[OpenNMS-Announce] OpenNMS Update v2.20

[<ann...@op...>]

====================
   OpenNMS Update
====================
  Vol 2., Issue 20
====================
    May 15, 2001
====================

   In this week's installment...
     * Project Status
          + Announcing 0.7.5
          + Newest Team Member
          + Name Resolution Goofiness
          + Coding Projects Underway
     * Upcoming Road Shows
     * Early Adopter Program Status
     * The Wish List


==============
Project Status
==============

Announcing 0.7.5:

     Queue the overture...It's almost show-time!

     Effective today, OpenNMS will officially release version 0.7.5 of
     the OpenNMS software.

     With this release, we incorporate a number of new features, not the
     least of which include the following:

     * Graphical PDF Report Generation, using SVG in XSLT

     * Robust filtering capabilities for event viewing

     * Numerous bug fixes

     * New graphical event configurator

     * New calculations for availability (which ignore incidental
       services on interfaces)

     As before, the easiest way to download, install, and run OpenNMS is
     to follow these quick and easy steps:

     * Select an appropriate box (x86 @ 400+ Mhz, 256MB RAM, and plenty
       o' storage space)

     * Install a "supported" distribution (RH6.2, RH7.0, Mandrake 7.2, or
       Mandrake 8.0)

       NOTE: If you choose to use another distribution, it's fine with
       us, but the installation process will be pain by comparison.

     * Install from the easy, web-installer with: 

          lynx -source install.opennms.org | sh

     * Go through the configuration part of the Quick Guide to set up
       OpenNMS for your environment (IP Ranges, etc.)

     * Enjoy a nice, refreshing beverage, and the fact that your network
       is in good hands.

     So strike up the band and start your engines -- here's 0.7.5!

     Disclaimer: As of this writing, the Mandrake, Source, and Binary
     RPMs were not yet complete. Barring any unforeseen circumstances,
     they should be done later tonight or early tomorrow morning, EDT.


Newest Team Member:

     You heard the plea, now hear the answer.

     We are thrilled to welcome Marshall Christy to the OpenNMS team!
     Marshall comes to us with several years experience administering
     Linux and Unix boxes, as well as managing his own OpenView
     installation (at a customer site) while consulting for AT&T. His
     experience in the field, coupled with his technical know-how
     combine to make him a force to be reckoned with in the soon-to-be
     announced ranks of the OpenNMS Professional Services organization.

     Marshall already owns a special place in many of hearts for
     accomplishing two things right out of the gates. First, he showed
     up with less hair than Luke, which is growing more and more
     difficult on a daily basis, and most importantly, he was the first
     victim of the "Tie Day" gag.

     Because we think we're so damn funny, we always try to set up new
     hires that Monday is "Tie Day" and imply that formal business
     attire is appropriate for their first day. However, when they
     arrive and undergo serious harassment, they find out that Monday is
     actually "Thai Day", and we're off to the greatest Thai restaurant,
     perhaps in the world, where ol' Three-Day serves up the best one,
     two, and three pepper Thai dishes this side of Bangkok. And if
     you've ever been to Bangkok, you know that one night there will
     make a hard man humble.

     So Marshall showed up yesterday wearing a tie. That's a sign of
     being both a good sport, and a good consultant. Better safe than
     sorry.

     Welcome aboard, Marshall!



Name Resolution Goofiness:

     My recent technical diatribes have become mammoth tomes, so this
     week, enjoy a much shorter one that will hopefully solve a good
     number of problems for many of you.

     In releases prior to 0.7.5, the code anticipates that your 
     machine's hostname (execute 'hostname', with no parms), must
     resolve to 127.0.0.1 in your /etc/hosts file, and you must use
     files first for name resolution in your /etc/nsswitch.conf. This is
     an artifact of designing for a distributed architecture and
     deploying it on the same box.

     So the first line that has a resolution entry in your /etc/hosts
     file should look something like:

     127.0.0.1     localhost.localdomain localhost hostname

     where hostname is replaced by the output of your hostname command
     (described above).

     Regardless of the whys and wherefores of this behavior, Weave has
     patched ONC RPC to workaround this problem.  The patch is in 0.7.5 
     but is not fully tested.  So, if it works, this commentary was
     of little merit.  And if there are problems, just try the
     /etc/hosts trick and see if that helps.


Coding Projects Underway:

     * CDP/L2/Mapping -- Pete is alive and kicking and actively looking
       for someone in the Boulder, CO area to do some part-time work on
       this, perhaps even for pay. If you are a Java/Linux/Network-type
       in that area and are looking for a part-time gig for the next year
       or so, drop me a line and I'll get you in touch with Pete.

     * Snort Integration -- Matthew is out, and the offer that is on the
       table to pick up his efforts kicks in in a month. If you are
       interested, let me know. Thanks.

