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+
+<h1>
+<a NAME="name"></a>NAME</h1>
+<b>user-guide</b> - a user's guide to using Spong
+<br>
+<hr WIDTH="100%">
+<h1>
+<a NAME="description"></a>DESCRIPTION</h1>
+This the user's guide to using spong. It has an overview of the operation
+of the whole system and how the user fits into the scheme of things.
+Spong acknowledgements, the web-base user interface and the character based
+interfaced will be covered in detail.
+<br>
+<h1>
+<a NAME="overview"></a>SPONG OVERVIEW</h1>
+
+<h1>
+<a NAME="web-interface"></a>WEB USER INTERFACE</h1>
+The initial Spong web displays comes up with page with two frames.
+The left Dommand frame is a summary of any hosts that have any problems
+(i.e. any service that is red.) The right Display frame displays a table
+of the group All (e.g. All Servers) that lists hosts and services.
+<br>
+<h2>
+<a NAME="status-colors"></a>Status Colors</h2>
+Though out many of the displays the status of a host or a services is expressed
+as a color. This is a list of the colors and their meaning.
+<dl>
+<dt>
+GREEN</dt>
+
+<dd>
+For a service, green means that it is responding normally, or it is within
+normal parameters. For a host, green means that all services are OK and
+there are active acknowledgements or over-due service status reported.</dd>
+
+<dt>
+YELLOW</dt>
+
+<dd>
+For a service, yellow generally means that something minor is wrong and
+may need attention, or a parameter is slightly out of bounds. For a host,
+yellow mean that one or services are at a warning status.</dd>
+
+<dt>
+RED</dt>
+
+<dd>
+For a service, red means that is something is critically wrong for a service,
+such as a network serice not responding or a parameter is radically out
+of bounds. For a host, red means that one or more services are at a critcal
+status.</dd>
+
+<dt>
+PURPLE</dt>
+
+<dd>
+For a service, purple means it's status report is overdue. The last time
+that the service has been updated is too old. this can be due to network
+problems or a spong monitoring program has stopped for some reason. For
+a host, is means that one of more service status reports are over due.</dd>
+
+<dt>
+BLUE</dt>
+
+<dd>
+For hosts and services, this means that there is an active acknowledgment
+on the service or host. While a service is acknowledged, no notifications
+will be sent to, but events will still be written to the history log file.</dd>
+</dl>
+
+<h2>
+Command Frame</h2>
+The left Command frame is divided 5 sections from top to bottom: Title,
+Action Bar, Main Section (problem host list), Host Group selector and Last
+Update.
+<h3>
+Title</h3>
+The section is simple the title Spong and the version numer of the server.
+<h3>
+Action Bar</h3>
+The section under the title section is the Command action bar. The <i>Ack</i>
+link will bring up the <b><a href="www-spong-ack.html">www-spong-ack</a></b>
+CGI program in the Display frame. The page allows your to display, delete,
+or create Spong Acknowledgements. The <i>Summary</i> link brigs up the
+host summary table of the currently select Host Group in the Display frame.
+The <i>History</i> link displays the event history for all of the hosts
+in the current Host Group. And the <i>Help</i> link will the Spong HTML
+documentation.
+<h3>
+Main Section</h3>
+The main section of the Command frame is a list of all of the hosts that
+have any problems (e.g. services that are red). If there are
+no reported problems then this section will have "No Current Problems"
+in green letters. If there are problems then a list of hosts will be displayed
+along with name of the services that has the problem. The last date/time
+that the service was updated and, is defined. A contact responsible for
+the host.
+<p>The <i>host name i</i>s a link that will bring up the full status display
+for the host in the Display frame. The <i>problem</i> field under the host
+name is a to service display page for that host. it will be displayed on
+the Display Frame. The <i>updated</i> field is the date and time that the
+status of that service updated. The <i>contact</i> if a link that will
+bring up a custom CGI program that will allow you to send a message to
+the people responsible that host.
+<h3>
+Group Section</h3>
+The Host Group section allows to select which group of hosts that your
+want to display in the <i>Summary</i> and <i>History</i> displays. This
+title to the right of the <i>Group</i> link is the currently selected Host
+Group. Selecting the <i>Group</i> link brings up the Spong Group display
+in the Display frame. On top of page of a list of all of the predefined
+Host Group defined along with the show group name and a summary description
+of the group.
+<p>If you click the <i>group name</i> link, you change the group of hosts
+that you are monitoring. The web browser window will be redrawn to reflect
+the new groups hosts. At the bottom of the <i>Spong Groups</i> display
+is a section that allows your to select a custom of hosts to monitoring.
+Your select all of the hosts that you want to be in your custom group from
+the list of hosts. Then clock in the <i>Show Hosts</i> button to redraw
+the browser window and display the your custom group of hosts.
+<h3>
+Last Update</h3>
+The time stamp section at the bottom is the date and time that the entire
+left frame was last updated. If refreshing is allowed by you or your system,
+the frame will be automatically reload every <b><a href="spong_conf.html#spongsleep">$SPONGSLEEP</a></b>
+seconds
+<br>
+<h2>
+Display Frame</h2>
+The right frame is the Display Frame. It is used to display various informational
+displays and forms. The default display is the <i>Group Summary</i>
+of the currentl selected group of hosts. Most of the sub-pages have an
+action bar.
+<h3>
+Action Bar</h3>
+The <i>Action Bar</i> on displays is directly under the title at the top
+of the page. The <i>Connect to Host</i> link will start a telnet session
+to the host if clicked. The <i>Acknowledge Problem</i> link will bring
+up the <b><a href="www-spong-ack.html">www-spong-ack</a></b> CGI program
+Display. The Host and Service fields will be filled in (if possible).
