big brother professional edition client 3.00 unix/linux

Big Brother Professional Edition Client 3.00 Unix/Linux

QuickStart Guide

11/25/2002

Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Big Brother PE Quick Reference Card ________________________________________1

2. Prerequisites _____________________________________________________________3 2.1 Download BBPE _____________________________________________________________ 3

2.2 Download and Install Apache __________________________________________________ 3

2.3 Configuration of apache _______________________________________________________ 4

3. BBPE Server Installation___________________________________________________5 3.1 Introduction_________________________________________________________________ 5

3.2 Administrator’s Overview of BBPE _____________________________________________ 5 3.2.1 System Requirements_______________________________________________________________ 6 3.2.2 Security Issues ____________________________________________________________________ 7

3.3 Installing BBPE______________________________________________________________ 8

3.4 Pre-Installation Steps _________________________________________________________ 8 3.4.1 Obtain root permissions ____________________________________________________________ 8 3.4.2 Creating the BB user _______________________________________________________________ 8 3.4.3 Copying the BBPE Archive__________________________________________________________ 8

3.5 The BBPE Directory Structure _________________________________________________ 9

3.6 BBPE Variable Names and Home Directories ____________________________________ 10

3.7 BBPE Server Installation _____________________________________________________ 11 3.7.1 Running the Main Configuration Script _______________________________________________ 11

3.8 Editing the bb-hosts file ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.9 Checking the Configuration___________________________________________________ 16 3.9.1 Checking the bb-hosts file for errors __________________________________________________ 16

3.10 Starting BBPE ____________________________________________________________ 16

3.11 Verifying that BBPE is running______________________________________________ 17

3.12 Checking that BBPE is generating web pages __________________________________ 17

4. Configuration Of BB Hosts and Notification __________________________________19 4.1 Configuring the bb-hosts file.__________________________________________________ 19

4.1.1 Prefixes and Directives ____________________________________________________________ 20 4.1.2 HTTP __________________________________________________________________________ 21 4.1.3 POP3 __________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.4 SMTP __________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.5 FTP____________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.6 Telnet __________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.7 SSH ___________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.8 Procs___________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.9 CPU ___________________________________________________________________________ 23 4.1.10 Disk _________________________________________________________________________ 23

– ii –

Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide 4.1.11 dns __________________________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.1.12 dig __________________________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.1.13 noping _______________________________________________________________________ 23 4.1.14 noconn _______________________________________________________________________ 23 4.1.15 dialup ________________________________________________________________________ 23

4.2 etc/bb-hosts special directives _________________________________________________ 23 4.2.1 Grouping on the display____________________________________________________________ 23 4.2.2 group Intranet Servers _____________________________________________________________ 24 4.2.3 group-compress California Servers ___________________________________________________ 24 4.2.4 group-only conn|cpu|disk Restricted Services _________________________________________ 24 4.2.5 DHCP hosts (no fixed IP address) ____________________________________________________ 24 4.2.6 Modem Banks ___________________________________________________________________ 24 4.2.7 Summary Lines __________________________________________________________________ 25 4.2.8 Display results in an HTML subpage _________________________________________________ 25

4.3 Notification ________________________________________________________________ 25 4.3.1 Notification by e-mail _____________________________________________________________ 25 4.3.2 Setting up notification _____________________________________________________________ 26 4.3.3 Creating notification rules __________________________________________________________ 26 4.3.4 Displaying acknowledgements ______________________________________________________ 26

5. Troubleshooting Common Problems _________________________________________27 5.1 “403 Permission Denied” Error________________________________________________ 27

5.2 Checking BBOUT for errors __________________________________________________ 27

6. Useful Resources ________________________________________________________27 6.1 Websites ___________________________________________________________________ 27

6.2 Technical support ___________________________________________________________ 27

– iii –

Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide – 1

1 . B I G B R O T H E R P E Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E C A R D

This is a list of information that will be required during and after the install of BBPE. Print out and complete this checklist prior to beginning the installation of BBPE.

You must be logged in as root for the BBPE install process.

Need to have created a bb user (bb)

You must have a working webserver on the BBPE server machine.

User ID the webserver is running as:

Group webserver is running as:

Note: This may not be the same group as the webserver user, see the “group line” in Apache’s httpd.conf file

Location of the Document Root directory:

Location of the CGI-BIN directory:

CGI-BIN URL:

BBPE URL:

Symbolic links must be accepted (Options Fo

CGI scripts need to be working

Need e-mail working to receive notifications

Record the hostkey presented during the installationin order to get your permanen

Hostkey generated during installation:

Keep this in a safe place for

llowSymLinks)

in the space below, you will need it t license key.

future reference


P R E F A C E

INTENDED AUDIENCE

This guide is addressed to administrators seeking to install BBPE. It assumes basic knowledge of systems administration including the ability to download and decompress files, install precompiled packages, and editing of system files.

