Re: [hobbit] Xymon hosts database.

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

On Wednesday 01 July 2009 07:01:07 T.J. Yang wrote:
> ________________________________
>
> > To: hobbit (at) hswn.dk
> > From: david.peters (at) dpi.nsw.gov.au
> > Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 10:18:56 +1000
> > Subject: [hobbit] Xymon hosts database.
> >
> >
> >
> > I think I have posted this quite a while
> > ago but it is still on my mind.
>
> Not only in my mind. I got to deliver it in next few months.
>
> >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.
>
> My interest about Xymon and relational DB is mainly from asset inventory
> perspective. Xymon doing a decent jobs collecting system
> information(io/cpu/memory/disk). But what about a system's asset
> information ? where is rack position of this machine ? what is the serial
> number, owner, function ? and is it a owned orleased machnine ? Asset
> information like this are most likely kept in Excel files. Won't it be
> nature to tight these information together ? Xymon should be able to do
> both system and inventory monitoring.(ie, you got a red yellow alert if a
> machine's lease is expiring in 1 month).
>
>
> To achieve this goal, I plan to introduce a relational DB into my Xymon
> server system.
>
> Please see the details here,
> http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/System_Monitoring_with_Xymon/Developer_Guide#U
>sing_relational_DBs_with_Xymon_Server
>
> > 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?
>
> Count me in.
> I am decent at perl programming and currently learning
> php/extjs/qWikiOffice.

IMHO you shouldn't be choosing solutions before you have requirements ....

While qwikioffice looks snazzy, one of my requirements is that a view must be 
customised (possibly per-user), and a user *must* be able to get their correct 
view without any interaction (no mouse clicking etc.), so that this display 
can be used e.g. on a video wall, where no one is able to click the mouse. Any 
cycling of views etc. should be automated.

I have done some simple frame+js pages to do this with current hobbit (e.g. to 
cycle one frame between weathermap view and main view).

>
> > If so I was going to convert to mysql
> > and either php or perl cgi. Any comments on this?
>
> perl cgi script works but it is really not eye-catching.
> I like to stay with perl but php community is so strong.
> Catalyst is perl's MVC solution but it is weak on "View" part.
> As long as your requirement doesn't need EXTJS then Catalyst a very good
> solution.

There are a number of AJAX libraries that people use with Catalyst, e.g. 
Prototype, Dojo, with some plugins allowing perl-ish calls in templates that 
result in the correct javascript. In conjunction with View::JSON, everything 
required is available ...

Maybe it's time to start collecting requirements and prototyping some stuff. I 
think the first thing we need is a Model::Xymon .

Regards,
Buchan