Have you recently downloaded Zenoss Core, or do you have questions about implementing the solution in your environment? If so, please register  to attend our bi-weekly Getting Started with Zenoss Core Webinar. The February 9 session is still open for sign-up, if you can’t make this session, the next one is already on the schedule. You can register here:

Tuesday, February 9 2:00 p.m. EST

Tuesday, February 23 9:00 a.m. EST

Here’s   what you’ll get out of the session:

• An introduction to the Zenoss Community
• Installing the software properly
• Preparing your environment
• Logging in to get started
• Adding, classifying and auto-discovering your devices
• Getting and staying organized
• Seeing the “big picture” (dashboard, network map, event console, Google Maps, etc.)
• Avoiding common mistakes

We also have a Zenoss engineer available to answer questions live – and there are usually lots of questions submitted! If you’re interested in seeing past Q&A logs, take a look at some of the previous Getting Started with Zenoss Q&A sessions where we document and upload all of the questions submitted along with answers.

The first OpsCamp was this past weekend in Austin, TX. With nearly 100 participants, there were many excellent discussions around next generation  technologies and strategies for IT Operations. OpsCamp had a great line-up of vendors and with the participants they brought a number of conversations to this "BarCamp-style" event around monitoring, orchestration and everything else in the dynamic datacenter.  We would especially like to thank the organizers Dave Nielsen (CloudCamp), John M. Willis (Opscode), Damon Edwards (DTO  Solutions) and Michael Cote' (RedMonk).  Thanks to everyone who showed up and we're really looking forward to the next  event!

This month's tip comes from Zenoss IRC stalwart Ryan Matte's Wiki entry Monitoring the status of NFS shares with Zenoss. Monitoring NFS shares is a frequent question on IRC and in the Forums, Ryan came up with the following solution:

For starters, you may have to remove "networkDisk" from zFileSystemMapIgnoreTypes in zProperties and remodel your devices (if Zenoss hasn't picked up the NFS shares).

 

You will then need to navigate to /Events/Perf/Snmp and select More -> Transform from the dropdown.  Insert the following transform and click save.

 

import re
if re.search('1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.6', evt.summary) and evt.severity == 1:
 p = re.compile('\"(.*)\"')
 m = p.search(evt.summary)
 share = m.group(1)
 if share:
  d = dmd.Devices.findDevice(evt.device)
  for f in d.os.filesystems():
   if re.match(f.mount, share) and re.match('networkDisk', f.type):
    evt.summary = 'NFS share %s has become unavailable.' % (share)
    evt.message = 'NFS share %s has become unavailable.' % (share)
    evt.eventClass = '/Perf/Filesystem'
    evt.component = share
    evt.severity = 5
    f.lockFromDeletion()
    d.pushConfig()
    txnCommit()

 

This transform gets applied to any debug events which come in with 1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.6 as part of the summary message.  This is the OID used in the filesystems template.  It then extracts the name of the filesystem from the summary.  Once it has the name of the filesystem object it checks to make sure that it's an NFS share (it checks to see whether or not the type is "networkDisk").

 

Once it has confirmed that it is an NFS share it moves on to setting the event summary and message.  It also sets the eventClass to "/Perf/Filesystem" which is more fitting.  It sets the event component to the name of the share.  It sets the event severity to Critical.  It then locks the share from deletion in Zenoss (in case an automated remodel kicks off while the share is unavailable).

 

Lastly it pushes changes to the collector (the same as going to Manage -> Push Changes from the device page).  Pushing changes is done because when a debug event comes in for a component, Zenoss stops monitoring the component until it detects a change in configuration (which is accomplished by pushing changes to the collector).  This ensures that Zenoss will continue to generate an alert for the share every polling cycle until it is available again.  It also ensures that monitoring of the share will take place after it has been restored.  It will take 15 to 20 minutes for performance data to start showing up again on the utilization graph once it has been restored.

Thanks again to Ryan for the great tip!

I am very pleased to announce that Zenoss will be sponsoring the first OpsCamp for cloud and operations professionals to be held in Austin, TX on January 30th. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to co-sponsor the event with our friends at Reductive Labs who sponor Puppet (open source configuration management) and Bitnami (whose corporate sponsor Bitrock, helps us produce the Zenoss stack installers).

OpsCamp is an event aimed at bringing together IT professionals who are interested in the evolution of systems management and application deployment as it bridges physical and virtual infrastructure and especially cloud computing technologies. The event will be a participant driven unconference style event made popular by events like BarCamp, Bloggercon and Mashup Camp.

