NAME

user-guide - a user's guide to using Spong

DESCRIPTION

This the user's guide to using spong. It has an overview of the operation of the whole system and how the user fits into the scheme of things.  Spong acknowledgements, the web-base user interface and the character based interfaced will be covered in detail.
 

SPONG OVERVIEW

 

WEB USER INTERFACE

The initial Spong web displays comes up with page with two frames.  The left  Dommand frame is a summary of any hosts that have any problems (i.e. any service that is red.) The right Display frame displays a table of the group All (e.g. All Servers) that lists hosts and services.
 

Status Colors

Though out many of the displays the status of a host or a services is expressed as a color. This is a list of the colors and their meaning.
GREEN
For a service, green means that it is responding normally, or it is within normal parameters. For a host, green means that all services are OK and there are active acknowledgements or over-due service status reported.
YELLOW
For a service, yellow generally means that something minor is wrong and may need attention, or a parameter is slightly out of bounds. For a host, yellow mean that one or services are at a warning status.
RED
For a service, red means that is something is critically wrong for a service, such as a network serice not responding or a parameter is radically out of bounds. For a host, red means that one or more services are at a critcal status.
PURPLE
For a service, purple means it's status report is overdue. The last time that the service has been updated is too old. this can be due to network problems or a spong monitoring program has stopped for some reason. For a host, is means that one of more service status reports are over due.
BLUE
For hosts and services, this means that there is an active acknowledgment on the service or host. While a service is acknowledged, no notifications will be sent to, but events will still be written to the history log file.

Command Frame

The left Command frame is divided 5 sections from top to bottom: Title, Action Bar, Main Section (problem host list), Host Group selector and Last Update.

Title

The section is simple the title Spong and the version numer of the server.

Action Bar

The section under the title section is the Command action bar. The Ack link will bring up the www-spong-ack CGI program in the Display frame. The page allows your to display, delete, or create Spong Acknowledgements. The Summary link brigs up the host summary table of the currently select Host Group in the Display frame. The History link displays the event history for all of the hosts in the current Host Group. And the Help link will the Spong HTML documentation.

Main Section

The main section of the Command frame is a list of all of the hosts that have any problems (e.g. services that are red).  If  there are no reported problems then this section will have "No Current Problems" in green letters. If there are problems then a list of hosts will be displayed along with name of the services that has the problem. The last date/time that the service was updated and, is defined. A contact responsible for the host.

The host name is a link that will bring up the full status display for the host in the Display frame. The problem field under the host name is a to service display page for that host. it will be displayed on the Display Frame. The updated field is the date and time that the status of that service updated. The contact if a link that will bring up a custom CGI program that will allow you to send a message to the people responsible that host.

Group Section

The Host Group section allows to select which group of hosts that your want to display in the Summary and History displays. This title to the right of the Group link is the currently selected Host Group. Selecting the Group link brings up the Spong Group display in the Display frame. On top of page of a list of all of the predefined Host Group defined along with the show group name and a summary description of the group.

If you click the group name link, you change the group of hosts that you are monitoring. The web browser window will be redrawn to reflect the new groups hosts. At the bottom of the Spong Groups display is a section that allows your to select a custom of hosts to monitoring. Your select all of the hosts that you want to be in your custom group from the list of hosts. Then clock in the Show Hosts button to redraw the browser window and display the your custom group of hosts.

Last Update

The time stamp section at the bottom is the date and time that the entire left frame was last updated. If refreshing is allowed by you or your system, the frame will be automatically reload every $SPONGSLEEP seconds
 

Display Frame

The right frame is the Display Frame. It is used to display various informational displays and forms.  The default display is the Group Summary of the currentl selected group of hosts. Most of the sub-pages have an action bar.

Action Bar

The Action Bar on displays is directly under the title at the top of the page. The Connect to Host link will start a telnet session to the host if clicked. The Acknowledge Problem link will bring up the www-spong-ack CGI program Display. The Host and Service fields will be filled in (if possible).  The Contact Help is a link that will bring up a custom CGI program that will allow you to send a message to the people responsible that host.

