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tips [2017/07/07 00:58] – created wikiadmintips [2017/07/07 03:29] (current) – wikiadmin
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-====== Coming Soon ======+<accordion collapsed="true"> 
 +<panel title="What do the little red/yellow/green icons mean?"> 
 +|<  60%  >| 
 +^       Color       ^  Recently changed  ^  Last change > 24 hours  ^  Acknowledged  ^ 
 +^ Green: Status OK  |  {{:green-recent.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:green.gif?nolink|}}  |  | 
 +^ Yellow: Warning   |  {{:yellow-recent.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:yellow.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:yellow-ack.gif?nolink|}}  | 
 +^ Red: Critical     |  {{:red-recent.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:red.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:red-ack.gif?nolink|}}  | 
 +^ Clear: No data    |  {{:clear-recent.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:clear.gif?nolink|}}  |  | 
 +^ Purple: No report |  {{:purple-recent.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:purple.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:purple-ack.gif?nolink|}}  | 
 +^ Blue: Disabled    |  {{:blue-recent.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:blue.gif?nolink|}}  |  {{:blue-ack.gif?nolink|}}  | 
 +</panel>
  
 +<panel title="Client side tests are missing">
 +Did you install a client? The Xymon client package is installed automatically only on the Xymon server - on other systems, you must build the client package by running Xymon's configure-script with the "--client" option and build the client package on the hosts you want to monitor.
 +
 +If you did install a client, then the two most probable causes for this are:
 +
 +  * The client is using another hostname than what is in the hosts.cfg file.\\ Xymon only cares about the hosts that are in the hosts.cfg file, and discards status-reports from unknown hosts. If you check the "xymond" column on the web server display for the Xymon server, you will see a report about these unknown hosts. \\ Either reconfigure the client to use the same hostname as is in the hosts.cfg file, or add a CLIENT:clienthostname tag in the hosts.cfg file so Xymon knows what host matches the client hostname. The Xymon client can be started with a "--hostname=MYHOSTNAME" option to explicitly define the hostname that the client uses when reporting data to Xymon.
 +  * A firewall is blocking the client access to the Xymon server. \\ Clients must be able to connect to the Xymon server on TCP port 1984 to send their status reports. If this port is blocked by a firewall, client status reports will not show up. \\ If possible, open up the firewall to allow this access. Alternatively, you may setup a proxy using the xymonproxy tool (part of Xymon) to forward status messages from a protected network to the Xymon server.
 +Other methods are also possible, e.g. bbfetch (available from the www.deadcat.net archive.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="Clients using odd hostnames">
 +Add a CLIENT:clienthostname tag to the host entry in the hosts.cfg file, or re-configure the client to use the proper hostname.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="Where are the bbmv/bbrm commands?">
 +They have been integrated into the Xymon network daemon. See the next three questions.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How do I delete a test status?">
 +I accidentally added an 'ftp' check. Now I cannot get it off the webpage!
 +
 +Use the command
 +<code>
 +    ~/server/bin/xymon 127.0.0.1 "drop HOSTNAME ftp"
 +</code>
 +to permanently remove all traces of a test. Note that you need the quotes around the "drop HOSTNAME ftp".
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How do I delete a host?">
 +First, remove the host from the //~/server/etc/hosts.cfg// file. Then use the command
 +<code>
 +    ~/server/bin/xymon 127.0.0.1 "drop HOSTNAME"
 +</code>
 +to permanenly remove all traces of a host. Note that you need the quotes around the "drop HOSTNAME".
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How do I rename a host ?">
 +First, change the //~/server/etc/hosts.cfg// file so it has the new name. Then to move your historical data over to the new name, run
 +<code>
 +    ~/server/bin/xymon 127.0.0.1 "rename OLDHOSTNAME NEWHOSTNAME"
 +</code>
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="I cannot get the Apache graphs to work">
 +Charles Jones provided this recipe on the Xymon mailing list:
 +
 +<code>
 +From: Charles Jones
 +Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 21:28:19 -0700
 +Subject: Re: [hobbit] Apache tag
 +
 +Okay, first you must make the indicated addition to your apache
 +httpd.conf (or you can make a xymon.conf in apaches conf.d directory).
 +[ed: See the hosts.cfg man-page for the "apache" description]
 +
 +Then, you must restart apache for the change to take effect
 +(/etc/init.d/httpd restart).
 +
 +Then, manually test the server-stats url to make sure it's working, by
 +using your browser and going to
 +http://your.server.com/server-status?auto  (you can also go to
 +http://your.server.com/server-status/ to get some nice extended apache
 +performance info).  You should get back something like this:
 +
 +Total Accesses: 131577
 +Total kBytes: 796036
 +CPULoad: 1.0401
 +Uptime: 21595
 +ReqPerSec: 6.09294
 +BytesPerSec: 37746.7
 +BytesPerReq: 6195.16
 +BusyWorkers: 43
 +IdleWorkers: 13
 +
 +Scoreboard: RR__RWR___RR_R_RR_RRRRRRRRR_RRRRRRR__RRR_RRRRCRRRRR_RRRR........................................................................................................................................................................................................
