Re: {bb} Controlling who gets what messages

[Philip Clark <bblist@cannae.uklinux.net>]

On Mon, 2007-03-26 at 10:18 -0400, Barry Dowell wrote:
> Greetings all -
> 
> I'm working on configuring big brother so that it monitors more than simply
> the connections between systems.
> 
> In the past, when just monitoring connections, the notifications went to
> everyone, with no differentiation as to who got what type of messages.
> 
> Now that I'm starting to monitor other areas as well (CPU, MSGS, etc.), I
> need to control who gets what messages.
> 
> We have one class/group of individuals that should get notifications when we
> lose connectivity, and another class/group that should get notifications of
> other things that are being monitored.
> 
> How do I go about setting this up?  (If there's already a write-up that
> provides this information, please feel free to point me towards it).
> 

Most of the information that you will need is available as comments
in the files "bbwarnsetup.cfg" and "bbwarnrules.cfg". The on-line
help pages also have what you need, but I don't know of anything
like a "how-to". I'll throw a few recommendations your way though.

Proceed slowly at first. The syntax can be confusing and, when
something weird happens, it is better to back out of a couple of
alterations than try and undo many. For the same reasons, keep
copies of previous versions of each file until you are confident
that your changes do what you want. If you can spare a "sandbox"
machine, it can be a very helpful tool. No need for anything
fancy, an obsolete desktop box is normally ideal.

If you can't do that, reserve a special recipient for testing
purposes and try your new rules on that first.

Define host and page groups from the get-go, even if they only
contain a couple of entries at first. It saves time and they
will almost certainly be required later on.

Try to use a little "design methodology" when creating groups.
Work with what is important to your situation, there are lots
of ways that personnel and hardware can be classified. Don't
worry about overlaps. There may be some people and machines
who naturally belong in more than one group.

Try and become familiar with the way that BB processes the
rules that you write. Each rule is scanned in turn and, if it
matches the restrictions, the specified recipients are added
to the list. That list is then made unique before the alerts
are sent out.

I hope that helps you a little.

Cheers, Phil.



--
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for
writing, but I couldn't give up because by that time I was too
famous. (Robert Benchly)


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