Any movement?

[Scott]

Hey Duncan, it's been a while. Just wondering how things are going.

[Duncan McGreggor]

On 2/3/07, Scott <mdg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hey Duncan, it's been a while. Just wondering how things are going.

Hey Scott,

Yes and no. The sad part is the "no" :-(

In the Fall (Oct-Nov 2006), I made significant progress in the
simplification of the CoyMon install, with all of it's dependencies.
After addressing that part of the installation process, I moved on to
the Zope/Plone installs and configuration. Those went very well also.
Then, however, I got to the point of installing the Zope/Plone
"Products" (software components) that managed NetFlow-related content
(graphs, queries, collectors) and hit some issues. Mostly, they have
to do with the code changes that occurred in Plone's installation
process over the past 3 years as well as the changes in such Plone
development tools as "Archetypes."

Just as I encountered these difficulties, I was given the
responsibility of infrastructure and code development for the
community projects at Zenoss (for whom I consult). This was an
unforeseen (and welcome) change that required a great deal more of my
time and investment, resulting in a drastic reduction in the amount of
free time I had for my open source work. Not only have CoyMon and
pymon suffered from almost no work since then, but the contributions
to other open source projects that I was preparing to release were
either put on indefinite hold or greatly delayed. I think that only
the Twisted Python has received contributions so far.

As a result of the difficulties I encountered in trying to move a
2003/2004 Zope/Plone code base to a 2006./2007code base, I have had to
reassess the planned approach. I made the mistake of making a promise
this Fall that could not be kept due to changing circumstances beyond
my control. I deeply regret this and apologize, and as such, won't
make a similar promise. I will however, share my intentions:

1) When (not if) I return to CoyMon, I will not be doing a simple
port. The underlying technology has changed too much. It will be
easier both in the short-term (development) and long-term (maintenance
and support) to use the latest methodologies, approaches, and
Products. Fortunately, the content types developed in CoyMon for
managing NetFlow data are fairly straight-forward, so this is not as
big a deal as it sounds.

2) I have continued (As appropriate) to share my view with the
developers and executives at Zenoss the importance of supporting
NetFlow. They agree that this would be an excellent feature set to
support. In the event that this becomes a very priority at Zenoss
before I return to CoyMon development, then I will pour my efforts
into assisting with the development of NetFlow support in Zenoss.

Again, I am so sorry for the delays and for the fact that I cannot yet
return to CoyMon development work :-( I literally begin work when I
wake up and stop work when I am too tired to continue. The stuff I am
doing for Zenoss is exciting, as is working in a startup company with
such good people. But the down side is that there's not much else I am
doing these days.

In the event that I return to a 40-hour week sooner than later, I will
email the group with another update, but only once I have committed
significant code to the repository, in an effort to to not raise hopes
without delivering.

Thanks for pinging me -- I've been meaning to write this email for
about two months, and your message brought it to the front of the
queue!

Take care,

Duncan

[Scott]

Thanks for the update!

You shouldn't be apologetic. Neither I nor anyone else has any right
to complain. The only contribution I can make is testing and
criticism. Doesn't make me worthy of complaining.

Good to know that it still is kicked around from time to time. I get
the update emails from the group so I'll just hope for a future email
that development has restarted.

Also, if this helps at all feel free to pass this on to the Zenoss
folks:

The least expensive option for a simple to configure package I can
find for Netflow is Scrutinizer from Somix. Of all of the Open Source
NMS's out there I don't think any of them support Netflow. They all
do bandwidth trending and alert monitoring. Rolling my own is
possible with some of the Open Source Netflow tools but the output
isn't pretty and it's not really something I could "give" to a
customer. Every customer that sees the usability and output of
Scrutinizer buys it. It really does sell itself. While Zenoss does
what it does well, it doesn't really do anything differently. At
least as far as I can tell from the user/admin perspective. Bringing
Zenoss simplicity to Netflow trending might be the hook to help it
take off.

On Feb 4, 1:35 am, "Duncan McGreggor" <duncan.mcgreg...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Duncan McGreggor]

On 2/4/07, Scott <mdg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Also, if this helps at all feel free to pass this on to the Zenoss
> folks:
>
> The least expensive option for a simple to configure package I can
> find for Netflow is Scrutinizer from Somix. Of all of the Open Source
> NMS's out there I don't think any of them support Netflow. They all
> do bandwidth trending and alert monitoring. Rolling my own is
> possible with some of the Open Source Netflow tools but the output
> isn't pretty and it's not really something I could "give" to a
> customer. Every customer that sees the usability and output of
> Scrutinizer buys it. It really does sell itself. While Zenoss does
> what it does well, it doesn't really do anything differently. At
> least as far as I can tell from the user/admin perspective. Bringing
> Zenoss simplicity to Netflow trending might be the hook to help it
> take off.

Scott, thanks for your thoughtful response and for this insight :-) I
can tell you that your comments have already sparked a new
conversation at Zenoss (these guys never stop working! Weekends just
mean more time to have fun working on the product!). Keep those
fingers crossed!

If a discussion takes off, I'll send you a heads-up. If we're
prototyping stuff in a Zenoss branch (i.e., not in the "live" code),
is this something that you might be willing to help us test and give
feedback on?

Thanks again, man!

d

[Scott]

I'd be very interested in being a tester! We have some internal
equipment at our office I could point it at including voice routers, I
use a 1760 at home and I might be able to work out some time pointing
it at a 6500.

Thanks!

On Feb 4, 2:13 pm, "Duncan McGreggor" <duncan.mcgreg...@gmail.com>
wrote: