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On 17/09/2013 07:42, Grant wrote: |
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>>> Has anyone tried Nimsoft Monitoring? It's included at Soft Layer |
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>>> which must mean a free license. |
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>> |
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>> No. IBM has a general strategy to "suck you in" |
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>> so caveat emptor...... You really wan to install |
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>> IBM binaries on any machine? (Think NSA). |
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> |
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> Nevermind! |
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> |
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>>> It looks like a substitute for Nagios. |
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>> |
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>> Nagios has been under numerous stresses for |
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>> quite some time, for a variety of reasons, imho. |
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>> Forking, Borking, and Porking out is what I see |
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>> of Nagios; ymmv. |
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> |
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> I didn't realize that. |
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> |
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>> jffnms is well written, modular and quite responsive |
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>> to the individual's (organization's) needs, imho. |
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>> All in source code form. |
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>> |
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>> Last time I checked, there was a new (recent) ebuild |
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>> for jffnms. Patches are easy to apply and I think |
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>> (Gentoo) folks are starting to use jffnms much more. |
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>> |
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>> Check it out, most are happy with it, and find it |
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>> easy (particulary with SNMP 1,2.3) to install and extend. |
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> |
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> It looks great, thank you for the recommendation. Have you used |
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> munin? If so, do you think jffnms is a substitute or compliment to |
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> that package? |
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Munin and jffnms bear no real relation to each other. Yes they are |
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similar in that both can draw graphs but that's about where the |
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similarity ends. |
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Munin's job is to periodically poll a device using whatever means is |
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available and gather data from the device. The data is always in the |
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form of a number - it measures something. The data can be anything you |
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can generate a number for - logged in users, traffic through an |
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interface, load, number of database queries. The list is endless. Point |
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being, the device/computer/hosts reports it's own numbers to munin, and |
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munin draws graphs. Munin does not record state, it has no idea what the |
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state of something is. |
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Nagios is a problem child, it does not do what people assume it does (I |
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have constant fights about this at work). Nagios is a state monitoring |
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and reporting engine (simply because this is what it does well and |
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everything else it does it does poorly). Nagios will track if things are |
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up or down, if you acknowledged the condition and when, who to notify |
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when state changes (sms, mail, dashboard etc etc). |
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What Nagios does poorly (despite this being it's advertised purpose) is |
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getting state events into the system. It really really sucks at this and |
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is coded from an extremely narrow point of view. Which explains the |
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numerous forks around (they all implement vital real world features that |
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Ethan refuses to commit). |
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jffnms is something I don't use myself, but it looks like the same class |
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of app as Nagios. Don't be fooled into choosing between munin and |
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nagios/jffnms - they are not the same thing, not even close. Use both. |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnon |
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alan.mckinnon@×××××.com |
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