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Xymon client design (was Xymon is practically dead)

12 messages in this thread

list TJ Yang · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:27:41 -0500 ·
Hi, Tom

Hope you don't mind I changed the subject and cc to
hobbitmon-developer on this topic.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
The idea is good but there is resources needed to convert hobbit
client into java.
Who are going to do it ?

Back to the existing hobbit client implementation.

I do have concerns about hobbitclient-OS??.sh shell script's programming style.
There is no check return status of system command it call and there is
no error handling when system command faild.
I got many purple alert when one of the system command failed or
didn't finish in time.


tj
Tom

-- 
T.J. Yang
list Jerald Sheets · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:38:02 -0400 ·

Sent from my iPhone
Please ignore spelling/grammar.
quoted from TJ Yang

On Jul 2, 2010, at 11:27 AM, TJ Yang <user-61afc885aa73@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Hi, Tom

Hope you don't mind I changed the subject and cc to
hobbitmon-developer on this topic.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
The idea is good but there is resources needed to convert hobbit
client into java.
Who are going to do it ?

Back to the existing hobbit client implementation.

I do have concerns about hobbitclient-OS??.sh shell script's programming style.
There is no check return status of system command it call and there is
no error handling when system command faild.
I got many purple alert when one of the system command failed or
didn't finish in time.

This looks like a job for the bug tracker!

Seriously...  While we're brainstorming like this, we shoul be capturing it all somewhere besides email, whether some project management tool, bugzilla, or whatever...

tj
Tom

-- 
T.J. Yang

This SF.net email is sponsored by Sprint
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Hobbitmon-developer mailing list
user-f970bfd1395f@xymon.invalid
list Henrik Størner · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 17:56:24 +0200 ·
quoted from TJ Yang
On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 10:27:41AM -0500, TJ Yang wrote:
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
One very simple reason: The client needs to know about the
specifics of the operating system it is running on - that's 
the whole purpose of having a client! Java tries very hard to
isolate the underlying OS from the apps running inside the
JVM, which runs counter to this.

In other words - when you want to report on metrics specific
to the OS, it doesn't really make sense to use an OS-agnostic
tool.

Another reason is that the client shouldn't require a lot of 
additional software besides what comes with the OS. And the
output from the OS-specific tools will be well known to the
admins who are going to use the data from Xymon.


Regards,
Henrik
list TJ Yang · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:17:11 -0500 ·
How about P.M. tool like this http://code.google.com/p/xymon/ ?

tj
quoted from Henrik Størner

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:56 AM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 10:27:41AM -0500, TJ Yang wrote:
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
One very simple reason: The client needs to know about the
specifics of the operating system it is running on - that's
the whole purpose of having a client! Java tries very hard to
isolate the underlying OS from the apps running inside the
JVM, which runs counter to this.

In other words - when you want to report on metrics specific
to the OS, it doesn't really make sense to use an OS-agnostic
tool.

Another reason is that the client shouldn't require a lot of
additional software besides what comes with the OS. And the
output from the OS-specific tools will be well known to the
admins who are going to use the data from Xymon.


Regards,
Henrik

-- 

T.J. Yang
list dOCtoR MADneSs · Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:15:45 +0200 ·
quoted from TJ Yang
Le 02/07/2010 18:17, TJ Yang a écrit :
How about P.M. tool like this http://code.google.com/p/xymon/ ?

tj

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:56 AM, Henrik Størner<user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid>  wrote:
   
On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 10:27:41AM -0500, TJ Yang wrote:
     
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid>  wrote:
       
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:

         
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
           
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.

         
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
       
One very simple reason: The client needs to know about the
specifics of the operating system it is running on - that's
the whole purpose of having a client! Java tries very hard to
isolate the underlying OS from the apps running inside the
JVM, which runs counter to this.

In other words - when you want to report on metrics specific
to the OS, it doesn't really make sense to use an OS-agnostic
tool.

Another reason is that the client shouldn't require a lot of
additional software besides what comes with the OS. And the
output from the OS-specific tools will be well known to the
admins who are going to use the data from Xymon.


