BBWin 0.11 Available

Etienne Grignon — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:50:32 -0000

This version contains the new following stuffs:

* svcs centralized mode with autorestart option
* new agent to be used with centralized mode : filesystem.dll
- file client-local.cfg implemented : support md5 and sha1 checksum algorythms
- dir client-local.cfg implemented
- logfile client-local.cfg implemented
- linecount client-local.cfg implemented
- back quoted for FILENAME and DIRECTORY implemented.
* eventlog client-local.cfg implemented : msgs.dll
* fix initialisation error on bbwinupdate agent
* prevent loading bbwin.cfg agent configurations when centralized mode enabled
* fix memory leak on bbwinupdate agent
* fix memory leak on service BBWin.exe when centralized mode enabled
* Use ip address instead of mac address for the graph title for network interfaces (ifstat)
* multiple bbdisplay supported when centralized mode enabled
* Who agent now use qwinsta executable output instead of native functions
* Centralized Mode implemented directly in future hobbit 4.3 and with a patch for hobbit 4.2

BBWin 0.10 Available

Etienne Grignon — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:17:21 -0000

This version contains the new following stuffs:

** Centralized mode for agents cpu, disk, memory, msgs, netstat, ports, procs, timediff, uptime
** Centralized mode graphing network traffic
** See the bbWin webpage for instructions http://bbwin.sourceforge.net/

* Msgs agent reports parts of description events when the message file contening the
static string can't be found. It will reports as the Windows Event Viewer, just like this :
"The description for Event ID ( XXX ) in Source ( XXX ) cannot be found.
The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message
DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use
the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details.
The following information is part of the event: XXXXX, XXXXX."
* You can use environment variables in the bbwinupdate agent. Example :
<setting name="filename" value="bbwin\%COMPUTERNAME%.cfg" />
* svcs services rules can be used with comments
* disk agent can monitor free space from XX-rom drive and not only if a media is inserted.
(feature requested to monitor dvd-ram burning state)
* disk agent can monitor volume mount points
* Proxy access : BBWin can access to your hobbit server through a proxy (http proxy)
You can specify a user/password if you use http proxy basic authentification.
* disk agent will alert you if a disk monitored with a custum rule disappear from the Server.
(Example : external usb harddrive turned off)
* uptime agent : add max delay option to get alerts when servers are up for a too long time
* who agent : report current connected users on the servers

BBWin 0.9 available

Etienne Grignon — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 23:16:59 -0000

This version contains the new following stuffs:
-------------------

+ New Features
* Msgs agent reports events username and you may filter event with user name
* Msgs agent reports some statistics about each event log file. You can activate
an option which alert you when an event log is full. See the help chm file for details.
* New BBWinUpdate agent : it used for the semi centralized mode. You can configure the agent
to download configurations updates from a central hobbit server.
* First version of BBWin centralized mode implemented. Backend for hobbit not coded.
Look at the BBWin.cfg example in the doc folder or in the documentation

+ Updates
* system uptime sometimes returns 0 seconds on the first query. BBWin now send
a green status when this happens to avoid incorrect alerts.
* msgs now formats description field in status so you don't have to scroll your window
to read a large event description
* disk agent reported alerts on unrecognized disks (like disks part of cluster resources on
the inactive node of an MSCS cluster). These disks are now automatically ignored.
* cluster.exe is more verbose when it check the Windows version
* procs agent now is using rules with signs '+' or '-' because XML format doesn't accept
'<' sign in attributes ... However, the compatibility with '<' and '>' is preserved.
* msgs summary option is removed. It is enabled by default and there is no use to disable it.

+ Bugs
* limit option for cpu agent was wrong in the number of lines reported, it is fixed.
* When an agent had no configuration in BBWin.cfg and if it was loaded, BBWin crashed, it is fixed.
* msgs agent had a memory leak when an initialization was made to get event description. it is fixed.
* wlbs script external had a bug to load the configuration file. it is fixed.
* cpu agent were always missing one process in the ps report. it is fixed.
* externals agent was crashing BBWin if its configuration was empty. it is fixed.

BBWin Preview 0.8 available

Etienne Grignon — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:27:20 -0000

This preview contains the following stuffs:

+ New Features
* svcs agent has now a delay setting which tell the agent to do not
monitor the Windows services for a short time after the startup
of the computer
* Msgs agent have priority and count options
* You may use environment variables for hostname and paths settings (registry and BBWin.cfg)
* Cpu agent can monitor uptime like the original Big Brother client. It is off by default.
* Cpu agent reports usage for each cpu
* ext directory is now created at the installation so the tree really looks like hobbit tree.
* hostname, logpath, binpath, etcpath, tmppath, extpath registry settings can be environment variables (e.g.: %VARNAME%)
* default hostname is %COMPUTERNAME%

+ Updates
* cpu agent on multi processor computers is now sending the correct cpu
usage
* disk is now reporting correctly disk which had a size smaller than 1 mb
* autoreload is now on by default
* BBWin doesn't exits any more on configuration errors
* Msgs default delay for matchs rules may be overridden by a generic setting
* Msgs now reports date with 24h time format

