Hello,

I thought Id quickly post here that I will be in Warsaw (course about coherence) so probably wont be much updates this week. If anyone has any sightseeing ideas or wanna grab a beer or something like that drop me an email at michael at medin dot name.

As for the client there is a new nightly build out a few days ago with some fixes and such. I am currently reworking some stuff in the 0.4.x brance wich I hope to have a beta for in the next few weeks.

// Michael Medin

Again more improvements and changes to the disk related checks.

Highlights are:

• Better performance data for CheckDrive? (now always shows absolute sizes) so you can plot better graphs.
• Volume support for CheckDriveSize (CheckAll?=volumes)
• User support in syntax for CheckEventLog
• Support for "future dates"

Now is a very good time to submit all feature requests for disk related checks as I am working over those parts.

Full changlog

2009-12-31 MickeM
 * Fixed CheckFile* time handling so it is "signed"
   This means you can check for "future dates" as well as future dates works correctly:
   Like so:
    CheckFile2 debug path=D:\tmp\dates filter+creation=>30m MaxWarn=1 MaxCrit=1 "syntax=%filename%: %creation%"
    CRITICAL:past.txt: Thursday, December 31, 2009 08:47:30, found files: 1 > critical|'found files'=1;1;1;
    CheckFile2 debug path=D:\tmp\dates filter+creation=<-30m MaxWarn=1 MaxCrit=1 "syntax=%filename%: %creation%"
    CRITICAL:future.txt: C: Thursday, December 31, 2009 12:47:11, found files: 1 > critical|'found files'=1;1;1;
 + Added volume support for CheckDriveSize (CHeckAll) like so:
   Like so:
    CheckDriveSize MinWarn=50% MinCrit=25% CheckAll=volumes FilterType=FIXED FilterType=REMOTE
 + Added %user% to syntax to print user who generated message.
   Like so:
    CheckEventLog file=application file=system filter=new filter=out MaxWarn=1 MaxCrit=1 filter-generated=>2w filter-severity==success filter-severity==informational truncate=1023 unique descriptions "syntax=%user% (%count%)"
    CRITICAL: (1),  (2), NT INSTANS\SYSTEM (3), NT INSTANS\SYSTEM (3), NT INSTANS\SYSTEM (3), missing (3), missing (5),  (4), missing (2), missing (2), missing (2), missing (2),  (1), eventlog: 33 > critical|'eventlog'=33;1;1;

2009-12-21 MickeM
 ! BREAKING CHANGE!
 ! New perfoamcen data syntax for ALL % checks
   Alias is '<alias> %' and it also has the "full" non % data as '<alias>'
   Like so:
	CheckDriveSize CheckAll MaxWarnUsed=80% MaxCritUsed=90%
	CRITICAL:CRITICAL: C:\: Total: 146G - Used: 140G (95%) - Free: 6.31G (5%) > critical, D:\: Total: 152G - Used: 148G (97%) - Free: 3.59G (3%) > critical|'C:\ %'=95%;80;90; 'C:\'=140.17G;117.18;131.83;0;146.48; 'D:\ %'=97%;80;90; 'D:\'=147.93G;121.21;136.3;0;151.52;
	CheckDriveSize CheckAll MaxWarnFree=20% MaxCritFree=10%
	OK:OK: All drives within bounds.|'C:\ %'=5%;20;10; 'C:\'=140.17G;29.29;14.64;0;146.48; 'D:\ %'=3%;20;10; 'D:\'=147.93G;30.30;15.15;0;151.52;
	CheckDriveSize CheckAll MaxWarnUsed=100G MaxCritUsed=150G
	WARNING:WARNING: C:\: Total: 146G - Used: 140G (95%) - Free: 6.31G (5%) > warning, D:\: Total: 152G - Used: 148G (97%) - Free: 3.59G (3%) > warning|'C:\ %'=95%;32;4294967294; 'C:\'=140.17G;100;150;0;146.48; 'D:\ %'=97%;35;2; 'D:\'=147.93G;100;150;0;151.52;
	CheckDriveSize CheckAll MaxWarnFree=20G MaxCritFree=10G
	OK:OK: All drives within bounds.|'C:\ %'=5%;87;94; 'C:\'=140.17G;20;10;0;146.48; 'D:\ %'=3%;87;94; 'D:\'=147.93G;20;10;0;151.52;

