From: announce-admin@opennms.org
To: announce@www.opennms.org
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 10:24:01 -0600 (CST)
Subject: [opennms-announce] OpenNMS Update v2.4

================
 OpenNMS Update
================
 Vol 2. Issue 4
================
 Jan. 23, 2001
================
   
   In this week's installment...

     * Project Status
          + Partnerships and Integrations
          + The Lightweight Interface
          + Coding Projects Underway
     * Upcoming Road Shows
     * Ironic? I vote "Yes"
     * The Wish List


==============       
Project Status
==============       
   
Partnerships and Integrations:
     
     First off, thanks to everyone for the input/comments/reactions to
     last week's announcement of the short-term/long-term plans.
     Overall, the feedback was favorable, so now we're trying to figure
     out how we can get the most basic functionality into the product as
     quickly as possible without impacting any of the longer-term
     development timelines. Surprisingly, we've stumbled on something
     that just might work.
     
     While we try to avoid the sticky wicket of formalized partnerships
     (due to the legal mumbo-jumbo), we've "aligned" ourselves with a
     couple other open source efforts that we think are a pretty good
     match for us. Here's what they are, who they are, and how we see
     things integrating:
     
     * RRDTool - Consider it the guts of the next generation of MRTG. An
       efficient means of storing performance data and making it readily
       available for building graphs from the data collected. Written by
       Tobi Oetiker (all hail Tobi, Father of MRTG), RRDTool rocks! 

       Our Twist: We're building some Java interfaces for RRDTool and 
       will be documenting our "create" format, so you can use your 
       choice of RRDTool front-end to represent the data. 

       Check it out: http://www.rrdtool.org/ (It will redirect you.)

     * ntop - A real-time statistical analyzer of network traffic. Think
       RMON, without the vendor-specific crap and exorbitant price tags.
       Written by Luca Deri 

       Our Twist: We're working with Luca to instrument some remote 
       accessibility of key information. This "partnership" is a win-win 
       for everybody--ntop gets an RMON-like "manager-probe" model, 
       OpenNMS gets traffic analysis data. 

       Check it out: http://www.ntop.org/

     * Snort - A lightweight network intrusion detection system (IDS).
       Traffic analyzer that looks for patterns that match known hack
       attempts. It's rule-based, and new rules are being added all the
       time. 

       Our Twist: We'll be adding an extension to create OpenNMS
       native events directly from the Snort platform. This gives us a
       distributed mechanism to get into the IDS space. Pretty nifty.

       Check it out: http://www.snort.org/
       

The Lightweight Interface:
     
     Larry says: "Give me a week, and I'll take off the weight!"
     
     While he's only been here about that long, we've already progressed
     a long way towards getting our lightweight interface prototyped.
     
     What is it? Effectively, a way to get a "network at a glance" view
     of what's up, what's down, and a way to get the details you might
     need to fix a problem. All via a browser.
     
     Right now, we're looking at supporting some of the key pieces of
     data you might want: Nodes/services down; Links to performance
     reports; Last X events for a given node; etc.
     
     My point (and I do have one): This is progressing nicely, but we're
     rapidly progressing past the point where we need to know what
     information you need/want to be included. Obviously, there is a
     limitation as to how much information you can put in a single
     browser window, so we need to make sure the critical stuff is there
     and damn-near critical stuff is only a click away.
     
     Vote early, vote often, and vote for the data you'd like to see
     included on the [discuss] list.
     

Coding Projects Underway:
     
     * Solaris Port Postgres Procedures -- Underway. No status since last
       week.

     * SNMP Poller/Data Collection -- We're collecting data and sticking
       into an RRDTool database. Now we're trying to come up with
       appropriate intervals for reporting, etc. Opinions on what should
       be collected? Check out http://www.opennms.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi
       and click through Data -> Common -> Conf -> DataCollection.xml and
       think about it.

     * Event DTD -- Sowmya's out sick. Look for an update next week.

     * Tuning -- Weave's still working on it. No quantifiable status this
       week.

