[Xymon] Thought Process for Xymon Page Layout - Sanity Check

Mon Apr 9 02:09:21 CEST 2012

EDS Enterprise Command Center in Tulsa only ever watched the non-green
view.  Too much clicking back and forth otherwise, with over 350
systems scattered through a bunch of pages.

Ralph Mitchell

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 3:39 PM, Greg Hubbard <glh.forums at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you get to any size at all you will probably find it hard to put any
> configuration together that will make sense to everyone.
>
> I watch the non-green view, not the main view.  After all, most of us
> (including me) can only look at one thing at a time.  The "critical systems"
> view is a better version of the non-green view, but it is more trouble to
> set up.  Once you get used to it, the non-green view looks better and better
> all the time!
>
> GLH
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 6:31 PM, Jamison Maxwell <jamison at newasterisk.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Currently, I’m with a rather small company with one site.  So, my page
>> layout is pretty simple.  There are pages for production, development,
>> network, storage, and external(DMZ).  In production systems Unix boxes are
>> all together, we have few compared to Windows, and Windows boxes are
>> separated by function, i.e. database, file, web, email.  Other pages are
>> much the same way.  The only reason I separate Unix from Windows, though, is
>> because I think that putting the Unix stuff, which uses certain columns, and
>> the Windows stuff, which bbwin gives certain columns is ugly because of the
>> empty test columns.  I use group-compress.
>>
>>
>>
>> Previously, I was with a rather large employer.  At that company, there
>> were pages for sites, and then subpages like described above.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Jamison Maxwell
>>
>> Jamison at newasterisk.com
>>
>>
>>
>> From: xymon-bounces at xymon.com [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] On Behalf
>> Of Steve Holmes
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 2:51 PM
>> To: Ralph Mitchell
>> Cc: Xymon Email List
>>
>>
>> Subject: Re: [Xymon] Thought Process for Xymon Page Layout - Sanity Check
>>
>>
>>
>> Ralph,
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the suggestion. That sounds like an awful lot of work, though.
>> Steve
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Ralph Mitchell <ralphmitchell at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Steve,
>>
>> On your side-note - I needed to do pretty much the same thing, for a
>> dog-n-pony presentation to management.  I don't know the *best* way to
>> do it, but I got a second set of pages up by duplicating
>> /home/xymon/server and changing a bunch of references in
>> xymonserver.cfg in the copy to point to the copy structure.  Then I
>> replicated the [xymongen] entry in the original
>> xymon/server/etc/tasks.cfg and pointed ENVFILE to the copy.
>>
>> Some of the reports still pull up all the hosts, but the alternate
>> all-non-green page only shows systems that are listed in the
>> alternate's hosts.cfg.  If you have your systems split out into
>> multiple files under hosts.d, you could just link the relevant file to
>> the copy to avoid duplication of effort.
>>
>> I'm sure it can be done better, I just needed something *now* rather
>> than *perfect*...
>>
>> As for ghost entries, I have a script that converts the ghost list
>> into an "Unconfigured Client" page so that any new system shows up
>> there within about 10 minutes of first checking in.  People in other
>> groups were installing the client on a bunch of SuSE systems I don't
>> have access to, and we're also installing the client as part of a RHEL
>> kickstart from Satellite.
>>
>> Ralph Mitchell
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Steve Holmes <sholmes42 at mac.com> wrote:
>> > Don,
>> > We have wrestled with the same issues. We started with systems organized
>> > by
>> > OS (Unix/Windows) and then as more apps became multi-platform have moved
>> > away from the platform centric organization, with some exceptions. The
>> > reason for the change is so we can see at a glance when there is a
>> > problem
>> > in a service we support so when there is a problem the customers for
>> > that
>> > service can be notified, unless the problem is fixed before the
>> > customers
>> > have to be notified (which is the big payoff with using Xymon).
>> >
>> > Our main page contains 3 groups:
>> >
>> >    Services
>> >    Platform Support
>> >    Infrastructure
>> >
>> > Under Services there are sub pages:
>> > Production
>> > Non-Production
>> > Pre-production
>> > Decommissioned
>> >
>> > Under Platform Support there is currently only:
>> > Platform Windows Servers
>> >
>> > Under Infrastructure:
>> >
>> > Authentication
>> > Network
>> > Server Provisioning
>> >
>> >
>> > Prod and non-prod each have a list of application/service areas as sub
>> > pages, each of which is a list of hosts in logical groups with no
>> > respect
>> > for OS platform. Within the groups the hosts are listed in alpha order.
>> >
>> > Pre-production contains hosts which are not in production yet, but will
>> > be
>> > heading there (with some arm twisting at times). The reason for this is
>> > the
>> > OPS center only calls support for alerts that show up on a production
>> > page.
