[Xymon] Status, NCV and time stamps

J.C. Cleaver cleaver at terabithia.org
Mon Nov 2 06:05:38 CET 2015 

On Sat, October 31, 2015 4:11 am, Matt Vander Werf wrote:

>
> Would it be possible to also make it so that you can exclude parts of
> lines/multiple lines (not just at the end of the message) from being
> parsed
> using a block form -like method, in addition to what you've already put in
> place?
>
> Something like this:
>
> <!-- ncv_skip --> *this should be ignored* </--> ip6_mrt_cache : 0
> ext4_inode_cache <!-- ncv_skip --> *this should also be ignored* </--> :
> 7960000

Hmm. Part of this is doable, but with the way it's structured I'm hesitant
to duplicate the searching logic once we've already progressed down to
identifying the label on a given line. This might have to run for every
single line of each status message that comes in, which means the cycles
do add up if we're not careful.

For the first case (where the tag as at the beginning of the line, it's
not too hard. Please try out the attached patch and let me know if it
works for you.

It adds a <!-- ncv_ignore --> processor which will move past the text
until it sees a "</-->" (or a newline), and will then continue on as
normal.

It also adds a block-level skip feature, which might be more efficient
(since we're just toggling a skip flag)

<!-- ncv_skipstart -->
these : 1
wont : 83
seen : 0
<!-- ncv_skipend -->
normal : 0

