[Xymon] Hand editing config files

[Malcolm Hunter]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Cami
> Sent: 06/14/12 07:31 AM
> To: xymon at xymon.com
> Subject: Re: [Xymon] Hand editing config files
> 
> On 2012/06/13 11:04 PM, Henrik Størner wrote:
> > And it has made me consider the idea of using a database for storing 
> > at least some of the configuration - first of all the hosts.cfg 
> > configuration of hosts, IP-adresses and network tests. This would make 
> > some things simpler, others a bit more complex - "xymongrep", for 
> > instance - but would also make it a lot easier to provide a GUI for 
> > managing what hosts are being monitored.
> >
> > This is not going to happen anytime soon, but since the subject was up 
> > in the air - what do you think about it ? Is it a major problem that 
> > Xymon has all configuration in text files ?
> 
> For us, that would be a welcomed addition. I do not want to give 
> physical access to the monitoring team and having a GUI of sorts would 
> allow them to "manage" the system in a much cleaner way.
> 
> It could also open up the possibility of having access control built 
> into Xymon instead of relying on Apache for restricting certain users / 
> groups to certain pages in the future.

I'm all for having a database back-end for config. It would also make my life easier to teach my colleagues to use a GUI (web page?) to edit the config rather than teaching them to use the BASH shell and vi. As long as the GUI is kept up to date to support any changes to config options and supports bulk loads, it shouldn't be a problem.

It would be best if Xymon can be configured to use one or the other (flat files or db), to allow time for the development of the GUI to catch up with the available options that flat files currently provide. A migration facility should be provided to go from flat files to db as well.

Malcolm
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