[Xymon] Xymon WinPSClient - questions and comments

Thu Aug 27 13:45:37 CEST 2015

Hi

1. Xymon WinPSClient - can it send custom status messages like BBNT and
BBWin?

Not exactly like that. You may be able to do something similar using the
'log' directive. You can then define alerts in analysis.cfg/alerts.cfg as
usual (https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html, under
LOG).

2. Also some points about making the installation process clearer and
easier...

Noted - I will update the documentation.

3. Xymon WinPSClient - can it monitor services like BBNT and BBWin?

Servicecheck is an addition to the standard.

Monitoring services is standard. You should receive 'svcs' data by default.
See https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man5/analysis.cfg.5.html, under
SVCS.

Note that the XymonPSClient.doc only documents the additional directives,
not the standard ones already documented in the Xymon documentation.

Thanks for your feedback.

Zak

From: Xymon [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] On Behalf Of SebA
Sent: 27 August 2015 12:09
To: xymon at xymon.com
Subject: [Xymon] Xymon WinPSClient - questions and comments

Hi,

1. Xymon WinPSClient - can it send custom status messages like BBNT and
BBWin?

In BBNT, we use the Saved Logs Location together with the Logs Timer to send
custom status messages to the Xymon server.  This is defined with different
language in the readme file:

PluginTimer: Waiting period between plugins status files loading
  Default is 60 seconds
  This means that BBNT waits XXX seconds before checking if any
   status files were written to the plugin directory
   (the ExternalPath variable) by plugin programs

In BBWin, this also works with the:

 <setting name="logstimer" value="60s" />
Although you have to set the tmppath in the BBWin registry folder.

BBNT more info:

ExternalPath: Directory where external programs can save BB status messages
  to be sent by BBNT.  This key is set with the value
  entered in the "Saved Log Location" field using the
  bbntcfg utility.  This acts as a plugin facility where
  external program create their own status messages.
  Files that have no extensions (the file name should be the
  service name) are sent to BB.  So first create your file
  with an extension and when it's ready to be sent over then
  rename it to the service name only. After processing, the
  status file is removed. ...  The full description is in the attached
readme file.

Is there an equivalent in the XymonPSClient?  Note that the client does not
need to run anything, just look in a given folder for files (without
extensions) and send any it finds to the Xymon server (preferably with an
interval that is configurable separately to the normal interval).

2. Also some points about making the installation process clearer and
easier...

In the README.txt, in the 'Installing as service' and 'Client configuration'
it is not clear if those commands should be run from a Command Prompt,
Elevated Command Prompt, PowerShell prompt or elevated PowerShell prompt.
This is much clearer (for installation anyway) in the XymonPSClient.doc
file.  Maybe the README.txt should say that fuller and more up to date
instructions will be kept in the XymonPSClient.doc file?  A note specifying
that XymonPSClient.exe is actually ABC_SrvAny.exe and not used anymore might
be helpful too.

Also, I was originally trying to install this on a 32-bit version of
Windows.  So the instructions didn't work as only a 64-bit version of
nssm.exe was provided.  This wasted a lot of our time when we first tried
this.  Either a note about this, or putting both 32-bit and 64-bit versions
in subversion would be helpful here.

I think it was also necessary to unblock some files.  When you download
files in Windows, they start off blocked and you need to go into their file
properties and unblock them.  A note about this would be helpful.

3. Xymon WinPSClient - can it monitor services like BBNT and BBWin?

The documentation has 'servicecheck:SERVICENAME:DURATION', but it only talks
about restarting the service.  I don't want services restarted
automatically, I just want a red or yellow alarm.  (And for some Windows
services, they can't be monitored using procs.)  In BBNT and BBWin it was
much more configurable.  In BBWin:

name

value

alarmcolor

You can set the default alarm color for the svcs rules. It should be set to
red or yellow. Default is yellow. 

alwaysgreen

Possible values are "true" or "false". If true, it will always send green
status. Default is false. 

autoreset

Possible values are "true" or "false". If true, it will try to restart each
service in automatic startup state which would be stopped. A report with the
default alarm color is sent when it try to restart one of these service.
Default is false 

comment

A simple string which appear in the report to add a small information about
the services monitored if its name is not easy to understand. This parameter
is optionnal 

delay

Svcs agent will wait the period defined in the delay setting before doing
monitoring if the computer has restarted recently. (It may be useful for
services which would start later than BBWin or for services which take a lot
of time to start). You can specify a unit after the numeric value : "m" for
minutes, "h" for hours, "d" for days. Default is 5 minutes 

testname

You can set the testname that will be sent to the monitoring server (column
name in the bbdisplay) Default is "svcs" 

The BBNT config is like this (so it is more similar to PS and more succinct,
but the extra BBWin parameters are also helpful):  Terminal
Services:R:R:N;Automatic Updates:R:R:N - documentation in attached readme
file.

Thanks for all your hard work!  It would be really nice if all the
functionality of BBWin is replicated in XymonPSClient as then the decision
over which to go with is almost a no-brainer!

Kind regards,

SebA

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.xymon.com/pipermail/xymon/attachments/20150827/239ab78d/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 6831 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.xymon.com/pipermail/xymon/attachments/20150827/239ab78d/attachment.bin>