     * Solaris Port -- We're starting to look for Sparc hardware that we
       can build/test on. Anybody willing to take this one on?

     * NT/2K Port -- We've got some code issues with SCM and RPC that
       don't seem to gel with the OS from Redmond. We're looking into
       this, but not with much fervor.

     * SNMP Poller/Data Collection -- No word from the Minnesotans on the
       MRTG/Cricket configs. Anybody out there got good data collections
       defined that they'd like to contribute?

     * Logging (Conversion to Log4J) -- Despite being sidetracked and
       sick, Seth will be plowing into this one full-bore later this
       week.

     * User Interfaces -- Larry's got some fixes and new features in
       0.7.5, and Jacinta's SVG/PDFs are just cool.

     * Configuration -- Event Configurator in 0.7.5.

     * Discovery/CAPSD/Database Review -- Some early "re-parenting" code
       is now in. To us, re-parenting is when you discover five
       individual interfaces that don't support SNMP, then later, when
       the device DOES support SNMP, we find out that all five are on the
       same node. Re-parenting is the process by which the interfaces get
       associated with the correct node.

     * Agent Technologies -- Agent effort still on ice while Craig does
       Scoreboard-related stuff.

     * Development Environment -- Even yet still more tweaks to the
       install process.


===================
Upcoming Road Shows
===================

   The Boulder LUG was great! Thanks for the M&Ms, the tour (Wayde), and
   the harassment. And word to the wise: Never ask if a group has heard
   of "Expect" if the author is likely to be in the audience...

     * June 1st - GNU/Linux BBQ!! Drink good beer and eat fire.

     * June 2nd - Northern Virginia LUG (NOVALUG), Alexandria, VA

     * June 13-14 - OpenView Forum 2001, New Orleans, LA

     * July 25 - O'Reilly Open Source Convention, San Diego, CA

     * August 28-30 - Linux World Expo, San Francisco, CA (BOOTH)

   For additional details on these appearances and others, check out the
   web site at http://www.opennms.org/sections/opennms/events


==============================================================
Early Adopter Program Status - Courtesy Jeff "Cyber" Schneider
==============================================================

   This week we heard from one of our long lost early adopters. They've
   been busy actually doing what they do to make money, and hadn't been
   in touch. We were thrilled to discover that OpenNMS had been running
   successfully in their environment for a couple months, and was
   actively helping to manage their network and systems.

   We're looking forward to starting the 0.7.5 upgrades, this new update
   will add a lot of useful features.

   Also, as Shane mentioned, we're very happy to have Marshall in the
   Early Adopters arsenal to help us bring the program to a new level.

   + Tip of the Week: Linux Network Configuration + 

     Make sure your IP network configuration on the managment station is
     correct. If it can't talk to the network, it can't manage anything.
     If it can "sort of" talk to the network, you might see some real
     strange stuff!  Been there, done that.


=============
The Wish List
=============

   And now, on with the list...

     * In the 0.7.5 release (and CVS), checkout the TODO file

     * Testing on notification.

     * New Data Collection configs wanted for the DataCollection.xml

     * Build some event configurations.

     * Any interest in more TCP pollers? Let us know (or better yet,
       build one yourself...)
     * LDAP/POP3/nmap Pollers

     * Documentation and development your game? How about a white paper
       on how to extend OpenNMS with custom pollers, custom configs,
       and/or your own scripts/code.

     * Any additional help we can get proving our documentation either
       right or wrong is appreciated. Thanks.

     * Got any creative applications for OpenNMS that we haven't
       considered? Let us know!

     * A Security analysis of OpenNMS?

     * Got an environment that could stress test OpenNMS, from a
       scalability perspective? We'd love the feedback!


=============
Afterthoughts
=============

   This was a big week, trying to wrap our arms around a big bundle of
   new functionality that seemed to be more a hodge-podge than a planned
   set of new features. Sometimes, project timing just works out that
   way.

   I've been getting a lot of personal notes about the current state of
   the documentation. I know it's out of date and you know it's out of
   date, so why not update it and send me a diff instead of just
   passively bitching about it? We'll eventually get around to it, but
   don't think that we couldn't use the help. Quite obviously, we can.

   I've got some additional example code that I'm trying to get to build
   that will demonstrate an exercising of the JoeSNMP libraries. I'm
   hoping to get those pushed into CVS later this week. My thanks to
   Daniel Balmer for passing it along.

   And have you ever noticed just how many BAD versions of "Danny Boy"
   there are on the MP3 sites/networks? So far, the best I can find is
   Bing Crosby, although Black 47 has an interesting take on things.

   As for me, I gotta go. The pipes, the pipes are calling...

Shane O.
========
Shane O'Donnell
OpenNMS.org
sh...@op...
==================