[rancid] eliminating noise

[Dan Anderson]

I agree. RANCID is great for config management but it's pretty obvious that
it wasn't designed for thresholding applications. In the past I have
leveraged clogin, etc. from within a custom wrapper script to log into
devices and run commands to gather data that I couldn't get via SNMP
(xlates on an ASA per-context, etc.) because it saved me from having to
write my own login routines. Clogin grabbed the raw command output and the
wrapper massaged it into the formant that I wanted and then dumped it into
RRDs or MySQL. Using the CVS/SVN/whatever backend as your database doesn't
scale very well, especially if you want to see a lot of data over time. In
addition, using RANCID to hold all that info inflicts a lot of pain on your
poor inbox if you're having diffs sent via email. After a while, people
start ignoring the email messages and missing important changes when
they're used to a steady stream of fluff.

Since the environmental information is usually available via SNMP, why not
use one of the many decent freely-available systems out there that was
actually designed to do thresholding and alerting? RANCID's great, but it
shouldn't be the only tool in the toolbox.

On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Hughes, Doug <
Douglas.Hughes at deshawresearch.com> wrote:

> As another $.02, I've always thrown out fan speed in the context of
> rancid. Yes, it belongs in an EMS (event management system). No, it doesn't
> belong in a configuration management system, because it's not a part of
> configuration.
> (IMHO)
>
> -----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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-- 
Dan
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