I am long-time user of SNMP, so it is one of the alternatives I had been thinking about, and haven't discounted it. (The net-snmp toolkit is great for scripting small bespoke network monitoring tasks). I'm just not sure whether contructing my own SNMP OID tree is going to be a little painful, and possibly a little constraining. (For instance, I might want to be able to upload shell scripts in my messages). The SNMPv3 authentication feature would certainly be desirable.
Anyway, I'll certainly think a little more about it (at least for monitoring). Martin Martin Visser ,CISSP Network and Security Consultant Technology & Infrastructure - Consulting & Integration HP Services 3 Richardson Place North Ryde, Sydney NSW 2113, Australia Phone *: +61-2-9022-1670 Mobile *: +61-411-254-513 Fax 7: +61-2-9022-1800 E-mail * : [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter Hardy > Sent: Tuesday, 27 January 2004 3:01 PM > To: Sydney Linux User Group > Subject: Re: [SLUG] Remote server / job control > > On Tue, 2004-01-27 at 14:34, Visser, Martin wrote: > > All, > > > > As part of a project I am working on, I need to be able to > potential > > remote control many dozens of Linux boxes. I want to be able > > remotely:- > > > > * Create / schedule / start /stop / change running processes > > * Monitor the status of those processes > > * Have the processes alert me when certain milestones occur > > * Have the remote boxes exchange heartbeat with the > central server (so that they know they "out of control" and > need to abort any runnning jobs) > > > > Clearly I can do this through something like ssh/sshd and sending > > scripts, or through a httpd with some cute CGI, etc. > However, I prefer > > a simple message framework approach that has minimal > network traffic. > > (I'm thinking of probably using some non-ambiguous XML message > > protocol that can securely and reliably transmitted). The > remote linux > > boxes will be diskless and net-booted so I don't really want avoid > > loading Perl or somesuch on these (even though I prefer to code in > > Perl than in C). > > Have you looked in to using SNMP as a message-passing > framework? We use SNMP fairly extensively for remote process > monitoring. It can also handle sending commands, but it's not > something I've stretched it to. > > It took me a little while to wrap my head around the way SNMP > works, and it isn't the most secure protocol (although I hear > v3 addresses some of the security issues?), but it certainly > covers everything else you require, and the net-snmpd package > usually used on Linux boxes is pretty good. > > simpleweb.org is a pretty good resource for learning more > about network management, and they maintain a list of > SNMP-based software at http://www.simpleweb.org/software/ . > Some of the free offerings look like they cover at least some > of what you need in your central management server. > > Good luck! :-) > -- > Pete > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - > http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: > http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
