Re: [hobbit] Xymon hosts database.

[Buchan Milne <bgmilne (at) staff.telkomsa.net>]

On Wednesday 01 July 2009 02:18:56 david.peters (at) dpi.nsw.gov.au wrote:
> I think I have posted this quite a while ago but it is still on my mind.
> We currently configure the hosts, pages etc using a windows database and
> windows front end that I wrote quite some time ago. I keep getting the
> urge to convert it to a linux database and a web frontend. However I would
> not do this if there is no interest in using it.

We don't (yet) manage our Hobbit configuration from a database, but we do have 
a lot of information in a configuration database that we use for asset tracking 
and automated deployment. We did this in Catalyst, as we get:
-sessions
-flexible authentication and authorization (e.g., members of some groups in 
LDAP are allowed to make changes, others are allowed to view all server 
details but make no changes, others see a limited set of details).
-templating
-Database ORM
for very little work.

> The point is that you never touch the bb-hosts file and all configuration
> of hosts and layouts is done via a user interface.
>
> Is there any interest in this?

Yes.

> Is there anyone willing to help?

Maybe ...

> If so I was going to convert to mysql and either php or perl cgi. Any
> comments on this?

I would prefer a modern MVC-based framework, e.g. Catalyst. I would consider 
starting with an architecture that can replace the whole Xymon web interface, 
and have the configuration part only a small component.

For example, there should be a Xymon "Model" to get data from Xymon itself (by 
connecting to hobbitd to do a query or hobbitdlog or hobbitdxlog.

For now, I would pull in as many pieces of Hobbit as we can (e.g. still link 
to some of the CGIs), and later migrate to using native implementations (using 
Catalyst::View::RRDGraph)

We could also provide an API to allow 3rd-party integration (if people have 
other CMDBs).

> We have 400 odd hosts here and have pages split by priority, service,
> location, and support group all on the front page but all configured via
> the database.
>
> Currently the bb-hosts is built via a perl script that extracts the
> database and then generates a main bb-hosts file plus include files for
> each sub-page.

I would consider having the configuration generation done as part of a Catalyst 
app ...

Regards,
Buchan