The Big Brother Unix Network Monitor

# Big Brother - Help

### A Web-based Unix Network Monitoring
and Notification System

#### Version 1.00 - 31 December 1996

## Order of severity

Serious Trouble
No report lately
May need attention
All is well

All connections are checked every 5 minutes

## Pager Codes

The administrator will be paged when conditions merit. The numeric message is formatted as follows: [3 DIGIT CODE] [IP-ADDRESS]

- 100 - Disk Error. Disk is over 95% full...
- 200 - CPU Error. CPU load average is unacceptably high.
- 300 - Process Error. An important processes has died.
- 400 - Message file contains a serious error.
- 500 - Network error, can't connect to that IP address.
- 600 - Web server HTTP error - server is down.
- 610 - Ftp server error - server is down.
- 620 - POP3 server error - Post Office is down.
- 630 - SMTP MTA error - SMTP Mail Host is down.
- 911 - User Page. Message is phone number to call back.

## Severe Conditions

Most severe conditions result in the administrator being paged. These include loss of network connectivity, loss of HTTP access, and disk conditions over 95% full, since these can result in a system hang. Furthermore, any "NOTICE" messages in the message file causes a page since this may signal a disk fault.

Under these circumstances, the screen should turn red. Click on the corresponding red dot for additional information about the condition.

If a severe situation is occurring that is not being noticed by Big Brother, use the PAGE button on the main screen to page the administrator manually.

## Warning Conditions

These include HTTP server errors, disks 90-94% full, the death of important processes, and "WARNING" messages in the system logs.

The screen should turn yellow if this is the most severe situation at the time. Click on the corresponding yellow dot for additional information, and page the administrator manually if necessary.

## No Report Warnings

Each report is checked for freshness. If a any report is more than 30 minutes old, it is marked with a blue dot, and the screen turns blue, assuming that it is the most serious situation at the time.

These may be the result of heavily loaded systems, but may also indicate a more serious loss of communication within the Big Brother system itself.

## System Information

Click on any server name for additional details about the machine. Information about all components are available, including serial numbers, partition sizes, SCSI addresses, and the physical locations of the devices. This information lives in the notes directory.

## General Information

The current status of any individual component is always available by clicking the appropriate dot in the display matrix. You may have to hit Reload to get the most recent entry.

Occasionally the screen changes color for CPU or HTTP warnings. These can usually be disregarded since Big Brother has been instructed to be very sensitive during this initial test. Similarly, internet connections may turn yellow when the network is heavily loaded. Although it should be checked out, this is usually not a problem unless the whole Internet section goes yellow.