--- web/www/contents.inc 2001/05/25 17:27:40 1.13 +++ web/www/contents.inc 2002/06/14 10:29:02 1.35 @@ -1,8 +1,7 @@ @@ -10,88 +9,184 @@
-

Current Status

+

Project News

+ +

+ Saturday 1 June 2002

+ Work has now been finished on a new ihost written in C. This has + been in the pipeline for a long time, and we're glad to finally + see an efficient native host! Credit goes to our new developer + Pete. Until we update the downloads + pages you can download the new ihost + + here. +

- All i-scream components are now functioning to initial - design parameters and our system is regarded to be complete. - Documentation is available to assist third party programmers - in producing Hosts for use with the i-scream server. - Our progress during the project can be found in the meeting minutes. - Code is viewable via CVS to UKC users only. + Tuesday 21 May 2002

+ We've finally put the finishing touches to the new + RRDtool based graphing system. + It's working well, and has done away with the MySQL database + backend which took up far too many resources. This new system + generates the graphs in a more realtime nature, allowing more + flexible graphs to be generated. This is currently only available + through + CVS.

- The i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System Reports - are now visible on the web. You may view the latest information - about each machine, historical 24-hour reports and alerts for - each machine. Please remember that this is work in progress - still, so the only data currently viewable is our own data that - has been harvested by our own testing. Also note that historical - reports are only available for periods during which our server - was running. + Saturday 18 May 2002

+ The i-scream central monitoring system is now + licensed under the GNU Public License. We are currently working + to make full downloads, including source, available on this site.

- Our current host development allows us to pass machine statistics - to our distributed filter arrangement, which then processes the - data and stores it for later use. An example of such use is the - historical report generator which produces graphs of machine - usage over periods of time. A real-time - client is also available (Conient) and alert information can be - displayed to the public via dynamic web pages. + Thursday 7 Feb 2002

+ The alerting section of the i-scream central monitoring system + now makes full use of an externally developed IRC bot for it's IRC + connectivity. To find out more about this IRC bot, please visit + the author's website at + http://www.jibble.org.

- Builds of the i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System - are now available for download from this - website. These are still very much in development and should - only be used by people who have been in communication with the - development team. Please email us if you wish to use any i-scream - software, as we are interested to know who is using it and we may - be able to help you out with any problems you encounter. + Tuesday 8 Jan 2002

+ Java ACL (Access Control List) code has been added to the util + package of the i-scream server. This code will ultimately allow + the server to be more secure when exposed to the Internet. More + details can be found + here on the author's website.

+ +

 

+

About i-scream

+ +

+ + Details of the i-scream central monitoring system can be found + on the features and overview page. + A variety of screen shots from the + system show some of the key features in use. The reports demo + page provides a static example of what the i-scream reports (alerts, + historical graphs, and live data) could look like on a production system. +

+ +

+ + The latest source code is available in the CVS + repository, with binary downloads on the downloads page. The + documentation page has details of + installation, use and maintenance for the end user and developer. + We value feedback and comments from you, so please drop us an e-mail + to dev@i-scream.org.uk. +

+ +

 

+

Current Work

+ +

+ Extending monitoring facilites

+ + Work is continuing, in conjunction with the new ihost, to extend + the range of i-scream's monitoring. Currently we are adding new + features to more accurately monitoring memory and swap usage, + along with more disk statistics. We are also planning to improve + the rather basic service monitors which are currently in place. + There are also many more subtle changes that need to be made to + improve the reliability and usefulness of i-scream's monitoring. +

+

+ Server security

+ Security was something mostly overlooked in the original stage + of this project (due to the academic nature of the work). However, + once in production use this has become an issue, and is being + addressed. Initially the plan is to lock down the external points + of access (TCP & UDP) in the server to specific hosts. In the + longer term, encryption of data would be nice, but would take a + lot more time and work. +

+ +

+ Testing and Development

+ + The i-scream system is being tested and developed within the + Univeristy of Kent Computer Science department by the Systems + Group. This has led to many bug fixes and minor feature + enhancements, and will hopefully help to aid the long term + development of the system. +

+

 

-

Project Completion

+

Project History

- The project deadline was 4pm on 29 March 2001. Most of the group - met very early that morning to compile the project into five - lever arch folders. The project, consisting of source code, user, - maintenance and other documents, was handed in at 3pm. The CVS - repository was tagged to signify the project's completion, however, - development and enhancements to the system shall be continued - in the near future. + + The i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System started off as + a final year project for a group of + Computer Science students at the + University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. The project was completed at + 4pm on 29 March 2001. It consisted of five lever-arch folders containing + mostly source code and documentation. The CVS repository was tagged to + signify this even, however, the project is still being developed by the + core development team.

- As can be seen in the "problem domain" document, the project + + As can be seen in our "problem domain" document, the project was aimed at the UKC Computer Science department, and as such - we believe a demonstration to the "customer" is important. The + we believed that a demonstration to the "customer" was important. The feedback from our demonstation was more positive than we had - anticipated. We believe that our project may now be of great - interest to anybody who wishes to monitor a number of machines - on their network using a central configuration. + anticipated. We believe that the system may now be of interest + to anybody who wishes to monitor a number of machines on their + network using a central configuration. The i-scream central + monitoring system is now being used by the UKC Computer Science + department, and their feedback is being used to further improve + the product.

-

 

-

Naming History

-

- The name i-scream arose from a meeting whereupon one member - of our group randomly chose to draw an ice cream on the white board. + + The name i-scream arose from a meeting whereupon one member + of the development team felt a strange urge to draw an ice cream on the discussion board. It later became apparent that we had no name for our project (other than 'The Project'). It seemed only natural to name our project after the ice cream that had been oh-so-randomly drawn on the white board. Copyright issues immediately ruled out anything involving Mr Whippy, - so we had to settle for i-scream. And thus, we were left with a cunning + so we had to settle for i-scream. And thus, we were left with a cunning play on words - it still sounded like ice cream, yet also - served as a functional decription of our system - namely, one which + served as a functional description of our system - namely, one which screams at somebody if something has gone wrong...

- + +

 

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Searching i-scream

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