// Michael Medin

Mainly disk and file related additions:

• New command: CheckSingleFile?
• A few new options for CheckFile2

Full changelog here

2009-12-13 MickeM
 + Added new command: CheckSingleFile to check aspects of a single file use like so:
   CheckSingleFile file=d:\nrpe_512.pem warn=>100 check=line-count warn=>100 crit=>170 check=size
 + Added option debug to CheckFile2 to enable printing of debug information
 + Added ignore-errors to "ignore" any filesystem related errors (NOTICE this is probably not what you want)
 + Added master-syntax to CheckFile2 to change the overall message like so:
    It takes three options (and char data):
     * %list% A list of all "files" (syntax controls this)
     * %files% number of files
     * %matches% number of files matched
    CheckFile2 MinWarn=10 MinCrit=10 path=D:\WINDOWS\system32 filter+size=gt:0 truncate=10 ignore-errors "master-syntax=%matches%/%files%"
    OK:7177/7...|'found files'=7177;10;10;

2009-12-06 MickeM
 + Added != to all string filters
 + Sorted out the alias handling it is now wither what you specify or "files found" (this makes performance data work)
 + Added version to CheckFile2
   CheckFile2 path=D:\tmp pattern=*.exe filter+version=!=1.0 "syntax=%filename%: %version%" MaxWarn=1
   CheckFile2 path=D:\tmp pattern=*.exe filter+version=!=6.0.2900.5512 "syntax=%filename%: %version%" MaxWarn=1
 + Added line count to CheckFile2 to count lines
   CheckFile2 path=D:\tmp pattern=*.txt filter+line-count=!=2 "syntax=%filename%: %line-count%" MaxWarn=1
   CheckFile2 path=D:\tmp pattern=*.txt filter+line-count=ne:3 "syntax=%filename%: %line-count%" MaxWarn=1

New version out mainly a fix for the problems of 0.3.6 version.

Major changes:

 * Added argument support to NRPE Client
 * Some additions and fixes CheckWMI
 * Improved installer (works on w2k8 etc)
 * NSCA feature and stability improvments
 * New command line switchs to easily use NSClient++ from external scripts
 * Added "firewall exception" to installer
 * Fixed an issue with the socket data buffer
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir
 * Fixed issue with CheckDisk and paths
 * Documentation!

I think the major thing is the documentation apart from some bug fixes and installer improvements such. Regardless it is a recommended update.

NOTE It is late so I shall update sourceforge and what not tomorrow.

// Michael Medin

Full changelog:

2009-10-11 MickeM
 + Added argument support to NRPE Client
   This is temporarily enabled by the same options under the NRPE section. BUT this will change int he future so be ware when using them.

2009-09-20 MickeM
 * Fixed alias in CheckWMI (now works)
 + Added columnSyntax to CheckWMI to allow formating of returned data (default is %column%=%value%)
 + Added columnSeparator to CheckWMI to allow formating of returned data (default is ", ")

2009-09-13 MickeM
 * Fixed some more issues with the installer should not "work" on Windows 2008 as well as slightly simpler to configure.

2009-09-06 MickeM
 + Added new option to [NSCA Agent] string_length=<size> of the NSCA_MAX_PLUGINOUTPUT_LENGTH option on the NSCA server.
 * Readded all the "installer configuration" crap which I accidentaly removed when I fixed the installer... *sigh*

2009-08-30 MickeM
 + Added -c and -d command line options like so:
   NSClient++ -c CheckFile2 path=c:\test pattern=*.txt MaxCrit=1 filter+written=gt:2h
   NSClient++ -c <command> <argument 1> <argument 2> ...
   -d Is the same thing but with debug enabled.
 + Added uninstall of old client (sort of broken but works)

2009-08-29 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckFile (directory)
 * Rewrote the CA:s in the installer to work "better" (hopefully) in general it should be have more like a propper installer.

