[xymon] IP address - from where?

[David Baldwin]

Vernon Everett wrote:
> Can somebody confirm this?
> We had a monitored host, configured incorrectly in bb-hosts. The IP
> address was incorrect.
> (The IP address was allocated to a router somewhere on the network)
> The entry was as follows. (Name & IP changed)
> 1.2.3.4  dbsrv1        #       ssh     oratns:1578     NOCOLUMNS:memory
> Should have been
> 2.3.4.5  dbsrv1        #       ssh     oratns:1578     NOCOLUMNS:memory
>
> The conn test was green. It could have been pinging the real host
> (nslookup dbserv1 gave the correct IP)
> Or it could have used the 1.2.3.4 IP of the router, which responds to
> a ping.
>
> However, the oratns and ssh columns were perpetually red.
> Obviously, the router has no database listener, nor was it accepting
> ssh connections (limited using ACLs)
> So it looked like it was using the bb-hosts IP. If it was doing a name
> lookup, it would  have used the correct IP, and returned green.
> When I changed the IP in bb-hosts to the correct IP, oratns and ssh
> both went green.
>
> I always thought that Xymon does a name lookup, but from this, it
> appears as if oratns and ssh use the IP address in bb-hosts.
> Which was it using for the ping? Lookup, or bb-hosts?
>
See 'man bbtest-net' - it depends on what options you have under [bbnet]
against bbtest-net in hobbitlaunch.cfg

...
       Note: bbtest-net performs the connectivity test (ping) based on
the hostname, unless the host is
       tagged  with  "testip"  or the "--dns=ip" option is used. So the
target of the connectivity test
       can be determined by your /etc/hosts file or DNS.
...
       --dns=[ip|only|standard]
              Determines  how  bbtest-net  finds the IP adresses of the
hosts to test.  By default (the
              "standard"), bbtest-net does a DNS lookup of the hostname
to determine  the  IP  address,
              unless the host has the "testip" tag, or the DNS lookup fails.
              With  "--dns=only" bbtest-net will ONLY do the DNS lookup;
it it fails, then all services
              on that host will be reported as being down.
              With "--dns=ip" bbtest-net will never do a DNS lookup; it
will use the IP adresse  speci-
              fied  in  bb-hosts for the tests. Thus, this setting is
equivalent to having the "testip"
              tag on all hosts. Note that http tests will ignore this
setting and still perform  a  DNS
              lookup  for  the hostname given in the URL; see the
"bbtest-net tags for HTTP tests" sec-
              tion in bb-hosts(5)

David.

-- 
David Baldwin - IT Unit
Australian Sports Commission          www.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


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