#
# SAMPLE bb-hosts file.
#
group-compress BB4 Servers
0.0.0.0		www.bb4.com # BBPAGER BBNET BBDISPLAY ftp dns smtp pop3 
192.168.17.80	bobo.root.sh # ftp smtp pop3 http://bobo.root.sh/ dns 
192.168.17.80	bobo.login.sh # ftp smtp pop3 http://bobo.login.sh/ dns !nntp
page mario Mario's Universe
192.168.17.6	iti-s01.iti.qc.com # ftp pop3 http://www.iti.qc.com/ 
192.168.17.7	ns.iti.qc.com # ftp pop3 http://www.iti.qc.com/ dns smtp
192.168.17.61	pvignaud.iti.qc.com # dialup
#
summary bigbrother.dev1 www.bb4.com http://www.bb4.com/bb/bb.html
summary bigbrother.dev2 www.bb4.com http://www.bb4.com/bb/bb2.html

BBDISPLAY - this machine receives incoming status reports and generates the bb.html and bb2.html web pages. The may be more than one BBDISPLAY if you want redundancy. BBDISPLAY machines run the bbd daemon to collect reports, and run the web/mkbb.sh scripts to generate the web pages bb.html and bb2.html.

BBPAGER - this machine receives requests to notify admins and processes them. There may be more than one BBPAGER as well, for redundancy. Of course, you'll be notified more than once per problem. BBPAGER machines likewise run the bbd daemon so they can receive pager requests which then calls bb-page.sh.

BBNET - this machine performs all network tests for each protocol, for each system listed in the bb-hosts file. Not all protocols are supported.

The bb-hosts file also controls the display format of the web pages. This is done using the keywords page and group. The page keyword creates a new display subpage. The format of the page keyword is:

page	page-name	Whatever you'd like the page title to be

group and group-compress The group keyword starts a new table on the display. Group-compress only displays the columns that have data. The format of the keyword is:

group	group-name	Whatever you'd like the group title to be

The titles given to the tables or pages in the above commands may contain HTML to change their appearance. Similarly, the MKBBROWFONT and MKBBCOLFONT variables in etc/bbinc.sh can also be adjusted to change the look of the output. summary The summary keyword allows you to send a summary of the current display to another remote instance of Big Brother. The current overall status of this BBDISPLAY will appear as a dot of the same color. The user of the remote BBDISPLAY will be able to click on that dot, and will be brought to this instance of Big Brother.

In this manner, hierarchical summaries may be created. The format of the summary command is:

summary bigbrother.dev1   www.bb4.com    http://www.bb4.com/bb/bb.html
   |         |       |          |                      + URL of this BBDISPLAY
   |         |       |          + machine or IP address to send info to
   |         |       + column name
   |         + row name
   + keyword

Next, network services to be tested can be listed on the line.

BB can check any simple TCP-based protocol (using bbnet) and has native support for the following protocols:

http dns ssh telnet nntp ftp pop smtp imap

Note that protocols must not only exist in bb-network.sh but in the /etc/services file, and their spelling must match. The pop3 service is sometimes listed as pop-3 in the /etc/services file... this causes great confusion and pain.

If you need support for a particular protocol, hit the BB mailing list ot the FTP site, it may already be available.

A service may be prefixed with ! to indicate it shouldn't be running. This option is especially useful on secure networks to make sure certain protocols aren't left open accidentally, i.e. !telnet

Similarly, a service can be prefixed with ~. This modifier reverses the setting of the IPTEST_2_CLEAR_ON_FAILED_CONN: If it was set to TRUE then it is set to FALSE for that service and vice-versa.

The bb-hosts file can do all sorts of magical things that it shouldn't really be able to do.

DHCP support via 0.0.0.0 BB supports DHCP addressing. Just put 0.0.0.0 in the IP address field, and the name will be used for testing.

arbitrary names for display via testip There are devices out there without any DNS entries, likewise there are situations where admins wish their devices to remain anonymous. For these situations, you can use a bogus name provided the IP address is valid, and the testip keyword is listed on the bb-hosts line.

dialup devices BB supports dialup devices using the dialup keyword. This essentially says it's OK for a given device to be unavailable, and the tests will return a clear dot instead of a red dot, and won't page.