2009-07-18 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with no loggers avalible and "memory leak"
 * Added "firewall exception" to installer
 * Fixed an issue with the socket data buffer
 * Added new option to NSC.ini [NSCA] socket_timeout=30 (timeout in seconds when reading from NSCA sockets)
 * Fixed issue with NSCA socket.

2009-07-05 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir: not adding the commands properly.
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir: not using relative paths (#310).

2009-06-20 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckDisk and paths not working out properly

A new version (release candidate) for the next minor release is out.

Nothing major in the application this version mainly installer work as well as some bugfixes. But and this is a big but it now features both an reference manual as well as a Nagios guide to get you started from Nagios. The material comes from the now up-dated wiki so it is nothing new but a nice touch I hope.

2009-09-20 MickeM
 * Fixed alias in CheckWMI (now works)
 + Added columnSyntax to CheckWMI to allow formating of returned data (default is %column%=%value%)
 + Added columnSeparator to CheckWMI to allow formating of returned data (default is ", ")

2009-09-13 MickeM
 * Fixed some more issues with the installer should not "work" on Windows 2008 as well as slightly simpler to configure.

2009-09-06 MickeM
 + Added new option to [NSCA Agent] string_length=<size> of the NSCA_MAX_PLUGINOUTPUT_LENGTH option on the NSCA server.
 * Readded all the "installer configuration" crap which I accidentaly removed when I fixed the installer... *sigh*

2009-08-30 MickeM
 + Added -c and -d command line options like so:
   NSClient++ -c CheckFile2 path=c:\test pattern=*.txt MaxCrit=1 filter+written=gt:2h
   NSClient++ -c <command> <argument 1> <argument 2> ...
   -d Is the same thing but with debug enabled.
 + Added uninstall of old client (sort of broken but works)

2009-08-29 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckFile (directory)
 * Rewrote the CA:s in the installer to work "better" (hopefully) in general it should be have more like a propper installer.

2009-07-18 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with no loggers avalible and "memory leak"
 * Added "firewall exception" to installer
 * Fixed an issue with the socket data buffer
 * Added new option to NSC.ini [NSCA] socket_timeout=30 (timeout in seconds when reading from NSCA sockets)
 * Fixed issue with NSCA socket.

2009-07-05 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir: not adding the commands properly.
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir: not using relative paths (#310).

2009-06-20 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckDisk and paths not working out properly

// Michael Medin

Hello,

Sorry everyone for the downtime but apparently a hardware failure occurred, everything is back up and running now again and I think given the situation this spring it is a huge improvement! Especially since this is the first downtime in months!

UPDATE No planned downtime tomorrow! Just got a quick shout from Bernt Erk at netways that they wont have to move the host tomorrow so no planned downtime for tomorrow.

So once again a big thank you to the people at netways awesome hosting!

// Michael Medin

New nightly build out. Mainly this has a much improved installer so please let me know how it work out.

Also if you have an old version of NSCLient++ (which is not upgraded/uninstalled propperly) send mt the install log (msiexec /l* log.txt /i <MSI>) so I can add it to the "uniinstall thingy" I have added.

There is also some fixes in the CheckFile department which fixes a few issues here and there.

// Michael Medin

Hello everyone (yes, I know.. no one reads this but anyways feels better pretending not talk to myself)...

I have added a new guide (it I hope illustrates the basics of using NSClient++ with Nagios) on how to check if a process is running on a windows machine. It draws upon the earlier guides I published recently and tries to be very through and detailed. Please let me know if they are helpful or not and how I can improve them. The guide ca be found here or from the new Check Guides Page.

I have also reworked the "menu system" for the wiki to something slightly more "compact" and hopefully easier to work with, please let me know what you think.

Old	New

Also don't forget the Netways Conferance this fall:

I will also give a presentation on Application Monitoring where I will dive into how to monitor your Java based middleware via (amongst other things) JMX.

Details on the conference can be found at the web page http://www.netways.de/en/osmc/y2009/splitpage/.

Netways will be holding an Open Source Monitoring Conference with a strong focus on Nagios again this year. I shall (again) be speaking and this year. Last year I did a presentation on Windows monitoring and I will follow up that this year with a workshop. The topic for the workshop will focus around windows monitoring and we will install/configure NSClient++ and then setup a series of checks to monitor your windows environment.

