In case you missed the press release, we announced our Gold Sponsorship of the Twisted Software Foundation. We think this is important because as CTO Erik Dahl said:

“At Zenoss our software lives and breathes Twisted, and as a commercial open source company we feel it’s important to give back to the projects we use.”

It also helps when they share our vision for open source in the enterprise and provide the tools to make it happen.

“As early as two years ago, many people still questioned the use of open source software in the enterprise,” said Glyph Lefkowitz, founder of Twisted. “Forward-thinking companies like Zenoss are proving that through collaboration and community involvement open source software is not only ready for, but can excel in, an enterprise environment. The Twisted project enables companies like Zenoss to benefit from the collective input of a highly technical and savvy community.”

Zenoss is grateful for the support of our partners, community and customers and we’re always eager to help those who help us. Thanks again for your support.

In anticipation of the Zenoss 2.2 release, the latest packaged version of Zenoss, version 2.1.92 (zenoss-2.2 Beta 2) is available for download. This release continues the 2.2 development cycle and is the third beta release for 2.2.

Please report bugs you find to the forums / mailing lists with the word BETA in the subject line. Thanks for helping us make Zenoss a great application!

This release includes may new install options which are described below. Testing help with these would be very welcomed! We are still shipping our standard RPM and tarball installs.

The release is is available here.

Wizard-Based Stack One-Click Installers for Linux

A major focus in this beta is the introduction of new “one-click” installers. These install wizards work on all Linux environments supported by BitRock. “One-click” installers differ from the native zenoss packages in that all external dependencies are rolled up into the “one-click” installers. You get the entire zenoss “stack” when you use the one-click installers, from the low level MySQL dependencies all the way up through the Zenoss python code. Since everything is included in the one-click installer, Zenoss installation is easier than ever. The one-click installers have been tested on 32 bit and 64 bit versions of the following distributions:

• RHEL/Centos 4
• RHEL/Centos 5
• OpenSUSE 10.2
• OpenSUSE 10.3
• SLES 10
• Fedora 6
• Fedora 7
• Fedora 8
• Ubuntu Server 6.06
• Ubuntu Server 8.04
• Debian 4.0

NOTE: currently x64 .debs are not available. Also openSUSE 10.3 x64 has a mysql bug that causes a crash on zenoss queries (any query with a desc sort order).

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT UPGRADING TO ONE-CLICKS

An important note about upgrading to a one-click installer from an existing version of zenoss: These one-click installers install the entire zenoss stack and create a new instance of Zenoss. If you want to upgrade to a one-click installer install, you must backup your data using zenbackup and then then restore to your new one-click Zenoss installation. You should consult the user’s guide and read the sections about zenbackup/zenrestore for additional information.

RPM - Stack Installer

A new binary installation package that includes Zenoss and all of its dependencies for Linux platforms that are based on RPM. This includes RHEL/CentOS, Fedora, SuSE, and SLES.

Deb - Stack Installer

A new binary installation package that includes Zenoss and all of its dependencies for Linux platforms that are based on .deb packages. This includes Debian, Ubuntu, and Ubuntu derivatives.

Fixes

The following tickets have been fixed in Zenoss since the last beta release zenoss-2.1.91:

Appliance

• 3036 Create new troves for new core ZenPacks
• 3035 Convert existing core ZenPack trove recipes to handle eggs
• 3091 cron.weekly script on appliance failing
• 3092 zeopack.py import error on appliance
• 1967 Remove or rename Event Class /Events/Users/edahl in VMWare image

DataCollector

• 3086 zendisc help fails with installer rpm
• 3056 Rename zendisc command-line option ‘–auto-allocate’ to ‘–assign-devclass-script’
• 3042 Have zenwinmodeler run when “Model Device” menu option is selected when appropriate
• 3040 Check that /Server/Windows has the right modeler plugins
• 241 Cannot delete or move a device between manufacturers

User Interface

• 3018 User receivies a debug error when trying to sort the device list by another element in IE7
• 2917 Add an Events tab to components
• 1934 Dialogs don’t auto-focus in IE7
• 2542 Range selection on viewPerformanceDetail doesn’t work in IE7
• 2543 Item Type selection for Collections in Multi-Graph Reports doesn’t work in IE7
• 2946 Status “dot” for WinServices is always yellow for failed service
• 2958 confirmation messages for set Groups,Locations,Systems messed up
• 2971 Add “Add Event” menu item to event console
• 3015 ip address list produces many errors in the log
• 3033 Acknowledged row colors remain when server is inaccessible
• 3034 Dashboard shows no indication that server connection is lost
• 3044 alert repeat schedules blows up and lacks units
• 2928 after deleteing an interface from the UI tabs are gone
• 2543 Item Type selection for Collections in Multi-Graph Reports doesn’t work in IE7
• 2597 Improper sorting by IP on Device List
• 2797 Use fixed width font for “Run Command” output

