Debian based Telemetry Box Distribution released

Jan 26, 2001, 00:51 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Christoph Lameter)

Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 17:35:09 +0100
From: Nils Lohner lohner@debian.org
To: debian-news@lists.debian.org
Subject: Debian based Telemetry Box Distribution released

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Debian Project                                          http://www.debian.org/ 
Debian based Telemetry Box Distribution released        press@debian.org
January 25, 2001

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[ This post was written by Christoph Lameter christoph@lameter.com ]

Version 1.0 of the Telemetry Box Distribution has finally been released. The Tbox distribution is a Debian GNU/Linux 'potato' based custom Linux version for remote monitoring and maintenance of networks.

A telemetry box allows remote management and diagnostics. It uses a customized version of netsaint to gather data. Netsaint has been enhanced so that the configuration is possible via the Tbox Webinterface through SQL structures. Netsaint logs into a SQL table. Tools on the Tbox can then display the data in a variety of ways (graphs or reports).

Some of the functionality of the Tbox:

• Discovery module (Scan network and write results to SQL database)
• Ticket System (Can be hooked into siteROCKs problem tracking system).
• PathFinder (Network infrastructure analysis and troubleshooting module written by me. Tested with monitoring all network paths to all educational institutions (edu.zone) for a week (30000 IPs)).
• Apache/PHP/MySQL/PHPMyadmin
• Fully manageable via a webinterface. All major setup can be done via the Web.
• SSH/HTTPS support out of the box.
• Easy installation (network card detection, auto-partitioning and formatting, no useless questions asked) of Debian usable without any Unix know-how.
• NT Diagnostic module (NSServicer)
• Keynote data integration
• Modified CURL tool that works as a URL analyzer for netsaint.
• Report module: Performance data. Router data and graphical reports.
• Intelligent ticket system (can localize point of network failure and asses impact of the failure)

Installation from CD Image

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It is highly advisable to install from a CD image. The CD image at http://openrock.net/tb/iso/ccimage_v1.0.iso fits on a Credit Card sized CD (only 50 MB) and contains all functionality. I will have these CDs physically available at the LWE in Europe at the beginning of February.

The telemetry software can be installed as an add on to existing Debian installations but it requires modifications to apache and/or PHP. See http://openrock.net for details.

Opensource contributions

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Sources are available from
. Patches to existing software have been or will be contributed to the respective opensource projects.

openrock.net has been outfitted with a kernel based http server (with patches implementing range and virtual hosting). Downloading should be no problem.

Note that we do not consider this version to be of production quality. Some features are only working under certain conditions. Some components have a prototype character. There are various issues that are being improved on. Help would be appreciated. Ideally we would like to have everything part of standard Debian. The biggest problem was the ease of installation and handling which required some changes to packages which might not be welcome.

siteROCK the specialists for 24x7 monitoring made this release possible.

Christoph Lameter, January 23, 2001

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Nils Lohner                             E-Mail: lohner@debian.org
Debian Press Team                       Press:  press@debian.org