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  • 1.  New Robot Notification

    Posted Aug 12, 2009 11:13 PM
    Does anyone know how to setup an email alert to be sent when a new robot is added to the hub? We have admins build servers and deploy the robot and we want to be notified so we can deploy the probes through Nimbus. Thanks


  • 2.  New Robot Notification

    Posted Aug 13, 2009 12:54 AM
    I do not think there is any built-in way to do this today, but I can think of two options:
    • A NAS script that runs on a schedule, gets a robot list from each hub, and compares to some saved state (probably in a SQLite database)
    • A standalone custom probe (using NSA/Lua or any SDK) that runs on each hub, gets a robot list from the local hub, and compares to some saved state (probably SQLite if you use the NSA)
    The getrobots callback on the hub should provide all of the information you need.  The response includes a timestamp that each robot was created, so you could use that rather than saving state between each run if you prefer.

    -Keith


  • 3.  Re: New Robot Notification

    Posted Oct 03, 2011 09:47 PM

    Is a new robot install logged in any way?  Meaning, when a new robot connects to a hub, is there a log that we can scan on the hub (maybe with logmon) to look for new installs?



  • 4.  Re: New Robot Notification

    Posted Oct 04, 2011 12:11 AM

    I was able to find some verbage in the hub.log when a new robot is installed.  I have my log level set to 3.  Also thought about bumping this down even further (to 2 or 1) and see if I still get info in the log when a new robot comes online.  Example from the log below: (obviously insert has been edited to remove IPs/servernames/etc.)

     

    Oct 3 16:27:45:528 [1852] hub: robotup - {servername} {IP} 48000 [5.12 Aug 12 2010]

    Oct 3 16:27:45:528 [1852] hub: ch_robotlist /{Domain name}/{Hub name}/{servername} 1

    Oct 3 16:27:45:528 [1852] hub: robot added: {servername} {IP} 48000

    Oct 3 16:27:45:528 [1852] hub: nns(+):/{Domain name}/{Hub name}/{servername} {IP}/48000

    Oct 3 16:27:45:575 [1852] hub: nns(+):/{Domain name}/{Hub name}/{servername} {IP}/48000

    Oct 3 16:27:45:575 [1852] hub: internal alarm - Robot {servername} is running, 0, {servername}

    Oct 3 16:27:45:575 [1852] hub: ch_probe /{Domain name}/{Hub name}/{servername}

    Oct 3 16:27:45:575 [1852] hub: probelist - {servername} {IP} (s:1650)

    Oct 3 16:27:45:575 [1852] hub: nns(+):/{Domain name}/{Hub name}/{servername}/controller {IP}/48000

    Oct 3 16:27:45:575 [1852] hub: probe port added: {servername} controller {IP} 48000

     

    Not sure how much of these lines could be used in other contexts in the file.  I would assume that the "robot added" and "probe port added" would at LEAST be unique for new robot installs.  Working on a logmon profile that can check the hub.log to new installs and then send us an email letting us know the server name, IP, hub, and domain that the new server was added to.



  • 5.  New Robot Notification

    Posted Aug 13, 2009 02:33 AM
    Depending on how you deploy the robot, you could do something like this:

    1. create a package with a dependency on the ntservices probe (more info: https://nimsoftevents.webex.com/nimsoftevents/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=33302157&rKey=a8286a5e7efef21b )
    2. add an ntservices.cfx file to the package that looks for the Nimbus Watcher service and sends an alert if it is running.
    3. configure the request.cfg file to automatically pull down the package you created above

    This would definitely send you an alert every time a new robot is installed. Alternatively, if you have a set of standard probes you deploy, you could just configure the request.cfg to deploy those probes for you. (That's what I do.)

    -Chris


  • 6.  Re: New Robot Notification

    Posted Oct 04, 2011 06:12 PM

    You could do a SQL Script to email the newest robot additions. It looks like the Create_Time column has the date discovery server found it on the NimBUS. select * from dbo.CM_COMPUTER_SYSTEM 



  • 7.  Re: New Robot Notification

    Posted Oct 13, 2011 08:32 PM

    I know your question is more about having the system notify you of new robots, but we answered this need in our environment with more process than technology.

     

    If it makes sense in your environment, create an onboarding hub and have the server admins hard code the primary hub to point to the onboarding hub when they install the robot.  We use a NAS on the onboarding hub and have a preprocessing rule to exclude all messages from every attached robot but the onboard robot itself.  This allows us to work with the new robots without generating alarms on the production bus until we intend to.  This also gives the server admins time to finish prepping the new servers for production without getting unwanted alarms.

     

    My team checks the onboard hub for new robots and makes inquiries to server admins to install and configure probes as needed.  Once all probes are installed and configured, we validate that the probes are configured correctly and move the robot to a production hub.  We populate user tag 1 to identify which application the robot is related to(which gives another indication that the robot has been configured).  This gives us a more formal process to promote robots into production and insures that we bag, tag and categorize each robot before it touches the production bus.

     

    -Bruce



  • 8.  Re: New Robot Notification

    Posted Oct 13, 2011 10:27 PM

    Bruce - Nice suggestion, I like this controlled approach!



  • 9.  Re: New Robot Notification

    Posted Nov 28, 2011 04:44 PM

    Hi!

    I wrote a script long ago, to check for new robots every several hours.

     

    I send an email if a robot is missed or a new found, as some sort of "garbage" I also count how many robots are found.

     

    Not a beauty but works for me :->

     

    cheers

    Matthias