<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:o =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3020" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE>@page Section1 {size: 612.0pt 792.0pt; margin: 72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; }
P.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"
}
LI.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"
}
DIV.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"
}
A:link {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlink {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline
}
A:visited {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline
}
SPAN.EmailStyle17 {
COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-style-type: personal-compose
}
DIV.Section1 {
page: Section1
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY lang=EN-US vLink=purple link=blue>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=740434914-19012007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Etienne -- you are going to have to find someone to write
that and add it to Hobbit. Path-based alarm suppression is one of the holy
grails in the network management industry, and the reason it has not yet been
solved is because it is a difficult problem. For small networks you can
come up with a solution, but if you are using VLANs and WAN's and load balancers
and all that other stuff it gets to be rather difficult.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=740434914-19012007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=740434914-19012007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>There are many commercial software vendors that claim to
have this problem solved -- but sometimes even their demos do not work.
The little bit of dependency specification that you can put into Hobbit does
indeed work, but not across the board.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=740434914-19012007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=740434914-19012007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>GLH</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> Marganne, Etienne
[mailto:emarganne@be.tiauto.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, January 19, 2007
5:58 AM<BR><B>To:</B> hobbit@hswn.dk<BR><B>Cc:</B>
henrik@hswn.dk<BR><B>Subject:</B> [hobbit] Dependency sytem in
Hobbit<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hello
all,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I am Etienne Marganne, a new comer
in TI Automotive, a society which uses Hobbit as a monitoring tool, I will be
in charge of Hobbit tool. We would like to enhance our monitoring tool in
order to get more detailed informations through
it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">One of the first thing we would
like to do is to create a dependency system between monitored hosts across our
network. For all the further discussion, please keep in mind that we have a
very large network and two Hobbit servers where we would like to keep the same
“hh-hosts” file. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The idea of the dependency system
is the following one: once we have a host that fails on a network path in our
network all the hosts further that one will be very likely unreachable. This
will cause a lot of alerts to be triggered because of one failure. This is not
interesting because our team will be flooded by those alerts. Therefore it
could be useful to create dependencies so that those further devices on the
same path will not trigger alerts (basically turning
red).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There is a specific tag that can
be used to do such a work, the “route” tag. In our case with two Hobbit
servers, we would tune that with the “route_BBLOCATION” tag. Knowing that
there are Hobbit clients on all the network nodes between the two endpoints,
the simplest idea would be to list all the nodes in the description of those
tags. This could work even if it would generate of job. A little bit further
here, let’s say that one node fails on a path, it is very probable that if you
know that the following nodes are unreachable, you may not want to test them
anymore (to forbid them to turn red). <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Now think of a big network with a
lot of redundancy, it is very probable that there will be indeed a lot of
network paths between a server and one final host. If on one path one node
fails, it does not mean that the final client is not reachable. But with the
“route” tag, that client would be signal as unreachable since a member of the
“route” has failed. This is not comfortable at all.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">What we would like to know, or to
get, if there is a way to get this dependency system work:
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hobbit Server A ---- 1 ---- 2 ----
3 ---- 4 ---- Final Client<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
|
|<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
| --------- 5 ------------6 ----------- | <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There are two paths to reach the
Final Client, one composed by 1, 2, 3, 4 and another one composed by 5, 6.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">With the current “route” tag we
would have such a list of nodes: route_HobbitServerA:1,2,3,4,5,6 then if 1
fails and the path 1-2-3-4 would not work anymore but the 5-6 one would still.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">A good dependency system would to
have such a thing: Final Client depends on 4, 4 depends on 3, 3 depends on 2,
2 depends on 1 but Final Clients also depends on 6 which depends on 5. More
over this would also solve that kind of topology
:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hobbit Server A ---- 1 ---- 2 ----
3 ---- 4 ---- Final Client<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
|
|
|<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
| --------- 5 ------------6 ----------- |
Where there is a link
between 2 and 5, 2 and 6, 5 and 3, 6 and 3.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Maybe that something could be set
up with the “depends” tag, however I do not know how the informations will
propagate through the different dependencies done that
tag.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Even further on the topic, the
“route” tag performs only ping tests which does not seem enough to me. I would
like to add cpu, disks, … tests to the whole dependency
system.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Thank you for your help and
answers,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Regards,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Etienne
Marganne<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">TI
Automotive.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<TABLE>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD bgColor=#ffffff><FONT color=#000000>The information contained in
this transmission may contain privileged and confidential information.
It is intended only for the use of the person(s) named above. If you are
not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review,
dissemination, distribution or duplication of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please
contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original
message.<BR></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>