[Xymon] Xymon Dependancies configuration.

[me at tdiehl.org]

On Sat, 6 Jun 2020, Ralph M wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 3:36 PM <me at tdiehl.org> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 4 Jun 2020, Ralph M wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 3:36 PM <me at tdiehl.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, 4 Jun 2020, Adam Thorn wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 03/06/2020 22:49, me at tdiehl.org wrote:
>>>>>>  Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  I am trying to configure xymon dependencies so that if the core
>> router
>>>> is
>>>>>>  down
>>>>>>  my xymon server only pages me for the core router.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  In reading the man page it says to do something like the following:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  1.2.3.4 cg1.example.com # noconn https://cg1.example.com
>>>>>>  depends=(http:router.example.com/conn)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  The above works for a single service but the above host for example
>> has
>>>>>>  http and sslcert. How can I tell xymon that if router.example.com is
>>>> down
>>>>>>  all
>>>>>>  of the other services for a host should go clear?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  I tried setting the service to a * that does not work. and I tried
>>>> listing
>>>>>>  services separated with either a comma or a pipe but no joy.
>>>>>
>>>>> "man hosts.cfg" suggests that the syntax you want is
>>>>>
>>>>> depends=(testA:host1/test1,host2/test2),(testB:host3/test3)
>>>>>
>>>>> so for your example,
>>>>>
>>>>> depends=(http:router.example.com/conn),(sslcert:
>> router.example.com/conn)
>>>>
>>>> That does not work for the sslcert test but does work for things like
>> ssh.
>>>> Which now makes sense given the info below.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> As the man page says, "depends" only applies to tests performed by
>>>> xymonnet.
>>>>> Wildcards do not appear to be supported but protocols.cfg will show you
>>>> most
>>>>> of the tests that xymonnet might perform.
>>>>
>>>> Ok, that explains why the neither the conn or sslcert test will not go
>>>> clear.
>>>> Neither test is listed in protocols.cfg. Given that both of these tests
>> are
>>>> network type tests it seems odd that they cannot be made to go clear on
>>>> failure of another network test. I guess I do not really understand how
>>>> Xymon works.
>>>>
>>>> I was really hoping to be able to get a single alert when the router
>> went
>>>> down. It does not happen real often but it is a pita to get several
>> hundred
>>>> text messages for what is really a single failure.
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone have a solution for these kinds of failures?
>>>>
>>>
>>> You could write an external script to connect to the router and "do
>> stuff"
>>> if the connection fails.
>>>
>>> For example, if you're checking the router every 5 minutes, when it fails
>>> you could send a "disable" message to Xymon for the list of things behind
>>> the router, with a 10 minute lifetime.  That'll turn off alerts for all
>>> those devices.  As long as the router continues to fail, keep on sending
>>> disables with 10 min lifetime, essentially extending the original
>>> lifetime.  Once the router recovers, the disable message will expire up
>> to
>>> 10 mins later and those devices will alert or not depending on their next
>>> status.
>>>
>>> I don't have such a script, but it feels like it ought to be fairly
>> trivial
>>> to implement.
>>
>> In preparation for writing a script to do what I need, I have been playing
>> with
>> xymon commands.
>>
>> If I send the following to xymon it appears to be ignoring the lifetime
>> parameter:
>> /usr/bin/xymon 127.0.0.1 "status+10m EMD1-2,example,com.conn clear `date`
>> test message"
>>
>> The above command will send a status message to xymon but is only stays
>> clear for approx
>> 30 seconds. If I am reading the man page correctly it should stay clear
>> for 10 minutes.
>> Does anyone know what I am missing?
>
>
> Is Xymon pinging that host?  Its message would override your message.  Try
> inventing a whole new column for the testing process, that way you can be
> sure it shouldn't flip state unexpectedly.  Just replace .conn with any
> other string that is not used for a test.

That is what I am seeing. It does not matter if the service is red or green
set it to clear and it switches to red or green in under 30 seconds.
In thinking about this that makes sense. Originally I thought that the message
sent from the xymon command line would override the automatic updates for
whatever the lifetime on the message was set. Obviously I was wrong.

>
> For example:
>
>     /usr/bin/xymon 127.0.0.1 "status+10m EMD1-2,example,com.tdiehl clear
> `date` test message"
>
> Best to keep it alphanumeric, but apart from that, use any word or random
> string you like.  Bear in mind that the longer the string, the wider the
> display, so you might start running off the edge of your display.  This may
> or may not be important to you now, but if you add enough custom tests, the
> sideways scrolling can be tiresome...  :)

That makes sense but for my purposes I am thinking instead of using clear I 
will disable the test. Blue is still better than red. :-)

Thanks for the confirmation and help.

Regards,

-- 
Tom			me at tdiehl.org