From: announce-admin@opennms.org
To: announce@www.opennms.org
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 17:27:17 -0600 (CST)
Subject: [opennms-announce] OpenNMS Update v1.37

================
 OpenNMS Update
================
Vol 1., Issue 37
================

   In this week's installment...

     * Project Status

          + Announcing: Testdrive Release

          + New Release Strategy

          + Coding Projects Underway

     * Out and About - Atlanta/Pittsburgh/NYC/Boston

     * Have I mentioned Bugzilla?

     * The Wish List

     * Afterthoughts...
       

==============
Project Status
==============

Announcing: Testdrive Release:

   Go ahead. Get in. Take 'er for a spin!

   On behalf of the entire team at OpenNMS, I'm proud to announce the
   completion of the "Testdrive" release of the OpenNMS software!

   The "Testdrive" release, aka Version 0.4.0, is the initial cut at a
   "single-box solution" that will be shipped (knock wood) on the
   upcoming release of one of the major Linux distributions. We worked
   hard to pack as much of the functionality from the first scheduled
   release (now slated for 1Q01) into this one as we could. Here's a
   run-down of the major components that are shipping, what they do, and
   what this means to you:

     * What: SCM

       What it Does: Service Control Manager. It provides a mechanism to
       control the start-up, shutdown, and status of some of the
       background processes.

       Why You Care: SCM is user-configurable so you can include your own
       processes, exclude processes, etc, for your environment. But
       basically, the important part is now you have an easy way to start
       up the "guts" of OpenNMS

     * What: SCMUI

       What it Does: Service Control Manager User Interface. Effectively,
       this is your "eyes" into the current status of the background
       processes. It also provides an easy interface to start stopped
       processes, stop started processes, and shutdown the whole ball of
       wax if'n ya need to.

       Why You Care: Starting and stopping applications and processes is
       a good thing.

     * What: OpenNMS

       What it Does: Basically, this is the user interface. A common
       login dialog is presented and depending who you log in as, you
       either get a user view of managed devices or an administrator
       interface.

       Why You Care: Once you've got the processes started, it's nice to
       be able to both use them as well as configure them.

     * What: Help

       What it Does: Help is a Beatles' movie from 1965 in which Ringo is
       to be the human sacrifice for a cult and the rest of the Fab Four
       have to save him. It's also our graphical user interface to the
       included documentation.

       Why You Care: I don't know about you, but on occasion, I actually
       RTFM. And in this case, there are four of them--a User Manual, an
       Administrator Reference, an Overview Manual, and BAM! - A Quick Start
       Guide. If you choose to ignore these, at least check out the Quick
       Start Guide. It will be 10 minutes well spent.

     * What: Various Background Processes

       What They Do: Everything you want them to do, and more. Basically,
       this is where the work happens, including the processes
       responsible for network discovery, capabilities checking,
       receiving SNMP trap s, handling events, invoking automation
       (running scripts on event receipt, integrating with trouble
       ticketing and notification systems, etc), scheduling the next
       device polls, and determining which events impact which nodes and
       which users should be informed of them.

       Why You Care: Basically, if you don't care, you should have
       stopped reading before now. Assuming you do, the SCMUI will give
       you a good cursory overview of the processes that are running, and
       the Admin Guide will give you an overview of what they actually
       do.

     * What: Other External Requirements

       What They Do: Oh, you know, little stuff like a database. We've
       built everything in this release to leverage Postgres on a Linux
       box, but there shouldn't be much keeping anyone from trying it on
       NT, either. Of course, that means that you'd have to WANT to run
       it on NT and if so, this might be a handy outlet for your BDSM
       tendencies...

       Why You Care: Things just don't work without the external
       dependencies. For deeper insights into what you need, check out
       the Quick Start guide.
       
   How do you get it? From the web site, my dear Watson. You can download
   the latest and greatest (Version 0.4.0-2) in either tarball or RPM
   format from http://www.opennms.org/files/releases/OpenNMS/ and if you
   are simply in a readin' mood, you can get our documentation separately
   at http://www.opennms.org/files/documentation in either HTML or PDF
   format.

   If this is your intent, note the following file/directory names:

      adminref==Administrator's Guide; 
      userguide==User's Guide;
      overview==Overview Guide; 
      quick==Quick Start Guide; 

   Soon (if not by the time you are reading this), these files will be 
   linked from our http://www.opennms.org/devdocs/ page.

   And remember, download early and download often.
   