Event Details

The event will be held in an unconference format starting with an Unpanel discussion about cloud computing followed by a self-organizing conference format where topics are proposed and then voted on by the attendees.

Saturday, January 30, 2010
8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Spider House Cafe

2908 Fruth St.

Austin, TX 78705

While attendance is free, RSVP is required: http://www.opscamp.org/austin

What People are Saying

Dave Nielsen, co-Founder CloudCamp

"With rapid change occurring in IT operations, we realized that a place is needed where operations personnel and sysadmins can meet to share their experiences, challenges and solutions. OpsCamp is organized as an unconference which encourages the open exchange of ideas around next generation technologies and strategies for IT Operations. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate."

John M. Willis, Author of Cloud Computing and Systems Management Blog, co-host IT Management Podcast and the Cloud Cafe

"While the cloud has lowered the barrier to entry for businesses to own a data center; it has not decreased the complexity of managing complex applications and data center operations.  OpsCamp is about exploring the opportunity to intersect ideas like agile development, continuous deployment, and data center operations to promote the rise of a new movement that breaks down the traditional walls between development and operations (i.e., DevOps)."

Michael Coté, Analyst at Redmonk, co-host IT Management Podcast

"After many years of steady pace in the IT world, the tools and technologies used to do the daily work of operations are rapidly changing. Thanks to virtualization and cloud computing moving mainstream, new, hopefully better ways to deliver IT are emerging. These things aren't always fully baked yet, but the thought-leaders and early adopters are quickly crystallizing. OpsCamp is an exciting chance to get involved in these conversations whether you want to start directing this shift in operations, figure out if it works for you, or just check it out. And, not only is it free, it's in a damn fine spot: Austin."

Luke Kanies, Founder of Puppet and Reductive Labs

"OpsCamp is a great opportunity to share expertise and experience in managing operations in the cloud.  The unconference setting provides a perfect mix between learning and sharing, and the intimate setting guarantees everyone gets something out of it."

Erica Brescia, CEO, BitRock and Bitnami Project Lead

"In rapidly evolving disciplines such as how to deploy and manage software in the cloud, the one-way dialogue found at typical conferences just doesn't cut it. OpsCamp will give early adopters and innovators the opportunity to share best practices and guide the development of the next generation of cloud operations tools and services."

Zenoss developers will be available for questions on Thursday, January 21 at 12pm EST in the #zenoss IRC channel on irc.freenode.net (port 6667). Please drop in and bring your questions, answers, suggestions and feedback.  Zenoss Architect Chad Gibbons and other developers will be available to answer your questions on Zenoss with gusto, discuss the on-going Zenoss in the Clouds ZenPack Contest and any other events in the Zenoss Community.  There will be a Zenoss QA Day going on as well, more info soon.

We’ll log the session and repost it here if you can’t make it.

Don’t forget you can search for answers to common questions by visiting the Zenoss Forum.

UPDATED: Log of session: Dev chat 01/21/2010

John M. Willis recently posted his 2^nd Annual Cloudie Award winners, and we are honored that Zenoss was named one of the Best Monitoring Tools in the Clouds! For the few of you who may not know him, John is an influential ESM/IT Management industry veteran who pens the popular IT Management and Cloud Blog and records a weekly IT Management Podcast with Redmonk’s Michael Cotè. 

Managing cloud services has been a challenge for IT departments, and is one that legacy management systems aren't agile enough to address;  with the 2.5 release of Zenoss we added  Amazon EC2 monitoring to give Amazon Web Services users greater insight into how their cloud computing infrastructure is performing.

Now with your help we're making cloud monitoring even more effective with your help. We are running the Zenoss in the Clouds ZenPack contest to add even more cloud computing management capabilities to Zenoss.  We are looking  for those of you who manage cloud technologies like Eucalyptus,RackSpace Cloud, Azure , vCloud or SalesForce to contribute your expertise and ZenPacks plus the prizes aren't bad either (1st prize is $2000).

Zenoss developers will be available for questions on Thursday, January 7 at 11am EST in the #zenoss IRC channel on irc.freenode.net (port 6667). Please drop in and bring your questions, answers, suggestions and feedback.  Zenoss Architect Chip Holden and other developers will be available to answer your questions on Zenoss with aplomb, discuss the on-going Zenoss in the Clouds ZenPack Contest and any other events in the Zenoss Community.

We’ll log the session and repost it here if you can’t make it.

Don’t forget you can search for answers to common questions by visiting the Zenoss Forum.

UPDATE: Transcript is here: Dev chat 01/07/2010