Hi,
Here is idea I want to share with Ethereal community.
We have a Framework which able to provide a storage, historical data
analysis and data presentation. I was thinking about create a generic
enough Agent which consumes output from tethereal command line
interface.
It should collect data generic enough and be configured
from end user. The data collected might be the statistics and(or) a
packets information which can be captured from the tethereal output or a
capture files.
If there needs for such agent and Framework it would be
great to get a feed-back from you guys. Based on it I will start
defining requirements for the agent.
I intentionally do not provide links to our web site to avoid my
post to be considered as advertisement.
Briefly about Framework. The Framework consists of three
subsystems:
Agents - acquire application performance data from
monitored agents. Sends data to a published Web Services
through SOAP XML messages
Server - serves as the agent controller, performance
data repository and performance data analyzer. It consists
of three Data Analysis Engines - Rule, Notification and Graphics
Engines. Data received from agents stored
into MS SQL Server database and processed by Rule Engine against
pre-defined set of rules. If rule condition met an
event is generated and mail notification issued
Web Console - a browser based GUI, serves as the central
control for the monitoring landscape. It shows all the
monitored system operating status, the performance data and events.
Environment:
Server:
Server part written in .NET with IIS web
services
Platforms supported: Windows 2000 Server and
Windows2003. Other Windows versions have limited number of
concurrent HTTP sessions. Database: MS SQL Server. IIS provides web
services
Clients:
Platforms supported on this moment:
Windows 2000, NT, XP, 2003, Linux, HP-UX 11, Sun
Solaris5.8 (5.7)
Complexity:
Server installation: If all components (ISS, FTP
service, .NET Framework) installed properly it takes 5 - 10
minutes to install the server. Client side (agents) configuration done
through web console and stored on the server
Agent development: Required creation of database schema
for data you want to collect,
Create web service for an agent (copy one of the
existing). Compile your code and run it.
Code complexity is light. Languages supported
C++ and C#
Legal issues:
1.Existing free distribution of the Framework has limit
of 4 hosts (nodes). We considering a possibility to
remove such limitation for Ethereal custom agents users
2.The Ethereal agent will be published as open source
with all libraries and manual required to build Ethereal
agent or create an other custom agents for above OS platforms
3. Can be more.. Bring it up..