DESCRIPTION AND FUNCTION OF BBPE

Big Brother Professional Edition (BBPE) is a software tool for monitoring computer stations, devices, machines and processes. As long as the machines are connected to a network, the physical location of the station being monitored is not important. This means that computer networks can be monitored remotely, 24-hours a day. BBPE can generate a web page that can be viewed internally or externally. Notification can be by e-mail or a pager. Alarm levels are fully customizable. Network status can be public or private, depending on permission configuration.

BBPE consists of two parts: a client (BBclient) and a server (BBserver).

BBPE TERMINOLOGY

Terminology is very important in understanding and running BBPE successfully.

BB server - The default server used by BBPE is called the BBserver and contains the BBDISPLAY, BBPAGE and BBNET servers, which are defined as follows:

BBDISPLAY (Display Server) – The display server is the machine that accepts incoming reports and prepares them for display. BBPE uses the Web as its user interface, so it can be accessed by anyone with clearance to access the BBPE site. This server is known as the BBDISPLAY server.

BBPAGER (Pager Server) – The function of the pager server is to send a notification if alarm levels are exceeded.

BBNET –Is the machine that performs all network tests for each protocol, for each system listed in the bb-hosts file. Not all protocols are supported.

BB client – Is the machine to retrieve CPU, disk, messages, and process information. This may be loaded on the BB server.


THE BBPE ENVIRONMENT (USER)

BB user – The user that is created who runs BBPE. For security reasons, BBPE cannot be run as root.

NAMING CONVENTIONS

The following default naming conventions are used throughout the book:

Name of BB user bb

Home directory of BB user /home/bb

Home directory of BBPE /home/bb/bb30

Home directory of Apache /var/www/html

cgi-bin directory of Apache /var/www/cgi-bin

2 . P R E R E Q U I S I T E S

2.1 DOWNLOAD BBPE

If you don’t already have a copy of the BBPE software it can be downloaded directly from the Quest Software website at http://www.quest.com/bigbrother.asp

2.2 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL APACHE

Quest Software does not provide support for the installation of Apache, however if you do not already have a webserver installed, precompiled versions of Apache can be downloaded for following platforms: Solaris 5.6: http://www.sunfreeware.com or

http://soldc.sun.com/freeware/details/detail_apache_1.3.12_6_SPARC.html Install using the command: /usr/sbin/pkgadd. Installs in /usr/local Solaris 7:

http://www.sunfreeware.com or

http://www.quest.com/bigbrother.asp

http://www.sunfreeware.com/

http://soldc.sun.com/freeware/details/detail_apache_1.3.12_6_SPARC.html



http://soldc.sun.com/freeware/details/detail_apache_1.3.6_7_SPARC.html Install using the command: /usr/sbin/pkgadd. Installs in /usr/local

Solaris 8:

www.sunfreeware.com or http://soldc.sun.com/freeware/details/detail_apache_1.3.12_8_SPARC.html A version of Apache is already included Solaris 8, so you may want to try that first. Install using the command: /usr/sbin/pkgadd Installs in /usr/local

AIX: You’ll need to install the RPM manager first. Review the instructions here:

http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/altlic.html

The RPM manager itself is here: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/INSTALLP/ppc/rpm.rte

Then you can get an Apache RPM for AIX from here: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/RPMS/ppc/apache/apache-1.3.26-1.aix4.3.ppc.rpm

Install using the command: rpm –i apache-1.3.26-1.aix4.3.ppc.rpm Alternatively, you may go to http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/aix/old and download apache 1.3.9-0035558C4C00-ibm-aix4.3.tar.gz and run ./install-bindist.sh /opt/apache13 to install to any directory (such as /opt/apache13)

HP/UX: http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Networking/WWW/apache-1.3.26/

Alternatively, you can go to http://www.software.hp.com and search for apache. Install using the command:

/usr/sbin/swinstall –s /tmp/<HP_Apache>.depot Select “Mark for Install” and “Install”.

Redhat 6.2: ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-5.6.i386.rpm Install using the command: rpm –i apache-1.3.22-5.6.i386.rpm Redhat 7.1: ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.1/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-5.7.1.i386.rpm

Install using the command: rpm –i apache-1.3.22-5.7.1.i386.rpm

2.3 CONFIGURATION OF APACHE

Only a minor change to the Apache configuration file httpd.conf should be needed to get BBPE up and running, and that is allowing Apache to follow symbolic links.




ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/INSTALLP/ppc/rpm.rte

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/RPMS/ppc/apache/apache-1.3.26-1.aix4.3.ppc.rpm



http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/aix/old

http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Networking/WWW/apache-1.3.26/

http://www.software.hp.com/

ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-5.6.i386.rpm

ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-5.6.i386.rpm

ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.1/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-5.7.1.i386.rpm

ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.1/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-5.7.1.i386.rpm


Make sure that the option FollowSymLinks is listed as part of the Options line.

If it is not, it must be added, and Apache will need to be restarted per the directions below.

Change directory to the Apache configuration directory. In many cases this will be /usr/local/apache/conf. Open the file httpd.conf in your favorite editor.

There should be lines in httpd.conf similar to the following: <Directory />

Options Indexes Includes

If FollowSymLinks is not listed on the Options line, it must be added: <Directory />

Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks

Save the file, and restart Apache. To restart Apache: /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl restart

3 . B B P E S E R V E R I N S T A L L A T I O N

3.1 INTRODUCTION

BBPE is used to monitor servers and process on computers that are connected to a network. BBPE can be configured to different levels of complexity from monitoring one computer to monitoring hundreds of machines, each of which can have its own levels of alarm and notification.

BBPE allows different alarm and notification levels to be set for almost anything that is being measured. Time series data can be extracted from the logs that BBPE creates. Hundreds of plug-ins are available to extend BBPE in what it can measure or analyze.

In summary, BBPE is easy to set up almost immediately but takes time and experimentation to make it “just right”.

3.2 ADMINISTRATOR’S OVERVIEW OF BBPE

BBPE works by monitoring services and processes on the server to see if they are in fact


working, and will send a notification if they are not, or if an alarm level has been exceeded. See Figure 1 for a visual representation of the status of the monitored services as displayed on a web page.

Figure 1 - BBPE Main Display

There are two categories of services that can be monitored: external and internal. External monitoring is performed via the Internet. BBPE checks the service status by sending a message over the Internet to see if it can receive a reply, thus indicating that the service is ‘alive’ – i.e., pinging.

Internal monitoring is done for services that can only be monitored internally by checking the computer itself. For instance, to check the available amount of disk space, swap-space, and memory on the machine, a client (BBclient) has to be installed to send information back to the BBserver because these services cannot be probed externally. The BBclient is installed on every machine that requires internal services to be monitored.

The data that is collected from the monitored computers (both internally and externally) is then displayed on a web page that can be configured to different level of access by administrators, operators, etc.

3.2.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The following OSs represent the minimum requirements for BBPE to work properly:

• RedHat 6.2 or greater


• Solaris 6 or greater

• HPUX 11.0

• AIX 4.3.3

Apache or some other webserver must also be installed on the system that will become the bbserver prior to installing BBPE.

3.2.2 SECURITY ISSUES

The following suggestions are mostly targeted at BBPE display and pager hosts. These are the Big Brother daemons, and as such are higher risk than the simple clients.

1) Never install network software without considering the security implications. If you have a security person, discuss it with them. If not, talk nicely to your Sys Admin. If you're the Sys Admin, feel free call Quest support if you have any questions.

2) Since you are probably running a Web server on the BBDISPLAY machine you might consider making certain it is secure. Even Apache has had security breaches from a misconfigured web server. Beware!

3) Creating a user ‘bb’ and running BBPE as that user is mandatory. BBPE cannot run as root.

4) BBPE has the ability to restrict incoming connections to those IP addresses (and networks) listed in the etc/security file. Use it. But only after it’s installed and working.

5) If you are in an environment with a firewall, we suggest running two instances of BBPE, one on this inside of the firewall, and one on the outside. This keeps things clean, and doesn't require any unnecessary holes in the firewall. However, this will require the purchase of additional licenses.

6) The usual warnings about scripts in the cgi-bin directory... make sure that your webserver is not running as root, and be careful what can be seen and run by outsiders.

7) We recommend password-protecting the Big Brother Professional web pages. This includes the cgi-bin scripts.


3.3 INSTALLING BBPE

After downloading the appropriate file (Section 1.1 shows the downloaded Linux version) there are a few things that must be done first to make sure that BBPE will work right.

Make sure Apache is installed and configured before proceeding. (See Sections 1.2 and Section 2).

3.4 PRE-INSTALLATION STEPS

3.4.1 OBTAIN ROOT PERMISSIONS

STEP 1 – Login or su to root and change directory to where the BBPE archive is located. We will assume it lives in /tmp

3.4.2 CREATING THE BB USER

STEP 2– Next, create a user called bb. For security reasons, user bb will run and own BBPE. The command to create a new user will vary depending on your platform.