Regards,
Henrik

Hi,

Is there an IRC channel, a forum or something more "live" than ML to 
discuss about xymon project ? I've some ideas, maybe stupids, that I 
could suggest
list TJ Yang · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 15:27:33 -0500 ·
quoted from dOCtoR MADneSs
<snip>
Hi,

Is there an IRC channel, a forum or something more "live" than ML to discuss
about xymon project ? I've some ideas, maybe stupids, that I could suggest
Yes, there is xymon IRC created on freenode. But the problem is not
many people go there.
This M.L. has most xymon audience. Please don't be shy on sharing your
idea by email.

tj
-- 
T.J. Yang
list Jerald Sheets · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 16:50:46 -0400 ·
Definitely.

When you share on email, everyone benefits today, tomorrow, and forever
because all the conversation and history gets saved in the archive.  Things
that pass by on the IRC never get seen again unless someone makes the time
to clip it out of the IRC window and save it to disk somewhere.


---
Jerald M. Sheets jr.
quoted from TJ Yang


On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 4:27 PM, TJ Yang <user-61afc885aa73@xymon.invalid> wrote:
<snip>
Hi,

Is there an IRC channel, a forum or something more "live" than ML to
discuss
about xymon project ? I've some ideas, maybe stupids, that I could
suggest
Yes, there is xymon IRC created on freenode. But the problem is not
many people go there.
This M.L. has most xymon audience. Please don't be shy on sharing your
idea by email.

tj
--
T.J. Yang

list Stef Coene · Fri, 2 Jul 2010 23:11:54 +0200 ·
quoted from TJ Yang
On Friday 02 July 2010, TJ Yang wrote:
Hi, Tom

Hope you don't mind I changed the subject and cc to
hobbitmon-developer on this topic.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias

<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is
much better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
Indeed.  I vote against a java based client.
Xymon is fast and light.  Java is bloaded and slow.  (I know people will say java can be small and fast, but I never found a fast and small java application).
Me, as a sysadmin will not allow a java environment installed just for running a basic monitoring client if that client is now a simple shell script and a simple C program.

I can understand the need for a java client for the more uncommon OS'es, but don't make it the only available client for linux / unix / windows.
quoted from Jerald Sheets
I do have concerns about hobbitclient-OS??.sh shell script's programming
style. There is no check return status of system command it call and there
is no error handling when system command faild.
I got many purple alert when one of the system command failed or
didn't finish in time.
That's easy to solve.  Just update the scripts and add some error trapping.  I can do that if needed.  But I never had the need because I never had a purple alert because some system command gave an error.


Stef
list dOCtoR MADneSs · Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:44:38 +0200 ·
Le 02/07/2010 22:50, Jerald Sheets a écrit :
Definitely.  
When you share on email, everyone benefits today, tomorrow, and forever because all the conversation and history gets saved in the archive.  Things that pass by on the IRC never get seen again unless someone makes the time to clip it out of the IRC window and save it to disk somewhere.


---
Jerald M. Sheets jr.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 4:27 PM, TJ Yang <user-61afc885aa73@xymon.invalid> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Is there an IRC channel, a forum or something more "live" than ML to discuss
> about xymon project ? I've some ideas, maybe stupids, that I could suggest
>

Yes, there is xymon IRC created on freenode. But the problem is not
many people go there.
This M.L. has most xymon audience. Please don't be shy on sharing your
idea by email.

tj
>
>
>
>
>

--
T.J. Yang
list Neil Franken · Mon, 5 Jul 2010 07:38:43 +0200 ·
Hi Tom

Java based client would only be for Windows, Mac-OS the unix one is perfect. Just thinking that a java project is not tied down to windows specifics like the bbwin problem we have. A Eclipse project will run in netbeans, jbuilder et with minimal effort. Since BBWin is just really a socket client with a timer thread I can do a Java client with minimal effort. Anyway just a idea we don't have to act on it.


Regards
Neil
quoted from TJ Yang


-----Original Message-----
From: TJ Yang [mailto:user-61afc885aa73@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: 02 July 2010 05:28 PM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid; user-f970bfd1395f@xymon.invalid
Subject: [hobbit] Xymon client design (was Xymon is practically dead)

Hi, Tom

Hope you don't mind I changed the subject and cc to
hobbitmon-developer on this topic.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
The idea is good but there is resources needed to convert hobbit
client into java.
Who are going to do it ?

