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i-scream ihost README file |
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========================== |
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URL: http://www.i-scream.org.uk/ |
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$Id$ |
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What is ihost? |
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-------------- |
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ihost is a "host" application for the i-scream distributed central monitoring |
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system. The job of a host is to harvest data from the machine on which it's run |
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and then send this data to a central server for processing. |
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The ihost performs this task on Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD, and is written in |
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the Perl programming Language. |
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How do I use ihost? |
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------------------- |
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Fortunately ihost is pretty easy to get started. Once you have downloaded and |
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extracted the archive, you just need to run the program. This is done as shown |
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here; |
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./ihost.pl <i-scream_filtermanager> <port> |
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The ihost should then start and configure itself, providing some debugging |
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information. |
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What does the output mean? |
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-------------------------- |
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The first few lines simply tell you what has happened during the configuration |
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stage. These are pretty self explanatory. The configuration documentation will |
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explain how to alter the setup of the host. |
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Once the ihost has started an output similar to the following will be given; |
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-----^-----^-----^-----^--- etc |
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The - indicates a data packet has been sent to the server over UDP, and in a |
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similar way ^ indicates a heartbeat has occured. |
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At any time you may see the host reconfigure itself. This happens if the system |
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configuration has been changed. |
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How can I find out where the filtermanager is? |
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---------------------------------------------- |
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The filtermanager is the section of the server that handles host configuration |
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and assignment to filters. Please contact the person(s) who setup this section |
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of the system for the hostname and port number. |
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I'm concerned about security! |
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----------------------------- |
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Although we have not taken (yet) any particular steps to make the system |
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secure, we are pretty certain ihost is not a problem. It only sends data, and |
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does not have any open ports on the machine it's run on. It does not send any |
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data which is highly sensitive, although you should review the documentation |
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to find out exactly what is sent. |
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Can I expand ihost? |
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------------------- |
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Yes, of course. ihost is written in perl and is pretty easy to follow. It is |
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split into two sections; |
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statgrab.pl - responsible for collecting the data from the system |
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ihost.pl - responsible for encapsulating (in XML) and sending the data |
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If you are proficient in Perl you would start by alterting statgrab.pl to read |
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the new data from your system. Once this is done and tested, you would modify |
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statgrab to add this data to an outgoing packet. |
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A more indepth discussion may be given in the system documentation. |
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Where can I get the latest ihost? |
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--------------------------------- |
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Please review the website for details of ihost downloads. There will be an |
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explanation of what is available, and what you need to download. |
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Thank-you for using the i-scream distributed central monitoring system. |
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Regards, |
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The i-scream team, |
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dev@i-scream.org.uk |
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