Solaris /usr/sbin/useradd AIX Use SMIT to add a BB user - /usr/bin/smit

Go to “Security and Users” HP/UX Use SAM to add a BB user and group - /usr/sbin/sam

Go to “Accounts for Users and Groups” Linux /usr/sbin/useradd

3.4.3 COPYING THE BBPE ARCHIVE

STEP 3 – Copy the BBPE archive file to the BB user’s home directory. The BBPE archive name will contain the platform it has been compiled for. Assuming the BBPE archive was downloaded to /tmp, and the BB user’s home is /home/bb, the command would be the following:

cp /tmp/BBSVR-redhat.tar /home/bb

STEP 4 – Go to the BB user home directory. cd /home/bb


STEP 5 –Untar the archive:

tar xvf BBSVR-redhat.tar

Two files will be created as follows: README.FIRST (future versions) BBSVR-redhat.tar

STEP 6 – Read the README.FIRST (if applicable)

This is covers what we are about to do, i.e., the installing of BBPE.

STEP 7 – Change over to root for the install. su root

3.5 THE BBPE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE

Once the BBPE archive has been extracted, the following shows the directory structure that was created and the variable names associated with it:

The home directory of bb /home/bb should now have one new directory: bb30

Another directory, bbvar, will be created later to carry data and log files.

The bb30 directory should contain the following: bin

etc

ext

FILES.LIST

install

INSTALL

LICENSE


runbb.sh.DIST

tmp

web

www

The contents of the directories listed above are as follows:

bin Contains most of the binaries and shell scripts of BBPE.

etc Contains almost all of the files that define the behavior of BBPE. These are the files will be modified by the user to configure BBPE alarm levels and other behaviors.

ext Contains the files that extend the monitoring of BBPE. External user-defined scripts go here.

install Contains the install files of BBPE.

tmp Holds temporary files.

web Holds the scripts that generate webpages

www Contains the link to the index.html file.

The /home/bb directory is the BB user home directory after running bbconfig will contain a directory called bbvar . Inside bbvar there are six directories: acks data disabled hist histlogs logs

3.6 BBPE VARIABLE NAMES AND HOME DIRECTORIES

The /home/bb/bb30 directory and the directories under home/bb/bbvar also have special names and variables assigned to them. They are used in the following way:

HOME VARIABLE NAME /home/bb/bb30 $BBHOME


/home/bb/bbvar/acks/ $BBACKS /home/bb/bbvar/data/ $BBDATA /home/bb/bbvar/disabled/ $BBDISABLED /home/bb/bbvar/hist/ $BBHIST /home/bb/bbvar/histlogs/ $BBHISTLOGS

/home/bb/bbvar/logs/ $BBLOGS

BBPE is now ready to be installed.

3.7 BBPE SERVER INSTALLATION

STEP 9 – Go to home of BBPE

cd /home/bb/bb30

STEP 10 – Change to the install directory cd install

3.7.1 RUNNING THE MAIN CONFIGURATION SCRIPT

STEP 11 – running the main configuration script, bbconfig. ./bbconfig

The script will ask questions about your setup.

The following section shows the user input that is required after the colon (:)

First, BBPE will ask you to agree to the licensing: Do you agree to the terms of this license (y/n): y

Verify your Operating System: Please confirm your OS: [redhat]: redhat

The user ID for BBPE: What will be the user ID of BBPE[bb]:bb

The email address of the default recipient of email notifications is next: (On HP systems, you may have to use a backslash for the @ sign (\@ instead of @)


Enter the e-mail address to send notifications to: [[email protected]]

Apache’s document root: Enter DocumentRoot directory [/home/www/httpd/docs]: /usr/local/apache/htdocs

BBPE uses CGI scripts to create dynamic output.

The default directory for CGI scripts changes depending to the version of Apache installed:

/home/www/httpd/cgi-bin is default for versions of apache before 2.0;

/var/www/cgi-bin is default for versions 2.0 or greater

Enter CGI directory [/home/www/httpd/cgi-bin]: /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin

Enter the base URL of the CGI scripts [/cgi-bin]:

Depending on the Apache version installed, the typical default group and user id owning the web server is “nobody” or “apache”.

Enter web server user id [nobody]: nobody

Enter group name [nobody]: nobody

Next, it will generate a hostkey which is needed to get a permanent license key from Quest. It will output something similar to:

You need this string to get your Big Brother Server

ntmg peds omdi bfdp bvej cxfr

Record this in on the Quick Reference Card

It will now do a few things and then report back: It generally will take 5 to 10 minutes to generate the first Big Brother report page. Once created, it may be viewed at http://your-host.com/bb/

Big Brother Professional Installation complete.