ZenEvents

• 2977 Blank UNIX syslogs are not properly parsed
• 3080 zensyslog had bad monitor variable
• 2996 Disable deletion of historical events when deleting a device

ZenHub

• 3078 Network Dependencies fail from remote user permission errors
• 3029 zenhub down detection knocks down collectors under the watchdog
• 3017 Invalid security level specified after -l flag

ZenJMX

• 3089 More defensive coding for missing zenjmx.conf
• 2982 ZenJMX doesn’t work with 2.1.x prior to 2.1.3.

ZenModel

• 559 rename of data point fails
• 2984 Write tests for new RRDTemplate fetching stuff
• 2983 Tabs not appearing on deviceOsDetail
• 556 Value: list indices must be integers
• 2372 Reset Community sets zSnmpVer to “v”

ZenPack

• 3082 Use find_packages() in zenpack’s setup.py
• 3084 Core zenpacks rpm should restart zenoss after install
• 2883 Some Core ZenPacks need to use the ZenPackPersistence mechanism
• 2919 When updating a ZenPack remove previous version from filesystem if necessary
• 2959 Come up with sane zenpack versioning scheme
• 2986 ZenPacks install from source without the –link option fail to install
• 2994 Installing some core ZenPacks gives ObjectNotFound error
• 2997 ApacheMonitor datasource cmd has wrong path
• 2999 ZenPackTemplate/setup.py should use find_packages to determine files to include in egg
• 3002 ZenPackPersistence using ZENPACK_ID rather than ZENPACKID in getZenPack()
• 3024 Add new core ZenPacks to the build script and rpm spec file
• 3046 HttpMonitor datasources not collecting

ZenRRD

• 3004 Allow TALES evaluation for data source component definition

ZenReports

• 3051 Availability Report Problems
• 3053 Interface Utilization Report totally blows up with a stack trace
• 3038 ReportMail barfs when pulling graphs from more than one server
• 3043 Interfaces showing up in device dropdown when editing a GraphReport
• 3088 clean up /tmp/renderserver on installation

ZenUtils

• 2252 Leftover setuptools remnant in ZenPlugins

zenossinst

• 2967 Sometimes check_fping sends pings too fast

zenwin

• 3085 installer won’t run zenwin or zeneventlog
• 3058 suppress the watchdog more frequently in the WMI collectors
• 3001 Create config option for zenwin query timeout

Enjoy!

–Zenoss Dev Team

Spring is in the air and it looks like April showers bring May software releases. We are very close to releasing our beta of Zenoss Core 2.2 with new point-and-click installers, and many new performance and scalability enhancements. Watch the Zenoss blog for beta announcements.

Zenoss for Service Providers

Are you searching for that one IT Management Solution that really works for service providers? Zenoss for Service Providers includes multi-tenancy, high scalability, pay-as-you-grow pricing and flexible licensing, all designed for the unique requirements of services providers.

Sign up by June 15th and we will deliver two days of expert installation / configuration services free!

Tip of the Month: Creating Property-Driven Thresholds

Normally when you create a threshold, you have to choose the upper and/or lower limits. Sometimes you want these limits to vary considerably for different devices. It can be a lot of work to create many copies of the same template just so you can define different threshold values. However, there is a better way to solve this problem! (This tip was courtesy of Chet Luther a member of our client services team.)

Learn How to Create Property-Driven Thresholds

Survey: What Do you Monitor with Zenoss?

One of the great things about Zenoss is that it’s extensible via our ZenPacks framework. In our soon to be released Zenoss Core 2.2 we will be upgrading the framework and releasing some new ZenPacks. We want to know how you would like to extend Zenoss.

Take the Survey for a chance to win an Apple iTouch

In The News

See what people are saying about Zenoss this month.