In Addition to this I will also give a presentation on Application Monitoring where I will dive into how to monitor your Java based middleware via (amongst other things) JMX.

Details on the conference can be found at the web page http://www.netways.de/en/osmc/y2009/splitpage/.

Feel free to hit me with questions before and I shall try to incorporate the answers in my presentation. Also if you attended last year feel free to provide me with some feedback so I might improve this years presentation!

// Michael Medin

Hello everyone.

I have some really nice news and lets get started by a big big thank you to the guys over at netways in Germany for hosting the site. It is an amazing performance improvement!

Secondly to start off the summer I have written a guide on how to use NSClient++ with Nagios (NSClient, NRPE and NSCA) it is brand new and feedback is appreciated!

The guide can be found on the wiki as well as a PDF (attached below). The idea is to distribute the PDF with the installation package as the first step in improving the documentation of NSClient++.

Next up is 0.3.7 build which will fix a few issues and (if I have time) add some new stuff. I shall also go over the wiki and try to update the documentation but it is lengthy and (perhaps more so) boring work.

As always if anyone wants to donate to the project and help keep up my documentation spirit feel free to visit the donation page and become a "fan" of NSClient++. Donations are always welcome!.

And finally another big shout out to the guy at netways!

Finally after and long overdue is the new version here. This is a major update and a recommended one as there are memory leaks in the previous version.

The highlight in addition to all the fixes and minor things are the experimental new installer which allows you to configure some options while installing NSClient++. The installer should I hope work better and provide easier error handling and such. The only issue thus far are some reports on windows 2007 where it requires administrative privileges to install. I do not have windows 2007 so I cannot confirm this (if someone has windows a spare 2007 or want to sponsor this platform get in touch with me).

A few of the highlights:

 * Improved installer
 * A lot of bugfixes and improvements 
 * Serious memory leak fixed
 * Added a few new options to NSCA module
 * New service name and description
 * Improved CHeckFile2 (new option max-dir-depth, path, pattern)
 * Added support for changing name and description of service from the /install
   command line
 * Added more filter operators to all numeric filters so they accept 
   eq:, ne:, gt:, lt: in addition to =, >, <, <>, !, !=, in: (#269)
 * Added better support for numerical hit matching in the eventlog module. 
   You can now use exact and detailed matching.
 * Cleaned up the checkProcState code and it is not a lot better.
 * Added new option 16bit to checkProcState. 
   When set checkProcState will enumerate all 16 bit processes found running under NTVDM.
 * Added new command line options pdhlookup and pdhmatch (to CheckSystem) to 
   lookup index and names.
 * Added new module A_DebugLogMetrics.dll which can be used to generate debug info.
 * Brand new build environment based upon boost build!!!
 * Modified /about so it now shows a lot of useful(?) info.

For all changes refer to the changelog.

On a side not I will during the night switch over to a new host so hopefully the site will be more stable as well!

// Michael Medin

Not much news in this build which contains a bunch of bug-fixes as well as a compleate version of the new installer.

• CheckFileAge? (was broken)
• NSCA config option time_delay was off by 1000.
• Eventlog monitoring with descriptions flag was crashing on x64.
• CheckProc? works better on x64
• New installer is "finalized"

The RC is called X this time as I did not want to rename all the others. If no one reports in bugs this will become 0.3.6 release in 24 hours or so.

Full change log:

2009-06-07 MickeM 
 * Fixed issue with CheckFileAge incorrectly working in recursive mode.
 * Finalized the installer

2009-05-22 MickeM 
 * Fixed time_delay option in NSCA config (now uses the correct base was 1000 times to large before)

2009-05-21 MickeM 
 * Fixed issue with eventlog parsing and 64 bit machines (descriptions option)
 * Fixed issue with "modern windows" and installing the service (should not have the correct privlaiges)

2009-05-17 MickeM 
 * Changed default buffer size for process enumeration (64K now instead of 1K should I hope work better on 64bit OS:es)

2009-05-10 MickeM 
 + Added write support for modules to installer

// Michael Medin

Hello,

Since the presentation I did on Noric Meet on Nagios is on bambuser I figured I would share the link to it so you might all enjoy :)

Topics are:

• Basic Usage of NSClient++
• Basic Monitoring features
• Eventlog monitoring
• WMI
• Scripting (very briefly)

For the presentation go here.

