alignak_demo 0.1.9

Alignak - Demo server configuration

Alignak demonstration server
############################

*Setting-up a demonstration server for Alignak monitoring framework ...*

This repository contains many stuff for Alignak:

- demo configuration to set-up a demo server (the one used for http://demo.alignak.net)

- some various tests configurations (each having a README to explain what they are made for)

- scripts to run the Alignak daemons for the demo server (may be used for other configurations)

- a script to create, delete and get elements in the alignak backend


What's behind the demo server
=============================

This demonstration is made to involve the most possible Alignak components on a single node server.

To set-up this demo, you must:

- install Alignak
- install Alignak backend
- install Alignak Web UI
- install Alignak modules (backend and nsca)
- install Alignak checks packs (NRPE, WMI, SNMP, ...)
- import the configuration into the backend
- start the backend, the Web UI and Alignak
- open your web browser and rest for a while looking at what happens :)

**Note**: it is possible to run Alignak without the backend and the WebUI. all the monitoring events are then available in the monitoring logs but, with this small configuration, one will loose the benefits ;)


The monitored configuration
---------------------------

On a single server, the monitored configuration is separated in three **realms** (*All*, *North* and *South*).
Some hosts are in the *All* realm and others are in the *North* and *South* realm, both sub-realms of *All* realm.

The *All* realm is (let's say...) a primary datacenter where main servers are located. *North* and *South* realms are a logical group for a part of our monitored configuration. They may be seen as secondary sites.

According to Alignak daemon logic, the master Arbiter dispatches the configuration to the daemons of each realm and we must declare, for each realm:

- a scheduler
- a broker
- a poller
- a receiver (not mandatory but we want to have NSCA collector)

In the *All* realm, we find the following hosts:

- localhost
- and some others

In the *North* realm, we find some passive hosts checked thanks to NSCA.

In the *South* realm, we find some other hosts.


Requirements
------------
The scripts provided with this demo use the `screen` utility found on all Linux/Unix distro. As such::

sudo apt-get install screen

**Note**: *It is not mandatory to use the provided scripts, but it is more simple for a first try;)*


Setting-up the demo
===================

We recommend having an up-to-date system;)
::

sudo apt-get update

Get base components
-------------------

**Note** that all the Alignak components need a root account (or *sudo* privilege) to get installed.

**Note** that this pitch is based on the current `update-installer` branch of Alignak that is not yet merged on upstream. This branch will be merged for the 1.0 release.

Get base components::

mkdir ~/repos
cd ~/repos

# Needed for the PyOpenSSL / Cryptography dependencies of Alignak
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

# Alignak framework
git clone https://github.com/Alignak-monitoring/alignak
cd alignak
# Install alignak and all its python dependencies
# -v will activate the verbose mode of pip
sudo pip install -v .

# Create alignak user/group and set correct permissions on installed configuration files
# As of now, this script is not yet merged to the upstream (the commands are listed at the end of the installation script)
sudo ./dev/set_permissions.sh

# Alignak backend
# You need to have a running Mongo database.
# See the Alignak backend installation procedure if you need to set one up and running (http://alignak-backend.readthedocs.io/en/develop/install.html)
sudo pip install alignak-backend

# Alignak backend importation script
sudo pip install alignak-backend-import

Get extension components
------------------------

Get and install Alignak modules::

# Those two modules are "almost" necessary for the essential alignak features
# If you do not install this module, you will not benefit from the Alignak backend features (retention, logs, timeseries, ...)
sudo pip install alignak-module-backend
# If you do not install this module, you will miss a log of all the alignak monitoring events: alerts, notifications, ...
sudo pip install alignak-module-logs

# Those are optional...
# Collect passive NSCA checks
sudo pip install alignak-module-nsca
# Write external commands (Nagios-like) to a local named file
sudo pip install alignak-module-external-commands
# Notify external commands though a WS and get Alignak state with your web browser
sudo pip install alignak-module-ws

