[Xymon] Monitoring multiple, disconnected sites

[Ralph Mitchell]

1) the xymon client script assembles the status report into a file, then
transmits that to the server over port 1984 using the xymon client program.
 You could pipe it through mailx instead, to send it to the xymon server.

2) on the Xymon server, use an email alias to pipe the incoming mail
through a script.  Or use something like procmail to handle it.  Add an
alias like this to /etc/aliases:

     xymonmsg: |/usr/local/bin/xymonmsg.sh

then run "newaliases" to recreate the alias db files.  Any email addressed
to xymonmsg at your.server.com will be piped through that script.

In the email, everything up to the first blank line is a header.  After
that blank line, the remainder is the body of the email, which would be the
xymon report.  That can be broken out and passed through the xymon command.

I've done this to deliver logs, but the principal is sound for xymon
reports as well.

Ralph Mitchell


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Vernon Everett <everett.vernon at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Adam and everybody
>
> You are of course completely correct, and confirmed what I knew, but
> didn't really want to accept.
>
> IT people love problem solving within defined limited parameters, so let's
> see if we can come up with an elegant solution to this one, because I am
> sure I am not the first to encounter this.
>
> The only "connection" I have between the sites, is email.
> Is there a way to get the clients to send data to the server via emails?
> Alternatively, we could get a local server instance to update the master
> server with consolidated data via email.
>
> I am thinking the core of the problem is 2-fold.
> 1. Send the data via email from client or local server.
> 2. Receive and interpret the data at server side by parsing the incoming
> emails.
>
> Unless I missed something, both these tasks are non-trivial.
> Any ideas?
>
> Regards
> Vernon
>
>
>
> On 15 March 2013 08:53, Adam Goryachev <
> mailinglists at websitemanagers.com.au> wrote:
>
>> On 15/03/13 11:19, Vernon Everett wrote:
>> > Hi all
>> >
>> > Here's an interesting problem that has been put to me.
>> > A potential customer has a number of independent IT installations,
>> > with no always-on link between them or central IT.
>> > If there is an issue at a site, support staff will connect using VPN
>> > or Citrix over the interwebs.
>> > Is it possible to set up a central Xymon server to monitor these
>> > remote sites?
>> > If yes, then how?
>> > Has anybody done this before?
>>
>> Do you mean the sites have no "always-on link" like a dial-up connection
>> ? or do you mean there is no VPN always on, but they always have working
>> Internet?
>>
>> At the end of the day, if you want to get data out of the network to a
>> remote location (whether you use xymon or any other widget), you will
>> need to decide how that information gets there. Whether that is via the
>> Internet or sneakernet is up to you, but obviously sneakernet will be
>> less frequent and a bit more time consuming.
>>
>> Once you decide on how the data can be transported, it is just a matter
>> of working out how to tell xymon to use that transport method. Let us
>> know what you come up with, and I'm sure someone will be able to offer
>> further advice.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Adam
>>
>> --
>> Adam Goryachev
>> Website Managers
>> www.websitemanagers.com.au
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Xymon mailing list
>> Xymon at xymon.com
>> http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory"
> - General George Patton
>
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