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History File Management

16 messages in this thread

list David B. Ritch · Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:38:27 -0400 ·
I recently installed hobbit to monitor nodes in a cluster.  It's a very
good product - thanks to all who have worked on it!

I noticed after a while, that the hobbit home directory was growing in
an apparently boundless fashion.  On further investigation, I discovered
that on one server, my history files had grown to several gigabytes. 
After a while, this growth becomes unsustainable.

Am I doing something wrong?  How do others manage the growth of hobbit
history and log files?
I'm not referring to those in /var/log/hobbit - that's easy to handle
with logrotate.  I'm concerned about the directories associated with
each client under the server data directory.

Thanks!

David
list Rich Smrcina · Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:50:33 -0500 ·
Let me get this right, you're saying that on some (most, all) of your Hobbit client machines some log file(s) is/are growing to multiple GB in size?  Which file(s) and can you post a few lines of the data?
quoted from David B. Ritch

David B. Ritch wrote:
I recently installed hobbit to monitor nodes in a cluster.  It's a very
good product - thanks to all who have worked on it!

I noticed after a while, that the hobbit home directory was growing in
an apparently boundless fashion.  On further investigation, I discovered
that on one server, my history files had grown to several gigabytes. After a while, this growth becomes unsustainable.

Am I doing something wrong?  How do others manage the growth of hobbit
history and log files?
I'm not referring to those in /var/log/hobbit - that's easy to handle
with logrotate.  I'm concerned about the directories associated with
each client under the server data directory.

Thanks!

David

-- 

Rich Smrcina
VM Assist, Inc.
Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Ans Service:  XXX-XXX-XXXX
user-61add9955ef9@xymon.invalid
http://www.linkedin.com/in/richsmrcina

Catch the WAVV!  http://www.wavv.org
WAVV 2009 - Orlando, FL - May 15-19, 2009
list Vernon Everett · Mon, 1 Sep 2008 14:03:22 +0800 ·
Hi all

Has anybody had any success in having different alerts on the PROCS
test.

Example.
We have 2 different applications running on a server with different
application custodians.
If process FOO dies, we need to email/alert user-f9235f338fae@xymon.invalid
If process BAR dies, we need to email/alert user-3a783a60a905@xymon.invalid

As I see it, PROCS is all process tests bundled together, and hobbit
cannot differentiate between them.

Has anybody managed to have different alert recipients based on process?

Thanks
   Vernon

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list Carl Bruhn · Mon, 1 Sep 2008 08:15:09 +0100 ·
Hi Vernon,

As far as I can read from the localclient.cfg it should be possible:
Quote :
#
# You can also associate a GROUP id with a rule. The group-id is passed to
# the alert module, which can then use it to control who gets an alert when
# a failure occurs. E.g. the following associates the "httpd" process check
# with the "web" group, and the "sshd" check with the "admins" group:
#    PROC httpd 5 GROUP=web
#    PROC sshd 1 GROUP=admins
# In the hobbit-alerts.cfg file, you could then have rules like
#    GROUP=web
#       MAIL user-b7c20e0da76a@xymon.invalid
#    GROUP=admins
#       MAIL user-04caac0eb454@xymon.invalid
#


best regards.

Carl Bruhn
Systemkonsulent

CSC Consulting Group A/S
Oldenburg Allé 1
DK-2630 Taastrup
Tel: direkte 3614 5224
Tel: mobil 2923 5224
Tel: CSC Consulting Group 3614 5200
Fax:CSC Consulting Group 3614 5390
user-a25c6c56d0d6@xymon.invalid

Company website http://www.csc.dk

There's more to life than Oracle.......
Unix for instance.


