Distribute Netcool/OMNIbus rules files to probes via HTTP

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It is very straightforward to distribute rules files to probes via HTTP, thereby allowing the rules to be stored in a central location (where they can be easily managed) and to enable probes to download the rules files over the network.  The method works just as well for single rules files as it does for more complex rules file libraries containing hundreds of files, such as the Netcool Knowledge Library (NcKL)

In this blog entry I will give a quick demonstration of how to get a test environment up and running, using a simple Python HTTP server and Simnet and SNMP (nco_p_mttrapd) probes configured to read their rules files via HTTP.

Simple example using Simnet probe with a single rules file

Start an ObjectServer

$OMNIHOME/bin/nco_objserv -name NCOMS

Create a rules directory and copy the default simnet.rules file

  mkdir $OMNIHOME/rules  cp $OMNIHOME/probes/linux2x86/simnet.rules $OMNIHOME/rules

Start the Python simple HTTP server

  cd $OMNIHOME/rules  python -m SimpleHTTPServer  Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...

Start the Simnet probe

  $OMNIHOME/probes/nco_p_simnet -rulesfile http://hostname.yourdomain.com:8000/simnet.rules

Thats it!  The probe will read the rules file via HTTP from the URL provided.

Rules that include other files

For an example of a rules file that includes other files, take the NcKL library. Assume we have extracted the NcKL rules files into $OMNIHOME/rules and we are running the Python HTTP server as before then all we need to do is set $NC_RULES_HOME to equal the URL of the server e.g.

  export NC_RULES_HOME=http://hostname.yourdomain.com:8000  $OMNIHOME/bin/nco_p_mttrapd -rulesfile http://hostname.yourdomain.com:8000/snmptrap.rules  

The probe will read the smnptrap.rules file and all included rules and lookup tables from the URL specified. Great! For a production system you can replace the simple Python HTTP server with a proper web server such as Apache and set the docroot accordingly

Now wouldn't it be great if we could help with the centralised management of those probe rules files?  Well looking at the release plan for OMNIbus.Next it looks like we've got something in the pipeline Feel free to get in contact if you are interested in centrally managing Netcool/OMNIbus configuration.

~ Alex