SYSMON.CONF(5)

NAME
sysmon.conf - sysmond(man) configuration file

DESCRIPTION
The sysmon.conf file is the main configuration file for the sysmond(man) which monitors systems and services on various machines connected to a network. Every rule consists of at least three fields, and at most nine. Lines starting with a hash mark (``#'') and empty lines are ignored. This release of sysmond is able to understand an extended syntax. A rule may have a replacement performed on it, if a variable is declared earlier in the configuration file.

GLOBAL SETTINGS
There are various global settings that sysmond can be configured with. Currently there is some inconsistency with some of the settings, but we expect to make them more standard in a newer version of sysmond.

  Values that can be configured with ``set''
pmesg sender from subject upcolor downcolor recentcolor These variables are configured in the following format

    set pmesg = "value"
    set sender = "value"
    set from = "value"
    set subject = "value"
    set upcolor = "value"
    set downcolor = "value"
    set recentcolor = "value"

  Generic Variables
The set command allows the creation of generic variables which can be automatically replaced further down in a configuration file. This can be used to seperate routers from servers, while still providing an easy way to update all the devices being monitored with a new "contact". The example that follows, all cases of $oncall will be replaced with oncall@example.com Example:

    set oncall = "oncall@example.com"
    router.example.com ping "main router" $oncall

  Values that can be configured with ``config''
queuetime include showupalso errorsto maxqueued replyto noheartbeat pageinterval logging dnslog dnsexpire statusfile nosubject numfailures

  queuetime
The ``config queuetime'' directive is used to specify the number of seconds between the completion of the last test of the service and the start of the next test of the service. This time is in seconds, and the default is 60.

  include
The ``config include'' directive is used to specify the path to another file that should be included at that point in the current file. This is useful if you have software that generates some of your configuration files, and you wish to have a per-router configuration file, while maintaining your current dependencies. Other uses could be having an oncall database that is generated to allow automatic changing of shifts.

  showupalso
The ``config showupalso'' directive allows all hosts (both those as being monitored as up and down) and services being monitored to appear in the html or text status file that is created by sysmond. This does not affect the display of the curses client.

  errorsto
The ``config errorsto'' directive inserts an Errors-to: header in any e-mail that sysmond generates to a contact. This is useful if the address that sysmond is sending from is not a real account, to allow bounces or page-not-sent messages to be collected in a central location.

  maxqueued
The ``config maxqueued'' directive takes an integer argument that specifies the number of simultaneous checks that may be performed at once. Large networks may experience problems with polling if sysmond receives a large number of icmp responses at once because many hosts are being pinged at once, or if the operating system or daemon has a restricted number of filedescriptors available. The default is 100.

  replyto
The ``config replyto'' directive inserts a Reply-to: header in any e-mail that sysmond generates to a contact. This is useful to have users that reply to a message about an outage reach a support person at an organization.

  noheartbeat
The ``config noheartbeat'' directive disables the default behavior of sysmond to send a registration packet to our registration server. This information is collected to determine the hardware platforms and operating systems being used for monitoring so we can concentrate testing and development on these systems. Disabling this feature will cause no adverse affect to monitoring, as the packet is sent blindly once on startup.

  pageinterval
The ``config pageinterval'' directive allows you to configure a reminder interval that a host is still down. This is an integer representing the number of minutes since the last e-mail message to a contact about the outage. Once that timer has been reached, another message is sent. This is useful for people who sleep through their pagers.

  logging
The ``config logging'' directive allows you to specify a syslog facility to be logged to. These options vary slightly from one operating system to the next. Sysmon supports logging to the following facilities:

    kern user mail daemon auth syslog lpr news uucp cron authpriv
    local0-local7 none

The default is daemon.

  dnslog
The ``config dnslog'' directive allows you to configure the logging interval of the internal dns cache statistics. This number is an integer representing the number of seconds between logging intervals. The default is 900 seconds (15 minutes).

  dnsexpire
The ``config dnsexpire'' directive allows you to configure the internal time-to-live of dns entries cached. This number is an integer representing the number of seconds an element should be allowed to stay in the cache. The default is 1500 seconds (25 minutes).

  statusfile
The ``config statusfile'' directive takes two arguments. The first is the specification of the file, be it "text" or "html". The second argument is the path to the file that gets written. The default is to not write a status file.

  nosubject
The ``config nosubject'' directive specifies that there should be no subject in the messages sent to the contact address. This is necessary to not consume characters for some e-mail to pager gateways such that the full message gets delivered.

  numfailures
The ``config numfailures'' directive takes an integer argument and specifies the number of times that a site must be monitored as down before a message is sent to the contact address. The default is 4.

  sleeptime
The ``config sleeptime'' option is now obsolete. See the queuetime configuration option.

EXAMPLES
Here are some examples, which should give you an idea of how each option can be configured.

    #
    # insert examples here
    #

FILES
/etc/sysmon.conf
    Configuration file for sysmond

BUGS
Insufficent documentation to document the bugs, let alone the features.

SEE ALSO
sysmond(man)

COLLABORATORS
Sysmon is primarily written by
Jared Mauch
jared@sysmon.org