1 |
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?> |
---|
2 |
<!DOCTYPE preface PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" |
---|
3 |
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" |
---|
4 |
[ |
---|
5 |
<!ENTITY % magic.fixup SYSTEM "http://labs.omniti.com/docbook/ent"> |
---|
6 |
%magic.fixup; |
---|
7 |
]> |
---|
8 |
<preface id="introduction"> |
---|
9 |
<title>Introduction</title> |
---|
10 |
<para> |
---|
11 |
Reconnoiter is a monitoring and trend analysis system designed to cope |
---|
12 |
with large architectures (thousands of machines and hundreds of thousands |
---|
13 |
of metrics). |
---|
14 |
</para> |
---|
15 |
<para> |
---|
16 |
Heavy focus is placed on decoupling the various components of the system |
---|
17 |
to allow for disjoint evolution of each component as issues arise or new |
---|
18 |
requirements are identified. Resource monitoring, metric aggregation, |
---|
19 |
metric analysis and visualization are all cleanly separated. |
---|
20 |
</para> |
---|
21 |
<para> |
---|
22 |
The monitor, <command>noitd</command>, is written in C and designed to |
---|
23 |
support highly concurrent and rapid checks with an expected capability |
---|
24 |
of monitoring 100,000 services per minute (6 million checks per hour.) |
---|
25 |
While it is hard to make writing checks "easy" in this high-performance |
---|
26 |
environment, efforts have been made to ensure that custom check scripting |
---|
27 |
does not require the expertise of writing highly-concurrent, event-driven |
---|
28 |
C code. Instead, glue is provided via scripting languages such as Lua |
---|
29 |
that attempt to handle aspects of this high-concurrency environment |
---|
30 |
transparently. As with any high-performance system, you can easily |
---|
31 |
introduce non-performant code and jeopardize performance system-wide. |
---|
32 |
</para> |
---|
33 |
<para> |
---|
34 |
The aggregator, <command>stratcond</command>, is also written in C and |
---|
35 |
responsible for the simple task of securely gathering data from all of the |
---|
36 |
distributed <command>noitd</command> instances and transforming them into |
---|
37 |
the data storage facility (currently PostgreSQL). |
---|
38 |
</para> |
---|
39 |
<para> |
---|
40 |
The data storage facility (PostgreSQL) holds all information about |
---|
41 |
individual checks, their statuses and the individual metrics associated |
---|
42 |
with them. Automatic processes are in place that summarize the |
---|
43 |
numeric metrics into windowed averages for expedient graphing at |
---|
44 |
a variety of time window resolutions (hour, day, month, year, etc.). |
---|
45 |
</para> |
---|
46 |
<para> |
---|
47 |
The visualization interface (reconnoiter) draws from the data store |
---|
48 |
to visualize collected metrics and assist with monitoring, trending and |
---|
49 |
other visual analyses. The visualization system is written in PHP. |
---|
50 |
</para> |
---|
51 |
</preface> |
---|
52 |
<!-- |
---|
53 |
vim:ts=2:sw=2:et: |
---|
54 |
--> |
---|