Going to the BB URL immediately after running the above file should result in the following screen:


After waiting about ten minutes you should see something similar to the following:


If you do then BBPE is working fine.

If Apache is using a different port than port 80, you must modify bb-hosts and BBWEBHOST in etc/bbdef.sh to add the port number. For example, in bb-hosts you would change http://yourhost.domain.com/bb to http://yourhost.domain.com:8080/bb where 8080 is the port number specified in Apache httpd.conf. Then restart Big Brother using ./runbb.sh stop and ./runbb.sh start.

3.8 POPULATE THE BB-HOSTS FILE

The etc directory contains all the configuration files that are needed to continue with the installation.

Go to the etc directory. cd /home/bb/bb30/etc

The bb-hosts file is the heart of BBPE. See Section 4.0 for a complete description of the bb-host files.

This section will discuss editing the default bb-hosts file.

STEP 1 – Change into the etc directory and make a copy of the current bb-hosts file. cd /home/bb/bb30/etc

cp bb-hosts bb-hosts.old

http://yourhost.domain.com/

http://yourhost.domain.com:8080/


Now edit the bb-hosts file in your favorite editor.

This is the sample bb-hosts file: # DEFAULT BIG BROTHER PROFESSIONAL bb-hosts FILE

127.0.0.1 grace.home.lnx # BBDISPLAY BBPAGER BBNET http://127.0.0.1/bb

192.77.210.55 www.quest.com # http://www.quest.com

A more detailed example of the bb-hosts file is shown below:

Figure 2 - Sample bb-hosts file

It works like this: <IP-ADDR> <HOSTNAME> # <DIRECTIVES>

192.168.0.253 is the IP address of grace.home.lnx

Everything after the # sign is a directive – in this case, the directives are that this host with this IP is the BBDISPLAY, BBPAGER, and is the host that runs the IP network services (BBNET). Furthermore, BBPE will check ftp/http/pop3 services on itself.

In the second case, 192.168.0.254 is the IP address of andrew.home.lnx; its directives state that it will be checked for ftp/pop3/http/

In this way new machines can be added. No internal services have been monitored except for the BBDISPLAY machine. By default, the BBDISPLAY machine does not need a client because it can monitor itself. A BBCLIENT needs to be installed in any other machine that has internal monitoring requirements. For the time being, it is important to check that the bare services are running and all the various parts are functioning together properly.

Enter your own valid IP addresses, hostnames and directives: <IP ADDRESS> <HOSTNAME> # <DIRECTIVES>

For checking purposes, only check for a few hosts and services before proceeding further.

Save the file. There are a few more things to do before actually producing an output on a web

http://127.0.0.1/bb

http://www.quest.com/


page.

STEP 2 – Save the changes

Save the changes and close your editor.

3.9 CHECKING THE CONFIGURATION

STEP 3 – Checking the configuration. Type this: ./bbchkcfg.sh

BBPE will run some checks then give notice that all processes are running smoothly.

3.9.1 CHECKING THE BB-HOSTS FILE FOR ERRORS

STEP 4 – Checking the bb-hosts file for errors by typing: ./bbchkhosts.sh

At this stage, BBPE should state that everything is ok. If not, follow the instructions to change what is required.

3.10 STARTING BBPE

Now we have to restart BBPE. ./runbb.sh stop

./runbb.sh start

BBPE should start and create some web pages. It will take about two minutes for the web pages to be displayed.

Point your web browser to the display page http://your_BBDISPLAY_host_here.com/bb/


Figure 3 – Sample BB Display

3.11 VERIFYING THAT BBPE IS RUNNING

If after ten minutes nothing appears or you get a ‘permission denied’ entry from the web server, you should verify that BBPE is running by typing the following from the command line:

Solaris, AIX, HP/UX ps –ef | grep runbb linux ps aux | grep runbb

The output should be similar to: [root@grace root]# ps aux | grep runbb bb 1646 0.0 0.5 2264 1112 tty2 S 13:15 0:00 /bin/sh ./runbb.s bb 1648 0.0 0.5 2264 1112 tty2 S 13:15 0:00 /bin/sh ./runbb.s bb 1649 0.0 0.5 2264 1112 tty2 S 13:15 0:00 /bin/sh ./runbb.s root5485 0.0 0.3 1700 604 pts/3 R 13:43 0:00 grep runbb [root@grace root]#

Output similar to this indicates that BBPE is running.