Group Summary Display

The Group Summary Display is a table that lists the hosts and services of the current selected group of hosts. The name of the selected group is displayed at the top of the display. Each host is a row in the table with services being the columns of the table. The current status of each service is a colored block or a icon depending on how spong-service is configured (see  $WWW_USE_IMAGES in spong.conf). The status's are represented by the color: RED - critical, YELLOW - warning, GREEN - normal, PURPLE - status is output of date, BLUE - service has active acknowledgement, NOTHING - service is not checked.

The host name in the first column is a link to Host Services display the host. The service names in the first row of the table are links to Help page for that service. The Help page has a description of the service and the ramifications if the service is in a warning or critical status. The service status colored block or icon is a link to the Service Status display for the host/service.

Host Services Display

This display shows most of the avaliable information abou the host. The display is divided into serval sections. From top to bottom they are : Title (Host Name), Action Bar, Overall Status, Acknowledgements, Services Table, Information, History.

Title

The is the name of the Host being displayed.

Action Bar

The Action Bar is discussed above.

Overall Status

This a bar this displays the current overall status of the host. The over status is the highest order color of all of the service status's according to the following hierchy: BLUE, RED, YELLOW, GREEN, PURPLE.

Acknowledgements

If there are any Acknowledgements for the host they will be listed here. Each acknowledgement will have the service that is acknowledged, the expiration date, and the message. There is a Delete link for each acknowledgement also which will delete the acknowledgment when clicked.
Services Table
This is a summar table of all of the services that is checked on this host. The table lists the service name, the current status of the service (colored-block or icon) , the time (in 23 hour format) of the last update, and the summary message of message status. The service name and the current status colored-block/icon are links that will bring of the Service Status display for the service.

Information

If there is any addition information defined for the host, it will be displayed in this section. This information is unique to each host. There can be a description of the functions of the host, embeded image or links to other information sources. For further information see the Administator Guide.

History

The recent event history of the host will be displayed in this section. The events are displayed in reverse chronological orders divided into seperate days. Each event has the status color, time (in 24 hour format), host name, service name, and message summary line of the event.

Service Status Display

This display shows all of the infomation available for the service/host. It is divided into several sections: Title (Host Name/Service), Action Bar Summary Information, Detailed Information.

Title

This is the name of the host and service being displayed.

Action Bar

This is discussed above.

Summary Information

This section shows summary information for the service. First is a colored bar that shows the current status color of the service. See Status Colors for details. Next is the Updated: field which if the date and time of the last update of the status. The Duration field shows the amount of time that the service has been in it's current status. And last is the Summary field which is a one line summary message about the status of the service.

Detailed Information

This last section is detailed information about the status of the service. The type of information depends of the service. For example, for the disk service it will be the output of the df command showing the mounted disk partitions and amount of space used on each disk and the for the cpu service it will be a ps comand output showing information about the top 10 processes using a CPU.

Acknowledge Problem Display

This display is a form generated by the www-spong-ack CGI program. At top of the form are instructions on how to fill out the form, next will be a list of all of the current Acknowledgments created for the host. The list includes the service that was ack'ed, the expirate date of the acknowledgement, and the message text of the acknowledgment. There is also a Delete link that can be used to delete the Acknowledgment if clicked. Below this if a form that can be filled out to create a new Acknowledgment. See the www-spong-ack documentation for more information.

COMMAND LINE USER INTERFACE

The command line interface is provided by the spong documentation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Spong Acknowlegements are a mechanism that allows the user to notify the spong-server that they know about the problem and no more notifications need to be sent.. Acknowledgments have a limited life time. After an acknowledgment has expired, the spong-server will start sending out notifications if neccessary. Acknowledgments are created for a specifc host and service, or all services can be ack'ed. by specifying 'all' for the serice name.