I also held a workshop on scripting on the "windows side" which unfortunately was not filmed. But I shall add the slides and material to the wiki this weekend.

// Michael Medin

Just saw that there are live feeds from the Nordic Meet on Nagios avalible here in about an hour or so I will give my presentation on windows monitoring.

// MickeM

Because I got a request (Elad Shapira) as well as a recommendation for a tool (wink) I decided to try it out:

This is a short and quick webcast (demo?) on starting NSClient++ in debug mode and stopping it and how to intercept calls from nagios and see what happends in real time. This is just a quick thing to try it out let me know how what you think...

// Michael Medin

Hello,

Since spam is picking up I have, again, disabled anonymous posting to see if this helps a bit. It is op to post just register a user (capta) and you should be fine. If anyone has problems with this let me know at michael<at>medin<dot>name

// Michael Medin

Hello everyone.

I have for the past few weeks been trying to track down a memory leak which has been plaguing me for some time now. And after spending literal hundreds of hours looking over everything trying various simulations and what not I found it. And felt pretty silly as I have suspected that function (and looked at it) for quite some time. I think I shall create a RAII wrapper for the arrayBuffer to prevent such issues in the future.

Anyways, there are a few other things as well but nothing dramatic but a memory leak is always worth an upgrade!

I shall fix the last few bits and pieces with the installer and then release the new version so expect that in the coming week or so. Yes, yes I know I have said so for quite some time but I wanted to fix this darn memory leak and it really took a long time to find...

// Michael Medin

Hello,

Just thought I'd post a short notice since I (Michael Medin) will be speaking on the up-coming "Nordic Meet on Nagios 09" conference.

I will again speak on windows monitoring (this time more advanced stuff) and in addition to this I will also hold a workshop where I will look more into application monitoring both Java and .net as well as some WMI.

For conference details go to the website:

// Michael Medin

Hello everyone (and yes that is probably only me, since no one ever comments on theses :)

Anyways, new RC out as promised, nothing really new from last nights build but I have been running some tests and such to see if I can track down the errant memory leak I found... and I did... ut I have yet to fix it, but dont worry the leak was in the shared session code so just disable shared session and you are fine. I shall (post 0.3.x) I think fix the shared session but depending on how easy it it this might be fixed before.

The highlight from this new RC is instead the brand new installer! It is much improved and works as an installer *should* so all you "MSI package people" let me know what you want configurable. The new installer will (after you pick target directory) read the old config and populate up the parameters used on the "configure dialog" the dialog "wont save" anything as of yet this will come in the next version but I wanted to get some feedback on the contents of the dialog. So if you have any ideas on what you want let me know!!! (yes... I mean that... let me know!!!) :)

Full changelog since last RC are here:

2009-03-15 MickeM 
 * New service name (displayname)
 * New service description

2009-03-14 MickeM 
 * Rebuilt installer UI (still missing write config function)
 * Added debug entry to log filename used by debug log metrics.
 * Fixed so alias will not require the allow_nasty_metachars option set under external sripts module.

2009-03-02 MickeM 
 * Added catch handlers and error logging to NSCA Thread
 * Fixed issue with CheckProcState and administrator login!
 + Added debug module to installer
 + Added option max-dir-depth to CheckFile and CheckFile2 like so:
   CheckFile "file=c:\test\*.txt" filter-size=<24g 
     "syntax=%filename%: %size%" MaxCrit=1 max-dir-depth=0
   Will only find files on the "first level" 
    where as max-dir-depth=1 would find all parents and children etc. 
    (-1 is the default and means find all)
 * Fixed issue with finding sub-folders and *.txt now it will always 
    look for subfolders if they are present

// Michael Medin

I disallowed wget since it use up quite a lot of "my" resources, please respect this and don't "try to get around it" if you have a legit reason for it let me know and I can help you out.

// Michael Medin