+ Important note :
* A memory leak has been discovered in BBWin 0.7 due to a bug in the CRT library shipped
with Visual C++ 2005. I'm forced to use the Visual ToolKit 2003 since not update
is available yet for this bug. (SP1 public download not yet available)
Here the page that explain the bug :
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=129031&SiteID=1&PageID=0
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=98861

Important Upgrade note : If you are upgrading from an older BBWin version, the disk, procs, and externals
agents may not be upgraded because of a version error in the old package. So, the easyest way to upgrade BBWin
to 0.8 is to delete disk.dll, procs.dll and externals.dll before the upgrade or by doing a repair by the MSI package
after the upgrade.

BBWin Preview 0.7 available

Etienne Grignon — Wed, 17 May 2006 13:24:58 -0000

This preview contains the new following stuffs:

* The msgs agent : it monitors the event logs. It uses match and ignore rules with a lot of
options. Rules can be specified with EventId, Event type, Source, LogFile and description
(perl regular expressions can be used).

* BBWin configuration auto reloading : BBWin auto reload can be set so any change to the BBWin.cfg file
will indicate BBWin to reload its configuration without restarting the service itself.

* bbpager : BBWin now supports bbpager feature (used with Big Brother server, not compatible with hobbit)

* cpu improved : Cpu has been rewritten and reports now contains process owner and priority

* Documentation: the documentation is now delivered as a chm file, easyer to read than first my ReadMe.txt file. It will be more complete with time. Also,
it may contains many english bad spelling. I will take english lesssons soon but you are welcome to send me corrections :)

* Migration tools: configuration migration from bbnt to BBWin for bbpager and msgs has been implemented

Note : This new version now use registry for the hostname setting. I decided that because it will help
to have generic BBWin.cfg files. You may delete the hostname xml setting
in your BBWin.cfg file and fill the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BBWin\hostname.

BBWin Preview Upgrade Note

Etienne Grignon — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:15:42 -0000

When a previous BBWin msi is installed, the new version may not be upgraded totally which means, you will have old dll with new ones. Before running BBWin, you may check that all your BBWin dll (located in the BBWin bin directory) have the same timestamp. If some are older, please remove them then just repair BBWin via the Add / Remove Programs control panel.

BBWin Preview 0.6 available

Etienne Grignon — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 11:12:56 -0000

This preview contains the new following stuffs:

* The Svcs agent dll : it will monitor Windows Services
* The correction of a major bug (file configuration loading) which crashed the program

After installing the BBWin package, please read the Readme.txt file to understand its working. It is located in C:\Program Files\BBWin\doc if you installed it by default.

Note : If upgrading from older BBWin 0.X, just install the new version, it will upgrade your BBWin agent without erasing your existing configuration files.

BBWin Preview 0.5 available

Etienne Grignon — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:42:02 -0000

This preview contains the new following stuffs:

* The Cpu agent dll : it will monitor your cpu with a full ps report sorted by cpu usage
* The Disk agent dll : it will monitor your disks usage
* The Memory agent dll : it will monitor your memory usage
* The Stats agent dll : just to send statistics reports like netstat for trends purpose
* The external fsmon: a small script used to monitor folders (files counting for IIS smtp queue for example)
* The externals agent can now work with report file using lifetime feature
* The uptime agent doesn’t use anymore the pdh library
* The converting tools: migrate your current bbnt configuration to the BBWin configuration format instantaneously

Note : the cpu, disk, memory and stats agents are bbnt trends back compatible. So, you will be able to keep your trends history if you are moving from an other bb client.

Also, it contains the already existing stuffs with some bugs corrections. You may look at the change log file to get more details.

* The executable BBWin: it is the native service in charge of executing the agents
* The executable BBWinCmd : it is a command line utility to send messages to an hobbit server
* The Externals agent dll: it is an agent in charge of executing all your existing BB scripts or executables
* The Procs agent dll : it is an agent in charge of checking running processes
* The Uptime agent dll: it will monitor uptime of the server including an alarm if reboot recently. It was interesting to separate this alarm from cpu column.
* The external wlbs.vbs: monitor wlbs (nlb) windows clusters
* The external cluster.exe: monitor mscs windows clusters
* The agents SDK: contains an example and the necessary headers to develop your own C++ BBWin agents

After installing the BBWin package, please read the Readme.txt file to understand its working. It is located in C:\Program Files\BBWin\doc if you installed it by default.

Note : If upgrading from BBWin 0.4, just install the new version, it will upgrade your BBWin agent without erasing your existing configuration files.

BBWin Preview 0.4 available

Etienne Grignon — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:23:10 -0000

The preview contains the following stuffs:

After installing the BBWin package, please read the Readme.txt file to understand its working. It is located in C:\Program Files\BBWin\doc if you installed it by default.

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BBWin 0.11 Available

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