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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Hi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>1. Xymon WinPSClient - can it send custom status messages like BBNT and BBWin?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Not exactly like that. You may be able to do something similar using the 'log' directive. You can then define alerts in analysis.cfg/alerts.cfg as usual (<a href="https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html">https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html</a>, under LOG).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>2. Also some points about making the installation process clearer and easier...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Noted – I will update the documentation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>3. Xymon WinPSClient - can it monitor services like BBNT and BBWin?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Servicecheck is an addition to the standard.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Monitoring services is standard. You should receive 'svcs' data by default. See <a href="https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html">https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html</a>, under SVCS.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Note that the XymonPSClient.doc only documents the additional directives, not the standard ones already documented in the Xymon documentation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Thanks for your feedback.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue'>Zak</span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Xymon [mailto:xymon-bounces@xymon.com] <b>On Behalf Of </b>SebA<br><b>Sent:</b> 27 August 2015 12:09<br><b>To:</b> xymon@xymon.com<br><b>Subject:</b> [Xymon] Xymon WinPSClient - questions and comments<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Hi,</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>1. Xymon WinPSClient - can it send custom status messages like BBNT and BBWin?</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>In BBNT, we use the Saved Logs Location together with the Logs Timer to send custom status messages to the Xymon server. This is defined with different language in the readme file:</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><em><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>PluginTimer: Waiting period between plugins status files loading</span></em><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> Default is 60 seconds</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> This means that BBNT waits XXX seconds before checking if any</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> status files were written to the plugin directory</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> (the ExternalPath variable) by plugin programs</span></em></span></i><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>In BBWin, this also works with the:</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> <setting name="logstimer" value="60s" /><br>Although you have to set the tmppath in the BBWin registry folder.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>BBNT more info:</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><em><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>ExternalPath: Directory where external programs can save BB status messages</span></em><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> to be sent by BBNT. This key is set with the value</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> entered in the "Saved Log Location" field using the</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> bbntcfg utility. This acts as a plugin facility where</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> external program create their own status messages.</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> Files that have no extensions (the file name should be the</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> service name) are sent to BB. So first create your file</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> with an extension and when it's ready to be sent over then</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> rename it to the service name only. After processing, the</span></em><br><em><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> status file is removed.</span></em></span></i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> ... The full description is in the attached readme file.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Is there an equivalent in the XymonPSClient? Note that the client does not need to run anything, just look in a given folder for files (without extensions) and send any it finds to the Xymon server (preferably with an interval that is configurable separately to the normal interval).</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>2. Also some points about making the installation process clearer and easier...</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>In the README.txt, in the 'Installing as service' and 'Client configuration' it is not clear if those commands should be run from a Command Prompt, Elevated Command Prompt, PowerShell prompt or elevated PowerShell prompt. This is much clearer (for installation anyway) in the XymonPSClient.doc file. Maybe the README.txt should say that fuller and more up to date instructions will be kept in the XymonPSClient.doc file? A note specifying that XymonPSClient.exe is actually ABC_SrvAny.exe and not used anymore might be helpful too.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Also, I was originally trying to install this on a 32-bit version of Windows. So the instructions didn't work as only a 64-bit version of nssm.exe was provided. This wasted a lot of our time when we first tried this. Either a note about this, or putting both 32-bit and 64-bit versions in subversion would be helpful here.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>I think it was also necessary to unblock some files. When you download files in Windows, they start off blocked and you need to go into their file properties and unblock them. A note about this would be helpful.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>3. Xymon WinPSClient - can it monitor services like BBNT and BBWin?</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>The documentation has 'servicecheck:SERVICENAME:DURATION', but it only talks about restarting the service. I don't want services restarted automatically, I just want a red or yellow alarm. (And for some Windows services, they can't be monitored using procs.) In BBNT and BBWin it was much more configurable. In BBWin:</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b>name<o:p></o:p></b></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b>value<o:p></o:p></b></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>alarmcolor<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>You can set the default alarm color for the svcs rules. It should be set to red or yellow. <b>Default is yellow</b>. <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>alwaysgreen<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>Possible values are "true" or "false". If true, it will always send green status. <b>Default is false</b>. <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>autoreset<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>Possible values are "true" or "false". If true, it will try to restart each service in automatic startup state which would be stopped. A report with the default alarm color is sent when it try to restart one of these service. <b>Default is false</b> <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>comment<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>A simple string which appear in the report to add a small information about the services monitored if its name is not easy to understand. This parameter is optionnal <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>delay<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>Svcs agent will wait the period defined in the delay setting before doing monitoring if the computer has restarted recently. (It may be useful for services which would start later than BBWin or for services which take a lot of time to start). You can specify a unit after the numeric value : "m" for minutes, "h" for hours, "d" for days. <b>Default is 5 minutes</b> <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>testname<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>You can set the testname that will be sent to the monitoring server (column name in the bbdisplay) <b>Default is "svcs"</b> <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>The BBNT config is like this (so it is more similar to PS and more succinct, but the extra BBWin parameters are also helpful): Terminal Services:R:R:N;Automatic Updates:R:R:N - documentation in attached readme file.</span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Thanks for all your hard work! It would be really nice if all the functionality of BBWin is replicated in XymonPSClient as then the decision over which to go with is almost a no-brainer!</span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><br>Kind regards,<br><br>SebA</span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>