# Note that the default module configuration is not suitable, but it will be installed later...


Get notifications package::

# Install extra notifications package
sudo pip install alignak-notifications

**Note** *that this pack requires an SMTP server for the mail notifications to be sent out. If none is available you will get WARNING logs and the notifications will not be sent out, but the demo will run anyway :) See later in this document how to configure the mail notifications...*

Get checks packages::

# Install checks packages according to the hosts you want to monitor
# Checks hosts thanks to NRPE Nagios active checks protocol
sudo pip install alignak-checks-nrpe
# Checks hosts thanks to old plain SNMP protocol
sudo pip install alignak-checks-snmp
# Checks hosts with "open source" Nagios plugins (eg. check_http, check_tcp, ...)
sudo pip install alignak-checks-monitoring
# Checks mysql database server
sudo pip install alignak-checks-mysql
# Checks Windows passively checked hosts/services (NSClient++ agent)
# As of now, use ==1.0rc1 to get the correct version
sudo pip install alignak-checks-windows-nsca
# Checks Windows with Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation
sudo pip install alignak-checks-wmi

# Note that the default packs configuration is not always suitable, but it will be installed later...

# Restore alignak user/group and set correct permissions on installed configuration files
sudo ./dev/set_permissions.sh

# Check what is installed (note that I also installed some RC packages...)
pip freeze | grep alignak
alignak==0.2
alignak-backend==0.7.2
alignak-backend-client==0.5.2
alignak-backend-import==0.6.7
alignak-checks-monitoring==0.3.0
alignak-checks-mysql==0.3.0
alignak-checks-nrpe==0.3.3
alignak-checks-snmp==0.3.5
alignak-checks-windows-nsca==1.0rc1
alignak-checks-wmi==0.3.0
alignak-demo==0.1.5
alignak-module-backend==0.3.3
alignak-module-external-commands==0.3.0
alignak-module-logs==0.3.3
alignak-module-nrpe-booster==0.3.1
alignak-module-nsca==0.3.1
alignak-module-ws==0.3.0
alignak-notifications==0.3.0
alignak-webui==0.6.4

As of now, you installed all the necessary Alignak stuff for starting a demo monitoring application, 1st step achieved!

Install check plugins
---------------------

Some extra installation steps are still necessary because we are using some external plugins and then we need to install them.

The NRPE checks package requires the `check_nrpe` plugin that is commonly available as:
::

sudo apt-get install nagios-nrpe-plugin

The monitoring checks package requires some extra plugins. Installation and configuration procedure is `available here <https://github.com/Alignak-monitoring-contrib/alignak-checks-monitoring/tree/updates#configuration>`_ or on the Monitoring Plugins project page.

You may instead install the Nagios plugins that are commonly available as:
::

sudo apt-get install nagios-plugins

As of now, you really installed all the necessary stuff for starting a demo monitoring application, 2nd step achieved!


Configure Alignak and monitored hosts/services
----------------------------------------------

**Note:** *you may configure Alignak on your own and set your proper monitored hosts and declare how to monitor them. This is the usual way for setting-up your monitoring solution... But, as we are in a demo process, and we want to make it simple, this repository has a prepared configuration to help going faster to a demonstration of Alignak features.*


For this demonstration, we imagined a distributed configuration in two *realms*: North and South. This is not the default Alignak configuration (*eg. one instance of each daemon in one realm*) and thus it implies declaring and configuring extra daemons. As we are using some modules we also need to declare those modules in the corresponding daemons configuration. Alignak also has some configuration parameters that may be tuned.

If you need more information `about alignak configuration <http://alignak-doc.readthedocs.io/en/update/04-1_alignak_configuration/index.html>`_.

