Customized Capabilities

The following describes specialized capabilities that are implemented when q-Status™ is used as a RunBook backend. There are five ways to customize q-Status™:

• Serial Number Customization
• E10K Domain Name Hostname Cross Reference File
• RunBook Links Customization
• Creating Your Own q-Status™ Modules
• Executing CGI Perl Scripts directly from HREF Tag

The first three methods require creating special parameter files which the q-Status™ modules understand. The last two require some understanding of the programming aspects of q-Status™--particulary with creating plug-ins.

Serial Numbers

A serial number can be assigned to a system using the "<hostname>.xref" file created in the data/ directory. This file contains a system's "serial number", the system type, a custom image and group plus RunBook link information for the corresponding host.

This file is also used for those particular instances where the "prtdiag" output is ambiguous in defining the system type. The cases supported are:

The "<hostname>.xref" files are text files which can be edited with any Unix text editor or using the Add/Update Serial Numbers/System Type form accessed through the index.html at the bottom of any of the q-Status™ GUI program html pages.

For text editing, the format of the "<hostname>.xref" file is consists of record definitions using a bar (|) delimeter.

<type>|<data> 

The following is an example file:

E10000 Domain Name Hostname Cross Reference

The E10K Configuration assumes that the hostname of a system and its associated domain name are the same. Since this is not always true, "Add/Update E10000 Domain Hostname Cross Reference Table", a cross reference file can be created (updated) to reflect this difference. Currently there is not a way for the system to automatically know the cross reference.

The cross reference file is a text file called "XREFdomains" and is created in the data/ directory. It cross references "domain name" with the "hostid" of a system, so if you did change the hostname of a domain, you would not need to update this cross reference file.

From the the index.html at the bottom of any of the q-Status™ GUI program html pages, select "Add/Update E10000 Domain Hostname Cross Reference Table".

For text editing, the format of the "XREFdomains" file is:

<hostid>|<domain name> 

using the bar (|) as a delimiter. The following is an example file:

RunBook Links Customization

RunBook Link customization using q-Status™ should only be implemented by a qualified SunPS Technologist. It requires that both System RunBooks have been installed on the common Web Server where q-Status™ is running.

Built into the sysinfo modules of q-Status™ is a RunBook link capability. This allows sysinfo to be displayed followed by a list of relevant links to the system. This is controlled by HREF parameters in the file <hostname>.xref which is the data/ directory. Where runbooks are located is defined by additional parameters in the conf/qStatus.conf file.

A typical display would look like this:

Note: The <hostname>.xref files are also used for serial number assignment, group assignment and image assignment.

The <hostname>.xref for the HREF record type consist of LinkType, Title of Link and Link Reference deliminated by a bar ("|"). The following is an example of the a <hostname>.xref file:

• Link Type - The first field and can only consist of:

• Title of Link Field - The title of the link as it will appear on the page. This is a required field.
• Link Reference Field - Optional; If it is present, a link will be created around the title of the link in the page.

To make the display of links work correctly, additional parameters must be assigned to the conf/param file (if they do not already exist). An example of a modified param file is shown below:

The two parameters sysrunbk_dir and appsrunbk_dir define the location of the appropriate runbook types:

Creating Custom Modules

q-Status™ allows the customer to developed and add their own modules. Customer modules are partitioned inside the q-Status™ program within a predefined directory called "Custom/". This directory consist of the sub directories CGI/ and bin/. In the CGI directory are copies with the q-Status™ library modules (e.g. qStatus.pm) and control file (e.g. qStatus.conf). This is to prevent future updates of q-Status™ interfering or overwritting customer developed modules. From any of the q-Status™ GUI's in the TOC section at the right side of the GUI's, custom programs are added as links.

The parameter file is called "customLinks" and is located in the q-Status/conf/ directory. Its structure is as below:

To add a custom link, edit the file and add the appropriate information:

• <Display Title> - Entry that will appear on the GUI
• <href link> - HTML link that <Display Title> will take you to
• <unique single name> - Unique single name used for rollover display (e.g. Arrow)

Defining Custom Task

Custom task is the "selectHost.cgi" Perl script which uses a parameter file called "selectHost.tasks". This parameter file consist of lines in the following format separated by the bar symbol (|).

#<task>|<cgi script>|<suffix>|<title>|<button title>

• <task> - task key word passed to the program in the call statement (e.g. selectHost.cgi?Task=<task>)
• <cgi script> - name of CGI script called from the "selectDomain.cgi" Perl script after selection complete.
• <suffix> - suffix name define by the custom program for host selection from the data/ directory (e.g. <hotname>.mysuffix)
• <title> - title displayed at top of page after "Select Single Host for"
• <button title> - submit button title at bottom of page.