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list Vernon Everett · Mon, 1 Sep 2008 16:25:22 +0800 ·
Thanks, missed that.
Only read the section under PROCS.
Should probably have read the whole thing first. 
quoted from Carl Bruhn
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Bruhn [mailto:user-a25c6c56d0d6@xymon.invalid] Sent: Monday, 1 September 2008 3:15 PM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] Procs - Different alerts

Hi Vernon,

As far as I can read from the localclient.cfg it should be possible:
Quote :
#
# You can also associate a GROUP id with a rule. The group-id is passed to # the alert module, which can then use it to control who gets an alert when # a failure occurs. E.g. the following associates the "httpd" process check # with the "web" group, and the "sshd" check with the "admins" group:
#    PROC httpd 5 GROUP=web
#    PROC sshd 1 GROUP=admins
# In the hobbit-alerts.cfg file, you could then have rules like
#    GROUP=web
#       MAIL user-b7c20e0da76a@xymon.invalid
#    GROUP=admins
#       MAIL user-04caac0eb454@xymon.invalid
#


best regards.

Carl Bruhn
Systemkonsulent

CSC Consulting Group A/S
Oldenburg Allé 1
DK-2630 Taastrup
Tel: direkte 3614 5224
Tel: mobil 2923 5224
Tel: CSC Consulting Group 3614 5200
Fax:CSC Consulting Group 3614 5390
user-a25c6c56d0d6@xymon.invalid

Company website http://www.csc.dk

There's more to life than Oracle.......
Unix for instance.


CSC * This is a PRIVATE message. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete without copying and kindly advise us by e-mail of the mistake in delivery. NOTE: Regardless of content, this e-mail shall not operate to bind CSC to any order or other contract unless pursuant to explicit written agreement or government initiative expressly permitting the use of e-mail for such purpose * CSC Consulting Group A/S * Registered Office: Retortvej 8, 1780 Copenhagen V, Denmark * Registered in Denmark No: 26031362

NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential. They may contain legally privileged information or copyright material. You must not read, copy, use or disclose them without authorisation. If you are not an intended recipient, please contact us at once by return email and then delete both messages and all attachments.
list David B. Ritch · Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:34:32 -0400 ·
Not precisely - it's only on my hobbit server.  It appears to collect
historical data.  It looks like BB messages - I suspect that it keeps
the messages whenever a system state is changed.  That's great - up to a
point.  I can click on "history", and then see exactly what caused a
state change.  However, my systems have been in development, and have
had frequent state changes, so the history has grown quickly.  I'm
concerned that even when the system settles down, these files will grow
over time, and need to be managed.

And no - I don't have individual clients with associated files growing
to GBs.  I have over a hundred clients on each of a couple of servers. 
On one of the servers, I have history files growing to 10s of megabytes
per client - which adds up to gigabytes.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to those systems from here, so I
can't post data.

Thanks,

dbr
quoted from Rich Smrcina

Rich Smrcina wrote:
Let me get this right, you're saying that on some (most, all) of your
Hobbit client machines some log file(s) is/are growing to multiple GB
in size?  Which file(s) and can you post a few lines of the data?

David B. Ritch wrote:
I recently installed hobbit to monitor nodes in a cluster.  It's a very
good product - thanks to all who have worked on it!

I noticed after a while, that the hobbit home directory was growing in
an apparently boundless fashion.  On further investigation, I discovered
that on one server, my history files had grown to several gigabytes.
After a while, this growth becomes unsustainable.

Am I doing something wrong?  How do others manage the growth of hobbit
history and log files?
I'm not referring to those in /var/log/hobbit - that's easy to handle
with logrotate.  I'm concerned about the directories associated with
each client under the server data directory.

Thanks!

David

list Vernon Everett · Tue, 2 Sep 2008 15:52:20 +0800 ·
Hi all

Grouping subpages?
How?

Grouping hosts is dead easy, but subpages?
Is it even possible?

I am looking for a page
And on the page, a heading
	Then a few links to subpages (with hosts in these subpages)
Then another heading
	And more links to more subpages (with more hosts)

Regards
quoted from Vernon Everett
    Vernon


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list Vernon Everett · Tue, 2 Sep 2008 16:03:13 +0800 ·
According to the docs, and confirmed by testing,
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.

This is the bit that's got me stuck.
column is one of cpu, disk, files, memory, msgs, ports, procs. 
Is there a way to nocolumn a custom test?

We have a server, appearing twice in bb-hosts, because it performs 2
different functions.
It has 2 custom tests on it, one monitoring app1 and other monitoring
app2.
There are different custodians for the 2 apps, so I want them to appear
in their own groups.

We have it listed in bb-hosts as .
.
group App1 Servers
1.2.3.4	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app2
.
.
.
group App2 Servers
0.0.0.0	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app1

How do I make this work?
quoted from Vernon Everett

Thanks
    Vernon


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list Dominique Frise · Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:59:13 +0200 ·
 From bb-hosts(5) man page:

      group-only COLUMN1|COLUMN2|COLUMN3 [group-title]
           Same as the "group"  and  "group-compress"  lines,  but
           includes  only  the  columns  explicitly  listed in the
           group. Any columns not listed will be ignored for these
           hosts.

      group-except COLUMN1|COLUMN2|COLUMN3 [group-title]
           Same  as  the  "group-only"  lines,  but  includes  all
           columns  EXCEPT  those  explicitly listed in the group.
           Any columns listed will be ignored for  these  hosts  -
           all other columns are shown.


In your case maybe:

group-except app2 App1 Servers
1.2.3.4	foo	#
.
.
group-except app1 App2 Servers
0.0.0.0	foo	#


Dominique
quoted from Vernon Everett


Everett, Vernon wrote:
According to the docs, and confirmed by testing,
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.

This is the bit that's got me stuck.
column is one of cpu, disk, files, memory, msgs, ports, procs. 
Is there a way to nocolumn a custom test?

We have a server, appearing twice in bb-hosts, because it performs 2
different functions.
It has 2 custom tests on it, one monitoring app1 and other monitoring
app2.
There are different custodians for the 2 apps, so I want them to appear
in their own groups.

We have it listed in bb-hosts as .
.
group App1 Servers
1.2.3.4	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app2
.
.
.
group App2 Servers
0.0.0.0	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app1

How do I make this work?

Thanks
    Vernon


NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential. They may contain legally privileged information or copyright material. You must not read, copy, use or disclose them without authorisation. If you are not an intended recipient, please contact us at once by return email and then delete both messages and all attachments.

list Vernon Everett · Wed, 3 Sep 2008 16:01:10 +0800 ·
Bloody brilliant!

Thanks. 
quoted from Dominique Frise
-----Original Message-----
From: Dominique Frise [mailto:user-78ab6673b600@xymon.invalid] Sent: Wednesday, 3 September 2008 2:59 PM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] NOCOLUMNS:custom,stuff

 From bb-hosts(5) man page:

      group-only COLUMN1|COLUMN2|COLUMN3 [group-title]
           Same as the "group"  and  "group-compress"  lines,  but
           includes  only  the  columns  explicitly  listed in the
           group. Any columns not listed will be ignored for these
           hosts.

      group-except COLUMN1|COLUMN2|COLUMN3 [group-title]
           Same  as  the  "group-only"  lines,  but  includes  all
           columns  EXCEPT  those  explicitly listed in the group.
           Any columns listed will be ignored for  these  hosts  -
           all other columns are shown.


In your case maybe:

group-except app2 App1 Servers
1.2.3.4	foo	#
.
.
group-except app1 App2 Servers
0.0.0.0	foo	#


Dominique


Everett, Vernon wrote:
According to the docs, and confirmed by testing, 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.

This is the bit that's got me stuck.
column is one of cpu, disk, files, memory, msgs, ports, procs. 
Is there a way to nocolumn a custom test?

We have a server, appearing twice in bb-hosts, because it performs 2 different functions.
It has 2 custom tests on it, one monitoring app1 and other monitoring app2.
There are different custodians for the 2 apps, so I want them to appear in their own groups.

We have it listed in bb-hosts as
.
.
group App1 Servers
1.2.3.4	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app2
.
.
.
group App2 Servers
0.0.0.0	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app1

How do I make this work?

Thanks
    Vernon


NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential. They may contain legally privileged information or copyright material.
You must not read, copy, use or disclose them without authorisation. If you are not an intended recipient, please contact us at once by return email and then delete both messages and all attachments.

NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential. They may contain legally privileged information or copyright material. You must not read, copy, use or disclose them without authorisation. If you are not an intended recipient, please contact us at once by return email and then delete both messages and all attachments.
list Tom Kauffman · Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:36:39 -0400 ·
Looks like this -- the "Timeclocks" entry shows on the main page; on the "Timeclocks" page there is an entry for each site; the site-level subpage shows the detail for all the timeclocks at the site.

#
page Timeclocks <H4><I> Timeclocks </I></H4>
title <H3> Timeclocks </H3>
subparent Timeclocks atl-clock <H3><I>Atlanta Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Atlanta Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/atl-stuff/timeclocks
subparent Timeclocks bly-clock <H3><I>Blytheville Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Blytheville Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/bly-stuff/timeclocks
subparent Timeclocks cha-clock <H3><I>Charleston Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Charleston Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/cha-stuff/timeclocks
subparent Timeclocks cor-clock <H3><I>Corona Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Corona Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/cor-stuff/timeclocks

# hosts/atl-stuff/timeclocks
10.168.20.1     atl-timeclock1          # noconn
10.168.20.2     atl-timeclock2          # noconn


I have entries on my main page for routers, LAN switches, print servers, and other such. I also have entries by physical site, with the full detail of the devices at that site (used by the site admins).

Tom
quoted from Vernon Everett

-----Original Message-----
From: Everett, Vernon [mailto:user-9da1a1882f49@xymon.invalid]
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 3:52 AM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: [hobbit] Grouping subpages

Hi all

Grouping subpages?
How?

Grouping hosts is dead easy, but subpages?
Is it even possible?

I am looking for a page
And on the page, a heading
        Then a few links to subpages (with hosts in these subpages)
Then another heading
        And more links to more subpages (with more hosts)

Regards
    Vernon


NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential.
They may contain legally privileged information or
copyright material. You must not read, copy, use or
disclose them without authorisation. If you are not an
intended recipient, please contact us at once by return
email and then delete both messages and all attachments.
list Geoff Hallford · Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:57:44 -0400 ·
Correct. I believe the 2nd one should be 'subpage' though and not
'subparent'. You can do this as many times as you want (I think). I have
up-to 3 pages deep:

page partner1 <H4>Partner 1</H4>
subpage p1-research <H4>Research</H4>
subparent p1-res-servers p1-research <H4>Servers</H4>
1.1.1.1 SERVER1
subparent p1-res-network p1-research <H4>Network</H4>
2.2.2.2 SWITCH1
subpage p1-business <H4>Business</H4>
subparent p1-bus-servers p1-business <H4>Servers</H4>
1.1.1.2 SERVER2
subparent p1-bus-network p1-business <H4>Network</H4>
2.2.2.3 SWITCH2

Hierarchy looks like this:

Main Page
   --- Partner 1
         --- Research
               --- Servers
               --- Network
         --- Business
               --- Servers
               --- Network
   --- Partner 2
   .........


'Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.' --Yogi Berra
quoted from Tom Kauffman


On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 9:36 AM, Kauffman, Tom <user-3feba9e60a8b@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Looks like this -- the "Timeclocks" entry shows on the main page; on the
"Timeclocks" page there is an entry for each site; the site-level subpage
shows the detail for all the timeclocks at the site.

#
page Timeclocks <H4><I> Timeclocks </I></H4>
title <H3> Timeclocks </H3>
subparent Timeclocks atl-clock <H3><I>Atlanta Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Atlanta Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/atl-stuff/timeclocks
subparent Timeclocks bly-clock <H3><I>Blytheville Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Blytheville Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/bly-stuff/timeclocks
subparent Timeclocks cha-clock <H3><I>Charleston Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Charleston Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/cha-stuff/timeclocks
subparent Timeclocks cor-clock <H3><I>Corona Timeclocks</I></H3>
group-compress <H3><I>Corona Timeclocks</I></H3>
include hosts/cor-stuff/timeclocks

# hosts/atl-stuff/timeclocks
10.168.20.1     atl-timeclock1          # noconn
10.168.20.2     atl-timeclock2          # noconn


I have entries on my main page for routers, LAN switches, print servers,
and other such. I also have entries by physical site, with the full detail
of the devices at that site (used by the site admins).

