Re: REP Tools and TTK

On Fri, 7 Mar 2003, NetLabs wrote:

> I would like to start a brief discussion about tools, process and 
> procedures :
> 
> 1). What are your favorite tools for monitoring traffic ?

MRTG and Cricket are perennial favorites for measuring 
traffic levels. Simple to implement, simple to maintain, 
simple to integrate for other uses, and simple to use.

I've been thinking about tools that help potential REP
participants measure the impact of the exchange on their
traffic. I wrote a script that takes a REP route table and a
web log and shows the percentage of bytes and hits that
would go across the exchange. I've been thinking about
similar types of tools that can use Netflow or sniff/bridge
traffic of a potential peer to calculate the same thing.

> 2). What are your favorite tools for topology display ?

Nagios looks pretty good as an open-source choice, or NMIS.  
We currently use HP Openview and NMIS since they're run by
our sponsor institution (and they monitor things for us),
but I think it'd be overkill if we did it ourselves.

> 3). What are your favorite tools for event notification ?

NOCOL is still one of the simplest notification tools but
pretty powerful. I've not looked to see what notification 
capabilities Nagios and NMIS have.

> 4). What do you prefer for trouble ticketing ? A tool or homebrew ?

We're using Remedy, again because our sponsor uses it and
they're monitoring our exchange. I am intimately aware of
the struggles they have with Remedy and the costs to
maintain it. I would personally be oriented to an
open-source system that offers the ability to customize as I
need to without losing the benefits of a packaged product.

Pete.