<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>I just wanted to thank you, JC, for this information. I wanted to know whether it would be possible to check the kernel version back some time even though that is something I did not test. I figured the info might show something, but that isn't kept in history or anything. If I had realized that a client data snapshot is kept when the status changes, I would have had the answer (which I still need, so it's very helpful). <br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">____ *Note: UMDNJ is now Rutgers-Biomedical and Health Sciences*<br>|| \\UTGERS |---------------------*O*---------------------<br>||_// Biomedical | Ryan Novosielski - Senior Technologist<br>|| \\ and Health | <a href="mailto:novosirj@rutgers.edu" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3">novosirj@rutgers.edu</a>- 973/972.0922 (2x0922)<br>|| \\ Sciences | OIRT/High Perf & Res Comp - MSB C630, Newark<br> `'</span></div><div><br>On Jan 10, 2016, at 06:48, J.C. Cleaver <<a href="mailto:cleaver@terabithia.org">cleaver@terabithia.org</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>Hi David,</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>On Sat, January 9, 2016 3:15 pm, David Boyer wrote:</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>I see that there is data in the client data that is not turned into</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>columns? Can I turn this data into columns to report? I'm using xymon</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>4.3.20 on both the client/server.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>On linux, I see that this data is not turned into any columns:</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>[who]</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>[route]</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>[netstat]</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>[ifstat]</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Not that I'd use all of them, just wondering what the reasoning is behind</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>it.</span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span>This is correct. The client data is a full raw text of various bits of</span><br><span>information that can be used to create status messages out of, but there</span><br><span>isn't a mandated 1:1 correspondence between each section and each test. By</span><br><span>keeping them independent (raw data and central processing), you have the</span><br><span>flexibility to write up new tests based off of already-existing incoming</span><br><span>data, and/or add new "raw" data without having a specific test in mind.</span><br><span></span><br><span>For the 'who' data in particular, there's a sample processor in the source</span><br><span>tarball that can demonstrate how easy it is to add simple new tests at</span><br><span><a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/xymon/code/HEAD/tree/branches/4.3.24/xymond/xymond_rootlogin.pl">https://sourceforge.net/p/xymon/code/HEAD/tree/branches/4.3.24/xymond/xymond_rootlogin.pl</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>You can easily add new sections to the client data by adding files to a</span><br><span>"/local/" directory on the client machine, or editing the</span><br><span>xymonclient-${OS}.sh shell script by hand, and running any command that</span><br><span>the unprivileged 'xymon' user can execute.</span><br><span></span><br><span>What's the benefit to all this additional data if it's not used? Primarily</span><br><span>forensics and triage. As the xymon(7) man page puts it:</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>The Xymon user-interface is simple, but engineers will also find lots of</span><br></blockquote><span>relevant information. E.g. the data that clients report to Xymon contain</span><br><span>the raw output from a number of system commands. That information is</span><br><span>available directly in Xymon, so an administrator no longer needs to</span><br><span>login to a server to get an overview of how it is behaving - the very</span><br><span>commands they would normally run have already been performed, and the</span><br><span>results are on-line in Xymon.</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span><a href="https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man7/xymon.7.html">https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man7/xymon.7.html</a></span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>This becomes even more relevant when you consider snapshoting. When a</span><br><span>status goes "red", a snapshot of the client data at that time is kept. So</span><br><span>if you went back later to try to figure out why (e.g.) CPU was rising, the</span><br><span>output of the '[who]' section tells you who might have been doing</span><br><span>something then, even if the data wasn't used for making a test out of at</span><br><span>that time.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Also, I notice that getting the data via xymondboard is not 100% either...</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>[xymon@ztest bin]$ ./xymon 192.168.1.230 "clientlog yumlist section=who"</span><br></blockquote><span>*snip*</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>As you can see below, requesting a status on all the tests, there is no</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>"who" being reported.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>But just a moment ago, asking for just that data it works.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>[xymon@ztest bin]$ ./xymon 192.168.1.230 "xymondboard host=yumlist"</span><br></blockquote><span>*snip*</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Correct. The "clientlog" command retrieves the most recent raw client</span><br><span>data, while the "xymondboard" command retrieves just the status messages</span><br><span>(the tests that you see on the webpages).</span><br><span></span><br><span>The "clientlog" column on the web page, much like the "info" and "trends"</span><br><span>columns, isn't a real test... it's just present to provide easy access to</span><br><span>the most recent data. You can also access it from the "Client data" link</span><br><span>on the bottom of any of that host's status pages.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Hope that helps!</span><br><span></span><br><span>-jc</span><br><span></span><br><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Xymon mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:Xymon@xymon.com">Xymon@xymon.com</a></span><br><span><a href="http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon">http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon</a></span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>