• Computerworld: Open Enterprise Interview: Bill Karpovich
• Infoworld: Zenoss grows customer base and sets up shop in Austin
• Austin Business Journal: Zenoss Opens Austin Office
• JohnMWillis.com: The Mighty Two - Zenoss
• AustinStartUp: Zenoss Opens Austin Development Center

Risk-Free Enterprise Trial

Do you have a large-scale or distributed IT environment? Need fine grained access control? Need instrumentation for Microsoft products and other enterprise applications? Sample the benefits of Zenoss Enterprise with a free, 30-day no-risk trial.

Upcoming Events

• Zenoss Administrator Training Course: May 21-22, Annapolis, MD
• Infrastructure Management World: June 16-18, Washington D.C.
• Zenoss Administrator Training: June 17-18, Annapolis, MD
• Red Hat Summit: June 18-20, Boston, MA

Help Wanted!

Are you an exceptional team-oriented individual ready for a challenge? Do you love open source software? We are staffing for technical, sales, and marketing positions. Visit the Zenoss Career Center for more information.

Thank you for your support and interest in Zenoss.
Best Regards,

Mark R. Hinkle
Vice President, Community
Zenoss Inc.

Microsoft just announced “Cross Platform Extensions” for “System Center Operations Manager 2007″. (I just got carpal tunnel from typing the name of that thing!) These extensions bring SCOM (scam?) into the real world of heterogeneous management, which may provoke an all-out existential crisis for the company.

So they admitted that cross platform functionality was essential to be a serious player in the management market; the question was how. Here is where things get interesting. For years (since the mid-90s, actually) the DMTF has been working on a set of standards for managing the IT environment. One part of these standards, CIM, is a schema to describe and model the environment. As you can imagine, the model is extremely complex (over 1500 classes); as a result, it has had poor adoption except for one platform… which, ironically, is Windows!

Yes, WMI on Windows actually uses the CIM model! Of course, in true MS fashion, they embraced CIM and then blew off the standard transport that went along with it, CIM/XML, and used DCOM, which is a real pain in the *ss. We have actually ported WMI to Linux using the Samba 4 libraries.

There are several other aspects of the CIM suite of standards. CIMOM is an agent shell that sits on a managed device. WBEM defines a set of verbs that the management station can use to communicate with the CIMOM. One open source implementation of a CIMOM is OpenPegasus, which is what MS is proposing to use. OpenPegasus is installed by default on several Linux platforms, so it seems that it would be a great way to manage them.

Well, not so fast; remember that CIMOM is an agent shell. For it actually to do something, you need to write “Providers,” which are essentially plugins for the shell. The API for these things is notoriously hard to implement (as agent plugins go), and the result is that there are none that ship with OpenPegasus that actually provide even basic management functionality. What’s more, you need to implement all those CIM classes as well. Wow.

The beautiful future? Maybe MS will start implementing providers that actually do something useful. Maybe the partners they have signed up will do even more. Maybe this could even be one of MS’s first substantive contributions to open source. It would be great to have a more sophisticated agent on the Linux platform — for them, for us, and for every one with an agentless management system.

So the question is: Can the CIM suite of standards rise and fly like a beautiful Pegasus? Or will it amble along the ground, and is this just another press release that is more fluff than substance? I, for one, am hoping for real substance. What do you think?
-EAD

Mark and I just got back from a weekend in sunny Bellingham, Washington with the Open Source faithful. There were a good thousand enthusiasts there and we got to talk to a fair number of them. We gave a presentation of the latest Zenoss beta and attended a few ourselves. Lots of great talks like Hacking with Asterisk, MythTV and the BOFs for OpenSUSE and Fedora. Talked to a lot of folks who were using the product or planning to soon, and pointed a few to creative new ways they might want to use Zenoss for monitoring unexpected things. In addition to the presentations, there were many interesting booths and I enjoyed talking with quite a few of them, including the Portland PostgreSQL Users Group and the folks from Untangle. We even gave away a SqueezeBox to Gary in Richland, WA from our drawing. LinuxFest NW was a great community event, and we look forward to coming back next year!

The Zenoss Submit a Tip Contest has ended and I would like to thank everyone who submitted tips close to 30 and posted multiple blog entries pointing to Zenoss tips.
The winner was Torben Bøgede Sørensen whose tip was  “How to Setup a Kiosk or Zenoss Overview monitor.” This tip was selected randomly from all entriess.

