[Xymon] WinPSClient - Updates?

Wed Nov 20 23:48:06 CET 2013

All,

Apologies on not responding to this.

The existing XymonPSClient works just fine running its own scheduling.
For the most part it also seems to be well behaved and not leak memory -
it is fairly proactive about explicit garbage collection. On first run
it gathers a number of data items from WMI on a much longer refresh
cycle and reports them as part of the client report - these items are
fairly slow to report and don't change much if at all. While that could
be handled by saving and restoring state between runs and using a
Scheduled task rather than service runner, it makes things more
complicated. Also need to consider measures to prevent multiple
instances running if Scheduled tasks fire up when the previous one is
still running - for example doing the refresh of the long refresh cycle
WMI info (maybe there's an in-built mechanism for this?).

External scripts however are much more problematic to manage scheduling
for, and using scheduled tasks could be a much better way to handle them.

David.
>
> I’m very interested on WinPSClient too. I’m planning to install it on
> a series of servers that we will be configuring in the next few weeks.
>
>  
>
> I second the idea of using Windows Task Scheduler.
>
>  
>
> Has there been any thought on how to enable creating extensions? It
> could be like what’s done in Unix, or copy what’s done in BBWin.
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Thanks!
>
>  
>
> glauber
>
>  
>
>  
>
> *From:*Xymon [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] *On Behalf Of *Shea,
> Graeme A
> *Sent:* Thursday, November 14, 2013 14:31
> *To:* xymon at xymon.com
> *Subject:* Re: [Xymon] WinPSClient - Updates?
>
>  
>
> What if instead of “wrapping” a service around it the script ran as a
> scheduled task every 5 minutes?
>
>  
>
> For the task properties the command line becomes something like
> C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
>
>  
>
> And the argument &'C:\Path_To_Client\XymonPSClient.ps1'
>
>  
>
> Put a tick in repeat task, set the period to 5 mins and the duration
> to indefinably. Probably no need to save the password.
>
>  
>
> The task can be exported as an xml file for import into other systems
> and/or included in the distribution package.
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Regards
>
> Graeme
>
>  
>
>  
>
> *From:*Xymon [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] *On Behalf Of *David Baldwin
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 13 November 2013 3:55 PM
> *To:* Jason Richards Pagh; xymon at xymon.com <mailto:xymon at xymon.com>
> *Subject:* [Xymon] Re: WinPSClient - Updates?
>
>  
>
> Jason,
>
> Thanks for the email.
>
>     So it looks like the WinPSClient hasn’t been updated in a few
>     months. I had seen a thread from quite a while ago about some
>     issues David was running into, but can’t tell if he’s still around
>     and willing/able to work on it.
>
>      
>
> In principle I am interested, but don't have a lot of time to work on
> it at present.
>
> I’ve been able to get XymonPSClient.exe (aka SrvAny) to run powershell
> natively as a 64-bit executable. The only change necessary to enable
> this was changing the PowerShell executable to running as
> %windir%\sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe. The
> sysnative portion prevents a 32-bit program (SrvAny) from being
> redirected to %windir%\SysWow64.
> (See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384187(v=vs.85).aspx
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384187%28v=vs.85%29.aspx>).
>
>  
>
> Thanks - I found the "sysNative" workaround a month or two ago also.
> Very useful for running PS scripts from BBWin since it is still 32-bit
> only.
>
> I also found a better service wrapper than SrvAny, namely nssm
> (http://nssm.cc/). This has the ability to detect if powershell fails
> and restart it, which is something SrvAny lacks. It also comes in both
> 32-bit and 64-bit versions, so when using the latter the sysnative
> piece isn’t necessary. I’ve only been working at this for a day or
> two, so it probably needs more testing, but it looks promising.
>
>  
>
> That's an awesome improvement. Definitely a big advance :)
>
> Is there any work (design contemplation) about how xymonclient.ps1
> could handle external scripts? I assume this was just a future phase
> and not so much a limitation or barrier that hadn’t yet been overcome.
>
>  
>
> I'd played around with things like start-job in PS, but I hadn't
> worked through all of the legacy reporting mechanisms from BBNT/BBWin
> (e.g. writing text files into directory - that's an easy one in
> practice) but more to the point worked out throttling mechanisms for
> long-running scripts that don't exit, etc. Had also considered just
> running external scripts as scheduled tasks, but not had time to
> investigate.
>
> From memory there were some other issues such as dealing with memory
> leaks (periodic service restart would solve that).
>
> David.
>
> -- 
> David Baldwin - Senior Systems Administrator (Datacentres + Networks)
> Information and Communication Technology Services
> Australian Sports Commission          http://ausport.gov.au
> Tel 02 62147830 Fax 02 62141830       PO Box 176 Belconnen ACT 2616
> david.baldwin at ausport.gov.au <mailto:david.baldwin at ausport.gov.au>          Leverrier Street Bruce ACT 2617
>
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Keep up to date with what's happening in Australian sport visit
> www.ausport.gov.au <http://www.ausport.gov.au>
>
> This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain
> confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended
> recipient please note that any form of distribution, copying or use of
> this communication or the information in it is strictly prohibited and
> may be unlawful. If you receive this message in error, please delete
> it and notify the sender.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *Important - *This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
> received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before
> opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects.
> Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the
> negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from
> the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying
> any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed
> are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the
> Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xymon mailing list
> Xymon at xymon.com
> http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon

-- 
David Baldwin - Senior Systems Administrator (Datacentres + Networks)
Information and Communication Technology Services
Australian Sports Commission          http://ausport.gov.au
Tel 02 62147830 Fax 02 62141830       PO Box 176 Belconnen ACT 2616
david.baldwin at ausport.gov.au          Leverrier Street Bruce ACT 2617

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.xymon.com/pipermail/xymon/attachments/20131121/bbc80195/attachment.html>