[hobbit] Question about Server Status Forwarding

[Buchan Milne]

On Monday, 10 May 2010 14:39:22 David Morgan wrote:
> We are starting to deploy multiple "collector" servers.  What we want
> is to have Hobbit Server A collect from it's local group, Server B to
> collect from its local group, and Server C to collect for its local
> group.  (By local group, I mean IP address and physical location
> space).
> 
> Then we want to have Server A and Server C send the status messages
> that they have collected to Server B.
> 
> I THOUGHT all that needed to be done was to put in the following:
> 
> [snip from hobbitserver.cfg on Server A]
> 
> BBDISP="0.0.0.0"                # IP of a single hobbit/bbd server
> BBDISPLAYS="<Server A IP>,<Server B IP>"          # IP of multiple
> hobbit/bbd servers. If used, BBDISP must be 0.0.0.0

These settings are of interest to client parts of xymon, in other words, 
components which run tests from this server (such as the bbnet task, the local 
client etc.), and send data to hobbitd. This does not result in hobbitd on 
ServerA sending any data it receives (e.g. from clients) to any of these IP 
addresses (ServerB).

Please see the coverage of this variable in 'man hobbitserver.cfg'.

> However, it appears that all the entries that are being forwarded are
> coming in as ghosts.  Is there something else I need to do on ServerB?

ServerB needs to have entries in its bb-hosts file for all the hosts being 
monitored by ServerA and ServerC. You probably want to make use of the NET 
tag, and set BBLOCATION accordingly on each of the Xymon servers, so that the 
correct servers test the correct hosts, while only needing to maintain a 
single bb-hosts file (which should be kept in sync across all 3 servers).

>  Or on the client side?  Should I be using BB-proxy?

Between these two options, I would use bb-proxy, so that client data sent by 
monitored hosts is relayed to your central server. However, if you want to 
have the extra maintenance overhead in return for still receiving client data 
in case of a failure of the monitoring server, you could set BBDISPLAYS on all 
the clients.

To assist in resolving this further, you may want to include some more 
relevant information. For example, follow a host monitored by ServerA, 
provide:

The entry in ServerA's bb-hosts for this host
The entry in ServerB's bb-hosts for this host
The BBDISP/BBDISPLAYS value from this host's client config
The bbproxy task from ServerA if relevant


Regards,
Buchan