+The C<i>ontact Help</i> is a link that will bring up a custom CGI program
+that will allow you to send a message to the people responsible that host.
+<h3>
+Group Summary Display</h3>
+The Group Summary Display is a table that lists the hosts and services
+of the current selected group of hosts. The name of the selected group
+is displayed at the top of the display. Each host is a row in the table
+with services being the columns of the table. The current status of each
+service is a colored block or a icon depending on how spong-service is
+configured (see <b><a href="spong_cong.html#www-user-images">$WWW_USE_IMAGES</a></b>
+in
+<b><a href="spong_config.html">spong.conf</a></b>). The status's are
+represented by the color: RED - critical, YELLOW - warning, GREEN - normal,
+PURPLE - status is output of date, BLUE - service has active acknowledgement,
+NOTHING - service is not checked.
+<p>The host name in the first column is a link to <i>Host Services</i>
+display the host. The service names in the first row of the table are links
+to Help page for that service. The Help page has a description of the service
+and the ramifications if the service is in a warning or critical status.
+The service status colored block or icon is a link to the <i>Service Status</i>
+display for the host/service.
+<h3>
+Host Services Display</h3>
+This display shows most of the avaliable information abou the host. The
+display is divided into serval sections. From top to bottom they are :
+<i>Title</i>
+(Host Name), <i>Action Bar</i>, <i>Overall Status</i>, <i>Acknowledgements</i>,
+<i>Services
+Table</i>, <i>Information</i>,
+<i>History</i>.
+<h4>
+Title</h4>
+The is the name of the Host being displayed.
+<h4>
+Action Bar</h4>
+The <i>Action Bar</i> is discussed above.
+<h4>
+Overall Status</h4>
+This a bar this displays the current overall status of the host. The over
+status is the highest order color of all of the service status's according
+to the following hierchy: BLUE, RED, YELLOW, GREEN, PURPLE.
+<h4>
+Acknowledgements</h4>
+If there are any Acknowledgements for the host they will be listed here.
+Each acknowledgement will have the service that is acknowledged, the expiration
+date, and the message. There is a <i>Delete</i> link for each acknowledgement
+also which will delete the acknowledgment when clicked.
+<h5>
+Services Table</h5>
+This is a summar table of all of the services that is checked on this host.
+The table lists the service name, the current status of the service (colored-block
+or icon) , the time (in 23 hour format) of the last update, and the summary
+message of message status. The service name and the current status colored-block/icon
+are links that will bring of the <i>Service Status</i> display for the
+service.
+<h4>
+Information</h4>
+If there is any addition information defined for the host, it will be displayed
+in this section. This information is unique to each host. There can be
+a description of the functions of the host, embeded image or links to other
+information sources. For further information see the <b><a href="admin-guide.html">Administator
+Guide</a></b>.
+<h4>
+History</h4>
+The recent event history of the host will be displayed in this section.
+The events are displayed in reverse chronological orders divided into seperate
+days. Each event has the status color, time (in 24 hour format), host name,
+service name, and message summary line of the event.
+<h3>
+Service Status Display</h3>
+This display shows all of the infomation available for the service/host.
+It is divided into several sections: <i>Title</i> (Host Name/Service),
+<i>Action
+Bar</i>, <i> Summary Information</i>,
+<i>Detailed Information</i>.
+<h4>
+Title</h4>
+This is the name of the host and service being displayed.
+<h4>
+Action Bar</h4>
+This is discussed above.
+<h4>
+Summary Information</h4>
+This section shows summary information for the service. First is a colored
+bar that shows the current status color of the service. See <a href="#web-interface">Status
+Colors</a> for details. Next is the <i>Updated:</i> field which if the
+date and time of the last update of the status. The <i>Duration</i> field
+shows the amount of time that the service has been in it's current status.
+And last is the <i>Summary</i> field which is a one line summary message
+about the status of the service.
+<h4>
+Detailed Information</h4>
+This last section is detailed information about the status of the service.
+The type of information depends of the service. For example, for the <i>disk</i>
+service it will be the output of the <b>df</b> command showing the mounted
+disk partitions and amount of space used on each disk and the for the <i>cpu</i>
+service it will be a <b>ps</b> comand output showing information about
+the top 10 processes using a CPU.
+<h3>
+Acknowledge Problem Display</h3>
+This display is a form generated by the <b><a href="www-spong-ack.html">www-spong-ack</a></b>
+CGI program. At top of the form are instructions on how to fill out the
+form, next will be a list of all of the current Acknowledgments created
+for the host. The list includes the service that was ack'ed, the expirate
+date of the acknowledgement, and the message text of the acknowledgment.
+There is also a <i>Delete</i> link that can be used to delete the Acknowledgment
+if clicked. Below this if a form that can be filled out to create a new
+Acknowledgment. See the <b><a href="www-spong-ack.html">www-spong-ack</a></b>
+documentation for more information.
+<h1>
+<a NAME="character-interface"></a>COMMAND LINE USER INTERFACE</h1>
+
+<h1>
+<a NAME="acks"></a>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</h1>
+Spong Acknowlegements are a mechanism that allows the user to notify the
+spong-server that they know about the problem and no more notifications
+need to be sent.. Acknowledgments have a limited life time. After an acknowledgment
+has expired, the spong-server will start sending out notifications if neccessary.
+Acknowledgments are created for a specifc host and service, or all services
+can be ack'ed. by specifying 'all' for the serice name.
+</body>
+</html>
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