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Revision 1.12 by pjm2, Fri Mar 30 08:08:46 2001 UTC vs.
Revision 1.30 by tdb, Sat May 18 16:44:41 2002 UTC

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1  
2   <!--
3 <    contents.inc
4 <    Created by pjm2 14/10/2000
5 <    Last edited 16/01/2001
3 >    $Author$
4 >    $Id$
5   -->
6  
7      <table border="0" width="500">
# Line 10 | Line 9
9        <td>
10         <font size="2" face="arial,sans-serif">
11        
12 <       <center><h3>Current Status</h3></center>
13 <
12 >       <center><h3>Project News</h3></center>
13 >      
14         <p align="justify">
15 <        All i-scream components are now functioning to initial
16 <        design parameters and our system is regarded to be complete.
17 <        Documentation is available to assist third party programmers
18 <        in producing Hosts for use with the i-scream server.
19 <        Our progress during the project can be found in the meeting minutes.
20 <        Code is viewable via CVS to UKC users only.
15 >        <b>Thursday 7 Feb 2002</b><br><br>
16 >        The alerting section of the i-scream central monitoring system
17 >        now makes full use of an externally developed IRC bot for it's IRC
18 >        connectivity. To find out more about this IRC bot, please visit
19 >        the author's website at <a href="http://www.jibble.org">
20 >        http://www.jibble.org</a>.
21         </p>
22 <
22 >      
23         <p align="justify">
24 <        The i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System <a href="http://raptor.ukc.ac.uk/~pjm2/reports">Reports</a>
25 <        are now visible on the web.  You may view the latest information
26 <        about each machine, historical 24-hour reports and alerts for
27 <        each machine.  Please remember that this is work in progress
28 <        still, so the only data currently viewable is our own data that
29 <        has been harvested by our own testing.  Also note that historical
31 <        reports are only available for periods during which our server
32 <        was running.
24 >        <b>Tuesday 8 Jan 2002</b><br><br>
25 >        Java ACL (Access Control List) code has been added to the util
26 >        package of the i-scream server. This code will ultimately allow
27 >        the server to be more secure when exposed to the Internet. More
28 >        details can be found <a href="http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk/people/staff/tdb/#acl">
29 >        here</a> on the author's website.
30         </p>
31 <
31 >      
32         <p align="justify">
33 <        Our current host development allows us to pass machine statistics
34 <        to our distributed filter arrangement, which then processes the
35 <        data and stores it for later use.  An example of such use is the
36 <        historical report generator which produces graphs of machine
37 <        usage over periods of time.  A real-time
38 <        client is also available (Conient) and alert information can be
39 <        displayed to the public via dynamic web pages.
33 >        <b>Tuesday 18 Dec 2001</b><br><br>
34 >        The i-scream ihost package has undergone significant changes to
35 >        make it more flexible and modular. It now incorporates plugins
36 >        which can be written in any language, and automatically XML
37 >        encodes data it is given (as opposed to the hardcoded approach
38 >        in the old version). It has also been made more robust, and
39 >        where possible optimised to reduce the load on the host system.
40         </p>
41        
42 +       <p>&nbsp;</p>
43 +       <center><h3>About i-scream</h3></center>
44 +      
45         <p align="justify">
46 <        Builds of the i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System
47 <        are now available for <a href="/builds/">download</a> from this
48 <        website. These are still very much in development and should
49 <        only be used by people who have been in communication with the
50 <        development team. Please email us if you wish to use any i-scream
51 <        software, as we are interested to know who is using it and we may
52 <        be able to help you out with any problems you encounter.
46 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-alerter-email.gif" width="100" height="107" align="left"></a>
47 >        Details of the i-scream central monitoring system can be found
48 >        on the <b><a href="features.shtml">features and overview</a></b> page.
49 >        A variety of <b><a href="screenshots">screen shots</a></b> from the
50 >        system show some of the key features in use. The <b><a href="reports">reports demo</a></b>
51 >        page provides a static example of what the i-scream reports (alerts,
52 >        historical graphs, and live data) could look like on a production system.
53         </p>
54 <
54 >      
55 >       <p align="justify">
56 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-conient-main.gif" width="100" height="107" align="right"></a>
57 >        The latest source code is available in the <b><a href="cvs.shtml">CVS</a></b>
58 >        repository, with binary downloads on the downloads page. The
59 >        <b><a href="documentation">documentation</a></b> page has details of
60 >        installation, use and maintenance for the end user and developer.
61 >        We value feedback and comments from you, so please drop us an e-mail
62 >        to <a href="mailto:dev@i-scream.org.uk">dev@i-scream.org.uk</a>.
63 >       </p>
64 >      
65         <p>&nbsp;</p>
66 <       <center><h3>Project Completion</h3></center>
66 >       <center><h3>Current Work</h3></center>
67 >      
68 >       <p align="justify">
69 >        <b>Historical/Realtime graphing package</b><br><br>
70 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-reports-raptor-load15.gif" width="100" height="107" align="left"></a>
71 >        The current system for graphing i-scream data  from the i-scream
72 >        system is good, but proving to be unscalable and very resource
73 >        hungry. This is mostly due to the MySQL database backend,
74 >        and the vast quantity of data recorded. The new system
75 >        in development makes use of <a href="http://rrdtool.eu.org/">
76 >        RRDtool</a> to generate the graphs in realtime. This reduces
77 >        the peak loads of the system, and allows generation of more
78 >        flexible graphs. This work is nearing completetion.
