Network Monitoring System for the UNIX Lab Bradley Kita Capstone Project Mentor: Dr C. David Shaffer Fall 2004/Spring 2005

2 UNIX Lab Independent lab − Provided by Math/CS Department Linux-based 24/7 usage − Students can get keys − Remote usage VNC – Virtual Network Computing SSH – Secure Shell − Web hosting - Apache − Mail server IMAP – Connect using almost any mail client − Database - PostgreSQL

3 Problem Lab − Used remotely or locally − Students depend on Lab for classes − Student run Not always supervised − Hung process − Service dies Troubles − Not known until reported by students − Keeps Lab from being used

4 Why build a monitoring system? Early warning − Alert at time of error − Quicker response time Errors always noticed − Constantly watching − Alert on critical, log moderate Quicker Fix − Lab down less − More problem-free time for students to use Lab

5 Overview of System − Big Brother System Pre-built client/server software Dynamically creates HTML reports Modular, extendable to monitor nearly anything − Server PC running Gentoo Linux Uses Apache to host HTTP traffic

6 Overview of Big Brother − Server portion One machine only Monitors Lab-wide processes − Ex: SSH Creates report web pages Sends when error is discovered − Client portion Runs on all machines, including server Monitors aspects on per-machine basis − Ex: Available disk space Reports data to server for processing

7 Monitored Services Connectivity CPU Load Available Disk Space Web Servers IMAP Server (Mail server) Backup Logs Messages Files Critical Processes Mail Delivery SQL Server SSH Servers VNC Sessions

8 Interesting Modules VNC Module − Based from previous script − File and script controlled − Sessions can change, merely update file SQL Module − Connects to server − Runs Command − Verifies result

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15 Future Work Secondary server − Monitor main server New modules − Open network ports − Intrusion detection − Network traffic monitor Expand modules − More thorough log scanner − More thorough process monitor − More thorough IMAP monitor Actually send and check for arrival

16 Resources Software − Big Brother − Gentoo Linux − Apache − Python − BASH Script Hardware − UNIX Lab machines ( Dell PCs