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	Supported platforms
	UNIX/POSIX Win95/98 (starting from 0.7) WinNT (starting from 0.7) Win2000/ME (starting from 0.7) More or less all the platform supported by Perl. For the Win32 the "ActiveState Perl" 5.6 is the best choice. The WinXX client needs the WMI library, installed by default on 2000/ME. You need to download the "core" for the other platforms: www.microsoft.com/management/wmi
	Manual
	BigBen is a collection of four perl scripts useful to monitor a network. The scripts are: LittleBen (client program. This program collect the info on a system and send all the data to the server) LittleBenW32 (client for WIN32 systems) BigBen (server program. Accept the connections from the clients and save the data in the proper place/format) Weber (output formatter. This script collect the data files saved by the server, and creates an HTML output, so you can check your network on a WEB browser) As you can see, the use of this application is quite simple. All the three scripts run as daemons. BigBen and Weber run on the same system, and the LittleBen client can be installed on several systems (all the systems you need to check). The check logic of Weber is the following: when it starts for the first time, it checks for data file sent by the clients. The data file will be unavailable, because it's easy that the clients start at the same time, so Weber set an initial Warning message if at the second check, it does not find a data file, not it set an error flag (may be that the client is not started, or has some problems) after each pause, it checks the file and display the infos in them. An error is set if it does not find the data file To avoid problem due to the timings between the client and the server (both wait for a while before check), it's better to start the client before. Now, we can analyze the scripts in detail. LittleBen LittleBen is the client application: it runs as a daemon, and it is configurable through the configuration file (see the LittleBen.conf sample file). In this file you can put the processes you want to monitor, and the Min and Max values you want for these processes; if these values are out of the border you set, the client send an ERROR or a WARNING to the server. The file format is the following: # # The format for processes is: name Min,Max Error/Warning # name= process name (/usr/sbin/crond for example). There are some special keys (USERS and LOAD) to check the system load about CPU and users. From version 0.6, there is also a FILE keyword. The syntax is FILE(), without spaces between FILE and brackets. From version 0.8 I added the FS keyword. The syntax is FS(), without spaces between FS and brackets. This will check if the filesystem usage percentage is not exceeding the given "Min,Max" values. Min,Max= the minimum and maximum value desired for the process. If these borders are broken, the client send a message to the server Error/Warning= the message sent to the server when the limits are broken. You can choose to put E or W depending on the criticity of the error. The client reads the configuration file when starts, but you can force the program to re-load the file with a HUP signal (kill -HUP ). The client writes a log in /tmp. You can configure the LittleBen also with some command line options: -s nnn Seconds between two check (default: 20) -p nnn Port where BigBen is listening (default: 4455) -r xxx Remote host where BigBen is located (default: localhost) -c xxx Configuration file (default: LittleBen.conf) -l xxx Log file (default: /tmp/LittleBen.log) -nolog Disable logging The -ps option is obsoleted starting from version 0.8: this version actually include a portion of code detecting the OS name, and setting up the options as needed (hopefully). BigBen This is the server script. Once installed, it listens on a port (default 4455) for the data sent out by the clients. When the packet is received, it saves the data in the proper directory, where the formatter will get the data. The command line options available are: -d xxx Working directory (default: ./store). WARNING: this MUST be the same set in Weber -p nnn Port where BigBen is listening (default: 4455) -l xxx Log file (default: /tmp/BigBen.log) -nolog Disable logging Weber The Weber gets the data saved by the BigBen, and creates a couple of HTML pages, so you can check the data with your HTML browser. The HTML file created, is able to auto-reload itself, so you will get the last date in each moment. The Weber and the BigBen will run on the same system. Weber needs a configuration file (see the Weber.conf sample file) with this format: # # system_name system_IP seconds # In this file are set all the systems where the LittleBen is running. In this way the Weber knows which files need to check. The fields are: system_name= the name of each system where the LittleBen is running system_IP= the IP address of the system seconds= number of seconds between two check of the system. Be careful with this value; this value must be greater or at least equal to the pause set for the LittleBen. For example, if the LittleBen for on system foo.bar.com, checks the processes every 3000 seconds, the seconds value set here for the foo.bar.com must be at least 3000. The command line options for Weber are: -d xxx Working directory (default: ./store). WARNING: this MUST be the same set in BigBen -c xxx Configuration file (default: ./Weber.conf) -l xxx Log file (default: /tmp/Weber.log) -nolog Disable logging In ./server/store directory, are saved some GIFs, needed to build the HTML page. If you want to use a different working directory, you have to copy these files in the new dir. "SECURITY" Starting from version 0.6, BigBen has a little improved security design: the connection input is now limited to $MAXBUFFER value, stored in BigBen script. This was done to avoid huge data flow done to fill your disks, or to damage your service the connection require a password to be accepted: the password is stored in "$pwd" variable in both BigBen and LittleBen. This must be the same. Since the password is in plain text, remember to keep both the script readable only from the BigBen user (it is a good idea to create a user for this duty. DON'T USE ROOT).