ADAPSMONITOR
User's Guide

Dave Lloyd
Computer Services Branch
Software Engineering Department

September 19, 2000

Document History

Number Date and Sections            Notes                                                                                        
1 September 19, 2000 Document Created
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Contents


1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Identification

ADAPSMONITOR is an application that notifies computer operations personnel of the status of critical AVHRR processes, systems and data files.

1.2 System Overview

ADAPSMONITOR continuously monitors critical AVHRR processes to insure that they are operational. It also monitor critical systems and data files. If one of the critical processes fails to produce output, or a system goes down or a data file is not updated, computer operations personnel are notified. The user's interface with the ADAPSMONITOR is through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

1.3 Document Overview

The purpose of this document is to provide instructions for operation and use of the ADAPSMONITOR.

1.4 Environment

The ADAPSMONITOR is designed using the X-Window system and uses the Motif widget set. The monitor should run on any Unix based system running X11R5.

2 OPERATION

2.1 Starting and stopping ADAPSMONITOR

Before starting the monitor two things must be set up:

Given that both of the above requirements are satisfied, to start the monitor with a user initialization file enter:

to start the monitor with the default file enter:

A new window titled "ADAPS Monitor Main Window" will appear (See Figure 1). Note that depending on the number of remote systems, processes and files that are to be monitored, the initial window may not be updated for several minutes. The user will see this as either a window with no contents or a list of items that are "Unchecked" and the windows mouse pointer will be changed to an hourglass.

Figure 1 -- ADAPS Monitor Main Window

To stop the ADAPSMONITOR press the Exit button on the Main window. An Exit Confirmation window (See Figure 2) will pop up. Pressing the Yes button will exit the application. Pressing the No button will remove the Exit Confirmation and the application will continue to run.

Figure 2 -- ADAPS Monitor Exit Confirmation Window

2.2 Normal operation

Once started, the monitor will check each item and report on its status in the main window. As long as everything is normal there are no other user inputs needed.

At periodic intervals the monitor will recheck items in the list and update their status in the main window. If, however, the status of an item is not normal the user is notified ( See Figure 3).

Figure 3 -- ADAPS Monitor Alert Window

The alert window will remain on the display as long as the conditions that caused the alert remain or until the user presses either the Acknowledge or the Apply Changes button. Pressing either of the aforementioned buttons will not correct the conditions that caused the alert. The alert window will reappear if the error conditions are not corrected.

Users may disable future alerts on an item by pressing the the button, labeled "Enabled", to the left of the item. When pressed these buttons toggle between "Enabled" and "Disabled". The background color also changes to yellow to indicate that a change has been made (See Figure 4). Note that changing the button to disabled on the alert window has no effect until the Apply Changes button is pressed.

Figure 4 -- ADAPS Monitor Alert Window with a Disabled button

It is also possible to change which items are to be monitored without waiting for an Alert window. Pressing the Modify button on the main window opens the Modify window (See Figure 5). This window contains a list of all the items with an Enabled/Disabled toggle button for each one. These buttons work in the same manner as the toggle buttons on the alert window. Again, no changes take place until they are applied by pushing the Apply button. Pressing the Cancel button removes the Modify window without applying any changes. The Apply button also removes the Modify window.

Figure 4 -- ADAPS Monitor Modify Window

2.3 Loading New Defaults

During normal operations, the only thing that can be changed is whether or not an item specified in the list is monitored. If, for example, it is desired to monitor an item not on the current list, a new list must be loaded. To load a new list press the Load button on the Modify window. This pops up a File Select window (See Figure 5).

Figure 5 -- File Select Window

This is a standard Motif file selection window that allows the user to select a file. Either select the file from the Files listed or enter the file name in the Selection box and press OK. The file will be loaded into the Modify window. Once the Apply button is pressed the new list will be used for all further checks. Pressing the Cancel button will retain the original list of items.

2.4 The Defaults File

The Defaults file is a text file that contains the information the monitor needs to do its job, a default system configuration. Among the information in the file are what things to monitor, where they reside, what they are, how often to check the items, etc. There are nine items of information that must be specified for each item to be monitored:

All nine fields must be specified for each item even if they don't apply to the item. If the information doesn't apply a -1 or NONE can be specified. The layout of the file is as follows:

# lines beginning with the pound sign are taken to be comments and are ignored
#                                                         RWAST      Initial   Number
# comment                          Item        Monitor    Monitor    Monitor   of Batch
# Item Name              System    Type        Interval   Interval   State     Jobs       Userid    Logfile
ingest_daemon            edcsgs4   batch         10         -1       enabled     2        opsavhrr  $ADAPSLOG/ingest.log
ACQUIRE                  vaxh      vaxprocess    15         20       enabled    -1        NONE      NONE
sg1                      sg1       system         4         -1       disabled   -1        NONE      NONE
$ADAPSTABLES/21263.dat   edcsgs4   datafile     1445        -1       enabled    -1        NONE      NONE
Lines must not be longer that 255 characters. Each bit of information does not have to be aligned but they must be in the proper order on the line. Use the following guidelines for choosing values for each column:

2.5 Alerts and What They Mean

The purpose of the Alert Window is to notify the user that something is not quite right. The monitor periodically checks each item in the list and determines if the monitor interval has elapsed for that item. If the interval has elapsed a further check is made to see if it is operating properly or up to date. Each item type has a different set of rules to make the determination. If any of the criteria are not met an alert will be issued for the item. This alert will continue to be issued periodically until the error condition is corrected or monitoring of the item is disabled. The alert conditions, their meaning and suggestions for correction follow:.