To avoid dealing with all this configuration steps, this repository contains a default demo configuration that uses all (or almost...) the previously installed components.::

# Alignak demo configuration
# IMPORTANT: use the --force argument to allow overwriting previously installed files!
sudo pip install alignak-demo --force


Once installed, some extra configuration files got copied in the */usr/local/etc/alignak* directory and some pre-existing files were overriden (eg. default daemons configuration). We may now check that the configuration is correctly parsed by Alignak:
::

# Check Alignak demo configuration
alignak-arbiter -V -a /usr/local/etc/alignak/alignak.cfg

**Note** *that an ERROR log will be raised because the backend connection is not available. this is correct because we configured to use the backend but did not yet started the backend! Some WARNING logs are also raised because of duplicate items. Both are nothing to take care of...*

This Alignak demo project installs some shell scripts into the Alignak libexec folder. For ease of use, you may copy those scripts in your home directory.
::

mkdir ~/demo

cp /usr/local/var/libexec/alignak/bash/* ~/demo
cp /usr/local/var/libexec/alignak/python/* ~/demo

**Note** *a next version may install those scripts in the home directory but it is not yet possible;)*

**FreeBSD users** have some scripts available in the *csh* sub-directory instead of *bash* :)

As explained previously, the shell scripts that you just copied use the `screen` utility to detach the process execution from the current shell session.

As of now, Alignak is configured and you are ready to run, 3rd step achieved!


Configure, run and feed Alignak backend
---------------------------------------

It is not necessary to change anything in the Alignak backend configuration file except if your MongoDB installation is not a local database configured by default. Else, open the */usr/local)/etc/alignak-backend/settings.json* configuration file to set-up the parameters according to your configuration.

**Note:** *the default parameters are suitable for a simple demo on a single server.*

Run the Alignak backend:
::

cd ~/demo
# Detach a screen session identified as "alignak-backend"
./alignak_backend_start.sh

ps -ef | grep alignak-
alignak 30166 1087 0 18:42 ? 00:00:00 SCREEN -d -S alignak-backend -m bash -c alignak-backend
alignak 30168 30166 0 18:42 pts/18 00:00:00 /usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/alignak-backend

# Joining the backend screen is 'screen -r alignak-backend'
# Stopping the backend is './alignak_backend_stop.sh'


Run the Alignak backend import script to push the demo configuration into the backend:
::

alignak-backend-import -d -m /usr/local/etc/alignak/alignak.cfg

**Note**: *there are other solutions to feed the Alignak backend but we choose to show how to get an existing configuration imported in the Alignak backend to migrate from an existing Nagios/Shinken to Alignak.*

Once imported, you can check that the configuration is correctly parsed by Alignak:
::

# Check Alignak demo configuration
alignak-arbiter -V -a /usr/local/etc/alignak/alignak.cfg

[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Creating packs for realms
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of hosts in the realm North: 2 (distributed in 2 linked packs)
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of hosts in the realm South: 3 (distributed in 2 linked packs)
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of hosts in the realm All: 7 (distributed in 7 linked packs)
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of Contacts : 5
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of Hosts : 12
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of Services : 305
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Number of Commands : 78
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.objects.config] Total number of hosts in all realms: 12
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.daemons.arbiterdaemon] Things look okay - No serious problems were detected during the pre-flight check
[2017-01-06 11:57:28 CET] INFO: [alignak.daemons.arbiterdaemon] Arbiter checked the configuration

**Note** *because the backend is now started and available, there is no more ERROR raised during the configuration check! You may still have some information about duplicate elements but nothing to take care of...*

As of now, Alignak is ready to start... let us go!

Run Alignak:
::

cd ~/demo
# Detach a screen session identified as "alignak-backend"
./alignak_demo_start.sh

