHYS warnlevel=100 paniclevel=101 (i.e. it will
never go red)
#                       MEMSWAP warnlevel=50 paniclevel=80
#                       MEMACT  warnlevel=90 paniclevel=97
#  Note: The words "PHYS", "ACT" and "SWAP" are also recognized.
And then later on, there is this bit:

# These are the built-in defaults.
# SWAP    20 40
# MEMSWAP 50 80

Is there a difference between MEMSWAP and SWAP?  If not, why is it listed
twice in the defaults?  If so, what is the difference?


2) In the documentation page for hobbit-clients.cfg, there is this
statement:

"CLASS=classname  - Rule match by the client class-name. You specify the
class-name for a host when starting the client through the "--class=NAME"
option to the runclient.sh script. If no class is specified, the host by
default goes into a class named by the operating system."

Unfortunately I can't find any details about what the default names of the
"classes named by the operating system" are, so I don't know which strings
to put after "CLASS=" in my hobbit-clients.cfg file.  Is there a list
somewhere?


3) There are a couple columns in the default configuration that I don't
want, like "files".  On the page in question, the status icon for every
system is "clear" (white).  I want to use the "drop" option to the bb
command to do this.  I issued this command for every host on the page in
question:

bb localhost "drop <hostname> files"

That works for a minute or two.  On the next page refresh, almost all of
the hosts have the column empty (just a dash), but a few of them are back to
"clear" already.  After one or two refreshes, all the systems are back at
clear status.  How can I get hobbit to drop the column forever, permanently,
completely, without leaving old history files around and stuff?

Thanks for any tips!


---
Doug Linder
UNIX Systems Administrator
   CompuCom Systems, Inc.

SABIC Innovative Plastics
T: XXX XXX XXXX
D: *838 7563


E: user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid <user-1ccc17e31a2a@xymon.invalid>

-- 
Josh Luthman
Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX
XXXX Wayne St
Suite XXXX
Troy, OH XXXXX

Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
--- Henry Spencer

list Benjamin P. August · Thu, 22 May 2008 10:07:52 -0700 ·

3) Try a "group-except files <group-name>" in your bb-hosts file.  
That's what I did for my files test anyway.


-- 
--Ben
Benjamin P. August
System Administrator - VPUE
Stanford University


Quoting "Linder, Doug (SABIC Innovative Plastics, consultant)"

▸ quoted from Josh Luthman

<user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid>:

Hi Everyone, I'm relatively new to Hobbit.  I like it a lot, but I do
have a few random questions.  I've been reading the documentation a lot
and haven't found the answers, so I hope the answers don't turn out to
be "see the man page". :)

I have to say I really like the documentation to Hobbit.  At first
glance it seems a bit short, but on reading it I find that it manages to
be packed with information which is written in a nice concise,
efficient, jargon-free, and human-readable way.  The comments in the
config files are also excellent, although sometimes the information in
there is slightly different from what's in the documentation page for
that file - sometimes there's info in one place that isn't in the other.
I wish more documentation in the IT field were written like this.  My
only suggestion is that it would be helpful for us new folks to have
some kind of general overview that describes (or better yet, shows in a
flowchart) how data flows between client, server, the various tests, the
web server, how the various config files fit in, and so on.  The
information is currently in there but it takes a good bit of reading and
experimenting before you really start to "get it".

Questions:

1) In the hobbit-clients.cfg file, I this is in the comments:


#             Defaults: MEMPHYS warnlevel=100 paniclevel=101 (i.e. it
will never go red)
#                       MEMSWAP warnlevel=50 paniclevel=80
#                       MEMACT  warnlevel=90 paniclevel=97
#  Note: The words "PHYS", "ACT" and "SWAP" are also recognized.

And then later on, there is this bit:

# These are the built-in defaults.
# SWAP    20 40
# MEMSWAP 50 80

Is there a difference between MEMSWAP and SWAP?  If not, why is it
listed twice in the defaults?  If so, what is the difference?


2) In the documentation page for hobbit-clients.cfg, there is this
statement:

"CLASS=classname  - Rule match by the client class-name. You specify the
class-name for a host when starting the client through the
"--class=NAME" option to the runclient.sh script. If no class is
specified, the host by default goes into a class named by the operating
system."

Unfortunately I can't find any details about what the default names of
the "classes named by the operating system" are, so I don't know which
strings to put after "CLASS=" in my hobbit-clients.cfg file.  Is there a
list somewhere?


3) There are a couple columns in the default configuration that I don't
want, like "files".  On the page in question, the status icon for every
system is "clear" (white).  I want to use the "drop" option to the bb
command to do this.  I issued this command for every host on the page in
question:

bb localhost "drop <hostname> files"

That works for a minute or two.  On the next page refresh, almost all of
the hosts have the column empty (just a dash), but a few of them are
back to "clear" already.  After one or two refreshes, all the systems
are back at clear status.  How can I get hobbit to drop the column
forever, permanently, completely, without leaving old history files
around and stuff?

Thanks for any tips!