I also wanted to recognize two exceptional community members who submitted many tips for the contest and to help out their fellow Zenoss users Wouter D’Haeseleer and Arthur Penn. In recognition for their exceptional efforts I am awarding them each a limited edition Zenoss jacket that we use to recognize our employees during their first year of service. This signifies their exceptional effort and that we consider them a part of the Zenoss Project team.
Thanks to everyone who participated and who helped share their Zenoss knowledge.

Zenoss will be exhibiting at LinuxFest NorthWest (LFNW) on Saturday and Sunday in Bellingham,WA.LFNW is the showcase for what people in the Northwest are doing with Linux and open source software. It’s a place for Linux enthusiasts to get together to share their passion for what good software can do. This is an opportunity for everyone… satisfy your curiosity… get free stuff… ask experts… explore the latest in software technology… support freedom… experience the magic of grassroots software.

Please stop by our booth to find out more about Zenoss and to sign-up for a drawing for a Squeezebox.

We will also be doing a presentation on Zenoss Core at 11:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Please come by and ask questions and see a demo of Zenoss Core.

This tip was courtesy of Chet Luther one of our services team.

Normally when you create a threshold, you have to choose the upper and/or lower limits. Sometimes you want these limits to vary considerably for different devices. It can be a lot of work to create many copies of the same template just so you can define different threshold values. However, there is a better way to solve this problem!

For this example we’ll create a property-driven threshold for the standard FileSystem template. This will allow us to setup a single threshold on the FileSystem template in the /Server device class and use a custom property at the device or even device class level to control its behavior.

First Step: Create the custom property

1. Go to /Devices
2. Click on the menu and choose More -> Custom Schema
3. Add a property:
   • Label = Maximum file system utilization
   • Name = cThreshMaxFileSystem
   • Type = int
   • Default = 90
   • Visible = True

Second Step: Create the property-driven threshold

1. Go to /Devices/Server
2. Click on the Templates tab
3. Click into the FileSystem template
4. Delete the existing Free Space 90 Percent threshold
5. Add a new threshold named nearly full:
   • Select usedBlocks_usedBlocks from the data points
   • Set the max value to:
     (here.totalBlocks) * (here.cThreshMaxFileSystem / 100.0)

Now you can go to the custom properties/schema of any device class or device and set what the percentage at which your file system threshold will trigger just by overriding the cThreshMaxFileSystem property.

My name is Matt Ray and I recently joined Zenoss as the new Community Manager, based out of their new Austin office. Through the fortuitous mix of Barcamp ESM, a dash of big-company reality, and my side business going dormant, I’m now a happy member of the Zenoss community. I’m here to to help build, strengthen and support Zenoss’ community because they are the ones who use and help support, guide and write the software we provide as a company. I’ll be active in every community-facing aspect I can, and you’ll find me on the forums and mailing lists, IRC, blogs and email asking lots of questions and trying to find as many answers as I can. Thanks in advance for your assistance and patience.

While my last job was at one of “The Big 4″ as a Java developer, I’ve been involved with the Open Source community in various forms for over 10 years. I’ve worked in Systems Management, retail, distributed computing, banking, scientific and educational software over the years and I’ve been at several startups and founded a few myself. While I’m a fairly new to the Python community, I’ve coded in Java, Ruby, Perl, C, Lisp and many other languages professionally and for fun so I hope to get into the swing of things pretty fast.

I’ll be posting on topics of interest to the Zenoss user base, feel free to contact me with suggestions, feedback, questions or answers.

• Email: mray@zenoss.com
• AIM: mrayzenoss
• Twitter: mattray
• IRC: #zenoss on irc.freenode.net as mrayzenoss
• Blog: The Shining Path of Least Resistance

Thanks,
Matt Ray
Zenoss Community Manager

Today we announced that we opened a development center in Austin, TX. We also are happy to annouce our 100th commercial customer and over 4,000 Zenoss users. Not bad for a small group of software developers from Annapolis, MD. Welcome to the new Austin team: Mike, JP, Chip, Matt, Bill, and Chad.

Also we would like to thank everyone who has agreed that this is indeed good news.

• Savio Rodrigues - Zenoss Grows Customer Base sets up Shop in Texas
• Aaron Fulkerson - Open Source Success
• John M. Willis - The Mighty Two - Zenoss
• Michael Coté - Zenoss Opens Austin Office

We are grateful for all the success we have had due to the support of our partners, community members and customers. We believe this new addition to the Zenoss family will help us more quickly extend our products and better serve our users. Thanks again for your support.