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

[Renee Poutissou]

I also had the same experience with a new machine "neut13" which
was given the IP of a former machine of the library.
Hossein told me a while back that he was recycling IP addreses.
If IP addresses are recycled, it should not be hard to have a script
to wipe out the manual fields in the DB for that entry.

I would also strongly suggest (and I have made this suggestion more
than once in the past), that the message being returned to
someone requesting a new IP address contain clearly a request
to update the DB with a URL specific to that machine.

Renee

On 06/23/2010 01:41 PM, Isabel Trigger wrote:
> 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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-- 
Renee Poutissou                        Phone: (604) 222-7457
TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall	       Fax  : (604) 222-1074
Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 2A3	       Email: renee at triumf.ca