[xymon] Managing who gets alerts - shifts and rotations

[Jerald Sheets]

On Oct 11, 2010, at 1:07 PM, Tim McCloskey wrote:

> my .04 cents:
> ...
> Thanks Henrick and Group for the excellent software and support.
> 
> -t

I agree completely.  I enormously value this list and those on it.  I, as well, have set my hobbit-alerts.cfg once and have never had to touch it again.  The wonders of using the OS components such as mail, mailman/majordomo, etc. in well laid-out ways!  When someone joins or leaves the team, I delete their account in LDAP, and I never have to touch Xymon.  removing their mail alias in /etc/aliases and running newaliases on the Xymon server is all that's required if you want to do it by hand.  If you want to automate it, you can get pam_mkhomedir to do it, or you can have your sudoers in LDAP and do it there, or you can have a group in LDAP, and removal of the user constitutes removal from an alias.  The possibilities are only limited by your personal imagination as a systems engineer.  

My <rather emotionally charged ...apologies> response is precisely because of what you enumerate here.  I learn a LOT on this list.  I try to help where I can, and I try to give good, sound advice from a career in Systems Administration/Engineering and Architecture spanning more than 20 years.  The places where I don't understand things, I try to learn from what I'm reading or ask.  What I don't want to happen is for support or the question burden to rise too high.  Henrik's time is precious, and of all people I value having him around when really important, very internal questions are asked.  He answers them clearly, concisely, and even sometimes with some explanation for us non-developers.  I don't want the support burden of this list to ever become too great and risk Henrik having to step back because of the load.

Henrik never had to write Xymon (or Big Brother, for that matter).  I hold him in the highest regard for doing so, and I told him that earlier this morning.  This is by far the most active/engaged list I am a member of, and am proud to be a user of Xymon.  

My thing is that after evaluating Hobbit/Xymon, I learned how it was designed, and modified my usage patterns / system setup to align with how it was designed and have been pleased beyond any purchased item I have ever owned.  I don't look at a product and say..  that doesn't work like I want it to, it should change.   Instead, I ask myself how my usage patterns need to be modified to mold into the way a product works, or look for ways the OS can manage big portions of my needs (whether alerting, or logging, etc).  

I'm sorry if I caused anyone grief.  I just don't appreciate being talked down to even if it was Aeleen Frisch.  I think we all deerve the same mutual respect around here.  

Sorry for my outburst.

--jm