Which Version of GroundWork Monitor Open Source for me?

Now that GroundWork has a full complement of GroundWork Monitor Open Source (GWMOS) versions to download from SourceForge, the question becomes: “Which version of GroundWork for me?” This document reviews the various incarnations of GWMOS and how choose among them.

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GroundWork Monitor Open Source is available four ways:

1) Bootable ISO
2) VMWare Version
3) As various rpms
4) As source code

Each is discussed in turn below.

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1) Bootable ISO - the fastest path to evaluation

If you want to get a quick idea of what monitoring with GroundWork is like and have a i386 computer you’re willing to reboot, download the bootable ISO and burn a CD. This bootable CD can also be used to troubleshoot a site without any existing monitoring.

This is the quickest, and most reliable way to get GroundWork Monitor working. It will run from the CD in RAM without touching the hard drive, but it is mostly useful for short-term use only due to monitoring log files filling up available RAM. In testing, we found that 1G of RAM will provide approximately 3-4 days of uptime.

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2) VMWare Version - lots of extras

If you’re comfortable with VMWare virtualization, download the VMWare Version. It has an enriched feature set that includes performance monitoring, integrated GroundWork Foundation, and RRD data support, allowing for easy incorporation of other open source tools that utilize RRD data. (Our other GWMOS offerings will have these features in the future, but for now the VMWare version is the most powerful.)

Note: This version requires VMWare Player
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3) Various RPM versions - optimized for specific Linux versions

If you want to run GroundWork Monitor in your preferred Linux version, download and install the Red Hat / CentOS, SuSE 9, or SuSE 10-specific rpms. (You’ll need to install MySQL 5 and perl-DBI first.) While we ideally recommend a clean install of the OS, with some care you can take this route to upgrade from a previous GroundWork version (e.g. disable apache, backup of monitoring configuration files.) You’ll have a fast, dedicated monitoring box: hardware and software, the cleanest path for upgrading and adding other tools to GroundWork.

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4) Source Code - build it yourself

If you want to “roll your own” version of GroundWork for a different operating system, the SVN repository contains all the source code and our existing build script. Please let us know if you’re successful: we’ll also try to help you if you get stuck. BTW: we’d be thrilled if you can create a .deb distribution package for us that will install on Ubuntu (smile.)
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OK! Go get ‘em here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=160654