---
Doug Linder
UNIX Systems Administrator
CompuCom Systems, Inc.

SABIC Innovative Plastics
T: XXX XXX XXXX
D: *838 7563
E: user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid

list Bruce White · Thu, 22 May 2008 12:18:56 -0500 ·

Or use the NOCOLUMNS option in the bb-hosts file:

"NOCOLUMNS:column[,column]
Used to drop certain of the status columns generated by the Hobbit client.
column is one of cpu, disk, files, memory, msgs, ports, procs. This setting
stops these columns from being updated for the host. Note: If the columns
already exist, you must use the bb(1) utility to drop them, or they will go
purple."

   ....Bruce

▸ quoted from Benjamin P. August

-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin P. August [mailto:user-e992dd5eb2a5@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:08 PM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] Random hobbit newbie questions

3) Try a "group-except files <group-name>" in your bb-hosts file.  
That's what I did for my files test anyway.

-- 
--Ben
Benjamin P. August
System Administrator - VPUE
Stanford University

Quoting "Linder, Doug (SABIC Innovative Plastics, consultant)"  
<user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid>:

Hi Everyone, I'm relatively new to Hobbit.  I like it a lot, but I do
have a few random questions.  I've been reading the documentation a lot
and haven't found the answers, so I hope the answers don't turn out to
be "see the man page". :)

I have to say I really like the documentation to Hobbit.  At first
glance it seems a bit short, but on reading it I find that it manages to
be packed with information which is written in a nice concise,
efficient, jargon-free, and human-readable way.  The comments in the
config files are also excellent, although sometimes the information in
there is slightly different from what's in the documentation page for
that file - sometimes there's info in one place that isn't in the other.
I wish more documentation in the IT field were written like this.  My
only suggestion is that it would be helpful for us new folks to have
some kind of general overview that describes (or better yet, shows in a
flowchart) how data flows between client, server, the various tests, the
web server, how the various config files fit in, and so on.  The
information is currently in there but it takes a good bit of reading and
experimenting before you really start to "get it".

Questions:

1) In the hobbit-clients.cfg file, I this is in the comments:


#             Defaults: MEMPHYS warnlevel=100 paniclevel=101 (i.e. it
will never go red)
#                       MEMSWAP warnlevel=50 paniclevel=80
#                       MEMACT  warnlevel=90 paniclevel=97
#  Note: The words "PHYS", "ACT" and "SWAP" are also recognized.

And then later on, there is this bit:

# These are the built-in defaults.
# SWAP    20 40
# MEMSWAP 50 80

Is there a difference between MEMSWAP and SWAP?  If not, why is it
listed twice in the defaults?  If so, what is the difference?


2) In the documentation page for hobbit-clients.cfg, there is this
statement:

"CLASS=classname  - Rule match by the client class-name. You specify the
class-name for a host when starting the client through the
"--class=NAME" option to the runclient.sh script. If no class is
specified, the host by default goes into a class named by the operating
system."

Unfortunately I can't find any details about what the default names of
the "classes named by the operating system" are, so I don't know which
strings to put after "CLASS=" in my hobbit-clients.cfg file.  Is there a
list somewhere?


3) There are a couple columns in the default configuration that I don't
want, like "files".  On the page in question, the status icon for every
system is "clear" (white).  I want to use the "drop" option to the bb
command to do this.  I issued this command for every host on the page in
question:

bb localhost "drop <hostname> files"

That works for a minute or two.  On the next page refresh, almost all of
the hosts have the column empty (just a dash), but a few of them are
back to "clear" already.  After one or two refreshes, all the systems
are back at clear status.  How can I get hobbit to drop the column
forever, permanently, completely, without leaving old history files
around and stuff?

Thanks for any tips!


---
Doug Linder
UNIX Systems Administrator
CompuCom Systems, Inc.

SABIC Innovative Plastics
T: XXX XXX XXXX
D: *838 7563
E: user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid

Note: The information contained in this message may be privileged and
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is
not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for
delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from
your computer. Thank you. Fellowes, Inc.

list Bruce White · Thu, 22 May 2008 12:30:40 -0500 ·

I think it is based on the result of a uname -s command.  So Redhat comes
back as Linux, HPUX is HP-UX, Solaris is SunOS, etc.  I believe this also
then matches the actual client script the hobbit client runs as in
hobbitclient-hp-ux.sh.
 
     .....Bruce
 
 
From: Linder, Doug (SABIC Innovative Plastics, consultant)
[mailto:user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 11:49 AM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: [hobbit] Random hobbit newbie questions

▸ quoted from Bruce White

 
Hi Everyone, I'm relatively new to Hobbit.  I like it a lot, but I do have a
few random questions.  I've been reading the documentation a lot and haven't
found the answers, so I hope the answers don't turn out to be "see the man
page". :)
 
I have to say I really like the documentation to Hobbit.  At first glance it
seems a bit short, but on reading it I find that it manages to be packed
with information which is written in a nice concise, efficient, jargon-free,
and human-readable way.  The comments in the config files are also
excellent, although sometimes the information in there is slightly different
from what's in the documentation page for that file - sometimes there's info
in one place that isn't in the other.  I wish more documentation in the IT
field were written like this.  My only suggestion is that it would be
helpful for us new folks to have some kind of general overview that
describes (or better yet, shows in a flowchart) how data flows between
client, server, the various tests, the web server, how the various config
files fit in, and so on.  The information is currently in there but it takes
a good bit of reading and experimenting before you really start to "get it".
 
