Table of Contents

cf-monitord

Table of Contents

cf-monitord is the monitoring daemon for CFEngine. It samples probes defined in policy using measurements type promises and attempts to learn the normal system state based on current and past observations. Current estimates are made available as special variables (e.g. $(mon.av_cpu)) to cf-agent, which may use them to inform policy decisions.

cf-monitord keeps the promises made in commonand monitor bundles, and is affected by common and monitor control bodies.

Command reference

  --help        , -h       - Print the help message
  --debug       , -d       - Enable debugging output
  --verbose     , -v       - Output verbose information about the behaviour of the agent
  --dry-run     , -n       - All talk and no action mode - make no changes, only inform of promises not kept
  --version     , -V       - Output the version of the software
  --no-lock     , -K       - Ignore system lock
  --file        , -f value - Specify an alternative input file than the default
  --inform      , -I       - Print basic information about changes made to the system, i.e. promises repaired
  --diagnostic  , -x       - Activate internal diagnostics (developers only)
  --no-fork     , -F       - Run process in foreground, not as a daemon
  --histograms  , -H       - Ignored for backward compatibility
  --tcpdump     , -T       - Interface with tcpdump if available to collect data about network
  --color       , -C value - Enable colorized output. Possible values: 'always', 'auto', 'never'. If option is used, the default value is 'auto'
  --timestamp   , -l       - Log timestamps on each line of log output

Standard measurements:

The cf-monitord service monitors a number of variables as standard on Unix and Windows systems. Windows is fundamentally different from Unix and currently has less support for out-of-the-box probes.

users: Users logged in
rootprocs: Privileged system processes
otherprocs: Non-privileged process
diskfree: Free disk on / partition
loadavg: % kernel load utilization
netbiosns_in: netbios name lookups (in)
netbiosns_out: netbios name lookups (out)
netbiosdgm_in: netbios name datagrams (in)
netbiosdgm_out: netbios name datagrams (out)
netbiosssn_in: netbios name sessions (in)
netbiosssn_out: netbios name sessions (out)
irc_in: IRC connections (in)
irc_out: IRC connections (out)
cfengine_in: CFEngine connections (in)
cfengine_out: CFEngine connections (out)
nfsd_in: nfs connections (in)
nfsd_out: nfs connections (out)
smtp_in: smtp connections (in)
smtp_out: smtp connections (out)
www_in: www connections (in)
www_out: www connections (out)
ftp_in: ftp connections (in)
ftp_out: ftp connections (out)
ssh_in: ssh connections (in)
ssh_out: ssh connections (out)
wwws_in: wwws connections (in)
wwws_out: wwws connections (out)
icmp_in: ICMP packets (in)
icmp_out: ICMP packets (out)
udp_in: UDP dgrams (in)
udp_out: UDP dgrams (out)
dns_in: DNS requests (in)
dns_out: DNS requests (out)
tcpsyn_in: TCP sessions (in)
tcpsyn_out: TCP sessions (out)
tcpack_in: TCP acks (in)
tcpack_out: TCP acks (out)
tcpfin_in: TCP finish (in)
tcpfin_out: TCP finish (out)
tcpmisc_in: TCP misc (in)
tcpmisc_out: TCP misc (out)
webaccess: Webserver hits
weberrors: Webserver errors
syslog: New log entries (Syslog)
messages: New log entries (messages)
temp0: CPU Temperature core 0
temp1: CPU Temperature core 1
temp2: CPU Temperature core 2
temp3: CPU Temperature core 3
cpu: %CPU utilization (all)
cpu0: %CPU utilization core 0
cpu1: %CPU utilization core 1
cpu2: %CPU utilization core 2
cpu3: %CPU utilization core 3

Slots with a higher number are used for custom measurement promises in CFEngine Enterprise.

These values collected and analyzed by cf-monitord are transformed into agent variables in the $(mon.name) context.

Note: There is no way for force a refresh of the monitored data.

Control Promises

Settings describing the details of the fixed behavioral promises made by cf-monitord. The system defaults will be sufficient for most users. This configurability potential, however, will be a key to developing the integrated monitoring capabilities of CFEngine.

    body monitor control
    {
        #version => "1.2.3.4";

        forgetrate => "0.7";
        tcpdump => "false";
        tcpdumpcommand => "/usr/sbin/tcpdump -i eth1 -n -t -v";
    }

forgetrate

Description: Decimal fraction [0,1] weighting of new values over old in 2d-average computation

Configurable settings for the machine-learning algorithm that tracks system behavior. This is only for expert users. This parameter effectively determines (together with the monitoring rate) how quickly CFEngine forgets its previous history.

Type: real

Allowed input range: 0,1

Default value: 0.6

Example:

    body monitor control
    {
    forgetrate => "0.7";
    }

histograms

Deprecated: Ignored, kept for backward compatibility

cf-monitord now always keeps histograms information, so this option is a no-op kept for backward compatibility. It used to cause CFEngine to learn the conformally transformed distributions of fluctuations about the mean.

Type: boolean

Default value: true

Example:

    body monitor control
    {
    histograms => "true";
    }

monitorfacility

Description: Menu option for syslog facility

Type: (menu option)

Allowed input range:

LOG_USER
LOG_DAEMON
LOG_LOCAL0
LOG_LOCAL1
LOG_LOCAL2
LOG_LOCAL3
LOG_LOCAL4
LOG_LOCAL5
LOG_LOCAL6
LOG_LOCAL7

Default value: LOG_USER

Example:

body monitor control
{
monitorfacility => "LOG_USER";
}

tcpdump

Description: true/false use tcpdump if found

Interface with TCP stream if possible.

Type: boolean

Default value: false

body monitor control
{
tcpdump => "true";
}

tcpdumpcommand

Description: Path to the tcpdump command on this system

If this is defined, the monitor will try to interface with the TCP stream and monitor generic package categories for anomalies.

Type: string

Allowed input range: "?(/.*)

Example:

    body monitor control
    {
    tcpdumpcommand => "/usr/sbin/tcpdump -i eth1";
    }