RE: SUSPECT: RE: {bb} BB and VMware ESX

["Taylor, Robert" <Robert.Taylor@HendrickAuto.com>]

I run BB in a VM on a GSX server.  Runs like a champ.

Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Caraway, Paul [mailto:Paul.Caraway@sabre.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 8:01 PM
To: bb@bb4.com
Subject: Re: SUSPECT: RE: {bb} BB and VMware ESX

You could try to look at esxtop... Has anyone ran bb as a Vm? Thank you,
Paul
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Paul.Caraway@sabre.com
Project Manager eMergo Infrastructure Operations
Sabre Airline Solutions
eMergo & Marketing / Sales Products
Smart Solutions. Proven Leadership. Bankable Results.
682.605.4543 Office 682.606.7543 Fax
www.sabreairlinesolutions.com


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-bb@bb4.com <owner-bb@bb4.com>
To: pwilliamson@mandtbank.com <pwilliamson@mandtbank.com>; bb@bb4.com
<bb@bb4.com>
Sent: Thu Apr 14 15:31:56 2005
Subject: SUSPECT: RE: {bb} BB and VMware ESX

 
Yes, the normal BB load average is totally bogus for an ESX server.

I don't know too much about the ESX command line tools, but I'm hoping
one of them can be used to provide better data.  Or I could write an
external script to grab and parse the data from
https://localhost/vmkusage/total.txt.  With some work I figure this
could be used to capture and plot the cpu/memory/network/disk activity
for the ESX server as a whole and for each virtual machine.


I'm also trying to figure out why BB can see and alert on the vmfs file
systems (if you follow my install), but the vmfs file systems are not
plotted by bbgen/larrd.

-- 
Scott Kelley


-----Original Message-----
From: pwilliamson@mandtbank.com [mailto:pwilliamson@mandtbank.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 1:12 PM
To: bb@bb4.com; Kelley, Scott
Subject: RE: {bb} BB and VMware ESX

Scott,

I just wanted you to be aware of something we've recently 
stumbled across.  The CPU load is incorrect.  It's also 
wrong in PerfMon, so don't rely on the cpu dot to accurately 
account for your real server load.  Have you found this to be the 
case as well?  It didn't show up in our testing because apparently 
the VMWare session may go into states of inactivity or idle time, 
causing the time counter for the cpu to stop incrementing.

We have found no solution for this other than to keep a process 
constantly running, and even the it still sometimes goes idle.

Thanks for sending this out.  Immensely helpful!

Paul

>>> Scott.Kelley@disney.com 04/14/05 2:28 PM >>>
I just had to document the bb install on our ESX server, so I thought
I
would share it with the list.

-sk

 
 
BigBrother

 

Create a bbclient user with uid and gid XXX

*        groupadd -g XXX bbclient

*        useradd -u XXX -g XXX bbclient

 

Download the bb software onto the ESX server.

*        su - bbclient

*        export http_proxy='http://web-proxy:8880'

*        lynx http://bb4.org/dnld/bb-1.9e.tar.gz 
<http://bb4.org/dnld/bb-1.9e.tar.gz> 




 

As the bbclient user. follow the installation instruction for the
client
(not the server portion on BigBrother).

*        tar zxvf bb-1.9e.tar.gz BBCLT-bbc1.9e-btf.tar

*        tar xvf BBCLT-bbc1.9e-btf.tar

*        ln -s bbc1.9e-btf bb

*        cd bb/install

*        ./bbconfig

o       pick linux for the OS

o       pick bbclient as the userid

o       Y for FQDN

o       N for emailing config issues

*        chown -R bbclient /home/bbclient/bb

*        cd /home/bbclient/bb/src

*        make

*        make install

*        cd ../etc

*        Make bb-hosts look like this

10.0.0.01           some-bb-host # BBPAGER BBNET BBDISPLAY

[this servers ip]    [this servers hostname]

*        ~/bb/runbb.sh start

*        tail ~/bb/BBOUT  (there should be no errors in the log)

 

Now get with the BigBrother server admin to add the new client into
the
server config appropriately. 

 

Note that we explicitly are not adding a boot script for the bbclient.
This will cause lots of alerts to go off if an ESX server is rebooted,
forcing an admin to investigate.

 

 

BigBrother extensions

 

First we need to make /var/log/messages readable by the bbclient user.

*        chmod 640 /var/log/messages

*        chown root:bbclient /var/log/messages

Now add these lines below the kill line in /etc/logrotate.d/syslog

        /bin/chmod 640 /var/log/messages

        /bin/chgrp bbclient /var/log/messages

 

Second, we need to make so that the vmfs filesystems are seen by the
BigBrother client.

Note that for some reason bbgen/laard does not graph the vmfs file
systems (we need to fix this).

*        cp /usr/sbin/vdf /usr/sbin/vdf.for_bbclient

*        In order to allow the large disk volumes size to be printed
correctly edit line 73 in /usr/sbin/vdf.for_bbclient and change it
from
this
printf "%-15s%15.0f%10.0f%10.0f %3d%% /vmfs/%s\n",
to this
printf "%-15s%18.0f%13.0f%13.0f %3d%% /vmfs/%s\n",

*        visudo and add these two lines
Cmnd_Alias BBCMDS=/usr/sbin/vdf.for_bbclient
bbclient ALL= NOPASSWD: BBCMDS

*        Edit ~bbclient/bb/etc/bbsys.local and change
DF="/bin/df -k"
to
DF="sudo /usr/sbin/vdf.for_bbclient | egrep '(^/dev|^vmhba)'"
Also add this line
DFUSE=""

*        Edit ~bbclient/bb/etc/bbdef-client.sh and change DFPANIC to
98

 

 

Next we need to add a BigBrother extension to keep an eye on ntp.

*        su - bbclient

*        export http_proxy='http://web-proxy.8880'

*        lynx
http://www.deadcat.net/download.php?fileid=445&filename=server-time-ntp.
tar&location=1
<http://www.deadcat.net/download.php?fileid=445&filename=server-time-ntp

tar&location=1> 

*        tar xvf server-time-ntp.tar ./ntp/bb-ntp.sh

*        mv ntp/bb-ntp.sh ~/bb/ext/ bb-ntp.sh

*        rmdir ntp

*        edit ~/bb/ext/ bb-ntp.sh and change NTPQ4 to "/usr/sbin/ntpq"
and NTPD4 to "/usr/sbin/ntpd"

*        make ~bbclient/bb/etc/bb-bbexttab look like this
localhost: : bb-ntp.sh;1200

 

 

Lastly, restart the bbclient by running these commands as the bbclient
user

*        ~/bb/runbb.sh stop

*        ~/bb/runbb.sh start









--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To unsubscribe from this list, or to subscribe to the bb-digest list
send e-mail to mailto:majordomo@bb4.com with unsubscribe bb -and/or-
subscribe bb-digest in the BODY of the message.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To unsubscribe from this list, or to subscribe to the bb-digest list
send e-mail to mailto:majordomo@bb4.com with unsubscribe bb -and/or-
subscribe bb-digest in the BODY of the message.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To unsubscribe from this list, or to subscribe to the bb-digest list
send e-mail to mailto:majordomo@bb4.com with unsubscribe bb -and/or-
subscribe bb-digest in the BODY of the message.


--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To unsubscribe from this list, or to subscribe to the bb-digest list
send e-mail to mailto:majordomo@bb4.com with unsubscribe bb -and/or-
subscribe bb-digest in the BODY of the message.