[sysmon-help] Sysmon Backup Questions

[Jared Mauch]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2007 at 12:14:51PM -0500, George R. wrote:
> We have happily running sysmon for over a year now, and are very
> satisfied with the simplicity and functions.  There's a time for heavy
> Nagios, etc., and there's when you want to test uptime with some level
> of specificity.  Sysmon fits the bill.
> 
> I have a question regarding setting up a backup sysmon on a host remote
> from the primary.  I've been through Google and the gmane archives, and
> am yet to find anything remotely useful.
> 
> First, is there a method internal to sysmon of providing this hot
> backup?  There are certainly of tools in the Unix tool kit to check the
> primary sysmon status, then load sysmond when not getting a response,
> but I was wondering how to setup sysmon itself to do so.  I see
> references to this, but nothing specific.
> 
> Second, the function of 'type sysmon;' I can't seem to get my head
> around the role of 'reverse' in the test-type configs.  How exactly does
> this work into providing sysmon backup on a different host?
> 
> I have unsuccessfully tried by seting up a remote backup sysmon to only
> check primary sysmon, and to 'spawn' a full sysmon.conf when the primary
> host is unresponsive.  I assume I'm on the right track with that. . .
> 
> Thanks, and I appreciate the efforts you've put into things Jared.

	so, sounds like you're very close to the path of what you want..

	let me give you a simple explanation of 'reverse'.

	When an object is tested normally, and is down,
it doesn't test things that are "behind it" or it's "children".  In
the case of reverse, that logic is reversed.  sysmon normally listens on
tcp port 1345.  the 'sysmon' test checks that it's responding properly,
if not, and you've set the object for 'reverse', and make what you
normally monitor dependent on this "primary sysmon instance" on
your "secondary sysmon instance", you will get the desired results.

	does this clarify what you wanted to know?

	there is no 'automatic' config pushing system, you'll need
to determine how to do that yourself.  i suggest ssh/rsync/scp
to do this.  you will need to run sysmon on both your hosts.

	- jared

-- 
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from jared at puck.nether.net
clue++;      | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.