The Big Brother Systems and Network Monitor

| help

# Frequently Asked Questions
    		The Big Brother System and Network Monitor
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    			Frequently Asked Questions
    		    Version 1.4b  - Mar 09th 2000
    				LICENSE
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1.0	About Big Brother

    	1.1	What is Big Brother?
    	1.2	Where can I get Big Brother?
    	1.3	What is the current version?
    	1.4	What do I need to run Big Brother?
    	1.5	How do I install Big Brother?
    	1.6	How can I upgrade?

    2.0	Debugging Big Brother

    	2.1	I get the message: "bb: CAN'T CONNECT TO bbd"
    	2.2.1	I get lots of processes, then bb dies!
    	2.2.2	bbnet test dies
    	2.3	I get garbage / my environment all over my screen
    	2.4	I get the message: "Can't open stream socket"
    	2.5	conn (connection) test is always red / not working...
    	2.6	http test is always red / not working...
    	* 2.7	bbnet is dumping core
    	2.8	Background color is always red / yellow / wrong
    	2.9	Pager problems
    	2.10	I've removed a host in bb-hosts and the screen is purple
    	2.11	The gifs aren't displayed properly

    3.0	Using Big Brother

    	3.1	How can I monitor routers / things that have no hostname?
    	3.2	Can I monitor NT's, Novell servers, VAXEN with BB?
    	3.3	Can I monitor things outside my network?
    	3.4	Is Big Brother secure?  Do you have to be root to run it?
    	3.5	How can I monitor more services?
    	3.6	How can I check password protected web pages?
    	3.7	Can BB restart processes that have failed?
    	3.8	Can BB show historical data?
    	3.9	How can I add my own tests ?
    	3.10	Can I check for errors in multiple log files ?

    4.0 	Miscellaneous Big Brother questions

    	4.1	Where is the name from?
    	4.2	Do you write BB or bb?
    	4.3	Whose picture is that, and can I get rid of it?
    	4.4	Is there a Big Brother Mailing List?
    	4.5	Is there a Big Brother FTP site?
    	4.6	Where can I get more help?

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This FAQ is Copyright 1997-2000 by The MacLawran Group Inc.
    This document may be reproduced, so long as it is kept in its entirety
    and in its original format.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    THE BIG BROTHER SYSTEM AND NETWORK MONITOR
    ==========================================
    Version 1.4b
    Mar 09th, 2000

    This program is Copyright (c) 1997-2000
    The MacLawran Group Inc.
    All Rights Reserved

    License Agreement & Lack of Warranty
    ====================================

    By downloading the source code to Big Brother
    for Unix or the Big Brother Client for NT, you
    agree to abide by the following terms:

    1.    You may not sell Big Brother, nor sell
          any of the functionality it provides. No
          part of the Big Brother system may be
          used as part of any commercial product
          without having first obtained a
          commercial licence from the MacLawran
          Group Inc.

    2.    The software, graphics and documentation
          which make up Big Brother are Copyright
          (c) 1997-2000 The MacLawran Group Inc.
          Big Brother is a trademark of the
          MacLawran Group Inc.  You agree to
          respect these rights and leave all
          notices intact. NT client code Copyright
          (c) 1998-2000 Robert-Andre Croteau and
          The MacLawran Group Inc.

    3.    You agree not to redistribute the code
          without written permission from the
          MacLawran Group Inc.

    4.    At least one link to the BB home site
          at http://bb4.com must be available from
          the BB-generated status pages so that
          others may obtain a copy of BB.

    5.    You understand that this software is
          provided as-is. The MacLawran Group
          Inc. makes no claims towards its
          suitability for any purpose and accepts
          absolutely no liability for any damages
          the software may cause. Use at your
          own risk.

          Questions? Contact:
          The MacLawran Group Inc.
          E-mail: sean@bb4.com
          Tel: +1 (514) 996-inet

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Section 1: About Big Brother

    1.1	What is Big Brother?

    	Big Brother is a Web-based Systems and Network monitor written by
    	Sean MacGuire (sean@bb4.com) and Robert-Andre Croteau (robert@bb4.com).