-jc




>
> Basically, the parsing tool would just see this to parse for the graphing:
>
> ip6_mrt_cache : 0
> ext4_inode_cache : 7960000
>
> Is this something that would be possible to also put in place? I'm not
> sure
> how the new functionality is done now, so I don't know if this is
> something
> that's feasible to add in or not.
>
> If it's not very easy or very feasible or even possible at all (without
> major re-work of the code), then that's fine. The existing new
> functionality for parsing skipping will be very useful to me as it is!
>
> But if it could be added, that would be really awesome and even more
> useful
> for me!!
>
> If this is something that is possible, but probably won't be ready for the
> actual 4.3.22 release, then that's perfectly fine with me as well! I'm
> willing to wait until the next release if that's what is necessary! :)
>
> Thanks as always!
>
> --
> Matt Vander Werf
>
> On Sat, Oct 17, 2015 at 10:54 PM, J.C. Cleaver <cleaver at terabithia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> FYI, all,
>>
>> 4.3.22 will have comment markers that can be used for both skipping a
>> line
>> and for ending processing. Something along the lines of this will work:
>> <pre>
>> ip6_dst_cache : 7680
>> ndisc_cache : 7680
>> <!-- ncv_skip -->ip6_mrt_cache : 0
>> ext4_inode_cache : 7960000
>> <!-- ncv_end -->
>> scsi_sense_cache : 15360
>> </pre>
>>
>> Not entirely sure if that will render properly :) But essentially:
>> pre-pend lines with "ncv_skip" in a regular HTML comment to skip it, and
>> a
>> bare "ncv_end" in a comment will abort further processing for that
>> message.
>>
>>
>> I'd considered adding regex capabilities directly into the NCV module,
>> but
>> it's a fairly time sensitive operation on more heavily-loaded servers,
>> so
>> it's important to keep existing modules like that as efficient as
>> possible.
>>
>> The process of RRD module writing here is pretty simple though (simpler
>> than I'd recalled it), and it shouldn't be too hard to add other types
>> of
>> automated/regular processing besides NCV that could be called up.
>>
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>> -jc
>>
>>
>> On Tue, October 6, 2015 7:42 am, Matt Vander Werf wrote:
>> > (Sending this again to the list, as I sent it using the wrong e-mail
>> > previously (non-subscriber e-mail))
>> >
>> > I second this request for enhancement. It would be nice to be able to
>> send
>> > more data from the client to be displayed on the column/test page, but
>> not
>> > get parsed to be included in the RRD graph. Only parsing certain lines
>> > that
>> > are in the NCV format would be a nice feature. Something like what
>> J.C.
>> > mentioned ("a data parser that looks for a hidden HTML comment marker
>> for
>> > lines to process (and ignores the rest)") would work well for this,
>> IMO.
>> >
>> > Or is there a way to do this already? (even through a hack?)
>> >
>> > Nothing urgent, just something that would be nice to be included in
>> some
>> > future Xymon release.
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Matt Vander Werf
>> >
>> > On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 10:39 AM, Matt Vander Werf <matt1299 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> I second this request for enhancement. It would be nice to be able to
>> >> send
>> >> more data from the client to be displayed on the column/test page,
>> but
>> >> not
>> >> get parsed to be included in the RRD graph. Only parsing certain
>> lines
>> >> that
>> >> are in the NCV format would be a nice feature. Something like what
>> J.C.
>> >> mentioned ("a data parser that looks for a hidden HTML comment marker
>> >> for
>> >> lines to process (and ignores the rest)") would work well for this,
>> IMO.
>> >>
>> >> Or is there a way to do this already? (even through a hack?)
>> >>
>> >> Nothing urgent, just something that would be nice to be included in
>> some
>> >> future Xymon release.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks.
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Matt Vander Werf
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 7:48 PM, Boldt, David <dboldt at usgs.gov> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Thanks for these leads. Will looks at both the filter and "trends"
>> >>> message options.
>> >>>
>> >>> As a request for enhancement, I think it would be useful to have an
>> >>> option to use a regexp to extract data from the status, one for each
>> >>> variable.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 7:36 PM, J.C. Cleaver
>> <cleaver at terabithia.org>
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> On Mon, October 5, 2015 3:52 pm, Boldt, David wrote:
>> >>>> > I'm in the process of converting Big Brother tests to XYMon and
>> >>>> would
>> >>>> like
>> >>>> > to enable RRD/graphics for these tests.
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > Several of these tests present date/time information which is
>> >>>> important.
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > As a workaround for one test I have replaced the colon on a
>> HH:MM:DD
>> >>>> > formatted date with a dot, but it doesn't really look like a time
>> >>>> anymore.
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > * Is there a way to have NCV ignore colons (and only use "=")?
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > * Is there a way to have NCV ignore a line (which might contain
>> >>>> colons)?
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Unfortunately, there isn't a way to do either of these at the
>> moment.
>> >>>> I'd
>> >>>> considered a data parser that looks for a hidden HTML comment
>> marker
>> >>>> for
>> >>>> lines to process (and ignores the rest), but it's not quite present
>> >>>> yet.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > * Can I use Data messages in such a way that the corresponding
>> >>>> Status
>> >>>> > message is not parsed?
>> >>>>
>> >>>> The easiest way to do this would be to add a --filter= option to
>> the
>> >>>> xymond_channel command line for the xymond_rrd process that's
>> handling
>> >>>> the
>> >>>> *status* channel, but not the data channel.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> There's a CPU load hit for doing so (since now you're doing a PCRE
>> on
>> >>>> each
>> >>>> message), however it may not have much of an impact depending on
>> your
>> >>>> message volume.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> > * Might there be some other mechanism entirely?
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Generally, speaking for more advanced RRD submission, the 'trends'
>> >>>> message
>> >>>> can be a useful data payload which is read directly by xymond_rrd.
>> The
>> >>>> advantage there (aside from more direct control) is the ability to
>> >>>> send
>> >>>> data points for multiple graphs at once, which could outweigh the
>> >>>> expense
>> >>>> of another message transmission.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> HTH,
>> >>>>
>> >>>> -jc
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> --
>> >>>                                          -- David Boldt
>> >>>                                             <dboldt at usgs.gov>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>    "Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that
>> I
>> >>> wasn't previously aware of."
>> >>>     --Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), Arthur Dent in "The Hitchhikers
>> >>> Guide
>> >>> to the Galaxy"
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> Xymon mailing list
>> >>> Xymon at xymon.com
>> >>> http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Xymon mailing list
>> > Xymon at xymon.com
>> > http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
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