+
+
+ |
+ Reports Centre
+ (Web)
+ The i-scream reports centre provides a central access point to all
+ web-based reports that are provided by the i-scream system. Reports
+ are available to display information about the current status of an
+ individual machine and any alerts pertaining to either an individual
+ machine, or a summary of alerts for all machines. Historical
+ information about monitored machines may also be accessed from this point.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Latest Information
+ (Web)
+ Here we are viewing the latest information provided by a host. Bars
+ are used to represent values such as disk space and free memory as this
+ makes it easier to spot casual problems. The small graph icons link
+ to historical reports of each field for the previous day. The choice
+ of fields to display on this page is stored in a separate configuration
+ file.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Conient (Multiplatform
+ real-time client)
+ Conient is a real-time client that
+ can hook into an i-scream server to allow the user to view host
+ information as it passes through the server. The client displays
+ information provided by the hosts as well as the results of service checks
+ performed by the server on each host (eg FTP, Telnet, etc). Conient
+ is written in Java and can thus be run on most operating systems.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Conient (Viewing
+ extra data)
+ Less important host information may be viewed in a seperate window to
+ avoid clutter in Conient's display. Details of the protocol for
+ host-to-server communications are freely available to developers.
+ The protocol itself is extensible and client programs such as Conient
+ display even unrecognised data from modified host programs.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Conient
+ (Configuration)
+ Conient is fully configurable from within the program itself.
+ Multiple configurations may be saved. Conient can also be configured
+ to connect to a server through a firewall via an SSH tunnel or suchlike.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ ihost (Unix/Linux
+ host)
+ The ihost is currently the main Unix/Linux/FreeBSD host application for
+ i-scream. ihost is centrally configured by the server it connects to
+ and periodically sends information about the machine on which it is
+ running. The ihost is written in Perl, so can be easily altered to
+ send extra information to your i-scream server.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ WinHost (Windows
+ host)
+ The WinHost is similar in concept to the ihost, however, this one runs on
+ Windows NT/2000 servers. Again, the configuration is dynamically
+ obtained from the server. The WinHost is typically only present in
+ the Windows system tray. Double clicking on the system tray icon
+ will bring up a small window that allows data to be viewed and to force
+ reconfiguration with the server.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Alerts (Email)
+ The i-scream server includes many alerting mechanisms. Simple email
+ alerts may be sent out if desired. Alert levels and frequencies may
+ be configured for the server. This screenshot shows the format of a
+ typical alert; the contents of which are of course configurable.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Alerts (IRC bot)
+ Another i-scream alerter comes in the form of an interactive IRC bot.
+ This may reside in an IRC (Internet relay chat) channel and broadcasts
+ alerts if told to do so. This screenshot shows a typical interaction
+ with a user in the "Bersirc" IRC client.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Alerts (Web page)
+ Individual alerts and a summary of all alerts raised by the i-scream
+ server may be viewed on the alerts web pages. These show the
+ different levels of alerts in configurable colours and provides specific
+ details about the alerts being raised for each machine.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Alerts (Public
+ helpdesk display)
+ The reports centre also provides a
+ page that may be useful in configuring non-interactive public displays of
+ alerts. These displays automatically refresh the page periodically
+ and supported web browsers may also automatically scroll the page to allow
+ a large font to be employed for easier reading from a distance.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Conient (Server queue
+ monitoring)
+ The Conient client may also be used
+ to monitor information about the i-scream server itself. Here we are
+ viewing the status of the internal queues within the server. This
+ shows that the server is performing healthily and that there are no
+ bottlenecks. |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Historical reports
+ (Web)
+ Historical information is collated
+ by the i-scream server into (typically) a MySQL database. A separate
+ program is used to produce the historical web reports These may be browsed
+ via this web-based interface (see screenshot). The reports to be
+ generated for each machine and the size of the page are of course
+ configurable.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ Historical reports
+ (Metadata)
+ The historical report generation
+ also produces a number of other files that may be useful for third party
+ analysis tools. The chart itself is written as a GIF image, as well
+ as a small file suitable for including on PHP pages that specifies the
+ minimum and maximum values during the 24 hour period. A file
+ containing the raw plot data is also produced to enable the use of third
+ party on-the-fly plotting tools.
+ |
+
+
+
+ |
+ The i-scream server
+ The server is distributed and may
+ therefore have multiple points of data entry and run on more than one
+ machine. This helps to reduce the amount of host traffic over large
+ networks and reduces potential bottlenecks. The server is written in
+ Java to allow it to run on most operating systems. This exciting
+ screenshot shows the i-scream server running ;-)
+ |
+
+