    	Big Brother consists of simple shell scripts which periodically
    	monitor system conditions and network connectivity.  Disk space,
    	CPU, servers, and important processes can be kept track of.
    	Unix and NT systems are supported  by MacLawran Group Inc.
    	but we've heard of clients for Netware, /AS/400 and VMS.

    	The Big Brother display is a Web page that presents a matrix of
    	machines and monitored functions, with color codes denoting the
    	current status.

    	Big Brother can notify administrators via a pager, e-mail or SMS.

    1.2	Where can I get Big Brother?

    	Big Brother is only available via the web at http://bb4.com/

    	If you don't have Web access, drop a note to sean@bb4.com
    	and a copy will be mailed to you.

    1.3	What's the current version?

    	The current version of BB is 1.4b / Mar 09th 2000.

    1.4	What do I need to run Big Brother?

    	Big Brother for Unix is written as Bourne Shell scripts (/bin/sh),
    	with a couple of C programs for client-server communications.  You'll
    	need:

    	* A C compiler to port BB
    	* A Web server to serve up the results

    	For Paging, we recommend:
    	* Kermit and a modem (for numeric pager communications)
    	* Qpage (http://www.qpage.org) or Sendpage for Alpha pagers

    	BB has been ported to and configuration files are available for
    	most Unix and linux-based systems.

    	Big Brother for NT requires Windows NT 4.0 with at least service
    	pack 3 installed.  It is available for the Intel and Alpha platforms.

    1.5	How do I install Big Brother?

    	Unpack the archive, read the README.INSTALL and follow the
    	instructions.  Basically
    		cd install
    		./bbconfig
    		cd ../src
    		make
    		make install
    		cd ../etc/
    			edit etc/bb-hosts, bbdef.sh, bbwarnrules.cfg,
    			and bbwarnsetup.cfg
    		and start it
    			cd ..
    			./runbb.sh start

    	If you don't understand the above, read the README.

    1.6	How can I upgrade?

    	Save your old bb-hosts/bbwarnrules.cfg/bbwarnsetup.cfg
    	files... then...

    	Depends how much customization has been made to your version
    	of Big Brother.  Generally, all you should have to do is
    	recompile, make the above changes, and copy your old version
    	of etc/bb-hosts in.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Section 2: Debugging Big Brother

    2.1	I get the message: "bb: CAN'T CONNECT TO bbd"

    	This message indicates that an instance of bb can't
    	connect to the Big Brother daemon.  This might be because
    	bbd isn't running, or that bb can't determine where bbd
    	lives because of some troubles with the bb-hosts file.

    	So check the following things:

    	* bbd is actually running on your system...
    	* BBHOME is correctly set in runbb.sh...
    	* Your bb-hosts file is formatted correctly
    	* Your firewall isn't blocking port 1984

    	Some errors can be caught by:

    	cd etc
    	run ./bbchkcfg.sh
    	run ./bbchkhosts.sh

    2.2.1	I get lots of processes, then bb dies!

    	Define -DZOMBIE in the Makefile, recompile and run "make install".
    	This seems to happen on some Solaris machines, and will definitely
    	happen on SunOS 4.1.3, although 4.1.4 is OK!

    2.2.2	bbnet test hangs

    	Define -DSIGSETJMP in the Makefile, recompile and run "make install".
    	This seems to happen on some RedHat machines.  Signals aren't
    	handled properly.    Could also happen on other Linux distributions.

    2.3	I get garbage / my environment all over my screen

    	This is almost always due to a problem with the way your bb-hosts
    	file is laid out.  BB needs this file to be perfect to work, and
    	any little problem with it will cause BB to fail.

    	The most common cause of this problem is pop3 being defined as
    	pop-3 in /etc/services.  Make sure the spelling of all services
    	in bb-hosts matches /etc/services.

    	Make sure also that the BBDISPLAY/BBPAGER are defined only once in
    	the etc/bb-hosts file.  Also make sure that the hostnames defined
    	in etc/bb-hosts are the same as returned by 'uname -n'.

    2.4	I get the message: "Can't open stream socket"

    	This message is from bbd being unable to attach itself to port
    	1984 and begin listening.  Make sure there are no "bb" processes
    	running (bb, bbd).  If there are, kill them.

    	Make sure port 1984 is also not in use.  To check this issue
    	the following command:

    		netstat -an | grep 1984

    	If anything comes back, wait a few minutes and try again.
    	Once this command returns nothing, you should be able to
    	start up Big Brother.