 +
 +Now, assuming you are getting back the server-status info, time to make
 +sure your hosts.cfg is correctly configured to collect and graph the
 +data.  Heres what I have in mine:
 +
 +1.2.3.4    my.server.com  # conn ssh http://1.2.3.4 apache=http://1.2.3.4/server-status?auto TRENDS:*,apache:apache|apache1|apache2|apache3
 +
 + From what you said of your setup, I'm guessing your only problem is
 + using the wrong url for the apache tag (you used
 + "apache=http://192.168.1.25/xymon/" which just won't work - that's the
 + kind of URL you would use for the http tag).
 +
 + Hope this helped.
 +
 + -Charles
 +</code>
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How can I add MRTG graphs to the Xymon webpages?">
 +There is a [[https://www.xymon.com/help/xymon-mrtg.html|special document]] for this, describing how you can configure MRTG to save data in a format that Xymon can handle natively.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="Updating more frequently">
 +The //~/server/etc/tasks.cfg// defines the update interval for all of the Xymon programs. The default is for network tests to run every 5 minutes, and webpage updates to happen once a minute.
 +
 +Note that if you run the __//xymonnet-again.sh//__ tool on your network test server (this is the default for a new Xymon server), then network tests that fail will run every minute for up to 30 minutes after the initial failure, so usually there is little need to change the update interval for your network tests.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="I want my temperature graphs to show Fahrenheit">
 +Edit the file server/etc/graphs.cfg, and change the **[temperature]** definition from the default one to the one below that shows Fahrenheit graphs.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How do I remove the HTML links from the alert messages?">
 +Configure your alerts in server/etc/alerts.cfg to use FORMAT=PLAIN instead of TEXT.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="I cannot see the the man-pages on the web">
 +A common Apache configuration mistakenly believes any filename containing ".cgi" is a CGI-script, so it refuses to present the man-pages for the CGI scripts. Stephen Beaudry found the solution:
 +<code>
 +   This occurs because by default, apache associates the cgi-script
 +   handler with any filename containing ".cgi".  I fixed this on my server
 +   by changing the following line in my httpd.conf
 +
 +   AddHandler cgi-script .cgi     ->to->    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi$
 +</code>
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="My alert emails come without a subject">
 +Xymon by default uses the system **mail** command to send out messages. The mail-command in Solaris and HP-UX does not understand the "-s SUBJECT" syntax that Xymon uses. So you get mails with no subject. The solution is to change the MAIL setting in etc/xymonserver.cfg to use the **mailx** command instead. Xymon needs to be restarted after this change.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="Does Xymon support receiving SNMP traps?">
 +Not directly, but there is other Open Source software available that can handle SNMP traps. A very elegant method of feeding traps into Xymon has been described in [[http://cerebro.victoriacollege.edu/hobbit-trap.html|this article]] by Andy Farrior.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How can I create a custom test script?">
 +Anything that can be automated via a script or a custom program can be added into Xymon. A lot of extension scripts are available for Big Brother at the www.deadcat.net archive, and these will typically work without modifications if you run them in Xymon. Sometimes a few minor tweaks are needed - the Xymon mailing list can help you if you don't know how to go about that.
 +
 +But if you have something unique you need to test, writing an extension script is pretty simple. You need to figure out some things:
 +
 +  * What name will you use for the column?
 +  * How will you test it?
 +  * What criteria should decide if the test goes red, yellow or green?
 +  * What extra data from the test will you include in the status message?
 +
 +A simple **client-side** extension script looks like this:
 +<code>
 +   #!/bin/sh
 +
 +   COLUMN=mytest # Name of the column
 +   COLOR=green # By default, everything is OK
 +   MSG="Bad stuff status"
 +
 +   # Do whatever you need to test for something
 +   # As an example, go red if /tmp/badstuff exists.
 +   if test -f /tmp/badstuff
 +   then
 +      COLOR=red
 +      MSG="${MSG}
 + 
 +      `cat /tmp/badstuff`
 +      "
 +   else
 +      MSG="${MSG}
 +
 +      All is OK
 +      "
 +   fi
 +
 +   # Tell Xymon about it
 +   $XYMON $XYMSRV "status $MACHINE.$COLUMN $COLOR `date`
 +
 +   ${MSG}
 +   "
 +
 +   exit 0
 +</code>
 +
 +You will notice that some environment variables are pre-defined: XYMON, XYMSRV, MACHINE are all provided by Xymon when you run your script via xymonlaunch. Also note how the MSG variable is used to build the status message - it starts out with just the "Bad stuff status", then you add data to the message when we decided what the status is.
