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.