[rancid] eliminating noise

Thu Nov 20 13:59:08 UTC 2014

I think if someone needed trending information like what has been brought up, then you get a proper environment monitoring system. However, if you don't have one, a large jump in the value of the fan speed/temp/whatever can be an indirect indicator that something is happening in the environment (or a device hardware failure, like a bad fan if the rpm goes to zero) and deserves a more in-depth observation. Otherwise it's just noise, or you update the script to ignore the line(s) completely. IMHO, that's kind of like taking the battery out of the smoke detector because it chirps too much, rather than changing the battery.

I guess in the end it depends on if the tool is meeting the need you have or not. It's great for state tracking, that's for sure. I wouldn't want to be without it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rancid-discuss [mailto:rancid-discuss-bounces at shrubbery.net] On Behalf Of Alan McKinnon
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:22 AM
To: rancid-discuss at shrubbery.net
Subject: Re: [rancid] eliminating noise

On 20/11/2014 08:39, Robert Drake wrote:
> What you need is a network monitoring system that supports thresholds. 
> The problem with doing this with rancid is that you probably don't run 
> it often enough to see changes when they happen, and you don't know 
> that when you run it you'll be at an outlying temperature.
> 
> Say run #1 happens at 6:00pm and the temperature is 25C, run #2 
> happens at 8:00pm and the temperature is 35C.  That's perfect, but 
> what happens if there is an incremental climb through the afternoon 
> and you get 28C, then 32C, then 35C?

I fully agree with this statement.

Within the context of rancid, do we really care about things like fan speed and voltage levels at all? I doubt it very much - rancid is a state tracker and lets you record changes in configured state over time, and never forgets it

Fan speed is different, along with many other facts that show up in show <*>, and just because the OS reports these facts and makes them available is not a valid reason why rancid should track them.

> 
> 
> On 11/19/2014 11:48 PM, Peter Jackson wrote:
>> Frank,
>>
>> I believe Wayne would like to keep the command output but only record 
>> a change if the variable differs by a set amount.
>>
>> So in Wayne's example we want RANCID to record a different 
>> temperature only if it was 10 degrees higher or lower than the last RANCID run.
>>
>> You wouldn't see this diff:
>>
>> - ! External Temperature............................. +25 C
>>
>> + ! External Temperature............................. +30 C
>>
>>
>> But you would see this one:
>>
>> - ! External Temperature............................. +25 C
>>
>> + ! External Temperature............................. +35 C
>>
>>
>> We have removed a lot of command output for just this reason - 
>> because it sends too many diffs to be useful.  But having something 
>> like what Wayne suggests would be really nice and we would be able to 
>> add those commands back to RANCID without getting all of the insignificant diffs.
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 6:48 PM, Frank Bulk <frnkblk at iname.com 
>> <mailto:frnkblk at iname.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Just update the relevant script to ignore those lines.
>>
>>      
>>
>>     Frank
>>
>>      
>>
>>     *From:* Rancid-discuss
>>     [mailto:rancid-discuss-bounces at shrubbery.net
>>     <mailto:rancid-discuss-bounces at shrubbery.net>] *On Behalf Of
>>     *Wayne Eisenberg
>>     *Sent:* Wednesday, November 19, 2014 5:09 PM
>>     *To:* 'rancid-discuss at shrubbery.net
>>     <mailto:rancid-discuss at shrubbery.net>'
>>     *Subject:* [rancid] eliminating noise
>>
>>      
>>
>>     Hey all,
>>
>>      
>>
>>     Does anyone have any ideas on how we can modify rancid to ignore
>>     minor differences in things like fan speed and temperature? See
>>     the below:
>>
>>      
>>
>>     - ! External Temperature............................. +29 C
>>
>>     + ! External Temperature............................. +28 C
>>
>>      
>>
>>     -  ! Fan Status....................................... 3432 rpm
>>
>>     + ! Fan Status....................................... 3301 rpm
>>
>>      
>>
>>     These two items create a lot of noise. The temperature changes by
>>     1 or 2 degrees - very insignificant, but it gets caught by diff.
>>     The same with the fan speed. Any character change trips the diff.
>>     +/- 10% or greater is a more reasonable change to note. But I
>>     don't know how to modify the scripts to do that comparison. Any ideas?
>>
>>      
>>
>>     Thanks,
>>
>>     Wayne
>>
>>      
>>
>>      
>>
>>      
>>
>>     
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--
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon at gmail.com

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