# Stopping Alignak is './alignak_demo_stop.sh'

Alignak runs many processes that you can check with:
::

ps -ef --forest | grep alignak-

alignak 30166 1087 0 janv.06 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak-backend -m bash -c alignak-backend
alignak 30168 30166 0 janv.06 pts/18 00:08:31 | \_ /usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/alignak-backend
alignak 22289 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_north_broker -m bash -c alignak-broker -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/North/brokerd-north.ini
alignak 22291 22289 0 09:55 pts/20 00:01:14 | \_ alignak-broker broker-north
alignak 22365 22291 0 09:55 pts/20 00:00:03 | \_ alignak-broker
alignak 22542 22291 0 09:55 pts/20 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-broker-north module: backend_broker
alignak 22292 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_north_poller -m bash -c alignak-poller -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/North//pollerd-north.ini
alignak 22296 22292 0 09:55 pts/21 00:00:49 | \_ alignak-poller poller-north
alignak 22349 22296 0 09:55 pts/21 00:00:02 | \_ alignak-poller
alignak 22601 22296 0 09:55 pts/21 00:00:01 | \_ alignak-poller-north worker
alignak 22294 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_north_scheduler -m bash -c alignak-scheduler -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/North//schedulerd-north.ini
alignak 22297 22294 0 09:55 pts/22 00:00:52 | \_ alignak-scheduler scheduler-north
alignak 22350 22297 0 09:55 pts/22 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-scheduler
alignak 22298 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_north_receiver -m bash -c alignak-receiver -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/North//receiverd-north.ini
alignak 22300 22298 0 09:55 pts/23 00:00:31 | \_ alignak-receiver receiver-north
alignak 22351 22300 0 09:55 pts/23 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-receiver
alignak 22600 22300 0 09:55 pts/23 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-receiver-north module: nsca_north
alignak 22310 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_south_broker -m bash -c alignak-broker -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/South/brokerd-south.ini
alignak 22312 22310 0 09:55 pts/24 00:01:01 | \_ alignak-broker broker-south
alignak 22414 22312 0 09:55 pts/24 00:00:03 | \_ alignak-broker
alignak 22547 22312 0 09:55 pts/24 00:00:07 | \_ alignak-broker-south module: backend_broker
alignak 22313 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_south_poller -m bash -c alignak-poller -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/South/pollerd-south.ini
alignak 22315 22313 0 09:55 pts/25 00:01:04 | \_ alignak-poller poller-south
alignak 22413 22315 0 09:55 pts/25 00:00:03 | \_ alignak-poller
alignak 22616 22315 0 09:55 pts/25 00:00:05 | \_ alignak-poller-south worker
alignak 22316 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_south_scheduler -m bash -c alignak-scheduler -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/South/schedulerd-south.ini
alignak 22318 22316 0 09:55 pts/26 00:00:53 | \_ alignak-scheduler scheduler-south
alignak 22415 22318 0 09:55 pts/26 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-scheduler
alignak 22326 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_broker -m bash -c alignak-broker -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/brokerd.ini
alignak 22328 22326 1 09:55 pts/27 00:01:48 | \_ alignak-broker broker-master
alignak 22469 22328 0 09:55 pts/27 00:00:06 | \_ alignak-broker
alignak 22551 22328 0 09:55 pts/27 00:00:31 | \_ alignak-broker-master module: backend_broker
alignak 22605 22328 0 09:55 pts/27 00:00:01 | \_ alignak-broker-master module: logs
alignak 22329 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_poller -m bash -c alignak-poller -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/pollerd.ini
alignak 22331 22329 0 09:55 pts/28 00:00:40 | \_ alignak-poller poller-master
alignak 22456 22331 0 09:55 pts/28 00:00:07 | \_ alignak-poller
alignak 22614 22331 0 09:55 pts/28 00:00:17 | \_ alignak-poller-master worker
alignak 22332 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_scheduler -m bash -c alignak-scheduler -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/schedulerd.ini
alignak 22334 22332 0 09:55 pts/29 00:01:20 | \_ alignak-scheduler scheduler-master
alignak 22475 22334 0 09:55 pts/29 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-scheduler
alignak 22335 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_receiver -m bash -c alignak-receiver -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/receiverd.ini
alignak 22337 22335 0 09:55 pts/30 00:00:57 | \_ alignak-receiver receiver-master
alignak 22457 22337 0 09:55 pts/30 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-receiver
alignak 22555 22337 0 09:55 pts/30 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-receiver-master module: nsca
alignak 22338 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_reactionner -m bash -c alignak-reactionner -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/reactionnerd.ini
alignak 22340 22338 0 09:55 pts/31 00:00:34 | \_ alignak-reactionner reactionner-master
alignak 22484 22340 0 09:55 pts/31 00:00:02 | \_ alignak-reactionner
alignak 22611 22340 0 09:55 pts/31 00:00:01 | \_ alignak-reactionner-master worker
alignak 22403 1087 0 09:55 ? 00:00:00 \_ SCREEN -d -S alignak_arbiter -m bash -c alignak-arbiter -c /usr/local/etc/alignak/daemons/arbiterd.ini --arbiter /usr/local/etc/alignak/alignak.cfg
alignak 22404 22403 1 09:55 pts/32 00:02:34 | \_ alignak-arbiter arbiter-master
alignak 22514 22404 0 09:55 pts/32 00:00:00 | \_ alignak-arbiter

