- observium - lists.observium.org

decoupling UI instances from pollers/main instance
by Peter Childs 06 Aug '13

06 Aug '13

As a bit of thought food I have had some interesting success in decoupling a 'UI' instance of observium from the instance that is 'polling' etc (I will call that the 'main' instance). I installed another deployment of observium using the same SQL instance as the 'main' instance. The issues then are access to the RRDtool data. I complied a 'new' version of rrdtool on both main and 'ui' instance boxes from 'trunk' of rrdtool development. The current trunk has support for the 'FETCH' command from rrdcached (usually rrdcached is only used for caching writes to reduce IO load). I ran rrdcached instance on the 'main' box, and configured $config['rrdcached'] to point to the IP/port of the main box's rrdcached process. As rrdcached is looking for 'relative' names to the path it is running in I so I hacked rrdtool.inc.php (see below as example — do not apply this patch) There were various issues with graph syntax that cropped up due to changes in the syntax parsing in the 'trunk' version of RRDtool, but pretty easy to work around those with some minor formatting changes (I'm sure I haven't found them all). The other issue is that for various composite graphs 'is_file( $rrd_filename )' is called — I hacked around this by just dumping all the rrd files via rsync (nasty) on the local box. I assume this could be worked around with a rrd-file-exists() type function that could say 'yes' for 'remote' rrd files (I'm not sure yet how to determine that via the rrdcached protocol if at all possible… perhaps there are other possible solutions …) When rrdtool graph now draws a graph it hits rrdcached on the main box, gets all the metrics, and presto … So far I notice that Misc graph fails — see above .. Usually some syntax causing the 'new' parser to get sad Speed — there are noticeable delays in drawing some of the graphs as you whip around the UI. Its not 'glacial', and it is potentially not the end of the world, but I'd like to understand where these delays come from with decoupled rrdtool — I have a feeling that potentially the rrdcached is not dealing with a pile of concurrent requests well — there may be some ways to make this better, and/or work around this. Why oh why? Currently in my 'day job' we run lots of different systems for different networks doing metrics gathering and display. Most of them are 'topped' out despite large amounts of time over the years optimising them, putting in 'faster' stuff etc. I'd like a metric(s) backend that can eat whatever we need, and eats more based on adding more commodity hardware. If my metrics backend can 'talk' rrdcached protocol, and systems like Observium can use this, then I feel like this might be a 'good thing'. Need more polling, just split the pollers. Need more UI goodness, just add more UI nodes behind a http load balancer. Some of the new metrics backends have some interesting stuff — specifically I'm looking at the 'not-released-yet' OpenTSDB. I'm pretty sure it is not the 'right' thing for simple installations, but for larger platforms it looks appealing. Thoughts? Cheers, Peter Various hacks pjchilds@uitest:/opt/observium$ svn diff includes/rrdtool.inc.php Index: includes/rrdtool.inc.php =================================================================== --- includes/rrdtool.inc.php (revision 4254) +++ includes/rrdtool.inc.php (working copy) @@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ if ($config['rrdcached']) { + $options = str_replace( $config['rrd_dir']."/", '', $options ); fwrite($rrd_pipes[0], "graph --daemon " . $config['rrdcached'] . " $graph_file $options"); } else { fwrite($rrd_pipes[0], "graph $graph_file $options"); @@ -158,6 +159,7 @@ $cmd = "$command $filename $options"; if ($command != "create" && $config['rrdcached']) { + $options = str_replace( $config['rrd_dir']."/", '', $options ); $cmd .= " --daemon " . $config['rrdcached']; }

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patch for rrdtool syntax
by Peter Childs 06 Aug '13

06 Aug '13

Gday folks. I have been looking at the 'trunk' version of rrdtool where some differences exist in the parsing of 'graph' commands. The attached patch prevents 'Unused Arguments' when rrdtool graph is called with 'empty' argument bits. I assume I have probably 'missed' some bits, and I understand this doesn't impact Observium users yet with currently released Ubuntu rrdtools packages, but I assume at some stage it will impact, and it might be good to 'miss' that impact ? Cheers, Peter