    2.5	conn (connection) test is always red / not working...

    	The connections column is generated from the machine defined
    	as BBNET in bb-hosts.  This machine tries to ping every IP
    	address listed in the bb-hosts file. BB looks to see that the
    	reply from ping contains the string "bytes from".

    	Check that PING and PINGPARS are set correctly in etc/bbsys.sh
    	or etc/bbsys.local.

    2.6	http test is always red / not working...

    	This is usually because the http test isn't for the same
    	machine as defined on that line in the bb-hosts file, i.e.:

    	Wrong: 204.101.110.101 fred.bobo.com # http://youre.bobo.com/
    	Right: 204.101.110.101 fred.bobo.com # http://fred.bobo.com/

    2.7 *	bbnet is dumping core

    	Add a trailing slash at the end of the URL.  This is a programming
    	bug by the author.   Fixed as of v.1.04g thanks to Doug White

    2.8	Background color is always red / yellow / wrong

    	The background color should reflect the most serious state
    	on your network at any given time.  If it's not doing this, or
    	the background color is wrong, it's because there are some
    	leftover log file in the www/logs/ directory.  To check this,
    	hit the VIEW button on the main web screen, and the offending
    	entries should become visible.  Delete them.  They live in
    	www/logs and an HTMLized version is in www/html.

    2.9	Pager problems

    	The paging subsystem is really time sensitive.  It's possible
    	that the timing be either too long or two short for your pager.

    	The following comes from  Don Carney :
    	In the etc/numeric.scr where it actually dials the number.
    	the command is something like
    		dial /@[3],,,,,,,,/@[4]
    	my fix was to remove a few of the commas, and everything worked
    	fine.  (Commas are generally used by modems for short delays).

    	Similarly if you're using one of those 800 number paging services
    	you'll probably have to embed these commas in the pager number
    	itself, something like:
    		PAGER="1800PAGENET,,,,,,7777"
    	where 7777 is your account number.

    2.10	I've removed a host in etc/bb-hosts and the screen is purple

    	After you remove a host(s) in etc/bb-hosts, you must remove the
    	corresponding files in www/logs, www/html and www/hist.

    	cd www
    	rm logs/thedeletedhost*
    	rm html/thedeletedhost*
    	rm hist/thedeletedhost*

    2.11	The gifs aren't displayed properly

    	Make sure that the BBWEB value defined in bbdef.sh is
    	correct.  Check spelling and location.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Section 3: Using Big Brother

    3.1	How can I monitor routers and things that have no hostname?

    	Just put a line in the bb-hosts file and make up a name
    	for your router.

    3.2	Can I monitor Novell servers, VAXEN, AS/400 with BB?

    	You can monitor them from the outside, but not from the
    	inside.  That means the bbnet tests that check for connectivity
    	and servers should work, but the bb-local tests which monitor
    	processes and disk space won't because there is no BB client
    	for these systems.

    	Without a client program for each platform you can still monitor
    	connectivity and IP services.  Clients have been written for
    	these platforms but The MacLawran Group doesn't support these
    	3rd-party clients.  Please check with the mailing list for
    	more info on these (http://www.tpdinc.com/~bb/).

    3.3	Can I monitor things outside my network?

    	Yup.  Just put the appropriate lines in the bb-hosts file and
    	that's all.  However it is good form to ask permission, just
    	because the remote admin may get curious about repeated accesses
    	from the same addresses every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day.

    3.4	Is Big Brother secure?  Do you have to be root to run it?

    	A certain amount of effort has been made to make sure that
    	BB is reasonably secure.  We also recommend running bb as
    	it's own, non-root, user.

    3.5	How can I monitor more services?

    	Somewhere around line 75 in bb-network.sh, there's a line that
    	looks like this.  Add the new service at the end and make sure
    	it's in /etc/services.  That's it, that's all.  Simple.

    	nntp* | ftp* | pop3* | smtp* | ADD-SERVICE-HERE* )   # SERVICES

    	Make sure to kill anything starting with bb, and restart it.
    	It'll magically have a new column watching your service. The
    	IP service that is checked should always return something
    	at connection time to properly be checked.