You can follow the Alignak activity thanks to the monitoring events log created by the Logs module. You can tail the log file:
::

[1483714809] INFO: CURRENT SERVICE STATE: chazay;System up-to-date;UNKNOWN;HARD;0;
[1483714809] INFO: CURRENT SERVICE STATE: passive-01;svc_TagReading_C;UNKNOWN;HARD;0;
[1483714809] INFO: CURRENT SERVICE STATE: passive-01;dev_TouchUI;UNKNOWN;HARD;0;
[1483714809] INFO: CURRENT SERVICE STATE: denice;Shinken Main Poller;UNKNOWN;HARD;0;
[1483714809] INFO: CURRENT SERVICE STATE: localhost;Cpu;UNKNOWN;HARD;0;
[1483714812] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: chazay;CPU;OK;HARD;0;OK - CPU usage is 39% for server chazay.siprossii.com.
[1483714816] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: alignak_glpi;Zombies;OK;HARD;0;PROCS OK: 0 processes with STATE = Z
[1483714837] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: chazay;NTP;OK;HARD;0;NTP OK: Offset -0.003250718117 secs
[1483714851] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: chazay;Memory;OK;HARD;0;Memory OK - 69.7% (23959990272 kB) used
[1483714853] ERROR: HOST NOTIFICATION: guest;cogny;DOWN;notify-host-by-xmpp;CHECK_NRPE: Received 0 bytes from daemon. Check the remote server logs for error messages.
[1483714853] ERROR: HOST NOTIFICATION: imported_admin;cogny;DOWN;notify-host-by-xmpp;CHECK_NRPE: Received 0 bytes from daemon. Check the remote server logs for error messages.
[1483714862] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: chazay;I/O stats;OK;HARD;0;OK - data received
[1483714886] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: chazay;Users;OK;HARD;0;USERS OK - 0 users currently logged in
[1483714902] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: alignak_glpi;Load;OK;HARD;0;OK - load average: 0.60, 0.54, 0.52
[1483714903] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: chazay;Firewall routes;OK;HARD;0;PF OK - states: 1316 (6% - limit: 20000)
[1483714903] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: cogny;Http;OK;HARD;0;HTTP OK: HTTP/1.1 200 OK - 2535 bytes in 0,199 second response time
[1483714905] INFO: HOST ALERT: alignak_glpi;UP;HARD;0;NRPE v2.15
[1483714909] ERROR: HOST NOTIFICATION: imported_admin;localhost;DOWN;notify-host-by-xmpp;[Errno 2] No such file or directory
[1483714909] ERROR: HOST ALERT: localhost;DOWN;HARD;0;[Errno 2] No such file or directory
[1483714910] ERROR: HOST ALERT: always_down;DOWN;HARD;0;[Errno 2] No such file or directory
[1483714910] ERROR: HOST NOTIFICATION: imported_admin;always_down;DOWN;notify-host-by-xmpp;[Errno 2] No such file or directory
[1483714939] INFO: HOST ALERT: chazay;UP;HARD;0;NRPE v2.15
[1483714966] INFO: SERVICE ALERT: m2m-asso.fr;Http;OK;HARD;0;HTTP OK: HTTP/1.1 200 OK - 6016 bytes in 3,227 second response time

