Network Monitor GUI issues

[Todd Lundstedt]

QDX 5.3 running on AIX 5.2

Network Monitors running on W2K, W2K3, etc.

Let me preface this by saying… Java sux!

When dragging threads around in the Network Monitor , if you don’t “drop” the thread at just the right time, it jumps up to the top left corner.

Do we know what causes this (other than Java sux!)?  Is there something I can do on my system that will keep this from happening?  Some video setting, some Java (sux) setting?

Topic

[Michael Hertel]

I’ve stopped the NetMonitor, did my thing and turned it back on.

It happens when the NetMonitor refreshes.

[Todd Lundstedt]

Do you mean you stop hcimonitord?

[Russ Ross]

I’m not sure if this will help because I’m not sure I fully understand what you are saying.

I have not ever dragged a thread in the netmonitor to a new location and had it bounce back to the upper left corner so perhaps I’m misunderstanding that part of your post.

I have had dragging problems all around when my mouse had gotten worn out and needed replacing.

I have closed the netmonitor and reopend it and had threads go back to the upper left hand corner.

To keep this from happening save the netmonitor changes before exiting, which will save the current view in $HCISITEDIR/views/monitor_dflt.mvw for cloverleaf version 5.2.1P2 running on AIX 5.2.

Another way that I prefer is to make my changes in the netconfigurator and save the view.

Then I sync up the netmonitor view with the netconfg view by doing the following:

cd $HCISITEDIR/views

rm -f monitor_dflt.mvw

cp config_dflt.view monitor_dflt.view

We made it one of our standards to keep the netmonitor view and the netconfig view the same.

Personally I have found mistakes are reduced when the netconfig and netmonitor have the same view.

Russ Ross
RussRoss318@gmail.com

[Chris Williams]

This “auto relocation” feature is a real pain. Happens to me every time I try to move a thread in the NetMonitor. You can always just close and then reopen the NetMonitor if you haven’t saved it. The part I find interesting is that it doesn’t happen in NetConfig.

The workaround I have found is that the thread will jump randomly between the cursor and the upper left corner while you have the left mouse button down. The trick is to release the button when the thread is in the position you want. If the thread is in the corner, just jiggle the mouse a little until it bounces back.

Chris

[Todd Lundstedt]

Chris,

you describe it exactly, including what I do to get the desired result.  After a while, though, my index finger gets tired holding the mouse button down so long!  😆

No repsonse from Michael yet; I think he meant to say that shutting down the monitor daemon helped, but I can’t do that without risking some outage going unnoticed.

I am going to goof around with Russ’ sync suggestions.  We, too, try to keep our NetConfig and NetMonitor views as close to identical as possible.  His method may work better than the “compare and move” method we are using.

[David Burks]

I have seen and am aware of what you are talking about.  I have at one time submitted a bug on it.  Unfortunately, I have never been able to duplicate it on demand for the benefit of development to prove I am not on something.  

Not sure about the jumping issue in 5.5.  I have not seen it but then I do most of my troubleshooting from the command line so not sure if that means it has been fixed or I just have not hit the exact circumstance for it to happen.

But I do have some good news for those considering the move to 5.5.  The suggestions for syncing the NetConfig and Netmonitor views is interesting so I thought I would mention that in 5.5 these views are in fact synced for you.  Both the NetConfig and NetworkMonitor GUIs use the same view file.

[Chris Williams]

Has anyone tested this dual-use view file with NetConfig bitmap sizes different from those in the NetMonitor display?

Chris

[Scott Lee]

I was just looking at this in 5.5 R1.  I do like the synced displays.  that will eliminate a lot wasted time and confusion.  I have different bitmap sizes but they are all ‘roughly’ the same size as the default icons.  In the net monitor view, it seems to center the image on the same location as the center of the bitmap in the net config.  

The only ‘beef’ I have with it is that the window area available for the net monitor is less than the window area available for the netconfig.  This is due to the net monitor having the list of groups on the left, list of processes on the right and tabs across the top.  So if I use the whole screen for the threads in the netconfig, when I switch the net monitor I need to scroll to see threads on the right hand side.

Scott

[Todd Lundstedt]

Help!! My thread has been hijacked!!!

😆

But at least it is useful, and related info!  Thanks for the info on 5.5, it will help in my bid to management to upgrade.

[Scott Lee]

Forgot to mention – I saw the jumping thread issue frequently in 3.8.1.  I have not seen it happen yet in 5.5.  But the new server hardware is much faster and does not have many threads running on it yet.  

Scott

[Michael Hertel]

Hi all,

I was on vacation.

Yes, Todd, turn the monitor daemon off while moving the threads then turn it back on.

There is no downtime. However, if someone else is running Netmonitor on other pcs, in the same site you are working on, their Netmonitors will show all dead too until you turn it back on.

Generally it doesn’t take that long to shut it down, move the thread and bring it back up.

BTW, I am not talking about shutting down the hostserver here.

We don’t have our operations team or anyone else run the Netmonitor so it isn’t a problem in our case.

Hope this helps,

-mh

[Todd Lundstedt]

OK, Thanks Michael, that’s what I thought.

My issue with stopping the monitord is the alert system ties off of that.  When a major redesign of the Network Monitor layout is required, it takes some time to get things where you want them.  Add to that, any time the monitord is started, any alert that is true fires off, and that generates a lot of email to a lot of folks that call me and ask me what happened.

So far, I am liking, and getting used to Russ’ method.  It completely removes any custom groups we have set up, but once you get used to the spacing differences between NetConfig icons and NetMonitor icons, it works pretty well.  I can get around the custom groups by making them real groups in the NetConfig, too.

Thanks for the clarification

Todd

[Michael Hertel]

I like Russ’s sync plan too.

You’re right, a major redesign is a pain. Sounds like 5.5 is the answer.

As far as firing when true right away…

We resolved this (most of this) by making the true condition stay true for 5 minutes. Generally the conditions will go back to false with in that 5 minute time frame.

[Russ Ross]

When I have a site down for a while and know the alerts will fire when I start the netmonitor I do the following first

hcisitectl -k m -s m -A “a=-cl ‘off.alrt'”

which loads my off.alrt file which has no alerts in it.

This is also usefull to stop additional unecessary alerts once the on-call person is in the site and working on the problem and everyone has already received several alerts but is getting annoyed and doesn’t want anymore alerts.

After the site has been up for a while and gets back to normal then I do

hcisitectl -k m -s m -A “a=-cl ‘default.alrt'”

Doing it this way also allows me to run this script to see which sites have alerts turn on or off.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/ksh

site_list=`list_sites.ksh`

for site in `list_sites.ksh`; do
   if [ -a $HCIROOT/$site/exec/hcimonitord/pid ]; then
       monitord_pid=`cat $HCIROOT/$site/exec/hcimonitord/pid`
       cmd_args=`ps -p $monitord_pid -o “%a” | tail -1 | awk ‘{print $3}’`
       echo “n Site ( $site ) hcimonitord pid ( $monitord_pid ) command/args ( $cmd_args )”
   fi
done

echo “”

Russ Ross
RussRoss318@gmail.com

[Author]

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