New Release Strategy:

   With the "Testdrive"/0.4.0 release out of the nest and learning to
   fly, we've decided to add a little more method to our madness on
   upcoming releases.

   Henceforth and hithermore, we shall release as stable production
   releases those with an even minor number (e.g., 0.4.0, 0.6.1, 0.8.3)
   and all new development will be done in releases with an odd minor
   number (e.g., 0.5.0, 0.7.0, etc). This is Linuxy and we like it.

   This should help to add a little clarity to our release strategy, and
   we can all use a little clarity now and then.

   The "stable" releases will be updated with bug fixes and will be
   released as a significant number of fixes are included, but all true
   enhancement will be pushed into the development branch and will be
   available only from CVS tree nightly snapshots (available in the
   Downloads section of the web site) or directly from CVS.

   Hope this helps.
   

Coding Projects Underway:

   This week, we get to kind of change things up, as we are in the
   transition from the "single box" development target to again
   refocusing on our distributed architecture. As such, the list will
   reflect specific new efforts going forward and will not mention
   bug-fixing.

     * Maji Prelim Work -- Rick is active on the "events" mailing list.

     * MIB Compiler -- Official research underway. Should have a
       direction to report next week.

     * Distributed Architecture -- As soon as he's done fighting with
       home repairs and contractors, Weave will be back on the SOAP box.
       

=============================================
Out and About - Atlanta/Pittsburgh/NYC/Boston
=============================================

   Just a heads-up to those of you in the Atlanta, Pittsburgh, NYC, and 
   Greater Boston area that we've got some upcoming trips scheduled to
   head your way. If you'd like to hook up with us to discuss the
   project, potential partnership interests, employment opportunities, or
   simply ply us with alcohol, drop a line to either Luke
   (luke@opennms.org) or me (shaneo@opennms.org) and we'll be glad to
   share our itineraries and/or beverage preferences.

   Our other goals for these trips are easy: Buy a Penguins jersey and
   find out what the hell a Bruin is.

   You can find out the rest of the general details on our trips and
   other upcoming road trips on the web site at
   http://www.opennms.org/engage/
   

==========================
Have I Mentioned Bugzilla?
==========================

   If you would indulge me, I'd like to take a minute to be frank.

   Frank: Please download the Testdrive release, try it out, and report
          your bugs to Bugzilla.
   You: Gee, Frank, that doesn't sound too hard.
   Frank: You're right! It's not! But when you find a bug, make sure you
          do a search of Bugzilla to make sure someone else hasn't reported 
          it first.
   You: That only makes good sense, Frank. But what do I do if I find a
        typo or other such glitch in the documentation?
   Frank: How very nice of you to ask. We are tracking any defects in the
          documentation in Bugzilla as well, but we'd like to have all of 
	  those entered as additional descriptions in Bug #100 in Bugzilla.
   You: #100?!? That's easy to remember. Was that number fortuitous, or
        did you plan it that way?
   Frank: I'd rather be lucky than smart any day.
   Shane: Shut up, Frank, you dumbass.
   

=============
The Wish List
=============

   For all of you who offered services testing OpenNMS in your
   environment--this is your cue. You're On!

   Bug reports are great, bug fixes are better. Enhancement requests?
   Take a number like everybody else. And enhancement requests can be
   filed in Bugzilla, too. Never underestimate the power of Bugzilla!

   Go, Go Bugzilla!
   

================
Afterthoughts...
================

   I've grown so accustomed to using the end of the Update as my own
   personal forum that I've decided to give this section a name. That
   way, in the future, you'll know when to stop reading...

   I was wondering...have any of you ever come across any studies done
   that address the value of "maps" in visualizing networks and solving
   network-related problems? Here's why I ask...

   Personally, I've never been a big fan of maps. In big environments,
   they are pretty much unusable and most of the people I've worked with
   who I considered good "router jocks", never really seemed to use the
   maps anyway. When it came time to fix a problem, they were driven by
   the events and then worked with the device.

   It seems as if we're in an industry dominated by "mapping" tools, but
   no one seems to know why. I've come across one situation in which maps
   are almost mandatory, but only one, and it could probably be addressed
   with a different visual metaphor.

   I'm interested in your feedback. I think there's probably a
   dissertation hidden in the answer to this question (or at least the
   quest for an answer...). You can send responses directly to me or post
   to the "Discuss" list. And thanks for your input.

Perplexed by the obvious,

Shane O.
========
Shane O'Donnell
OpenNMS.org
shaneo@opennms.org
==================
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