This file is a log of all the monitoring activity of Alignak. The *alignak.cfg* allows to define what are the events that are logged to this file. By default, only the active and passive checks ran by Alignak are not logged to this file:
::

# Monitoring log configuration
# ---
# Note that alerts and downtimes are always logged
# ---
# Notifications
# log_notifications=1

# Services retries
# log_service_retries=1

# Hosts retries
# log_host_retries=1

# Event handlers
# log_event_handlers=1

# Flappings
# log_flappings=1

# Snapshots
# log_snapshots=1

# External commands
# log_external_commands=1

# Active checks
# log_active_checks=0

# Passive checks
# log_passive_checks=0

# Initial states
# log_initial_states=1


Configure Alignak notifications
-------------------------------
As explained previously the alignak notifications pack needs to be configured for sending out the mail notifications. This demo configuration is using default parameters for the mail server that may be adapted to your own configuration.

With the default parameters, you will have some WARNING logs in the *schedulerd.log* file, such as:
::

[2017-01-07 10:00:47 CET] WARNING: [alignak.scheduler] The notification command '/usr/local/var/libexec/alignak/notify_by_email.py -t service -S localhost -ST 25 -SL your_smtp_login -SP your_smtp_password -fh -to guest@localhost -fr alignak@monitoring -nt PROBLEM -hn "alignak_glpi" -ha 176.31.224.51 -sn "Disk /var" -s CRITICAL -ls UNKNOWN -o "NRPE: Command 'check_var' not defined" -dt 0 -db "1483779644.85" -i 2 -p ""' raised an error (exit code=1): 'Traceback (most recent call last):'

To configure the Alignak mail notifications, edit the */usr/local/etc/alignak/arbiter/packs/resource.d/notifications.cfg* file and set the proper parameters for your configuration:
::


#-- SMTP server configuration
$SMTP_SERVER$=localhost
$SMTP_PORT$=25
$SMTP_LOGIN$=your_smtp_login
$SMTP_PASSWORD$=your_smtp_password

# -- Mail configuration
$MAIL_FROM$=[e-mail]

You may also adapt the contacts used in this demo configuration else WE will receive you notification mails :). the used contacts are defined as is:

- [e-mail], as the administrator contact for the realm All
- [e-mail], as the administrator contact for the realm North
- [e-mail], as the administrator contact for the realm South

You will find their definition in the */usr/local/etc/arbiter/realms* folder, in each realm (All, North,...) *contacts* sub-folder.


Use Alignak Web services
------------------------
The alignak Web Services module exposes some Web Services on the port 8888.

Get the Alignak daemons status:
::

http://127.0.0.1:8888/alignak_map


Configure/run Alignak Web UI
----------------------------
As of now, your configuration is monitored and you will receive notifications when something is detected as faulty. Everything is under control but why missing having an eye on what's happening in your system with a more sexy interface than tailing a log file and reading emails?

Install the Alignak Web User Interface:
::

# Alignak WebUI
sudo pip install alignak-webui


The default installation is suitable for this demonstration but you may update the *(/usr/local)/etc/alignak-webui/settings.cfg* configuration file to adapt this default configuration.

Run the Alignak WebUI::

alignak-webui

Use your Web browser to navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5001 and log in with *admin* / *admin*.


Configure/run Alignak desktop applet
------------------------------------
Except when you are in Big Brother mode, you almost always do not need a full Web interface as the one provided by the Alignak WebUI. This is why Alignak provides a desktop applet available for Linux and Windows desktops.