79 >       </p>
80 >      
81 >       <p align="justify">
82 >        <b>Server security</b><br><br>
83 >        Security was something mostly overlooked in the original stage
84 >        of this project (due to the academic nature of the work). However,
85 >        once in production use this has become an issue, and is being
86 >        addressed. Initially the plan is to lock down the external points
87 >        of access (TCP & UDP) in the server to specific hosts. In the
88 >        longer term, encryption of data would be nice, but would take a
89 >        lot more time and work.
90 >       </p>
91 >      
92 >       <p align="justify">
93 >        <b>Testing and Development</b><br><br>
94 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-winhost-main.gif" width="100" height="62" align="right"></a>
95 >        The i-scream system is being tested and developed within the
96 >        Univeristy of Kent Computer Science department by the Systems
97 >        Group. This has led to many bug fixes and minor feature
98 >        enhancements, and will hopefully help to aid the long term
99 >        development of the system.
100 >       </p>
101 >      
102 >       <p>&nbsp;</p>
103 >       <center><h3>Project History</h3></center>
104  
105         <p align="justify">
106 <        The project deadline was 4pm on 29 March 2001. Most of the group
107 <        met very early that morning to compile the project into five
108 <        lever arch folders. The project, consisting of source code, user,
109 <        maintenance and other documents, was handed in at 3pm.  The CVS
110 <        repository was tagged to signify the project's completion, however,
111 <        development and enhancements to the system shall be continued
112 <        in the near future.
106 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-reports-raptor-latest-misc.gif" width="100" height="104" align="left"></a>
107 >        The i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System started off as
108 >        a final year project for a group of <a href="http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk">
109 >        Computer Science</a> students at the <a href="http://www.ukc.ac.uk">
110 >        University of Kent at Canterbury</a>, UK. The project was completed at
111 >        4pm on 29 March 2001. It consisted of five lever-arch folders containing
112 >        mostly source code and documentation. The CVS repository was tagged to
113 >        signify this even, however, the project is still being developed by the
114 >        <a href="acknowledgements.shtml">core development team</a>.
115         </p>
116        
117         <p align="justify">
118 <        As can be seen in the "problem domain" document, the project
118 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-ihost-main.gif" width="100" height="51" align="right"></a>
119 >        As can be seen in our &quot;<a href="/probdomain.shtml">problem domain</a>&quot; document, the project
120          was aimed at the UKC Computer Science department, and as such
121 <        we believe a demonstration to the "customer" is important. The
121 >        we believed that a demonstration to the &quot;customer&quot; was important. The
122          feedback from our demonstation was more positive than we had
123 <        anticipated. We believe that our project may now be of great
124 <        interest to anybody who wishes to monitor a number of machines
125 <        on their network using a central configuration.
123 >        anticipated. We believe that the system may now be of interest
124 >        to anybody who wishes to monitor a number of machines on their
125 >        network using a central configuration. The i-scream central
126 >        monitoring system is now being used by the UKC Computer Science
127 >        department, and their feedback is being used to further improve
128 >        the product.
129         </p>
130  
78       <p>&nbsp;</p>
79       <center><h3>Naming History</h3></center>
80
131         <p align="justify">
132 <        The name <b>i-scream</b> arose from a meeting whereupon one member
133 <        of our group randomly chose to draw an ice cream on the white board.
132 >        <a href="screenshots/"><img border="0" src="screenshots/thumbnail-conient-config.gif" width="100" height="48" align="left"></a>
133 >        The name <i>i-scream</i> arose from a meeting whereupon one member
134 >        of the <a href="acknowledgements.shtml">development team</a> felt a strange urge to draw an ice cream on the discussion board.
135          It later became apparent that we had no name for our project (other
136          than 'The Project'). It seemed only natural to name our project after
137          the ice cream that had been oh-so-randomly drawn on the white board.
138          Copyright issues immediately ruled out anything involving Mr Whippy,
139 <        so we had to settle for <b>i-scream</b>. And thus, we were left with a cunning
139 >        so we had to settle for <i>i-scream</i>. And thus, we were left with a cunning
140          play on words - it still sounded like <i>ice cream</i>, yet also
141 <        served as a functional decription of our system - namely, one which
141 >        served as a functional description of our system - namely, one which
142          screams at somebody if something has gone wrong...
143         </p>
144         <p align="justify">
145 <        
145 >      
146 >       <p>&nbsp;</p>
147 >       <center><h3>Searching i-scream</h3></center>
148 >      
149 >       <!-- Search Google -->
150 >       <center>
151 >        <FORM method=GET action=http://www.google.com/custom>
152 >         <TABLE bgcolor=#FFFFFF cellspacing=0 border=0>
153 >          <tr>
154 >           <td valign="middle">
155 >            <A HREF=http://www.google.com/search>
156 >            <IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif border=0 ALT=Google align=middle width="128" height="53"></A>
157 >           </td>
158 >           <td valign="middle">
159 >            <input type=hidden name=domains value="i-scream.org.uk">
160 >            <input type=hidden name=sitesearch value="i-scream.org.uk">
161 >            <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=35 maxlength=255 value="">
162 >            <INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Search">
163 >            <INPUT type=hidden name=cof VALUE="T:#000066;LW:502;ALC:#3333cc;L:http://www.i-scream.org.uk/i-scream.gif;LC:#0000ff;LH:37;BGC:#ffffff;AH:left;VLC:#3333cc;AWFID:d646a9fd69e7d9cb;">
164 >           </td>
165 >          </tr>
166 >         </TABLE>
167 >        </FORM>
168 >       </center>
169 >       <!-- Search Google -->
170 >      
171         </p>
172         </font>
173        </td>

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