--- web/www/contents.inc 2001/02/25 18:21:39 1.8 +++ web/www/contents.inc 2002/05/18 16:44:41 1.30 @@ -1,8 +1,7 @@ @@ -10,72 +9,165 @@
-

Current Status

- +

Project News

+

- Most i-scream components are now functioning to initial - design parameters and data can now be passed through the - system and displayed successfully. Documentation is still - being generated, to allow for future development of the - i-scream project. Detailed information can usually be - found in the meeting minutes. Code is viewable via CVS - to UKC users only. + 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.

- +

- The i-scream Distributed Central Monitoring System Reports - are now visible on the web. You may view all reports - available for each day, but 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. - + 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. +

+

- 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 (viewable in a web browser). Realtime - clients are also currently being developed - one Java Swing GUI - version and also a command line version that can run in a terminal - window. Alerting mechanisms are being put in place to complete the - i-scream system. + Tuesday 18 Dec 2001

+ The i-scream ihost package has undergone significant changes to + make it more flexible and modular. It now incorporates plugins + which can be written in any language, and automatically XML + encodes data it is given (as opposed to the hardcoded approach + in the old version). It has also been made more robust, and + where possible optimised to reduce the load on the host system.

- +

 

-

Project Completion

+

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

+ +

+ Historical/Realtime graphing package

+ + The current system for graphing i-scream data from the i-scream + system is good, but proving to be unscalable and very resource + hungry. This is mostly due to the MySQL database backend, + and the vast quantity of data recorded. The new system + in development makes use of + RRDtool to generate the graphs in realtime. This reduces + the peak loads of the system, and allows generation of more + flexible graphs. This work is nearing completetion. +

+ +

+ 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 History

- The project deadline is 4pm on 29 March. As such, we plan to - complete the coding process by (at the latest) the end of the - project week (26/2 - 2/3). This allows time for documentation - to be tidied up and completed, and printing of the project. + + 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. We - plan to do this over the next two weeks, and the feedback given - will allow any "last minute" alterations to be completed. + 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 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.

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-

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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