[Xymon] PSclient sending from intranet

Kris Springer kspringer at innovateteam.com
Thu Nov 8 18:13:18 CET 2018


I may have spoken too soon.  It's indeed working on box1, but when I 
edited the xymonclient_config.xml on box2 and re-entered the password so 
box2 would re-encrypt it for it's connection to the server, it's timing 
out.  Does each client need it's own individual user/pass?  That seems 
unnecessary.  I just tried different credentials and it still timed 
out.  The difference between box1 and box2 is the OS.  They're on the 
same network and can both reach the server via https so I don't think 
it's a networking issue.
box1 = Windows 10 Pro
box2 = Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

Apache logs show nothing unusual.
I've looked at all the logs I can find on the server but I'm not seeing 
anything that would tip me off as to the issue.
Ideas?

Kris Springer


On 11/8/18 2:25 AM, Beck, Zak wrote:
>
> Hi Kris
>
> Yes, I have it working. As you say, the URL needs to include the full 
> path to xymoncgimsg.cgi.
>
> All xymoncgimsg.cgi does as far as I can tell is relay the message(s) 
> received over HTTPS via TCP to localhost port 1984 (which is what the 
> man page says as well). So you need that listening (which by default 
> it will be).
>
> I don’t recall making any other config changes to make this work 
> (aside from Apache etc to sort out the authentication).
>
> I suspect the time out is waiting for the response – when you submit 
> data to Xymon, you normally get the client local config back from the 
> server. This comes back via the HTTPS response. There is a timeout 
> setting – sorry I forgot to document it in the table in the Word doc – 
> serverHttpTimeoutMs – which defaults to 100000 milliseconds – i.e. 100 
> seconds. This is the time it waits for the response from the server. 
> 100 seconds is pretty generous unless you’re traversing particularly 
> slow VPNs or saturated connections. You can override this in the 
> xymonclient_config.xml file.
>
> I’m assuming you’re getting this message:
>
>     "  Connecting to $($url), body length $($body.Length), timeout 
> $($script:XymonSettings.serverHttpTimeoutMs)ms"
>
> And then this one (with a timeout exception):
>
>         "  Exception connecting to $($url):`n$($_)"
>
> And not either of these:
>
>         "  FAILED, HTTP response code: $($response.StatusCode) 
> ($statusCode)"
>
> or
>
>         "  Received $($output.Length) bytes from server"
>
> Zak
>
> *From:*Xymon <xymon-bounces at xymon.com> *On Behalf Of 
> *kspringer at innovateteam.com
> *Sent:* Thursday, 8 November 2018 08:51
> *To:* Xymon MailingList <xymon at xymon.com>
> *Subject:* [External] Re: [Xymon] PSclient sending from intranet
>
> Anyone have xymoncgimsg.cgi functioning on their server and 
> successfully receiving PSclient data over HTTPS?  The documentation 
> for this is vague and doesn't specify how to make it work. Any 
> specifics would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Kris Springer
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Timothy Williams <tlwilliams4 at vcu.edu <mailto:tlwilliams4 at vcu.edu>>
> To: kspringer at innovateteam.com <mailto:kspringer at innovateteam.com>
> Cc: xymon at xymon.com <mailto:xymon at xymon.com>
> Sent: Tue, 06 Nov 2018 2:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [Xymon] PSclient sending from intranet
>
> Alas, I am unable to help further, as my InfoSec allows port 1984, and 
> not 80 or 443 to Xymon, so I don't have http running.
>
> Tim
>
> On Tue, Nov 6, 2018 at 3:29 PM Kris Springer 
> <kspringer at innovateteam.com <mailto:kspringer at innovateteam.com>> wrote:
>
>     I've configured one of my PSclients to test this HTTPS
>     functionality, and it indeed does try to send data over port 443. 
>     But the client logs say that my Xymon server is timing out.  Is
>     there a specific server url path that I need to be using?  The
>     documentation doesn't give any example.
>
>
>     Kris Springer
>
>       
>
>       
>
>     On 11/6/18 7:54 AM, Timothy Williams wrote:
>
>         The Powershell client can connect to the Xymon server using
>         TCP port 1984 as default, but can also connect using HTTP or
>         HTTPS with/without user/password. You likely have port 80 or
>         443 open. Here are Word doc details:
>
>         HTTP is an alternate method. It can be used if you have
>         xymoncgimsg.cgi running on the web server on your Xymon server
>         – see
>         https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man8/xymoncgimsg.cgi.8.html
>         <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.xymon.com_help_manpages_man8_xymoncgimsg.cgi.8.html&d=DwMGaQ&c=eIGjsITfXP_y-DLLX0uEHXJvU8nOHrUK8IrwNKOtkVU&r=S-aLwpx-PHBTBMIG_c2JczRC0SfuZCmsiH9Iams25FI&m=-OwMT0n637myRsiGrh2Ey_FyOjBckX9cnzeXB9ID_dw&s=nwg-TdqZw8dbasxkybIMrt8HKpuV-U4Z2HpC5Rbr1BM&e=>.
