[mrtg] Re: Topo Nav Tools for Mrtg/RRD data - infraMon

[Greg.Volk at edwardjones.com]

}I am trying to gauge the interest in these tools to determine 
}the worthiness of effort to make them publically consumable as 
}shareware. This would mean a LOT of work for me I'm sure and 
}I'd like to get a pulse on whether I should start the efforts 
}or not bother. So if you follow the pointer, read the doc, and 
}find yourself saying, "Cool stuff, I'd give it a try" send me 
}an email saying so (or with questions). Or just the opposite 
}if you think the world does not need it and it adds no value. 
}Generally I'm calling it "infraMon" now and some of the 
}topics/tools are:
}
}- scripts to automate cfgmaker-like functions putting things 
}in the proper file formats & create device/links db
}- Graphical Navigation to metrics via PNG Topology Maps (and 
}their creation), also maps have link colors based on speed, 
}utilization, or response time
}- Web-based mrtg TopN capabilities
}- Status poller for devices and links with Notifiation and 
}Fault Isolation features
}- Generic Web-based Alarm Monitor to view both Status and 
}Performance (mrtg) alarms simultaneously
}- Web-based CLI tools for Cisco IOS and CAT devices
}
}Put them all together and you have an NMS-like environment 
}that simply cuts to the chase for network mgt. Be warned, it 
}is a long doc and you will need extra java. The htm version 
}shows the graphics better and the doc version is probably 
}better for printing.
}
}http://webpages.charter.net/bwoodcock/inframon_tools.htm
}
}http://webpages.charter.net/bwoodcock/inframon_tools.doc
}

This is definitely a worthy objective - an open source NMS
platform that incorporates the best open source tools with a
common framework. However, you may be reinventing the wheel to 
a cetain degree. Groups like canarie 
http://www.canarie.ca/canet4/monitoring/index.html
have done something similar to what you're talking about, 
although it may not be quite the all-encompassing NMS 
platform - canet3's stuff seems to be geared towards performance
monitoring more than fault monitoring. There are other 
packages out there, Nagios, OpenNMS, but given my very limited 
experience with them, I can't really speak to a comparison 
involving those projects.

All in all, it's great that you want to do this, but it's 
important to acknowledge the fact that the Open Source NMS field 
is already crowded with good products, so you may not find a 
very big audience for yet-another-open-source-nms-platform.

I'm sort of in the same boat as you, but to a lesser degree.
I've written alot of automation scripts that call cfgmaker
to walk all of my MRTG monitored devices each night, and
then assemble the configs, and then stop/start all the 
daemons, etc. I sat down a few weeks ago in an effort to put 
all of these scripts together and make them available to the 
general public, but then I looked around at what else is out 
there and there are other, existing products that do this 
already, and do it better than my stuff. ;)

I guess it comes down to the question of "Is your software 
clearly superior to the existing projects?" or "Does it fill
an obvious vacancy?" If so, then it's probably worth 
the effort to get it out in the open.



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