Install the Alignak App:
::

# For Linux users with python2
sudo apt-get install python-qt4
# For Linux and Windows users with python3
pip3 install PyQt5 --user

# For Windows users, we recommend using python3, else install PyQt from the download page

# Alignak App
pip install alignak_app --user

# As of now, the last version is not yet pip installable, so we:
git clone https://github.com/Alignak-monitoring-contrib/alignak-app
cd alignak-app
pip install . --user

# Run the app (1st run)
$HOME/.local/alignak_app/alignak-app start

# Then you will be able for next runs to
alignak-app start

The applet will require a username and a password that are the same os the one used for the Web UI (use *admin* / *admin*). Click on the Alignak icon in the desktop toolbar to activate the Alignak-app features: alignak status, host synthesis view, host/services states, ...

A notification popup will appear if something changed in the hosts / services states existing in the Alignak backend.

The default configuration is suitable for this demonstration but you may update the *$HOME/.local/alignak_app/settings.cfg* configuration file that is largely commented.


What we see?
============

Monitored system status
-----------------------
TBC...
http://demo.alignak.net


Alignak internal metrics
------------------------
http://grafana.demo.alignak.net
TBC

For techies, statsD configuration and run:
::

$cd /usr/local/share/statsd
$cat alignak.js
{
graphitePort: 2003
, graphiteHost: "10.0.0.10"
, port: 8125
, backends: [ "./backends/graphite" ]
}

$screen -S statsd
$node stats.js alignak.js
$Ctrl+A Ctrl+D

What's behind the backend script
================================

This simple script may be used to make simple operations with the Alignak backend:

- create a new element based (or not) on a template

- update a backend element

- delete an element

- get an element and dump its properties to the console or a file (in /tmp)

- get (and dump) a list of elements

A simple usage example for this script:
::

# Assuming that you installed: alignak, alignak-backend and alignak-backend-import

# From the root of this repository
cd tests/cfg_passive_templates
# Import the test configuration in the Alignak backend
alignak-backend-import -d -m ./cfg_passive_templates.cfg
# The script imports the configuration and makes some console logs:
alignak_backend_import, inserted elements:
- 6 command(s)
- 3 host(s)
- 3 host_template(s)
- no hostdependency(s)
- no hostescalation(s)
- 12 hostgroup(s)
- 1 realm(s)
- 1 service(s)
- 14 service_template(s)
- no servicedependency(s)
- no serviceescalation(s)
- 12 servicegroup(s)
- 2 timeperiod(s)
- 2 user(s)
- 3 usergroup(s)

# Get an host from the backend
backend_client -t host get test_host_0

# The script dumps the json host on the console and creates a file: */tmp/alignak-object-dump-host-test_host_0.json*
{
...
"active_checks_enabled": true,
"address": "127.0.0.1",
"address6": "",
"alias": "test_host_0",
...
"customs": {
"_OSLICENSE": "gpl",
"_OSTYPE": "gnulinux"
},
...
}

# Get the list of all hosts from the backend
backend_client --list -t host get

# The script dumps the json list of hosts on the console and creates a file: */tmp/alignak-object-list-hosts.json*
{
...
"active_checks_enabled": true,
"address": "127.0.0.1",
"address6": "",
"alias": "test_host_0",
...
"customs": {
"_OSLICENSE": "gpl",
"_OSTYPE": "gnulinux"
},
...
}

# Create an host into the backend
backend_client -T windows-nsca-host -t host add myHost
# The script inform on the console
Created host 'myHost'

# Create an host into the backend with extra data
backend_client -T windows-nsca-host -t host --data='/tmp/create_data.json' add myHost
# The script reads the JSON content of the file /tmp/create_data.json and tries to create
# the host named myHost with the template and the read data

# Update an host into the backend
backend_client -t host --data='/tmp/update_data.json' update myHost
# The script reads the JSON content of the file /tmp/update_data.json and tries to update
# the host named myHost with the read data

# Delete an host from the backend
backend_client -T windows-nsca-host -t host delete myHost
# The script inform on the console
Deleted host 'myHost'