sinfod(8) a monitoring tool for networked computers

SYNOPSIS

sinfod [-F] [-q] [-V] [-b #.#.#.#] [-c] [-n card ] [ -N nicevalue ] [ -m marker ] [ -i processname ] [-s][-W]

DESCRIPTION

sinfod distributes system information to other sinfods on your local network.

These Information include the system load, memory utilization and the `TOP-5' processes on every machine.

It's main advantage is, that these informations are broadcasted using the udp(7) protocol.

If each node broadcasts it's information in a cooperative manner, the network load is O(N), where N is the number of nodes in your network. Other systems to monitor your cluster load (e.g. rup(1) ) are using a polling scheme where every node has to ask every other node for the system information: In that case the network load is O(N**2).

The task of sinfod is to broadcast the relevant information for the local node and to collect broadcasts from other nodes. Other programs ( sinfo(1) ) can get access to this information via a simple tcp(7) connection that normally is routed through the local loopback interface.

OPTIONS

-F/--foreground
Unlike normal operation, sinfod will not detach from the terminal when given this option. Some debugging informations will be visible.
-q/--quiet
Start quietly - for init scripts.
-V/--version
Print the version number and exit.
-b #.#.#.#/--bcastaddress=#.#.#.#
Set the broadcast address of the sinfod. Default is 255.255.255.255. In you want to run sinfod without a network card "-b 127.0.0.1" may be necessary.
-c/--cmdline
Broadcast the full command line of a process instead of the command only.
-m marker/--marker=marker
Mark the machine with a name. e.g. laboratory, pool or cluster.
-i/--ignore <process>
Don't broadcast any information on <process> ; --ignore may be set multiple times.
-t/--top <count>
Broadcast information on the top <count> processes; default: 5
-n card/--networkcard=card
Set the name of the network card whose informations will be broadcasted. (e.g. eth0). Default is the network card that saw the most traffic at the start of sinfod.
-N nicevalue/--nice=nicevalue
Set the priority of this demon to nicevalue. Default is 15.
-s/--spymode
Deactivate the TCP interface and the collection of received packets. The demon starts in a broadcast-only mode.
-W/--watchdog
Start with simple watchdog.

AUTHOR

Juergen Rinas <[email protected]>