[Xymon] Newbie badhttp questions

[henrik at hswn.dk]

On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 16:51:47 -0500, Elizabeth Schwartz
<betsy.schwartz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Pile of  beginner questions here:
> 
> 1) if I have two http tests for one server, as in
>        10.0.1.2  myserver.example.com  #
> http://myserver.example.com/link1 http://myserver.example.com/link2
> do I need to put a separate badhttp after each test or can I just put
> one at the end?

One at the end.

> 2) If a network test fails it is repeated at short intervals, IIRC
> it's every minute.  If I set badhttp:1:2:4 , is it counting four
> 1-minute intervals or four 5-minute xymon test intervals?

4 5-minute intervals. The repeat-tests don't count in the badhttp
numbers.

> 3) Is there a way to set a default for all http tests and just
> override for a few servers? We'll want almost all our servers to wait
> a few minutes before alerting

Put the "badhttp" setting on a ".default." host before the definition of 
all the hosts that have http checks. I usually recommend doing it this 
way (goes for everything you put on .default.):

0.0.0.0 .default. # badhttp:1:2.4
10.0.0.1 web1.example.com # http://web1/
10.0.0.2 web2.example.com # http://web2/ https://public.example.com/
0.0.0.0 .default.

That last line clears the default settings, so they dont end up
being used for hosts that you don't want them to be on. This is
especially tricky if you use multiple include's in your bb-hosts
file.

> and 4) do I need a trailing / on the url?

Depends on the webserver config. Often, a URL without the trailing
slash will make the webserver respond with a redirect (302 status)
instead of the actual page, which could mean that any content-
generating backend (app. server, database, whatever) will not 
be checked unless you do add the trailing slash.

The "curl" utility can be quite useful to see what response your
webserver actually generates for the various URL's. Use "curl -i"
to see the HTTP headers sent back in the response.


Regards,
Henrik