[hobbit] CPU % load on Windows XP

[Bill Arlofski]

Everett, Vernon wrote:
>  
> Hi Bill
> 
> Apologies for mailing direct, but there is a lag on our outgoing mail to
> mailing lists. I didn't think you wanted to wait 7 hours for a reply.
> (I included the list so we can all see the solution)

No worries. I appreciate getting such a detailed response. :)

I received and quickly read your email on the 30th, but I have not had time
until now to reply.

> Have a look at the hobbit man page, hobbit-client.cfg section.
> 
> If all your Windows server host names start with win then you can use 
> HOST=%^win.*
> 	LOAD 80 95

Yes, I understand that.

> But it is most likely they do not.

Yes, this is of course true. :)

> From the man page 
> 
> PAGE=targetstring Rule matching an alert by the name of the page in BB.
> "targetstring" is the path of the page as defined in the bb-hosts file.
> EXPAGE=targetstring Rule excluding a host if the pagename matches.
> CLASS=classname Rule match by the client class-name. You specify the
> class-name for a host when starting the client through the
> "--class=NAME" option to the runclient.sh script. If no class is
> specified, the host by default goes into a class named by the operating
> system.
> EXCLASS=classname Exclude all hosts belonging to "classname" from this
> rule. 

OK. I see where you are going with this (and have read through what you have
written below). I will be able to quite easily perform a similar setup. I just
thought that there was a built-in default for windows CPU load of 80% and 95%
that would only need to be tinkered with in the hobbit-client.cfg page in
special cases.

Since it appears there is not, I will probably create pages or sub_pages with
a prefix of my choosing that "makes sense" something like: vmxp_ScanStations
and use that in a PAGE definition like so:

PAGE=%vmxp/*
          LOAD 50 80
          DISK 85 90


> What we have done, is under our default definitions we have 
> #DEFAULT
> HOST=* EXHOST=firewall,sec01 EXCLASS=win32 EXPAGE=%win/*
> (This includes all hosts, except the firewall & security server, all
> win32 servers, and all hosts listed in /win/*
> 
> All of our Windows servers are listed under sub-pages of the win page.
> These pages and sub-pages, are as defined in bb-hosts.
> 
> Example from bb-hosts
> ---snip---
> page win Windows Servers
> subpage win_prod_dc Domain Controllers
> 3.4.5.4   DC05        #
> subpage win_prod_fps File/Print
> 3.4.5.5   FPS01       #
> subpage win_prod_mls Exchange
> 3.4.5.6   MAIL01		#
> 3.4.5.7   MAIL02	#
> subpage win_prod Production
> 3.4.5.8   PROD01        #
> 3.4.5.9   PROD02        #
> ---snip---


> Since all of these will be listed on web pages that match the regex
> %win/*
> They will be excluded from the default definition.

AH!  This one sentence might describe the crux of my problem!   When I defined
my vmxp windows hosts in question, I put them in their own subpage right from
the start and have no "PAGE="  definitions in the hobbit-client.cfg file (yet)
to match their CPU load.

But even if this were the case, I am still wondering why they are being
flagged as yellow at 7% load and red at/about 10% load.


> Hope that helps.

Yes, I think it does. Thanks for the details. I just (mistakingly?) didn't
think any adjustments needed to be made for what I believed to be a built-in
default.

When I get a chance to stop by my client's site (probably Wednesday the 9th) I
will make a few of these changes and see if I can get the results I am looking
for.

I'll report back with my results to give this thread closure. :)

Thanks again.


P.S.  I just did some testing locally on a virtual XP machine under VMWare
workstation and it seems that the DEFAULT in my hobbit-clients.cfg file has a 
LOAD of 5 and 10 which hobbit then applies to ALL systems - even Windows.


So, if I have any Windows systems to be monitored with the bbwin client, I am 
required to explicitly set up a  LOAD, DISK etc settings for them by either 
using the PAGE, HOST or other methods you pointed out.

P.P.S. the 10% windows load showing as red and the 7% load showing as yellow 
correspond nicely with the  5 and 10 DEFAULT load settings in my 
hobbit-clients.cfg so this makes sense. :)


--
Bill Arlofski
Reverse Polarity, LLC
http://www.revpol.com/