Smokeping

Smokeping

After Install

/usr/local/bin/smokeping --config=/etc/smokeping/config --debug
ERROR: /etc/smokeping/config, line 12: Directory '/var/db/smokeping' does not exist

mkdir -p /var/db/smokeping
/usr/local/bin/smokeping --config=/etc/smokeping/config --debug
ERROR: /etc/smokeping/config, line 13: Directory '/var/run/smokeping' does not exist

mkdir -p /var/run/smokeping
/usr/local/bin/smokeping --config=/etc/smokeping/config --debug

Apache Configuration

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options ExecCGI
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Smokeping"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /etc/auth.www.servicedelivery
    Require valid-user
    SSLRequireSSL
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /smokeping /var/www/smokeping/cgi-bin/smokeping.fcgi
<Location "/var/www/smokeping/cgi-bin/smokeping.fcgi">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Smokeping"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /etc/auth.www.servicedelivery
    Require valid-user
    SSLRequireSSL
</Location>

<Directory "/var/www/smokeping/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Smokeping"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /etc/auth.www.servicedelivery
    Require valid-user
    SSLRequireSSL
</Directory>

Alias /smokeimg/ "/var/www/var/smokeping/img/"

<Directory "/var/www/var/smokeping/img/">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Smokeping"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /etc/auth.www.servicedelivery
    Require valid-user
    SSLRequireSSL
</Directory>

Alias /smokeping/cropper/ "/var/www/smokeping/cropper/"

<Directory "/var/www/smokeping/cropper/">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Smokeping"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /etc/auth.www.servicedelivery
    Require valid-user
    SSLRequireSSL
</Directory>

ooo

Check your log files.

File: /var/www/log/error_log

Fast.pm: CGI::Fast will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install i
t from CPAN. It is being used at /usr/local/bin/smokeping_cgi, line 19.
CGI::Carp will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install it from CPAN. It is being used at /us
r/local/bin/smokeping_cgi, line 15.

The above showed up in my log file, so you will want to address any issues the program/OS dutifully informs you.

ooo

The standard installation of Smokeping provides two categories of charts

  • Charts (Loss, by Max, by Median, Std Deviation)
  • Hosts

An example use for smokeping is our network latency monitor used to oversight the network performance/behaviour for 5 WAN connected sites, using 3 types of network connections (Most sights having 2 x Leased VPN lines, with a few also having 1 x WAN Internet link)

In our use, we do not touch the “Charts” section but use a separate menu (category) for various ‘connectivity’ points.

  • Link Category
  • Security Zones
  • Geographical Region

Latency on our WAN links effect performance of our Line of Business Applications.

To capture a broad view of the network performance, we use a general menu to capture the performance of each link, to quickly view bandwidth utilisation on the link as opposed to the branch of the link.

For example, if Leased Line #1 has low latency but within that link end-point #4 is showing performance problems, we can isolate diagnostics to the environment unique to end-point #4.

Menu item for each Link Category and sub-items there for each end-point in the link.

For example: Menu item for Leased Line #1 and a sub-item for each end-point on that leased line.

- Charts
  VPN Link #1
  - end-point #1
  - end-point #2
  - end-point #3
- VPN Link #2

Security Zones

We operate three security zones in our network, Internal, DMZ, PSN, performance of some of the servers on the DMZ is related to data feed in and out of those servers. By monitoring responsiveness of hosts using smokeping we can note overutilisation of these hosts.

- Site Inet
  Site DMZ
  - MX Proxy 
  - DNS Cache Proxy
- Site PSN
- Site Servers

Geographical Region

For remote sites, it is good to have a Menu specific to that site which captures data for the separate Links, as well as any particular hosts on that site that we explicitly monitor.

This gives a quick overview of performance to the site, and may replicate data already present in earlier Menus.

- Remote Site
  - VPN Link #1
  - VPN Link #2
  - Endpoint 
  - File Server
  - Print Server