>> > Hosts in pre-prod (as well as non-prod) can fail without causing a call.
>> >
>> > Decommissioned is where we put host entries for hosts that are just
>> > that. We
>> > keep them there for a year after they've gone off line in case someone
>> > wants
>> > to see the history. They all have noconn and all the NOPROPS so they
>> > don't
>> > show up anywhere else.
>> >
>> > The Infrastructure group is also production, but not application
>> > specific.
>> > This is an area currently under development so it is incomplete. There
>> > we
>> > have network devices, DNS servers, and the like.
>> >
>> > Platform Support was a special request from the Windows admins to group
>> > all
>> > of the windows servers in one place (with duplicate entries) so they
>> > don't
>> > have to look through all of the application pages to find their servers.
>> > The
>> > Platform Windows Servers sub page contains sub pages for Prod and
>> > Non-Prod,
>> > each of which is grouped by application area. Yes, this duplicates the
>> > work
>> > I have to do when Windows systems are added, but they know that if they
>> > don't tell me exactly where to put the duplicate entry it won't go in.
>> > We
>> > could also put a page in there for Linux/Solaris admins, but that hasn't
>> > been requested, yet.
>> >
>> > Many times when a new server shows up in the ghost report I have to ask
>> > the
>> > admins for information about where it should go. Our naming convention
>> > helps, but not totally.
>> >
>> > Side note: OPS likes to watch the all-non-green page. But that contains
>> > non-green tests for non-prod as well as prod. I would really like to be
>> > able
>> > to provide them with an all-non-green-prod-only (for lack of better
>> > terminology) so they could easily see what they need to. Putting NOPROPS
>> > on
>> > all non-prod would prevent the admins from being able to use the same
>> > page
>> > to watch everything. Something I'm not willing to do.
>> >
>> > HTH
>> > Steve
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Don Kuhlman <Don.Kuhlman at schawk.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi folks. I have been modifying our xymon server host cfg file setups.
>> >>  I
>> >> have been moving page layouts around.  I thought I would send a note to
>> >> the
>> >> list to see what others are doing in their web page layouts just to
>> >> have a
>> >> sanity check…
>> >>
>> >> Do you set up your main page to list things by OS, then by environment
>> >> –
>> >> like this:
>> >> Unix -  then Prod, Dev, Test, Uat, etc.
>> >> Windows – then Prod, Dev, Test, Uat, etc.
>> >>
>> >> Do you also use Application groups and then arrange them by OS and
>> >> environment ?
>> >> App1, Unix, Prod
>> >> App1, Unix, Dev
>> >>
>> >> Or
>> >>
>> >> App1, Prod
>> >> App1, Dev
>> >>
>> >> Here's what I've been doing and I'm having second thoughts about the
>> >> logic
>> >> of doing it this way:
>> >>
>> >> Main xymon page lists the following Pages
>> >>
>> >> Server lists by hostname Applications Infrastructure Other Systems
>> >>
>> >> Under Server lists by hostname – I have now made up UNIX-MAC and
>> >> WINDOWS
>> >> Under each of these I have PROD and DEV
>> >>
>> >> Under the Applications I have several business Applications -
>> >> App1
>> >> App2
>> >> App3
>> >>
>> >> In each of the App1, App2, App3, I have Prod and Dev subpages
>> >>
>> >> I'm creating include files for each category – like HostsApp1Prod.cfg,
>> >> HostsApp1Dev.cfg, HostsApp2Prod.cfg, HostsApp2Dev.cfg, etc.
>> >> Now that I've changed it, I will probably need to create new
>> >> HostsApp1ProdUnixMac.cfg, HostsApp1ProdWindows.cfg
>> >>
>> >> I would like to be able to setup base rules for monitoring the Prod &
>> >> Dev
>> >> systems – Prod disk, mem, cpu is different than Dev disk, mem, cpu,
>> >> etc.
>> >>  That's why I thought breaking out by OS and then environment would
>> >> make
>> >> sense.
>> >>
>> >> Then I want to create very specific service, process, or other
>> >> monitoring
>> >> for the application servers.
>> >>
>> >> Does this seem like a good way to go, or am I making it too complicated
>> >> by
>> >> breaking everything down this way?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Thanks
>> >>
>> >> Don K
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > --
>> > If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. -Juan Ramon Jimenez,
>> > poet, Nobel Prize in literature (1881-1958)
>> >
>> > I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I
>> > prayed
>> > with my legs. -Frederick Douglass, Former slave, abolitionist, editor,
>> > and
>> > orator (1817-1895)
>> >
>> >
>>
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Xymon mailing list
>> > Xymon at xymon.com
>> > http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. -Juan Ramon Jimenez,
>> poet, Nobel Prize in literature (1881-1958)
>>
>> I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I
>> prayed with my legs. -Frederick Douglass, Former slave, abolitionist,
>> editor, and orator (1817-1895)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Xymon mailing list
>> Xymon at xymon.com
>> http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Disclaimer:  1) all opinions are my own, 2) I may be completely wrong, 3) my
> advice is worth at least as much as what you are paying for it, or your
> money cheerfully refunded.
>
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