System Monitoring with Xymon/User Guide

What is system monitoring?
Computer monitoring systems are used to repeatedly gather data from various monitored systems for the purpose of real-time incident notification, system health verification, performance analysis, and longitudinal capacity planning. Various metrics are typically gathered by these systems, including CPU, memory, network, or disk utilization, response time of network services, occurrence of anomalous messages in system log, et al. Without such a tool, like big brother or Xymon, a system administrator would have to login to each machines to collect these information repeatedly. This kind of repetitive task can be automated using a system monitoring tool.

Please see the chapter ../Other Docs/About System Monitoring/ for a more details overview of monitoring systems.

Existing system monitoring features
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%; text-align: center; width: 100%;"
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|

Freeware
! ! Xymon ! Nagios ! Icinga ! Spong ! OpenNMS ! Zenoss ! Munin ! Zabbix (website) ! Ethereal ! Big Sister ! Maintainer ! License ! Open source ! Platforms supported ! Main Programming Language ! Client configuration changes from Central Server? ! Client binary update from Central Server? ! Monitoring Server with WAN High Availability Support? ! Monitoring Server with LAN High Availability Support? ! Is solution scalable to handle huge monitoring clients?
 * Zabbix Inc.
 * Canonical
 * Zabbix Inc.
 * Canonical
 * Zabbix Inc.
 * Canonical
 * Zabbix Inc.
 * Canonical
 * Canonical
 * Canonical
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * GPL
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * yes
 * Yes
 * yes
 * Yes
 * yes
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * Server: HTTP. Client: Unix-line, Windows
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * C
 * C
 * C
 * Java
 * Perl
 * Perl
 * Perl
 * Perl
 * Perl
 * Perl
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|
 * colspan="11"|

Some commercial system monitoring tools
! ! Big Brother ! Tivoli ! NetIQ ! HP Openview ! BMC Performance Manager ! Microsoft SCOM ! A2Monitor ! ! ! Maintainer ! Cost ! License ! Platforms supported ! Main Programming Language ! Client configuration changes from Central Server? ! Client binary update from Central Server? ! Monitoring Server with WAN High Availability Support? ! Monitoring Server with LAN High Availability Support? ! Is solution scalable to handle huge monitoring clients?
 * Quest
 * A1 Tech, Inc.
 * A1 Tech, Inc.
 * A1 Tech, Inc.
 * A1 Tech, Inc.
 * A1 Tech, Inc.
 * A1 Tech, Inc.
 * Depends on number of devices
 * Depends on number of devices
 * $79
 * $79
 * $79
 * $79
 * $79
 * Proprietary
 * Proprietary
 * Proprietary
 * Proprietary
 * Proprietary
 * Proprietary
 * Proprietary
 * Windows, Unix, Mac OS X, Linux
 * Windows, Unix, Mac OS X, Linux
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Windows, Linux, iSeries
 * Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X
 * Server: Microsoft Windows Server; Clients: Mostly Microsoft, but some support for Linux, SNMP, etc.
 * Windows
 * C, Flash, Shell
 * C, Flash
 * C
 * C, bash
 * .Net
 * .Net
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }


 * Repository model describes the relationship between various copies of the source code repository. In a client-server model, users access a master repository via a client; typically, their local machines hold only a working copy of a project tree. Changes in one working copy must be committed to the master repository before they are propagated to other users. In a distributed model, repositories act as peers, and users typically have a local repository with version history available, in addition to their working copies.
 * Concurrency model describes how changes to the working copy are managed to prevent simultaneous edits from causing nonsensical data in the repository. In a lock model, changes are disallowed until the user requests and receives an exclusive lock on the file from the master repository. In a merge model, users may freely edit files, but are informed of possible conflicts upon checking their changes into the repository, whereupon the version control system may merge changes on both sides, or let the user decide when conflicts arise. Note that distributed version control almost always implies a merge concurrency model.

Who use Xymon ?
Please See The Xymon Users across the world.

Why use Xymon ?

 * 1) The source code is open and in GPL license.
 * 2) There is no seat license fee.
 * 3) Xymon(Hobbit) Server highly compatible with Big Brother client.
 * 4) It has a user and developer community.

Xymon System Monitoring Tool Wish lists

 * Delete a host from web page UI.
 * GUI administration tool.
 * Prepackaged binary for different OS with lots of add-on modules.
 * E-mail or SMS notification --already exists, you can also trigger shell scripts on events
 * Has commercial email support -Granted, see http://www.xymon.com/license/
 * Remote wake/die capabilities

Xymon vs Big Brother
This is a detailed comparison chart why a current BB site would want to migrate to Xymon. Opinions could be biased toward Xymon.

Xymon System Monitoring at home

 * To monitor your computers at home, perhaps integration with X10 stuff.
 * This section is about Xymon and your home system monitoring.
 * porting hobbit to linksys's nlsu2 or wrt54g.

Commercial Support

 * Email support from Xymon Author, http://www.xymon.com/license/.
 * VM Assist, Inc., http://www.vmassist.com.
 * McNatton Technologies, LLC, http://www.mcnatton.com/monitor.php
 * Reverse Polarity, LLC -  We offer full support for Xymon, including on-site server installation, client configurations and custom scripting where required. Call us and see how we can help!
 * Xymon Support by A-team
 * A-Key S.r.l The Things Integrator - Monitoring Team - We can offer a high-level support for planning, installation, configuration and plugin development for Xymon tool. Contact us for more information!

Free Community Support
Your questions will not necessarily get answered.
 * Maillist Archive:
 * Project page at

Xymon Demo Site
Here are a few best xymon implementation sites.
 * Official Xymon Site

Hobbit Renamed to Xymon
This note needs a date... Greetings!

As I wrote some time ago, I was contacted by the owners of the "Hobbit" trademark back in June.

Several names have been suggested by you on the mailing list (see ), but the decision has now been made.

As of today, the official name is "Xymon" (pronounced just like "Simon").

At the moment this renaming has not caused much of a change, but it will be implemented over the coming weeks.

due to project renamings currently being suspended on Sourceforge. Once the suspension is lifted, however, there is a queued request to rename the project. It will then be available at
 * The Sourceforge project URL remains at

moment. A new "Xymon" mailing list will be setup, but this will be announced separately.
 * The mailing list address remains "" for the

address - - will remain in place for some time, but no longer than August 2009.
 * The demo website is active. The old

Hobbit monitor etc. will be happening over the next couple of weeks, and will be fully implemented in the upcoming release.
 * Changes to documentation, code, webpages inside the

Best regards, Henrik