[Xymon] How do you handle retired servers?

[John Thurston]

On 9/20/2017 6:45 AM, Isaac W Traxler wrote:
> When a server is retired, I really hate to remove it from xymon, but it
> is annoying to have to periodically disable the the tests.
>
> How do folks handle this? Do you simply delete them and move on? It
> seems like that tosses some potentionally useful historical information.


I have a script which disables server-side tests, suppresses noise from 
the client, and moves the line from hosts.cfg into 'retired_hosts'. 
retired_hosts looks like:

> title <div style="color:dimgray;">Hosts no longer monitored</div>
> subparent       TOP	retired <div style="color:dimgray;">Retired Hosts</div>

> title <div style="font-family: sans-serif;">These hosts were retired in:</div>
> # This default line is important. It prevents noise from escaping.
> 0.0.0.0         .default.       # noconn nonongreen NOPROPRED:* NOPROPYELLOW:* NOPROPPURPLE:* NOPROPACK:*
>
> group-only      info    20170913-151622  thurston
> # 0.0.0.0               doaetsjnumobt02.foo.alaska.gov          # http://www.foo.alaska.gov/
> 0.0.0.0         doaetsjnumobt02.foo.alaska.gov  #
- etc -

The idea is, 'retired_hosts' defines a new page, under the main page, 
containing hosts grouped by the date of their retirement. More recently 
retired hosts are at the top. The group name includes the retirement 
date and username of the person who retired the host.

There are two lines for each host in the new group. The first line is a 
commented out copy of the original line from hosts.cfg. The second line 
is a plain-jane line to eat any post-retirement messages submitted by 
the client.

Users can now see which hosts are retired, and when they were retired.

I have another script which I use to trim the bottom of 'retired_hosts' 
and 'drop' associated test results.

-- 
    Do things because you should, not just because you can.

John Thurston    907-465-8591
John.Thurston at alaska.gov
Department of Administration
State of Alaska