>         The web server running the CGI can be configured for SSL (i.e.
>         HTTPS) and / or authentication – XymonPSClient supports basic
>         authentication and SSL. If you require authentication, the
>         <serverHttpUsername> and <serverHttpPassword> elements should
>         be configured.
>
>         If you are using HTTP and transmitting over unsecure networks
>         (e.g.  the internet), it is strongly recommended to enable
>         SSL, authentication and disallow HTTP connections.
>
>         ServerHttpPassword encryption
>
>         If <serverHttpPassword> is set, the Xymon client will encrypt
>         the password if it is not encrypted and remove the plain text
>         password from the configuration file, overwriting with the
>         encrypted password. The Xymon client will prefix the encrypted
>         password with ‘{SecureString}’, so it is easy to tell if the
>         client has attempted to encrypt the password or not.
>
>         This is done using the .NET SecureString functions, which
>         means that the encryption is unique to the server and user.
>         This means that once the password has been encrypted, you
>         cannot use the same xymonclient_config.xml on another server.
>         It also means that if you have been testing by running
>         XymonPSClient from a command prompt, and this encrypts the
>         password, when you run XymonPSClient as a service it will not
>         be able to decrypt the password unless the service is running
>         as the same user.
>
>         In both scenarios, replacing the encrypted password with the
>         plain text password and re-starting Xymon will cause the
>         password to be re-encypted.
>
>         Tim Williams
>
>         On Tue, Nov 6, 2018 at 9:37 AM Rolf Schrittenlocher
>         <schritte at ub.uni-frankfurt.de
>         <mailto:schritte at ub.uni-frankfurt.de>> wrote:
>
>             any possibility to send something from intranet to the
>             world outside?
>             creating webpage, send by sftp or scp? This could be done
>             by cron and
>             xymon could analyze this data then.
>             > Anyone have an idea about how to collect client server
>             stats using the
>             > Powershell client on machines that are on an intranet
>             that blocks port
>             > 1984, and send it out to our external xymon server
>             located in a
>             > different part of the country?  The intranet network
>             doesn't want to
>             > open any additional ports to allow the traffic out.
>             >
>
>             -- 
>             Mit freundlichen Grüßen
>             Rolf Schrittenlocher
>
>             Lokales Bibliothekssystem Frankfurt
>             Bockenheimer Landstr. 134-138, 60325 Frankfurt
>             Tel LBS: (49) 69 - 798 28830
>             Tel persönlich: (49) 69 - 798 28908
>             LBS: lbs at ub.uni-frankfurt.de <mailto:lbs at ub.uni-frankfurt.de>
>             Persönlich: schritte at ub.uni-frankfurt.de
>             <mailto:schritte at ub.uni-frankfurt.de>
>
>             _______________________________________________
>             Xymon mailing list
>             Xymon at xymon.com <mailto:Xymon at xymon.com>
>             http://lists.xymon.com/mailman/listinfo/xymon
>             <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lists.xymon.com_mailman_listinfo_xymon&d=DwMGaQ&c=eIGjsITfXP_y-DLLX0uEHXJvU8nOHrUK8IrwNKOtkVU&r=S-aLwpx-PHBTBMIG_c2JczRC0SfuZCmsiH9Iams25FI&m=-OwMT0n637myRsiGrh2Ey_FyOjBckX9cnzeXB9ID_dw&s=F_2sRqz669yemQ4GbrwkTlh6D0HtrNX1wqu7RvAN1WE&e=>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain 
> privileged, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information. If you 
> have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and 
> delete the original. Any other use of the e-mail by you is prohibited. 
> Where allowed by local law, electronic communications with Accenture 
> and its affiliates, including e-mail and instant messaging (including 
> content), may be scanned by our systems for the purposes of 
> information security and assessment of internal compliance with 
> Accenture policy. Your privacy is important to us. Accenture uses your 
> personal data only in compliance with data protection laws. For 
> further information on how Accenture processes your personal data, 
> please see our privacy statement at 
> https://www.accenture.com/us-en/privacy-policy.
> ______________________________________________________________________________________
>
> www.accenture.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.xymon.com/pipermail/xymon/attachments/20181108/208def09/attachment.html>


More information about the Xymon mailing list