Reports only show data from a specific tim e period?

[Paul L. Allen]

Matt Pounsett writes: 

> On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, Paul L. Allen wrote: 
> 
>> Daniel Jimenez writes:  
>> 
>> > Does anyone have any ideas? 
>> 
>> I really can't see the point of this.  Why present them with a display
>> that's a lie?  But since they want it, here are some thoughts. 
> 
> Where's the lie?  His managers want statistical information over certain
> hours of the day.

The CGIs display more than statistical information.  And even assuming
they are only interested in the statistical information, suppressing
raw data turns statistics into a LIE.  It is known as selective sampling.
It is known as "Look - the stats show there haven't been ANY problems
with your machines up until today (as long as you don't find out about
all the problems they were having at night when you don't use them)." 

> I can think of several legitimate reasons to want this
> information.. one of which was presented on the list already: that the
> services in question are only accessed by the public/clients/whatever 
> during certain hours of the day, and they want to know what the rate
> of failure during those hours is.

And I can think of one reason that suppressing this information is a bad
idea.  Any trouble outside of those hours may be a sign of an impending
problem that will eventually impact the working hours.  That is, after
all, why he did not want to limit the monitoring interval so that he
would get alerted about those issues.  Let's face it, if the machines
aren't misbehaving outside of hours then the stats will look good anyway
and your argument about needing to suppress out-of-hours data is a crock. 

>> Tell your managers *not to look* at the output of the CGI outside
>> of those hours. 
> 
> That doesn't really help with statistical information which is based
> on those other hours, does it?

If that is the only problem, and he doesn't allow those managers to look
at any other part of the web interface and doesn't send them mail alerts
then post-processing the raw data and generating statistics from that
would probably be a simpler solution than hacking the CGIs, which was
all he could think of. 

> [remainder of sarcastic replies deleted]

What a shame.  You deleted the answer I gave him which would probably
solve his problem just so you could take a pop at me.  I'll repeat it.
Set up two monitoring systems, call it redundant monitoring to get it
past his bosses, and have restricted notification hours on one of them.
Assuming Nagios honours the notification hours when dealing with the
statistical data (I have no reason to try it so can't be sure that it
does), it solves his problem. 

What answer did YOU give him? 

> I swear you must to be the lest helpful person on this list, Paul.

I can think of one person even less helpful than I as far as this thread
goes... 

> Instead of simply not providing help to people,

See above.  What help did YOU give him? 

> you seem to actually go out of your way to discourage people from
> asking questions of any kind.

Oh yes, I could tell he was severely discouraged when he said he and his
colleagues saw the humour in my reply.   It discouraged him so much that
in the same post that he laughed at my humour, he asked if anyone had any
answers.  That was VERY effective discouragement on my part. 

> Your sarcasm and insults reach a level I don't think I've ever before
> seen on a software users list.

I will take that as a compliment. 

> If you feel providing answers to certain questions is beneath you,

But I DID provide an answer.  Which is more than you did.  In fact, I
provided several answers, because it was unclear precisely what level of
detail he was trying to hide from whom.  The simpler answers required
least effort and would be good enough if all he needed to do was stop
clueless bosses looking at the display outside of their working hours.
One answer you chose to delete and dismiss as sarcastic will, if Nagios
is consistent about how it handles working hours, is a solution to his
problem. 

> then please do us all a favour and shut the hell up.

Let me introduce you to a concept called a "kill file."  It allows you to
control what you choose to read, because you sure as hell don't get to
choose what I write.  HTH.  HAND. 

Oh, and a passing clue: complaining about somebody attacking others with
insults and then attacking that person yourself is known as "hypocrisy;"
attacking another person when you're wrong is known as "stupidity." 

-- 
Paul Allen
Softflare Support 



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