www-spong - display spong system status via the web or general static HTML pages of system status

www-spong [ --summary [hostlist] | --problems [hostlist] | --history [<hostlist] |> --host host | --services host | --stats host | --config host | --info host | --service host:service ] [--brief | --standard | --full ]

The www-spong program interfaces with the spong-server to display the collected information in HTML format. www-spong can be run in two modes: as a CGI program and from the command line.

When run as a CGI program it does not have to loaded onto the same machine that spong-server is running. It queries the spong-server through it's query port. it will display information via a web page that reloads itself at regular intervals. When run with no parameters it created a page with two or three frames. In tree frames mode there will be a top title frame spanning the entire page that has an action bar to switch views. The remain frames are displayed below. The left frame displays a summary of systems along with their associated problems (services that are red). The right panel is a table that lists the hosts and services, and the current status is a colored block or an icon depending on how spong-server is configured. For further information on how to use the web interface see <Users Guide|user-guide>.

When run from a command line, www-spong generates HTML pages that are printed to the console. This mode can be used to generate static HTML pages. If www-spong is run without any parameters a page that contains a summary display for all hosts is generated.

--summary [hostlist]

Summarize the status of hosts, in hostlist, in a table that lists the hosts and services, and the current status is a colored block or an icon depending on how spong-server is configured. If hostlist if not specified all hosts defined in spong.hosts are displayed.

--grp-summary

Summary the status of all by Host Groups defined in the spong.groups file. Each Host Group is displayed in a table that lists the hosts and services, and the current status is a colored block or an icon depending on how spong-server is configured.

--problems [hostlist]

Shows a summary of all the problems (services that are red) for the all the hosts in hostlist. If hostlist is not specified, all hosts defined in spong.hosts are displayed.

--grp-problems

Shows a summary of all of the problems (services that are red) for all Host Groups defined in the spong.groups file.

--history [hostlist]

Show history information for the the list of hosts in hostlist. If host list is not specified, all hosts defined in spong.hosts are displayed.

--host host

Shows all information available for the given host.

--services host

Shows detailed service information for the given host.

--stats host

Show statistical information for the given host.

--config host

Shows configuration information for the given host.

--info host

Shows admin supplied text for the given host.

--service host:service

Shows detailed information for the given host/service.

--brief

Display output in a brief format.

--standard

Display output in standard format (the default).

--full

Display the maximum amount of information possible.

By default the spong.conf file is read on startup. It defines some specific variable that you probably don't need to override.

After reading the configuration file, then reads the spong.conf.[host] file where [host] is the host name of the machine that you are running on. Since these configuration files are just standard perl code that gets imported, the variables that you define in the host specific config file will take precedence over the standard configuration settings.

Here are a list of variables in the spong.conf file that are applicable to the spong-server program:

$SPONGSERVER

The make of the server that spong-server is running on.

$SPONG_QUERY_PORT

The port number that spong-server listens at for database queries. The delay in seconds between display reloads.

$WWWFRAMES

Number of frames to use for the display (can be 2 or 3). Date and time formats.

spong.conf

Configuration file. This contains variables that detail spong and OS specific definitions used by spong-server.

Perl v5.005_03 or greater is required.

The --stats, --config, and --info parameters are currently not implemented in the spong-server. When specified they will just generate a blank HTML page.

spong.hosts, spong.conf, user-guide

 http://spong.sourceforge.net/  the Spong Home Page

Ed Hill <ed-hill@uiowa.edu>, Unix System Administrator, The University of Iowa

Stephen L Johnson <sjohnson@monsters.org>

Based on code/ideas from Sean MacGuire (BB), and Helen Harrison (Pong). Ed Hill original converted Big Brother (http://www.bb4.com) into Perl which diverged from Big Brother to become Spong. Ed Hill continued Spong development until version 2.1. Stephen L Johnson took over development in October, 1999 with his changes which became Spong 2.5.

check_snmp