[Triumf-linux-managers] Please update the host database for your machines

[Isabel Trigger]

Andrew, Konstantin,

I noticed when I was going through the ATLAS computers that many of our 
Tier 3 machines appeared to be confused with old Controls machines and 
had Mike Mouat listed as the responsible person... I assumed it was just 
that we had recycled old IP addresses or something and never updated the 
database.  Anyway, I changed the administrator contact info from Mike to 
me and put in some approximate location info.  If this is a symptom of 
something deeper that I ought to worry about, please let me know.  I was 
planning not to worry.

thanks
Isabel

On 06/23/2010 01:33 PM, Andrew Daviel wrote:
>
> Thanks for the note.
> cc. triumf-linux-managers for those interested.
>
> I realize there are some issues with the database, but it's the best we
> have right now and sometimes unreliable information is better than none
> ("machine X might belong to user Y" is better than "no idea")
>
>> 3) I cannot enter or update information for ladd13, ladd14 and ladd15
>> because
>> database says that they do not exist.
>
> That is odd. I see ladd13 in the logs and I'm not sure why it did not
> get entered in the db.
>
> The database is mostly populated by scanning, primarily
> nmap/arping/fingerprint. The db key is the IPv4 address, and currently
> the only way to get an entry in the db is a non-null nmap response.
> Once an entry exists, other fields may be populated such as
> manager/location.
>
> I have added ladd13, ladd14 by manually scanning them. ladd15 appears to
> be down (does not respond to ping or arping) so I can't enter it.
>
>> 1) something is wrong with the data in the database, for example,
>> information for ladd11
>> was completely wrong saying that it's a laptop belonging to Bob Chow.
>> That is
>> impossible, ladd11 is a new machine that never changed identities. Please
>> check that the database is not silently corrupting it's data!
>
> ladd11 was added to the DNS on 14 October 2008
> The database says that 142.90.97.109 was first seen on 2004-09-09, but
> there's no history so I can't say whether that was a real machine or a
> temporary allocation that got captured.
>
>> 2) "ide info" and "unix info" is completely wrong i.e. for ladd00 and
>> there
>> is no button to expunge this obsolete data.
>
> I have to check how that information is populated. It may have come from
> queries via the georgesv account that is now broken, or from nodeinfo
> updates for which some sync process is broken
>
> Expunge has always been a problem - there is no mechanism to remove old
> data, e.g. ip addresses in blocks that were moved below 142.90.128 and
> are "removed" cf. "offline". We don't want to delete machines that just
> go offline for a few days.
>
> The database and applications were written by a couple of summer
> students in 2004. I understand them moderately well, but not as well as
> if I had written them myself, particulary the web interface written in PHP.
>
> We are looking at an open-source product "netdisco" to do some device
> tracking, but that is not a complete replacement since it can only
> obtain information via SNMP.
>
>
>

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