 +
 +To run this, save your script in the //~xymon/client/ext/// directory (i.e. in the ext/ directory off where you installed the Xymon client), then add a new section to the //~xymon/client/etc/clientlaunch.cfg// file like this:
 +
 +<code>
 +   [myscript]
 + ENVFILE $XYMONCLIENTHOME/etc/xymonclient.cfg
 + CMD $XYMONCLIENTHOME/ext/myscript.sh
 + LOGFILE $XYMONCLIENTHOME/logs/myscript.log
 + INTERVAL 5m
 +</code>
 +
 +**Server-side scripts** look almost the same, but they will typically use the [[https://www.xymon.com/help/manpages/man1/xymongrep.1.html|xymongrep]] utility to pick out hosts in the hosts.cfg file that have a special tag defined, and then send one status message for each of those hosts. Like this:
 +
 +<code>
 +   #!/bin/sh
 +
 +   HOSTTAG=foo          # What we put in hosts.cfg to trigger this test
 +   COLUMN=$HOSTTAG # Name of the column, often same as tag in hosts.cfg
 +
 +   $XYMONHOME/bin/xymongrep $HOSTTAG | while read L
 +   do
 +      set $L # To get one line of output from xymongrep
 +
 +      HOSTIP="$1"
 +      MACHINEDOTS="$2"
 +      MACHINE=`echo $2 | $SED -e's/\./,/g'`
 +
 +      COLOR=green
 +      MSG="$HOSTTAG status for host $MACHINEDOTS"
 +
 +      #... do the test, perhaps modify COLOR and MSG
 +
 +      $XYMON $XYMSRV "status $MACHINE.$COLUMN $COLOR `date`
 +
 +      ${MSG}
 +      "
 +    done
 +
 +    exit 0
 +</code>
 +Note that for server side tests, you need to loop over the list of hosts found in the hosts.cfg file, and send one status message for each host. Other than that, it is just like the client-side tests.
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How can I make the menus work on my iPad?">
 +The menu system uses the CSS "hover" tag, but this is not supported on tablets and other touch-screen interfaces like the iPad. Mark Hinkle provides this solution to the problem:
 +
 +In the //~xymon/server/etc/xymonmenu.cfg// file, I added the '<a href="javascript:;">' anchor around the top-level menu items. Like:
 +  <span class="menutag"><a href="javascript:;">Views</a><span class="invis">:</span></span>
 +</panel>
 +
 +<panel title="How can I send data to Xymon without installing the client?">
 +If you cannot install any "foreign" tools on your system, then sending data to Xymon may be a challenge. But if you have access to either Perl, BASH or telnet on the system then it is possible.
 +
 +**Perl version:**
 +<code perl>
 +#!/usr/bin/perl
 +#
 +sub sendToXymon {
 + use IO::Socket;
 + my($server,$port,$msg) = @_ ;
 + my $response;
 + my $sock = new IO::Socket::INET (
 + PeerAddr => $server,
 + PeerPort => $port,
 + Proto => 'tcp',
 + );
 + die "Could not create socket: $!\n" unless $sock;
 + print $sock $msg;
 + shutdown($sock, 1);
 + while ($response=<$sock>)
 + {
 + print "$response";
 + }
 + close($sock);
 +}
 +
 +$host = $ARGV[0];
 +if ($#ARGV != 2) {
 +  $port = 1984;
 +  $msg = $ARGV[1];
 +}
 +else {
 +  $port = $ARGV[1];
 +  $msg = $ARGV[2];
 +}
 +
 +sendToXymon($host, $port, $msg);
 +</code>
 +
 +**BASH version:**
 +<code bash>
 +#!/bin/bash
 +#
 +HOST="$1" ; shift
 +if test $# -gt 1; then
 +  PORT="$1"
 +  shift
 +else
 +  PORT="1984"
 +fi
 +MSG="$1"
 +
 +exec 3<>/dev/tcp/$HOST/$PORT || exit 1
 +echo "$MSG" >&3
 +
 +exit 0
 +</code>
 +
 +NOTE: The BASH support for using TCP sockets may be disabled at compile-time - some believe it is a security risk to have such an easy way of doing network I/O without requiring any special tools.
 +
 +**Bourne / Korn shell (requires telnet):**
 +<code>
 +#!/bin/sh
 +#
 +HOST="$1" ; shift
 +if test $# -gt 1; then
 +  PORT="$1"
 +  shift
 +else
 +  PORT="1984"
 +fi
 +MSG="$1"
 +
 +( echo "$MSG"; sleep 1 ) | telnet $HOST $PORT 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep -v "closed by foreign host"
 +</code>
 +
 +Both of these take 2 or 3 parameters: The Xymon host (hostname or IP-address), optionally the portnumber (1984 by default if not specified), and the message that will be sent to Xymon. The Perl version will both send data to Xymon and print out any response that is sent back - the shell-versions can only be used to send data to Xymon.
 +
 +Oyvind Bjorge provided the core of the Perl script, and Jeremy Laidman provided the core of the shell-scripts in [[http://lists.xymon.com/archive/2012-August/035299.html|this thread]] on the Xymon mailing list.
 +</panel>
 +</accordion>
  • tips.1499389101.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2017/07/07 00:58
  • by wikiadmin