    	Only add IP services as UDP aren't supported yet.

    3.6	How can I check password protected web pages?

    	Paul Venezia had the answer for this one:
    	I've gotten around this by specifying LYNX to be
    	/usr/contrib/bin/lynx -dump -auth :

    3.7	Can BB restart processes that have failed?

    	No, that is your job. BB will tell you about the problem, you
    	solve it.  The philosophy is simple, BB will monitor and notify,
    	that's all.  The reason behind this is simple, doing more than
    	that makes BB exponentially more complex to run, configure and
    	support.

    3.8	Can BB show historical data?

    	Yes.  The history is in the www/hist directory: the file contains
    	the date of the last color change.  If you drill down to a
    	specific host.service, you can click on the history button, and
    	it'll show your the last 24hr statistics and a log of the last
    	50 status changes.

    3.9     How can I add my own tests ?

            You can easily add your own tests.  Start with the template
            available at ext/template, add your code.  Look at bb-local.sh,
            bb-network.sh for example on how to send data to BB.  Then
            in runbb.sh, specify the name of your script in the BBEXT
            variable.  Restart BB and your test should be running.  But
            before you use it within BB, I suggest you test it for errors
            by using the method:

            cd /home/bb (or wherever your BB is located)
            BBHOME=/home/bb
            export BBHOME
            . ./etc/bbdef.sh
            cd ext
            ./yourexternaltest

            Look for errors, fix them, rerun your test until you're
            satisfied, then update runbb.sh.  Note that all temporary
            files should be created in $BBTMP, make sure you remove them
            after use.  Also, remember that you don't have to deal with
            sending notification messages, the 'bb' process send a 'page'
            type message to the BBPAGER host when the status color is
            found in the PAGELEVELS variable defined in bbdef.sh

    	When it's ready don't forget tp update the svcerrlist token
    	in the bbwarsetup.cfg file on your BBPAGER host.  You must
    	assign a numeric code to your column name.

    3.10    Can I check for errors in multiple log files ?

    	You can set multiple log file names in the MSGFILE variable
    	in etc/bbsys.local.  The log files will be checked that
    	they are readable and not empty.  The empty test is done
    	because some hackers sometimes link log files to /dev/null.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Section 4: Miscellaneous Big Brother questions

    4.1	Where is the name from?

    	Big Brother is named for George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty Four.
    	Big Brother is the head of a totalitarian regime, INGSOC, where
    	everyone is watched.  "... the poster with the enormous face
    	gazed from the wall.  It was one of those pictures which are
    	so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move.
    	BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran."

    	Doubleplus ungood for people.  Doubleplus good for networks.

    4.2	Do you write BB or bb?

    	Doesn't really matter.  bb tends to be used when denoting
    	programs (i.e. bbnet) whereas BB tends to be used when
    	discussing the entire Big Brother system.

    4.3	Whose picture is that and can I get rid of it?

    	That picure is of the creator of Big Brother, Sean MacGuire,
    	doing his best to do justice to George Orwell.  It's supposed
    	to be scary.... it now lives exclusively at the bottom of the
    	BB help files.

    	If you don't like it, feel free to change it to something more
    	neutral.  Change the file $BBHOME/www/gifs/bb.gif.  Please leave
    	a link back to the BB site, though.

    4.4	Is there a Big Brother Mailing List?

    	Yes, please subscribe by sending e-mail to MajorDomo@bb4.com.

    	In the body of the e-mail message (not the Subject line),
    	place the statement:

    		subscribe bb

    	Nick Silberstein has made an archive of the Big Brother
    	mailing list available.  It can be found at the URL:
    		http://www.fluentcomm.com/~bb/
    	Check it out. It's great!

    4.4	Is there a Big Brother FTP site?

    	Yes, Adam Goryachev has set up an ftp site with user
    	contributed tools.  You can find it at:

    	ftp://ftp.deadcat.net/pub/BB

    4.5	Where can I get more help?

    	Run the tests as outlined on the install and debug web pages.

    	Subscribe to the mailing list.  Check the archives of the
    	mailing list to see if you're question has already been
    	answered.  Send a message to the mailing list, and as a
    	last resort, mail sean@bb4.com

###### Copyright © 1997-2000 The MacLawran Group Inc - All Rights Reserved