Re: Log files monitoring

[Marco Ermini]

On 5/4/05, Sorin S. <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi Marco,
> Definitively agree with you here. Customised log would
> be also a nice feature.
> Even better, it would be good to see monit sending
> SNMP traps.
>
> In your case you might get around it writing scripts
> that look in the monit log and send SNMP traps. But of
> course, it is always nice to have all you need in the
> monitoring tool.

I am going to be more exact about "my case".

"OpenView" is contituted by two main components: the agent (a software which
is installed on the Unix or Windows host) and the monitoring station. The
agent uses its own protocol to communicate with its monitoring station, and is
able to operate on the host with different methods (SNMP, parsing log files,
or its own API which could be integrated in a C/C++ or Java program).

OpenView can operate as SNMP agent and monitor, but since the Solaris agent is
installed in the same machine where Monit operates, and since the agent is
able to parse log files, is it unuseful (in my case) to use an unreliable (in
many context, it is really unreliable) and unsecure (in many deployment it is
unsecure) protocol like SNMP.

My perception is that SNMP is going to become more and more unuseful,
expecially in newly deployed server farm; it is now used mainly for: 1)
compatibility between very different products, 2) compatibility between
already existing installation, 3) router operations (which didn't have an
other methods other than SNMP to be automatically operated and monitored).

In many software products, like BEA WebLogic and JBoss, SNMP is already a
secondary option and is not much supported: WebLogic had a totally broken SNMP
in versions between 8.1 and 8.1 service pack 2, BEA knows it perfectly but
they did not care to fix them - this was the main reason which caused us to
look at different products, like Monit. In JBoss you have to deliberately
configure log4j to produce SNMP traps and it is not very simple and
immediate.

I think that the future is in sw products like OpenView and Monit, and in
integration between them. I see SNMP like am useful, but quite secondary,
option to integrate in Monit. Configuring log files would be much more
useful.

This is just my case and 4 (euro)cent opinion, of course :-)


Regards.
-- 
Marco Ermini
http://www.markoer.org
Dubium sapientiae initium. (Descartes)
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