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Pages Missing CSS
by Steve Nelson 05 Aug '13

05 Aug '13

Hi All I have now managed to at least get a build of Observium and also added a couple of test devices to poll. All seems well apart from one issue. All pages (apart from the initial index page) are appearing as if they had no CSS applied to them, also at the foor of each page I am seeing some mysql output which I am not sure should be there, items like : Time 0.005s MySQL Cell 0/0s Row 11/0.001s Rows 6/0s Column 0/0s Memory Cached 34.7kB Page 5.86MB Peak 6.14MB Any advice on getting the pages back on track would be great. Cheers Steve Steve Nelson 10Yr CCIE#10055, OSCP#3725 Senior Network Engineer steve.nelson(a)calibre-secured.net Telephone : 0845 5576355 Direct Line : 0191 6542060 Mobile : 07702247286

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Help
by Eliezer Sousa 05 Aug '13

05 Aug '13

hello, I wonder how I can monitor equipment that do not have snmp. I have some data links that do not use SNMP, and must monitor them. from already thank you for your help. ass eliezer

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Line colour selection
by Robert Williams 05 Aug '13

05 Aug '13

Hi, I’m currently setting up some of our own custom BMS hardware on Observium (it’s all loosely based on Carel components). It’s going fine and I’ve got most of the sensors on there and graphing ok so far. They are mostly temperature, humidity and pressures. Anyway, the reason for this post is that I can’t find how Observium selects the colours for the lines on the graphs when temperatures are involved? I’m sure there is a pattern (or setting for it) but I can’t see it. I know it’s only cosmetic, but can someone point me in the right direction please? Cheers :) Robert Williams Custodian Data Centre Email: Robert(a)CustodianDC.com http://www.CustodianDC.com

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Re: [Observium] Insufficient Permission Issue:
by Adam Armstrong 05 Aug '13

05 Aug '13

Oh dear, and there was me thinking of looking at your login issues. Maybe not! You use Ubuntu/Debian because that is what we tell you to use. The vast majority of 'issues' reported by centos/rhel/etc users are related to 'features' and other braindeadness of their chosen distro. None of us use anything other than Debian/Ubuntu. Debian/Ubuntu is what we test on and Debian/Ubuntu are all we are prepared to discuss on this list. If you feel you know better, then you had better be able to make everything work properly yourself, because we *will* be rude to you for ignoring all of our warnings. After all, you get the service you pay for, right? Alternatively, I hear cacti runs fine on centos. Oh, and it hasn't helped our tolerance levels that most of the 'stupid' questions we get from people who want spoonfed step by step solutions come from centos users. It seems that stupidity and laziness often leads to choosing centos. Adam. Also notable is that thus far all of our major sponsors to date run Debian or Ubuntu. DaZZa <dazzagibbs(a)gmail.com> wrote: >On 3 August 2013 22:15, Adam Armstrong <adama(a)memetic.org> wrote: >> >> a) why centos > >Because Ubuntu is a pain in the backside for someone used to RHEL/SLES >type implementations? > >I use CentOS because I hate the way Ubuntu manages services, and >because I'm used to it. However, I don't belittle Ubuntu at every >opportunity, as seems to be the modus operandi here. I saw a quote by >someone who works in a mixed Debian/Ubuntu and RHEL shop the other day >which is particularly pertinent > >"I use XX because it works for me." > >Can we get away from the distro bashing and concentrate on fixing >issues? Yes, I know you use Ubuntu and love it, and I know you don't >want to support CentOS, but that doesn't mean the whole world needs to >follow you. > >You have an excellent product in Observium - it's a shame to see such >crap bringing it down for people who are only trying to make it work >(and, by definition, increase penetration of the product). > >DaZZa >_______________________________________________ >observium mailing list >observium(a)observium.org >http://postman.memetic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/observium

