MATtool OS and Service Monitoring

MATtool includes monitoring for many important system resources and services. The monitoring can also be extended by user scripts. A TCL module automatically loads when a TCL monitoring script is added to MATd. Adding your own monitored objects is simple using this higher level language.  Your monitored objects are seemlessly integrated into the MAT console.  For more information on creating your own monitored objects consult the Monitored Object Creation guide.

MAT can monitor a variety of system parameters.  At the most basic level MAT can run system commands to inspect system parameters.  The agent can access the systems log  files, and can modify the syslog daemons configuration.  The MAT daemon provides historical information about the system parameters.  The following gives a more in depth explanation of the parameters monitored by MAT.

Status
This icon gives the administrator access to the systems current parameters.  These parameters are provided by running a system command on the monitored host.  The following are supported:
 

Lastlog
Selecting this icon retrieves a list of the last 200 logins on a system.  It is broken in the current release.

Processes
This produces a list of all the processes running on a host.

Route
From this icon the hosts routing table can be displayed.

Diskspace
This retrieves the current disk use on a host.  It currently includes NFS file systems as well.

Exported
This lists all of the file systems being exported from the current host.
 

Syslog
This icon gives the administrator access to all the systems log files.  It also gives access to the syslog daemon configuration.
 

Log Config
In the syslog context this tool is for modifying the syslogd's configuration file.  From it the log file location, logging level, and event action can be set.

Log File ....
This retrieves one of the systems log files.  There will be one of these icons for every log file used by the syslogd.  TK 8.0 or higher is recommended for this function, because the log files can be large.
 
 

MATd
This icon gives the administrator access to the historical data gathered by the MAT daemon, and to the MAT daemons configuration.  From here the administration can view several of the systems parameters in a graphical form.  Later releases of the MAT daemon will trigger user provided scripts based on parameters monitored by the daemon.
 

MATd
This provides access to the MAT daemons configuration.  From here the frequency and type of the monitoring can be set.

MATd Cleaner
This is an internal task of the daemon.  It periodically trims the historical log files created by the daemon.  Selecting it retrieves a list of its past activities.

Discovery
This is an internal task of the MAT daemon.  It checks the system for the addition of new devices, or systems it can monitor.  Upon discovery of a new parameter it can monitor, it adds it to the MAT daemon configuration file.  Selecting it retrieves a history of the monitored parameter discovery.  As MAT evolves this will automatically add new parameters into the monitored parameter lists.

Disk use on ...
This provides a graphical view of the disk use on a host over time.  There will be one of these icons for every file system monitored by the daemon.

Memory Use
This gives a graphical view of the memory use over time. Currently this is only available in Linux.

Swap Use
This gives a graphical view of the swap use over time. Currently this is only available in Linux.

Connectivity to ...
This provides historical information about the accessibility of a host.  This is useful for monitoring routers or gateways for outages.  Output is on a tabular form.

Required Processes
 This shows the status of the processes that are mandatory on a host.  On a web server the httpd would be a required process.  On a DNS server named would be a required process.  Processes listed in the $MATHOME/etp/process_list are monitored by this.

CPU Use
This provides a graphical view of the CPU use on a host over time.  The display shows total, system and user CPU use.

Run Queue
This gives a graphical view of the hosts run queue.

Logins
This provides a graphical view of the total number of logins on a host over a given time.

Interface
This provides information about network interface use.  One of these icons will be displayed for each network interface on a host, including the loopback device.  It provides a graphical view of the  data packets to and from a network interface.

FTP Daemon
This is for monitoring the FTP daemon.  It checks that an FTP server is running, and reports the results in a textual form.

  Email
This is for monitoring email.  It reports the status of sendmail in a textual form.

Clean Log
This does not monitor a specific process.  Instead it manages the log files from other processes.  This periodically truncates log files to a preset length.  NOTE:  It should not be used with daemons that keep the log file open.

User Script
This is for running users scripts at predetermined times.  It currently displays the output from the users script.