Welcome to the Autocheck web site.
Introduction
Autocheck is a GPL system
administration tool that monitors unix computers on your network and
sends sms-messages or emails to administrators when a problem arises.
Why?
I started developing autocheck because we needed a configurable program that
would check resources etc on remote computers. We also wanted centralized
administration and messaging functions with rules (eg timelimits for sms
messages and emails).
Some Features
Some features include:
* Very configurable (albeit not simple to configure). The configuration files
let you specify how a check should generate data, what checks to run on what
systems etc.
* Extensible (in Perl). The program is pretty simple to expand if you know
some Perl (you don't need a deep knowledge of Perl). Please contribute any new
modules you write back to me :)
* Single point of administration. Since the programs are generated and
distributed on the fly there are no old versions "floating" around causing
problems. It is also quick to upgrade. Fixes etc automatically take effect
on all systems.
* Time limits on messages. Time limits can be defined in the MAILRULES and
PAGERRULES files.
* SMS (text to mobile phones) messages. Implemented using gnokii and the
small network spooler written in Perl (below).
Limitations
There are so far some limitations to the system, after all it is only a
beta release (don't be fooled by the 4 in the name, it has historical
reasons (this is the fourth incarnation of an internal autocheck engine)).
It can't check non unix computers. I want to add a feature for checking
WinNT machines, but I haven't gotten around to do this yet (It does check
webpages etc on non unix computers, of course).
The SMS server needs to be rewritten so that it is more stable and requires
authentication etc. I also keep thinking it would be nice to have the
SMS server handle the phonebook instead of autocheck. Maybe the SMS server
should accept incoming SMS's aswell and process them somehow.
How?
The way autocheck works is that it runs perl scripts on remote computers,
or the local one, and the perl script gives information back to the main
autocheck engine. The scripts are generated on the fly from a template and
copied to the remote host. After the script is run, the output is examined
and if an alarm level is met appropriate action is taken.
You might be interested in reading the inital mock
DOCUMENTATION as it is probably more explanatory
than this webpage
Distribution
The current distribution is
here
Note to GNU/Linux users: Autocheck was developed under Dynix and the check
scripts might need modification to allow them to run under Linux. I will be
fixing this when I get the time (it is still very much in beta...)
Note! Don't run the sms-services as root as they probably contain loads
of security holes etc. Also, i wouldn't put it anywhere where someone might
try to hack it (ie, don't put it on an untrusted network)...
Author
My name is Henrik Bilar and I work as an unix network administrator in London.
You can contact me on
hbilar@users.sourceforge.net. This is
my first "major" perl program so there's probably loads of bugs floating around
and the code is probably not as pretty as it could be. Actually, it is also my first
open source project :)
All feedback and bug-fixes (there are a few bugs floating around, i'm sure) are greatly appreciated.
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