3.12 CHECKING THAT BBPE IS GENERATING WEB PAGES

First make sure that your web server is running by retrieving any web page: http://your_BBDISPLAY_host_here.domain.com/

To check if BBPE is indeed generating web pages, go to the bb directory where web pages are,


i.e. the bb directory under the webserver.

cd /home/bb/bb30/www

List the contents of the directory in long format. ls –al

You should see something like this: [root@grace www]# ls -al total 52 drwxr-xr-x 9 bb users 4096 Aug 9 13:48 . drwxr-xr-x 10 bb users 4096 Aug 9 14:10 .. -rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 6413 Aug 10 13:51 bb2.html -rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 7486 Aug 10 13:51 bb.html drwxr-xr-x 2 bb users 4096 May 13 01:02 gifs drwxr-xr-x 2 bb users 4096 Aug 9 13:09 help drwxr-xr-x 2 bb users 4096 Aug 9 13:48 html lrwxrwxrwx 1 bb bb 7 Aug 9 13:06 index.html -> bb.html drwxr-xr-x 2 bb users 4096 May 3 01:00 notes drwxrwxr-x 2 bb apache 4096 May 3 00:59 rep [root@grace www]#

The first thing to check is for the existence of two files: bb.html and bb2.html. If you see those, then BBPE is running or has run. Next, look at the timestamp for those two files, if BBPE is presently running, then the time on the files should be within five minutes or so of the system clock because these files are dynamically created by BBPE.


.

4 . C O N F I G U R A T I O N O F B B H O S T S A N D N O T I F I C A T I O N

The next step is to add any additional hosts you wish to monitor to the bb-hosts file.

You should now have a display server set up. At this point no clients are running and the pager server has not been configured. This section describes the bb-hosts file and explains how to set or alter alarm levels and notification.

When you have all of your hosts defined in etc/bb-hosts then you may optionally install the BBclient. (See the document titled “Big Brother Professional Edition Client – UNIX QuickStart Guide”‘) on all of the client machines and do not forget to copy your master bb-hosts file to all the clients.

You may also want to restrict configuration of all Big Brother files to the Big Brother user by running chown –R bb /home/bb

where /home/bb is where bb is installed

4.1 CONFIGURING THE BB-HOSTS FILE.

The bb-hosts file controls where BBPE looks for directives to take action. The format is similar to the standard /etc/hosts file, except with additional directives for BBPE. (See Section 3.8 populate the bb-hosts file). # # THE BIG BROTHER HOSTS FILE # # THIS FILE SHOULD BE THE SAME ON ALL SYSTEMS RUNNING BIG BROTHER # CHANGE THIS FILE TO REFLECT YOUR ENVIRONMENT! # 192.168.116.1 x.bb4.com # BBPAGER BBNET BBDISPLAY ftp pop3 http://x.bb4.com/ 192.168.117.1 bobo.bb4.com # ftp smtp dns page web BB4 Web Servers group-compress <H3><I>Web Servers</I></H3> 192.168.117.2 ns2.bb4.com # ftp smtp noping 192.168.117.3 ns3.bb4.com # ftp !smtp 192.168.117.4 ns4.bb4.com # ftp smtp page modem Modem page group <H3><I>Modem Banks</I></H3> dialup modem-bank1 192.168.117.1 16


dialup modem-bank2 192.168.117.17 16 dialup modem-bank3 192.168.117.33 16 # Summaries are always displayed on the main page # Use this directive to send to another BBDISPLAY (e.g. 192.168.116.1) # The summary tag should be in the xxx.yyy format (e.g. canada.bc) # Do NOT define a tag like this: canada.bc.vancouver #summary canada.bc 192.168.116.1 http://www.iti.qc.com/iti/users/sean/bb/

Figure 4 – The Big Brother Hosts File

It works like this: <IP-ADDR> <HOSTNAME> # <DIRECTIVES>

IP-ADDR = XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

HOSTNAME = host.domain.com

The directives for BBPE are:

BBDISPLAY = Machine with web server to display results

BBPAGER = Machine to act as the pager/notification server

BBNET = Indicates the host that checks the IP network services

There are other services that can be monitored. Any text-based service can be checked by putting the /etc/services name as the directive and adding in the list of services in bb-network.sh.

4.1.1 PREFIXES AND DIRECTIVES

Check /etc/services for proper service name, especially pop3 – sometimes referred as pop-3.

These directives names MUST appear in /etc/services. By default, the test sends the "QUIT" string to the tested service. The '!' can be prefixed so that the service checked is NOT running (!ftp).

The '?' can also prefix a service. This prefix indicates that the service is considered a dialup service: it will generate a clear button if the service is down. NOTE: the ! and the ? prefixes can only be used with the basic TCP services that are handled by the bb-network.sh script. http* and dns/dig tests cannot use these prefixes.

The :s , :q and :Q tags can be added to the directive by appending them to the directive: ftp:s


or ftp:s:q This will enable special options to the bbnet program that does the TCP tests.