     * User Interfaces -- Larry is proto-typing, and Jacinta is actually
       writing code (there's a big difference!) Jacinta is building the
       servlets that will support the components that Larry puts in the
       interface. Tag-team development at its finest.

     * SCM -- Continuing to test for reliability, run time, and working
       through some JSDT issues.

     * SCM UI -- Still having some of the known issues with JSDT. We
       should be able to address those in the early February timeframe.

     * TCP Poller -- Still waiting for some of the creative
       configurations that I know you all are capable of...

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

     * New Rule Builder -- In testing.

     * Notification Configuration -- Jason's is hurriedly extending the
       existing user configuration panel to add fields for notification
       information. More details on this when notification integration
       rolls in.
       

===================
Upcoming Road Shows
===================
   
   Had a last minute addition to the calendar, which had us presenting
   for the North Carolina Association of Network Professionals. Good
   group, good grub, who could ask for anything more?
   
   Need a speaker? Contact Luke at luke@opennms.org.
   
   Next up on our tour spree...
   
     * January 30th - University City JUG, Philadelphia, PA

     * January 30-February 2 - Wandering the halls at LinuxWorldExpo-New
       York. Want to hook up? We're open most of the time this week,
       especially if you're in the Tri-State area.

     * February 15th - Utah JUG, Salt Lake City, UT
       
   For additional details on these appearances and others, check out the
   web site at http://www.opennms.org/sections/opennms/events (NOTE: New
   URL)
   

====================
Ironic? I vote "Yes"
====================
   
   Dedicate your career and professional existence to building an open
   source network management alternative, and what's the hot topic on the
   [discuss] mailing list?
   
   Dry contact monitors.


=============
The Wish List
=============
   
   First, a big thanks to everyone that's actively working with and
   trying out the product. There are a lot of cool innovations committed
   recently that you'll want to take a look at as well. Again, our thanks
   to the testers!
   
   Now, on with the list...
   
     * Our SNMP Data Collector will rely on a configuration file,
       DataCollection.xml (or something like that). This file will map
       what SNMP OIDs we should pull from a device with a given SysOID.
       Now the question is, "What should we pull?" Recommendations? Tips?
       I figure we'll pre-populate some canned collections for Cisco
       routers, Bay routers, and whatever else can be contributed. All
       ideas are appreciated, and especially ideas that come back in the
       format of the DataCollection.xml file (available at:
       http://www.opennms.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/data/common/conf/DataCol
       lection.xml )

     * Now that we have a "generic" TCP Poller, we could use some help in
       building some configurations to test services that you may be
       concerned with. For example, is LDAP do-able? How about
       applications like Peoplesoft, SAP, Baan? Remember, you can deploy
       multiple of these pollers against multiple ports.

     * Testing on new, exciting platforms is always appreciated. Somebody
       want to mess with the Cygwin port of Postgres to NT and see where
       we stand over there?

     * Any additional help we can get proving our documentation either
       right or wrong is appreciated. Thanks.

     * Got any creative applications for OpenNMS that we haven't
       considered? Let us know!

     * Anybody up for a security analysis of OpenNMS? We know we've got a
       lot of holes, but we'd rather have most of them identified before
       we start trying to plug them. Any security folks that are playing
       along, feel free to chime in here. Anytime, now. Go on. Anytime...
       

=============
Afterthoughts
=============
   
   And again, the Update comes out late. At least I'm consistent.
   
   Any feedback on the install.pl script?
   
   Local to the Raleigh, NC area and want some free help with
   installation and configuration? Drop Luke a line at luke@opennms.org
   and ask him about the "Early Adopters" program.
   
   Still waiting to hear from all of you that have done network
   management and SNMP data collection for your entire professional
   lives. We need your input on what should get collected from various
   different platforms and on what intervals.
   
   Got your own applications/services you'd like monitored? Set up the
   TCP poller and send us a config! Need help with that? Post your
   questions to the [discuss] list.
   
   Well, that's the news and I am outta here.

Later,

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