See examples provide in the q-Status/Custom/ directory,

Executing CGI Perl Scripts Directly from HREF Tag

Most of the CGI Perl scripts can be executed directly from an HREF tag from a web page without requiring that they be called from a the domain selection Perl script (selectHost.cgi). The scripts include:

Basic CGI Scripts (Standard Five Icon Row):

• network.cgi
• patchdiag.cgi
• prtconf.cgi
• prtdiag.cgi
• disks.cgi
• sysinfo.cgi
• etcsystem.cgi

E10K Specific CGI Scripts:

• StarFireStatus.cgi - ssp controller
• StarFireConfig.cgi - ssp controller
• StarFireBoards.cgi

Sun Fire <id Range Server Specific CGI Scripts

• sunfireboards.cgi
• sunfireConfig.cgi - SC controller
• sunfireSC.cgi - SC controller
• sunfireStatus.cgi

Sun Fire 15000 Specific Scripts:

• StarCatBoards.cgi
• StarCatConfig.cgi - SC controller
• StarCatStatus.cgi - SC controller

Veritas Volume Manager CGI Scripts:

• vxprint.cgi
• vxprintht.cgi

DiskSuite Specific CGI Script:

• mdprint.cgi

Sun Cluster

sclusterConfig.cgi

sclusterStatus.cgi

sclusterRreg.cgi

Veritas Cluster

vclusterConfig.cgi

vclusterStatus.cgi

vclusterResources.cgi

Zones

Zones.cgi

Simply call the scripts with a question mark "Host" followed by an equal sign and the domain or system name. The syntax is ?Host=xxxxx.

For example, to display disk information about a specific system (e.g. fullmoon) with href, use:

href=CGI/disks.cgi?Host=fullmoon

See "Custom/index.html" file for an example

e10Kconfig.cgi, domainStatus.cgi, sunfireConfig.cgi, sunfireStatus.cgi, StarCatConfig.cgi and StarCatStatus.cgi can also be executed directly with no Domain parameter. In this case they will display all the E10K configurations that are found in the data/ directory.

The comparison Perl script pkginfo.cgi and patches.cgi can be executed directly from an HREF tag from a web page without going through the hosts selection script (selectHosts.cgi). Comparison parameters are separated by a question mark (?) and an equal sign (=) delimiters. The syntax is ?xxxxx=, etc.

For example, to display the packages information for a single host (e.g. fullmoon), use:

href=CGI/pkginfo.cgi?Host=fullmoon=

Special Capability of the "selectHost(s)" Programs

The "selectHost" and "selectHosts" programs both contain some special capability. Not only will they filter a selection by suffix name of a file, but they can further refine the selection by system type and a group of hostnames. This routine supports the hidden parmeters calls: "system type" and "host". (Note that "host" is all lowercase for these selectHost(s) programs. These parameters are both arrays and are exclusive of each other. Define HTML call as:

Task=<sometask>&host=<host1>&host=<host2>&host=<host3>&host=<host4>

or as:

Task=<sometask>&sysType=<system type1>&sysType=<system type2>

The table below represents some of valid systype names

Use either custom web pages or customer CGI programs with programs to call the hidden filtering capability.

The CGI programs "CGI/selectHost.cgi" and "CGI/selectHosts.cgi" are controlled by two task parameter files "/conf/selectHost.tasks" and "/conf/selectHosts.tasks" respectively. A comment line in each of these files identified parameter changes that may be implemented. For comparisons, the number of selections may be changes. Increasing the number of selections will impact the q-Status™ display width and reduce performance. But there is not limitation as to how many comparisons may be performed simultaneously by q-Status™ internally.

Converting Reports to Excel Spreadsheets

At present, q-Status™ does not generate PDF files or Excel Spreadsheet reports. It is possible to manually use the web browser to generate these type files. For Excel spreadsheets, Excel can read an HTML table directly and convert it to a speadsheet. To to this, save a q-Status™ report table as an HTML file, but with the extension changed from "html" to "xls". You may also need to edit the "html" file to just contain the table that you are interested in converting to an Excel Spreadsheet.

LogIQwest is always interested in enhancing q-Status™ for its client base, and would like to know from clients the specific type speadsheet reports they are requiring. LogiQwest would entertain enhancing the program to generate these reports. Please contact LogiQwest for further information.

Adding Custom Display Images

As part of q-Status™ valid yearly maintenance, clients may request additional custom images to be added to the Server Images Display managed through the Administrative menus. LogiQwest will then maintained these image and insure that they will continue to work with later versions of q-Status™. Please contact LogiQwest for this free service.

If a client wish to add their own custom images without using LogiQwest, they must create two gif images. One is the display image and the other a grayed out version. They must adhere to the naming conversion 'UnknownType' and use numeric naming starting at 500 or above.

The client must also edit the file "conf/sysImages.xref" and add a line for a new UnKnown image entry including the image height and width values. Photoshop is a good tool for doing this.

Custom Support

LogiQwest does provide to a clients any technical information of programs structure for any custom implementation using its tools and under its LICENSE agreement included with the program. q-Status™

LogiQwest also provides custom implementation of q-Status™ technology on a time and material base. For any effort where LogiQwest has performed the development, LogiQwest supports the life cycle of the program, maintain it and make sure that it will run with all future revision of q-Status™.