<author>Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter, De Winter Information Solutions</author>
<author>Arjen Baart, Andromeda Technology & Automation</author>
- <date>December 12th, 2002.</date>
+ <date>Januari 10, 2004</date>
<docinfo>
- <infoitem label="Version">0.24</infoitem>
+ <infoitem label="Version">0.25</infoitem>
</docinfo>
</titlepage>
Updates to the database to reflect the most recent changes.
</col>
</row>
+ <row>
+ <col>0.25</col><col>Arjen Baart</col><col>Jan 10, 2004</col>
+ <col>
+ Added a list of related projects and introduced the concept of
+ dynamic parameters.
+ </col>
+ </row>
</table>
</section>
Dynamic properties typically have a change record once a day or even a couple
of times a day.
Change records for static properties are usually months apart.
+If all properties of a parameter are dynamic, the parameter as a whole is regarded
+as a dynamic parameter.
+One of the properties of a dynamic parameter is that it does not need to exist
+all the time, i.e. it does not have to be listed in every report.
</para>
<para>
The state of parameters is scanned or probed regularly on a client system
Gnucomo will check each property of these parameters against the stored knwon value.
If the property's value changed, the actual value in the database is updated
and a record is added to the change history of the parameter.
+When a parameter is listed in the report but that parameter is not in the
+database or the other way around: a parameter is in the database and is not
+in the report, this constitutes a notable change in the system.
+</para>
+<para>
+Whenever the state of the system's parameters changes, Gnucomo may create
+a <emph>notification</emph>.
+Notifications are created when one of the following changes happens:
+<enumerate>
+<item>
+ A new parameter is detected. The new parameter is listed in the report
+ but is not in the database.
+</item>
+<item>
+ The value of a static property of a parameter has changed.
+</item>
+<item>
+ A value of a dynamic property of a parameter goes outside its designated range.
+</item>
+<item>
+ A non-dynamic parameter has disappeared. The parameter is in the database but
+ was not listed in the report.
+</item>
+</enumerate>
+Note that when a dynamic parameter seems to have disappeared, no notification
+will be generated.
+When a dynamic parameter is in the database but is not listed in the report,
+all properties of that parameter will be set to the default minimum value
+of the parameter's class.
+This change in the parameter's properties, however, may lead to a notification.
+As an example of a dynamic parameter, consider a process running on a system.
+The properties of a process parameter are the number of processes running and the
+amount of memory they consume, all of which are dynamic.
+The default minimum number of processes for the process parameter class is 0 (zero).
+When a process parameter is missing from a parameter report, no processes with that
+name are running.
+This may be a problem for daemons but not for most user processes.
+When a user process, for example <emph>vim</emph>, is missing from the processes report,
+its number of processes property is set to 0.
+For the <emph>vim</emph> process parameter this is well within range.
+On the other hand, when a daemon like <emph>httpd</emph> is missing from the report,
+its number of processes property will also be set to the class's minimum (0), but
+the minimum value for that parameter will probably be something like 4.
+Now, the number of processes property goes out of range, which will generate
+a notification.
</para>
</subsection>
</section>
<reference href='http://crm114.sourceforge.net/'>CRM114</reference> - The Controllable
Regex Mutilator.
</item>
+ <item>
+ <reference href='http://ezix.sourceforge.net/software/lshw.html'>Hardware Lister (LSHW)
+ </reference>
+ </item>
+ <item>
+ <reference href='http://www.brains2bytes.com/alist/'>AList
+ </reference>Collect information about systems
+ </item>
+ <item>
+ <reference href='http://logrep.sourceforge.net/'>LogRep
+ </reference> Logfile Extraction and Reporting
+ </item>
+ <item>
+ <reference href='http://prelude-ids.org/'>Prelude Hybrid INtrusion detection system.
+ </reference>
+ </item>
+ <item>
+ <reference href='http://www.nagios.org/'>Nagios
+ </reference> Host and service monitoring.
+ </item>
</itemize>
</para>
</section>