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root/i-scream/projects/cms/source/host/ihost-perl/README
Revision: 1.2
Committed: Tue Mar 27 08:46:27 2001 UTC (23 years, 8 months ago) by pjm2
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: PROJECT_COMPLETION
Changes since 1.1: +8 -7 lines
Log Message:
Added a reference to the maintenance documentation.

File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 tdb 1.1 i-scream ihost README file
2     ==========================
3    
4     URL: http://www.i-scream.org.uk/
5    
6 pjm2 1.2 $Id: README,v 1.1 2001/03/07 02:17:45 tdb1 Exp $
7 tdb 1.1
8    
9     What is ihost?
10     --------------
11    
12     ihost is a "host" application for the i-scream distributed central monitoring
13 pjm2 1.2 system. The job of a host is to harvest data from the machine on which it is
14     running and then send this data to a central server for processing.
15 tdb 1.1
16     The ihost performs this task on Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD, and is written in
17     the Perl programming Language.
18    
19     How do I use ihost?
20     -------------------
21    
22 pjm2 1.2 Fortunately, ihost is pretty easy to get started. Once you have downloaded and
23 tdb 1.1 extracted the archive, you just need to run the program. This is done as shown
24 pjm2 1.2 here: -
25 tdb 1.1
26 pjm2 1.2 ./ihost.pl <i-scream_filtermanager> <port>
27 tdb 1.1
28     The ihost should then start and configure itself, providing some debugging
29     information.
30    
31     What does the output mean?
32     --------------------------
33    
34     The first few lines simply tell you what has happened during the configuration
35     stage. These are pretty self explanatory. The configuration documentation will
36     explain how to alter the setup of the host.
37    
38     Once the ihost has started an output similar to the following will be given;
39    
40     -----^-----^-----^-----^--- etc
41    
42     The - indicates a data packet has been sent to the server over UDP, and in a
43     similar way ^ indicates a heartbeat has occured.
44    
45     At any time you may see the host reconfigure itself. This happens if the system
46     configuration has been changed.
47    
48     How can I find out where the filtermanager is?
49     ----------------------------------------------
50    
51     The filtermanager is the section of the server that handles host configuration
52     and assignment to filters. Please contact the person(s) who setup this section
53     of the system for the hostname and port number.
54    
55     I'm concerned about security!
56     -----------------------------
57    
58     Although we have not taken (yet) any particular steps to make the system
59     secure, we are pretty certain ihost is not a problem. It only sends data, and
60     does not have any open ports on the machine it's run on. It does not send any
61     data which is highly sensitive, although you should review the documentation
62     to find out exactly what is sent.
63    
64     Can I expand ihost?
65     -------------------
66    
67     Yes, of course. ihost is written in perl and is pretty easy to follow. It is
68     split into two sections;
69    
70     statgrab.pl - responsible for collecting the data from the system
71     ihost.pl - responsible for encapsulating (in XML) and sending the data
72    
73     If you are proficient in Perl you would start by alterting statgrab.pl to read
74     the new data from your system. Once this is done and tested, you would modify
75     statgrab to add this data to an outgoing packet.
76    
77 pjm2 1.2 A more indepth discussion is available in the maintenance documentation for
78     the ihost.
79 tdb 1.1
80     Where can I get the latest ihost?
81     ---------------------------------
82    
83     Please review the website for details of ihost downloads. There will be an
84     explanation of what is available, and what you need to download.
85    
86    
87     Thank-you for using the i-scream distributed central monitoring system.
88    
89     Regards,
90    
91     The i-scream team,
92     dev@i-scream.org.uk
93