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Re: [Observium] Insufficient Permission Issue:
by Adam Armstrong 05 Aug '13

05 Aug '13

I can't say I've encountered this or heard of it reported before. Are you sure? Adam. DaZZa <dazzagibbs(a)gmail.com> wrote: >On 3 August 2013 16:34, Ravindra Gupta <ravindragupta9(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> We have configured observium monitor tool in centos 5.8, when we have >> requested url in the browser we got the below error. > >I get that one once in a while too - it generally means your login >session has timed out - if you try and access anything else, you'll >get dumped back to the main page and have to log back in. > >By "timed out", I mean "stopped working for reasons not necessarily >including inactivity", because I've had it happen between one click >and the next > >DaZZa >_______________________________________________ >observium mailing list >observium(a)observium.org >http://postman.memetic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/observium

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Insufficient Permission Issue:
by Ravindra Gupta 05 Aug '13

05 Aug '13

Hii, We have configured observium monitor tool in centos 5.8, when we have requested url in the browser we got the below error. [image: Inline image 1]

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Re: [Observium] Pages Missing CSS
by Tom Laermans 02 Aug '13

02 Aug '13

If you want to tell us when to commit and not commit, you'd better be paying us during both of those timespans. Why don't you just no svn up before seeing what it does? Sent from my mobile, please excuse brevity and spelling errors. ----- Reply message ----- From: "Tristan Rhodes" <tristanrhodes(a)weber.edu> To: "Observium Network Observation System" <observium(a)observium.org> Subject: [Observium] Pages Missing CSS Date: Fri, Aug 2, 2013 18:34 Would it be possible to come up with a compromise solution that meets the requirements of stability and freshness? Here is one idea: What if SVN updates were only submitted on Sunday through Wednesday? Users can then update on the day of the week that meets their needs. For example, people who want to help test new (and potentially risky) code can update cron on Thursday or Friday. People who want a more stable environment choose Saturday. Of course, SVN updates would be made on any day to resolve an regression or bug that was found. What do you think of this idea? Cheers, Tristan On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 4:02 PM, Paul Gear <observium(a)gear.dyndns.org> wrote: I update automatically in cron.daily. Because you tell me to. If i have to choose between shiny/new and stable, i will always choose stable, all other things being equal. On 08/02/2013 07:23 AM, Adam Armstrong wrote: A majority of users actually seem to update pretty regularly. We assume this is because they like the new things (and the fixing of problems) rather than because we told them to, because the only people we tell to update regularly are the 10% of users present on this list :) Adam. Paul Gear <observium(a)gear.dyndns.org> wrote: On 08/02/2013 07:03 AM, Adam Armstrong wrote: On 2013-08-01 21:30, Stefan Milo wrote: A tool like observium is often used by people in Operations. People in Operations tend to favor stability over new features. The old if it's not broken mantra... Well then, you probably want to be using Cacti. Judging by the update habits of our existing userbase, they agree with us. "Agree" is much too strong a term; "tolerate" would be better; "it's better than using Cacti" would probably be more accurate than both. :-) _______________________________________________ observium mailing list observium(a)observium.org http://postman.memetic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/observium _______________________________________________ observium mailing list observium(a)observium.org http://postman.memetic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/observium _______________________________________________ observium mailing list observium(a)observium.org http://postman.memetic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/observium -- Tristan Rhodes Network Engineer Weber State University (801) 626-8549

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Re: [Observium] Pages Missing CSS
by Adam Armstrong 02 Aug '13

02 Aug '13

I think anyone who wanted something like this would be better served by paying attention to the svn changelog and only updating after a day or two of inactivity. All of the information needed is available. We won't adopt any practices which increase our workload without obvious benefit. Delaying svn commits is the #1 cause of the "missing include" bug being committed. Adam. Tristan Rhodes <tristanrhodes(a)weber.edu> wrote: >_______________________________________________ >observium mailing list >observium(a)observium.org >http://postman.memetic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/observium

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