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Everett, Vernon [mailto:user-9da1a1882f49@xymon.invalid]
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 3:52 AM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: [hobbit] Grouping subpages

Hi all

Grouping subpages?
How?

Grouping hosts is dead easy, but subpages?
Is it even possible?

I am looking for a page
And on the page, a heading
       Then a few links to subpages (with hosts in these subpages)
Then another heading
       And more links to more subpages (with more hosts)

Regards
   Vernon


NOTICE: This email and any attachments are confidential.
They may contain legally privileged information or
copyright material. You must not read, copy, use or
disclose them without authorisation. If you are not an
intended recipient, please contact us at once by return
email and then delete both messages and all attachments.

list Henrik Størner · Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:58:17 +0000 (UTC) ·
quoted from David B. Ritch
In <user-e6524b53948f@xymon.invalid> "David B. Ritch" <user-23cafa473f8d@xymon.invalid> writes:
I noticed after a while, that the hobbit home directory was growing in
an apparently boundless fashion.  On further investigation, I discovered
that on one server, my history files had grown to several gigabytes. 
After a while, this growth becomes unsustainable.
The hist/HOSTNAME.STATUSNAME and histlogs/* files shouldn't grow *that*
much. They will grow, but usually slowly - they are only updated when
there is a status change (red->green or similar).

If they are growing quickly, it is usually because a status is "flapping",
i.e. changing rapidly between red and green. I've seen this happen if
you have two hosts reporting with the same name (e.g. two hosts called
"www"), with one reporting a green status and the other reporting a red
status. A look at the bottom line of the status report which says "Message 
received from ..." will help you figure out if that is the case.


Regardless, the 'trimhistory' utility can be used to clean up the
size of the history logs.


Regards,
Henrik
list Henrik Størner · Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:00:19 +0000 (UTC) ·
quoted from Geoff Hallford
In <user-ec5aeb54c9d2@xymon.invalid> "Everett, Vernon" <user-9da1a1882f49@xymon.invalid> writes:
Grouping subpages?
How?
Grouping hosts is dead easy, but subpages?
Is it even possible?
I am looking for a page
And on the page, a heading
Then a few links to subpages (with hosts in these subpages)
Then another heading
And more links to more subpages (with more hosts)

Separate the "subpage" entries in bb-hosts with "title" sections.
E.g.

   title Perth servers
   subpage win-perth Windows server in Perth
   subpage unix-perth Unix server in Perth
   title Melbourne
   subpage win-melbourne ...


Henrik
list Henrik Størner · Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:01:49 +0000 (UTC) ·
In <user-0c6348f4a52f@xymon.invalid> "Everett, Vernon" <user-9da1a1882f49@xymon.invalid> writes:
group App1 Servers
1.2.3.4	foo	# NOCOLUMS:app2
Use "group-except app2 App1 Servers", and drop the NOCOLUMNS


Henrik
list David B. Ritch · Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:06:21 -0400 ·
Thank you!  I believe that trimhistory is just what I was looking for.

David
quoted from Henrik Størner

Henrik Stoerner wrote:
In <user-e6524b53948f@xymon.invalid> "David B. Ritch" <user-23cafa473f8d@xymon.invalid> writes:

  
I noticed after a while, that the hobbit home directory was growing in
an apparently boundless fashion.  On further investigation, I discovered
that on one server, my history files had grown to several gigabytes. 
After a while, this growth becomes unsustainable.
    
The hist/HOSTNAME.STATUSNAME and histlogs/* files shouldn't grow *that*
much. They will grow, but usually slowly - they are only updated when
there is a status change (red->green or similar).

If they are growing quickly, it is usually because a status is "flapping",
i.e. changing rapidly between red and green. I've seen this happen if
you have two hosts reporting with the same name (e.g. two hosts called
"www"), with one reporting a green status and the other reporting a red
status. A look at the bottom line of the status report which says "Message 
received from ..." will help you figure out if that is the case.


Regardless, the 'trimhistory' utility can be used to clean up the
size of the history logs.


Regards,
Henrik