:s - Just connect to the port, do not engage in a conversation with the service tested (silent)

:q - Do not return timing statistics if you've enabled them (quiet)

:Q - Do not return error messages usually returned by the bbnet program.

You can also add a custom TCP port to test. You have to define the network service name in the bb-network.sh script (on the same line where you find ftp* | imap* | ssh* | ...) by adding an entry like this: | svcname* In the bb-hosts you declare that new TCP test by putting in entry in this format: svcname:portnumber

i.e. mytest:1234 - Test port 1234 and return it with the mytest status name

dns Checks for name resolution server

dig Same check as dns but using the dig command if the command is available.

noping Do not do ping test for this host

noconn Do not do ping test for this host and do not generate a clear dot

dialup If host is down then display clear button otherwise display a green status

bbd Test a remote BBDISPLAY/BBPAGER

You can add your own directives that you access through an external test. Known directives from user contributed tests: oracle/fping/trap/sybase/... These contributions can be found on the user contributions archive. (http://www.deadcat.net)

By default all systems are pinged and the results displayed under the conn column. There is no conn keyword – this is the exception to the rule. Available keywords are listed in the sections below:

4.1.2 HTTP

The HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) column displays the status of HTTP. In most cases, HTTP and the webserver are synonymous. Usage:

http://<path> Test http connections for this server & path

https://<path> Test https connections for this server & path

http://www.deadcat.net/


ote that you can specify multiple URLs by joining the URLs with '|':

http://www_path|http://www_path1 or by specifying them individually: http://www_path http://www_path1

https test requires Lynx or cUrl. For curl, see curl.haxx.se and compile with the ssl option.

4.1.3 POP3

The POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) column denotes the POP3 check that is performed periodically. POP3 is a type of protocol for mail transport used for receiving e-mail; the ‘3’ denotes that it is the third version. Be sure to check /etc/services for proper service name especially pop3 (sometimes referred to as pop-3)

4.1.4 SMTP

The SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) column denotes the SMTP check that BBPE performs periodically. SMTP is typically used to send electronic mail and BBPE monitors the status of this process.

4.1.5 FTP

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a means of transferring files to and from a remote server. The FTP column denotes whether the FTP server is running. !ftp checks that ftp is NOT running.

4.1.6 TELNET

BBPE monitors the telnet port to make sure it is up and running. This does not mean that the machine is in proper working order but only that the telnet daemon is responding to requests.

4.1.7 SSH

BBPE monitors the ssh port to make sure it is up and running. This does not mean that the machine is in proper working order but only that the ssh daemon is responding to requests.

4.1.8 PROCS

The procs column denotes the procs check performed periodically. It makes sure that the processes defined exist on the local machine. If a process does not exist, and it has been defined then the code is red.

http://www_path1/


4.1.9 CPU

The CPU column denotes the load or use of the CPU (Central Processing Unit). The higher the load average the higher the load on the CPU. It is unadvisable to overload the CPU. This figure is based on the 5-minute load average as defined by uptime (how long the computer has been up and running.)

4.1.10 DISK

The disk column denotes the disk check performed periodically. The report is in the form of a percentage. The higher the percentage, the more full the disk.

4.1.11 DNS

Checks for name resolution server. The DNS server should be able to perform a reverse lookup of itself. Turn the named service off and on and check that Big Brother recognizes the changes.

4.1.12 DIG

Same check as dns but using the dig command if the command is available.

4.1.13 NOPING

Do not do a ping test for this host

4.1.14 NOCONN

Do not do a ping test for this host and do not generate a clear dot

4.1.15 DIALUP

If host is down then display clear button otherwise display a green status

You can add your own directives that you access through an external test. Known directives from user contributed tests: oracle/fping/trap/sybase/... These contributions can be found on the user contributions archive. (www.deadcat.net)

4.2 ETC/BB-HOSTS SPECIAL DIRECTIVES

4.2.1 GROUPING ON THE DISPLAY

The Web display may be broken into tables to create a more aesthetic and sensible display. It is also much faster to load small tables than one giant table. Consider grouping your etc/bb-host


entries logically and separating them using the "group" , "group-compress" or "group-only" directives.

4.2.2 GROUP

group Intranet Servers

The group directive defines a block of hosts to be grouped in the same HTML table. All hosts lines following the group directive, until a new group/group-compress is defined, belong to that group. The text that follows the directive is the title given to the HTML table. Note that you can embed HTML code in the title: Italic / H3, but use with caution.

4.2.3 GROUP-COMPRESS

Example:

group-compress California Servers

The group-compress is identical to the "group" directive except it will only display services (columns) containing data for that group.