Back to the existing hobbit client implementation.

I do have concerns about hobbitclient-OS??.sh shell script's programming style.
There is no check return status of system command it call and there is
no error handling when system command faild.
I got many purple alert when one of the system command failed or
didn't finish in time.


tj
Tom

-- 
T.J. Yang
list Neil Franken · Mon, 5 Jul 2010 07:42:32 +0200 ·
Hi Henrik 

Agreed. However I have done some experimenting with a package called JCrontab. It is a scheduler and what I do is schedule VBS scripts and other exe to run via this scheduler. The scheduler runs the scripts/program and reads from the standard io . Since all my scripts/exe write to the standard io I can return OS specific information to the Java application which in turn open a socket and writes to Xymon. It is very simple and extensible. Anyway just a thought. The more ideas we have to discuss the better.

Regards
Neil
quoted from Henrik Størner


-----Original Message-----
From: Henrik Størner [mailto:user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: 02 July 2010 05:56 PM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid; user-f970bfd1395f@xymon.invalid
Subject: [hobbit] Re: [Hobbitmon-developer] Xymon client design (was Xymon is practically dead)

On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 10:27:41AM -0500, TJ Yang wrote:
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
<user-6a0b8b0f0ae1@xymon.invalid> wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
One very simple reason: The client needs to know about the
specifics of the operating system it is running on - that's 
the whole purpose of having a client! Java tries very hard to
isolate the underlying OS from the apps running inside the
JVM, which runs counter to this.

In other words - when you want to report on metrics specific
to the OS, it doesn't really make sense to use an OS-agnostic
tool.

Another reason is that the client shouldn't require a lot of 
additional software besides what comes with the OS. And the
output from the OS-specific tools will be well known to the
admins who are going to use the data from Xymon.


Regards,
Henrik
list Wiskbroom · Tue, 6 Jul 2010 10:15:13 -0400 ·
Neil;

Great tool, but it is java based...

.vp
quoted from Neil Franken
Hi Henrik

Agreed. However I have done some experimenting with a package called JCrontab. It is a scheduler and what I do is schedule VBS scripts and other exe to run via this scheduler. The scheduler runs the scripts/program and reads from the standard io . Since all my scripts/exe write to the standard io I can return OS specific information to the Java application which in turn open a socket and writes to Xymon. It is very simple and extensible. Anyway just a thought. The more ideas we have to discuss the better.

Regards
Neil


-----Original Message-----
From: Henrik Størner [mailto:user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid]
Sent: 02 July 2010 05:56 PM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid; user-f970bfd1395f@xymon.invalid
Subject: [hobbit] Re: [Hobbitmon-developer] Xymon client design (was Xymon is practically dead)

On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 10:27:41AM -0500, TJ Yang wrote:
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Tom Georgoulias
 wrote:
On 07/02/2010 05:47 AM, Neil Franken wrote:
Xymon is just one part of the equation for me. I see a lot of
potential for Xymon in the Windows world but the BBWin client is well
a very quiet project as well. I am not sure yet if we would maybe
fork the code or create a new client. At this point I would suggest
that maybe we look at a Java based client for xymon so we can run on
a huge variety of platforms with one client. Anyway the whole client
is a whole different ball game.
I would not be in favor of a java based client, the current design is much
better on unix systems.  It's one of the reasons xymon works well.
I can understand why Neil has this idea, it flashed in brain before.
Why not write once and run every where ?
One very simple reason: The client needs to know about the
specifics of the operating system it is running on - that's
the whole purpose of having a client! Java tries very hard to
isolate the underlying OS from the apps running inside the
JVM, which runs counter to this.

In other words - when you want to report on metrics specific
to the OS, it doesn't really make sense to use an OS-agnostic
tool.

Another reason is that the client shouldn't require a lot of
additional software besides what comes with the OS. And the
output from the OS-specific tools will be well known to the
admins who are going to use the data from Xymon.


Regards,
Henrik