Questions:
 
1) In the hobbit-clients.cfg file, I this is in the comments:
 
 
#             Defaults: MEMPHYS warnlevel=100 paniclevel=101 (i.e. it will
never go red)
#                       MEMSWAP warnlevel=50 paniclevel=80
#                       MEMACT  warnlevel=90 paniclevel=97
#  Note: The words "PHYS", "ACT" and "SWAP" are also recognized.
And then later on, there is this bit:
 
# These are the built-in defaults.
# SWAP    20 40
# MEMSWAP 50 80
 
Is there a difference between MEMSWAP and SWAP?  If not, why is it listed
twice in the defaults?  If so, what is the difference?
 
 
2) In the documentation page for hobbit-clients.cfg, there is this
statement:
 
"CLASS=classname  - Rule match by the client class-name. You specify the
class-name for a host when starting the client through the "--class=NAME"
option to the runclient.sh script. If no class is specified, the host by
default goes into a class named by the operating system."
 
Unfortunately I can't find any details about what the default names of the
"classes named by the operating system" are, so I don't know which strings
to put after "CLASS=" in my hobbit-clients.cfg file.  Is there a list
somewhere?
 
 
3) There are a couple columns in the default configuration that I don't
want, like "files".  On the page in question, the status icon for every
system is "clear" (white).  I want to use the "drop" option to the bb
command to do this.  I issued this command for every host on the page in
question:
 
bb localhost "drop <hostname> files"
 
That works for a minute or two.  On the next page refresh, almost all of the
hosts have the column empty (just a dash), but a few of them are back to
"clear" already.  After one or two refreshes, all the systems are back at
clear status.  How can I get hobbit to drop the column forever, permanently,
completely, without leaving old history files around and stuff?
 
Thanks for any tips!
 
 
---
Doug Linder
UNIX Systems Administrator
CompuCom Systems, Inc.
 
SABIC Innovative Plastics
T: XXX XXX XXXX
D: *838 7563


E: user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid <mailto:user-1ccc17e31a2a@xymon.invalid>

▸ quoted from Bruce White

 
 
Note: The information contained in this message may be privileged and
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is
not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for
delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from
your computer. Thank you. Fellowes, Inc.

list Johan Björklund · Tue, 27 May 2008 10:09:19 +0200 ·

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 18:49 CEST,

▸ quoted from Bruce White

	 "Linder, Doug (SABIC Innovative Plastics, consultant)" <user-c834f078a0a6@xymon.invalid> wrote:

Is there a difference between MEMSWAP and SWAP?  If not, why is it
listed twice in the defaults?  If so, what is the difference?

As far as I have read the documentation you can use either keyword. SWAP
is just three letters shorter than MEMSWAP (according to documentation
you can use either MEMPHYS, PHYS, MEMACT, ACT, MEMSWAP and SWAP).

▸ quoted from Bruce White

Unfortunately I can't find any details about what the default names of
the "classes named by the operating system" are, so I don't know which
strings to put after "CLASS=" in my hobbit-clients.cfg file.  Is there a
list somewhere?

CLASS is up to you to define. You could use it to classify and group
togehter simlar systems in i.e. hobbit-clients.cfg (the most practical
place to use this flag).

On the clients define CLASS=webfront and in your hobbit-clients.cfg
write this:

CLASS=webfront
	PROC java
	PROC httpd 10

You could achive the same thing using regexp, like:

HOST=%web(1-9).mydomain.com
	PROC java
	PROC httpd 10

Which soultion you use depends more on what you feels are the most
practiacal solution.

▸ quoted from Bruce White

3) There are a couple columns in the default configuration that I don't
want, like "files".  On the page in question, the status icon for every
system is "clear" (white).  I want to use the "drop" option to the bb
command to do this.  I issued this command for every host on the page in
question:

You've got many suggestions already, but I have one more solution:
update your clientdata channel, this is what my channel looks like:

[clientdata]
        ENVFILE /home/hobbitd/server/etc/hobbitserver.cfg
        NEEDS hobbitd
        CMD hobbitd_channel --channel=client --log=$BBSERVERLOGS/clientdata.log hobbitd_client --no-clear-msgs --no-clear-files --no-clear-ports

This tells hobbitd_client to not generate CLEAR status if no test data
is defined for MSGS, FILES or PORTS.

All of the above implies that you use central configuration.
  
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Johan Björklund <user-160fef8f013d@xymon.invalid> http://whero.net/         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. I TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
| (Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchet)
+-------------------------------- ------ ----- ---- --- -- -

Random hobbit newbie questions 🔗 link

Random hobbit newbie questions