4.2.4 GROUP-ONLY

Example:

group-only conn|cpu|disk Restricted Services

The group-only will create a table with only the columns defined in the directive. The columns are '|' delimited.

4.2.5 DHCP HOSTS (NO FIXED IP ADDRESS)

0.0.0.0 dhcphost.domain #

The 0.0.0.0 indicates that this host is a DHCP host and that the BBNET host will not try to run the connection test on that host using the IP address but only the hostname.

4.2.6 MODEM BANKS

Dialup modem-bank 204.19.116.20 4

The dialup directive (not to be confused with the other dialup tag which displays a clear button if the host is down) is used to specify connectivity for a bank of modems. The 2nd parameter is the name to be displayed on the display page. The 3rd argument is the starting IP address of


the modem bank. The last argument is the number of modems on that bank.

4.2.7 SUMMARY LINES

summary quebec.mtl 255.255.255.255 http://cafe.domain.com/bb/

This indicates to the BBDISPLAY machine that summary information about the state of this display is to be forwarded to the IP address noted on the line. Replace 255.255.255.255 with the BBDISPLAY you want summary information to be sent to. The summary can be sent to more than one parent machine. You can send the generated bb.html/bb2.html or subpages created with the 'page' directive to any other BBDISPLAY host(s).

4.2.8 DISPLAY RESULTS IN AN HTML SUBPAGE

page nyrouters New York Routers

BBPE always creates two HTML pages: bb.html/bb2.html.

When the page directive is encountered, BB will then create a new HTML sub-page until another page directive is found and will save the output from that point on to that new sub-page. It will keep a pointer of the new sub page in bb.html. The first argument is the directive, the second one is the name of the page (i.e. nyrouters.html) and the remaining arguments is the caption that will appear in bb.html when it creates the link to that sub-page. Always place your page directives after all hosts that you want to appear in the bb.html page. When you use a page directive then all subsequent output will be in a sub-page.

Summaries and dialup directives will always appear on bb.html/b2.html and not in any HTML sub-pages.

4.3 NOTIFICATION

BBPE by default will notify the e-mail address you provided at installation time. Notification will take place when a service goes red. The rules for defining when an alarm will go red are in the file called BBWARN. It allows an admin to specify rules, which enable him/her to get notified based on the source of the error (host) and the service involved and also based on the day/time. Different rules could be set up and different recipients could be specified depending on the characteristics of the problem (host/service/day/time). Various configuration options are available to the BB admin(s).

4.3.1 NOTIFICATION BY E-MAIL

To use the email feature, your BB Server must have the ability to send mail.


4.3.2 SETTING UP NOTIFICATION

The entire BB notification configuration is specified in the etc/bbwarnsetup.cfg file. Here are the various options that can be set. Note that instructions are included in the configuration file as comments.

4.3.3 CREATING NOTIFICATION RULES

The default notification rules built in BBPE will serve most administrator’s needs. However, if you need to modify them, they are located in the etc/bbwarnrules.cfg file.

The online help files provided by BBPE describe in detail how to modify the notification rules.

WARNING! Always back-up the bbwarnrules.cfg file before proceeding with any modifications to it.

4.3.4 DISPLAYING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When an acknowledgement is sent to BBPE, it displays that fact by changing the colored dot of the acknowledged event to a checkmark of the same color. It also adds a status line at the bottom of the individual status page.

You can also have the last 25 acknowledgements listed in the bb2.html page. This feature is enabled by default.


5 . T R O U B L E S H O O T I N G C O M M O N P R O B L E M S

5.1 “403 PERMISSION DENIED” ERROR

If everything is running, but you get a ‘403 permission denied’ error it usually means that either the Apache web server is not configured to follow symbolic links or the permissions for the /home/bb directory are not set correctly.

To ensure that the BB user directory is readable from Apache, chmod 755 the directory as follows:

chmod 755 /home/bb

If the above does not correct the problem, see Section 2 Configuring Apache for instructions on symbolic links.

5.2 CHECKING BBOUT FOR ERRORS

BBOUT is a log file containing a list of all the errors generated during the initial running of BBPE. The BBOUT file is located in the home directory of the BB user.

To view the BBOUT file: more /home/bb/BBOUT

6 . U S E F U L R E S O U R C E S

6.1 WEBSITES

Go to http://www.quest.com/bigbrother.asp for more information about the Big Brother Professional client and server software.

6.2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Quest Software's world-class support team is dedicated to ensuring successful product installation and use for all Quest Software solutions. SupportLink: http://www.quest.com/support

http://www.quest.com/bigbrother.asp


E-mail: [email protected] You can use SupportLink to do the following:

Create, update, or view support requests Search the knowledge base Access FAQs Download patches

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