Ubuntu Manpage: clientupdate - Xymon client update utility

Provided by: xymon-client_4.3.30-2ubuntu0.1_amd64

NAME

       clientupdate - Xymon client update utility

SYNOPSIS

       clientupdate [options]

DESCRIPTION

       clientupdate  is part of the Xymon client. It is responsible for updating an existing client installation
       from a central repository of client packages stored on the Xymon server.

       When the Xymon client sends a normal client report to the Xymon server,  the  server  responds  with  the
       section  of  the  client-local.cfg(5)  file  that  is  relevant to this client. Included in this may be a
       "clientversion" value. The clientversion received  from  the  server  is  compared  against  the  current
       clientversion    installed    on    the    client,    as    determined    by    the   contents   of   the
       $XYMONHOME/etc/clientversion.cfg file. If the two versions are not identical, clientupdate is launched to
       update the client installation.

OPTIONS

       --level
              Report the current clientversion.

       --update=NEWVERSION
              Attempt to update the client to NEWVERSION by fetching this version of the  client  software  from
              the Xymon server.

       --reexec
              Used internally during the update process, see OPERATION below.

       --remove-self
              Used  internally during the update process. This option causes the running clientupdate utility to
              delete itself - it is used during the update to purge a temporary copy of the clientupdate utility
              that is installed in $XYMONTMP.

USING CLIENTUPDATE IN XYMON

To manage updating clients without having to logon to each server, you can use the clientupdate utility.
This is how you setup the release of a new client version.

Create the new client
Setup the new client $XYMONHOME directory, e.g. by copying an existing client installation to an
empty directory and modifying it for your needs. It is a good idea to delete all files in the tmp/
and logs/ directories, since there is no need to copy these over to all of the clients. Pay
attention to the etc/ files, and make sure that they are suitable for the systems where you want
to deploy this new client. You can add files - e.g. extension scripts in the ext/ directory - but
the clientupdate utility cannot delete or rename files.

Package the client
When your new client software is ready, create a tar-file of the new client. All files in the tar
archive must have file names relative to the clients' $XYMONHOME (usually, ~xymon/client/). Save
the tar file on the Xymon server in ~xymon/server/download/somefile.tar. Don't compress it. It
is recommended that you use some sort of operating-system and version-numbering scheme for the
filename, but you can choose whatever filename suits you - the only requirement is that it must
end with ".tar". The part of the filename preceding ".tar" is what Xymon will use as the
"clientversion" ID.

Configure which hosts receive the new client
In the client-local.cfg(5) file, you must now setup a clientversion:ID line where the ID matches
the filename you used for the tar-file. So if you have packaged the new client into the file
linux.v2.tar, then the corresponding entry in client-local.cfg would be clientversion:linux.v2.

Wait for xymond to reload client-local.cfg
xymond will automatically reload the client-local.cfg file after at most 10 minutes. If you want
to force an immediate reload, send a SIGHUP signal to the xymond process.

Wait for the client to update
The next time the client contacts the Xymon server to send the client data, it will notice the new
clientversion setting in client-local.cfg, and will run clientupdate to install the new client
software. So when the client runs the next time, it will use the new client software.

OPERATION

       clientupdate runs in two steps:

       Re-exec step
              The first step is when clientupdate is first invoked  from  the  xymonclient.sh  script  with  the
              "--re-exec"  option. This step copies the clientupdate program from $XYMONHOME/bin/ to a temporary
              file in the $XYMONTMP directory.  This is to avoid conflicts when the update procedure installs  a
              new  version  of  the  clientupdate utility itself. Upon completion of this step, the clientupdate
              utility automatically launches the next step by running the program from the file in $XYMONTMP.

       Update step
              The second step downloads the new client software from the Xymon server.  The new software must be
              packed into a tar file, which clientupdate then unpacks into the $XYMONHOME directory.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       clientupdate uses several of the standard Xymon environment variables, including XYMONHOME and XYMONTMP.