radmind_intermapper_diff

This script is designed for use in an environment where Radmind and InterMapper are used to manage the computers. Its purpose is to report back to the user with a list of differences between the two systems.

Contents

• Background
• Usage
  • Optional Arguments
    • Boolean Switches
    • Positional Parameters
  • Examples

Background

Wikipedia has this to say about Radmind:

Radmind is a suite of Unix command-line tools and an application server designed to remotely administer the file systems of multiple client machines.

and this to say about InterMapper:

InterMapper is a cross-platform network monitoring program and part of the Help/Systems cross-platform family.

In our environment, Radmind is used to administrate the file systems of our computers, and InterMapper is (primarily) used to check whether our computers are online and responding to ping requests. However, each of these administrative system requires its own database or configuration file to know which computers it needs to check in with. Over time, these files tend to become out of sync with one another, resulting in false outages or lack of maintenance.

In an effort to consolidate these separate files, I created this script. Its purpose is to scan the databases and then report back with a list of positive disparities; that is, it tells you "Radmind had these entries that InterMapper didn't have, and InterMapper had these entries that Radmind didn't." To further its usefulness, the script is also able to write that output to a file or email the results to a specified recipient.

Usage

$ ./radmind_intermapper_diff.py -[options]

Optional Arguments

Ideally, you should be able to set all of the necessary values within the script itself so you don't have to use so many options at runtime. However, sometimes it's unavoidable, so here is an explanation of all the options available to you.

Boolean Switches

These options are all boolean values - they're either true or false (on or off). False is the default value, so passing any of these changes that to true. --version will override any other option except --help and --explicit, and --help overrides every other option except --explicit.

Short name	Long name	Description
-h	--help	show helpful usage information and quit
-v	--version	show the current version information and quit
-f	--full	give the full list of items (differences are unmarked)
-q	--quiet	suppress output to the console (unless used with -x, which will still display variable information)
-x	--explicit	show the current variable values at the beginning of runtime
-d	--dns-full	show the full DNS names without truncating them (computer.tech.domain.com vs computer)
-e	--email	attempt to send the output via email using the default (built-in) values

Positional Parameters

All of these options require an additional parameter to be passed after them to change the corresponding value. If no parameter is supplied, the program will throw an error and terminate.

Short name	Long name	Parameter	Description
-r	--radmind-file	file	use file as the Radmind configuration file
-i	--intermapper-file	file	use file as the InterMapper list of device addresses
-I	--intermapper-address	address	use address as the InterMapper website to get the addresses fresh (recommended over -i)
-o	--output	file	use file as a destination for all the output.
	--smtp-server	address	use address as the SMTP server for sending mail.
	--email-address	address	use address as the recipient email address.
	--source-email	address	use address as the sending email address.

Examples

• $ ./radmind_intermapper_diff.py -r config.txt -I "https://intermapper.domain.com"

  Fetches the Radmind config from config.txt and the InterMapper list from https://intermapper.domain.com. This will output the list of differences to the console and then quit.

• $ ./radmind_intermapper_diff.py -i intermapper.txt -o output.txt

  Gets the InterMapper list from intermapper.txt instead of online. The list of differences is then outputted to output.txt as well as to the console.

• $ ./radmind_intermapper_diff.py -qe

  Gets the lists from the default locations (specified in the script). Console output is suppressed, so the user will receive no feedback. The list that would regularly be outputted is sent via email using the default specifications.

• $ ./radmind_intermapper_diff.py --smtp-server "smtp.domain.com" --email-address "[email protected]" --source-email "[email protected]" -qdx

  First finds the differences from the default locations. The console output is suppressed, except for listing the variables and values that are being used at runtime. The output is sent via email using the SMTP server smtp.domain.com to [email protected] from [email protected].