Big Sister - README.win32

- README for Win32 users
- Installation
- Installation as an NT service
- Running Big Sister
- Stopping Big Sister
- Checking NT systems
- Limitations and pitfalls

## README for Win32 users

    The Big Sister package is fully supported on
    NT platforms too.

## Installation

    The easiest way for installing is to get one
    of the pre-installed packages from
    http://bigsister.graeff.com.

    An alternative way to install Big Sister on a Win32
    box is to first install it on a Unix box, then to
    copy the whole Big Sister directories over to the
    Win32 box.

    An InstallShield setup is planned but not done
    yet ...

    NOTE: do not forget you (probably) still need the
          SNMP perl libraries (see README) and the
          Net::SMTP package provided that you have not
          got the binary release installed.

## Installation as an NT service

    Of course you will want to run Big Sister in
    background on NT boxes too. Unfortunately this is
    not as simple as on Unix boxes ... You will need
    InstSrv/SrvAny (NT Resource Kit), AutoexNT (freeware)
    or Invoker. The prefered package is Microsoft's
    InstSrv/SrvAny. Place the two binaries - you can find
    them in the NT Resource Kit either on CD or directly
    from http://www.microsoft.com - somewhere in
    a directory in your path. Then run bin/install32 and
    Big Sister will install as a service. After running
    install32 you will have to reboot (well, if you do
    not mind your services names looking strange in the
    Control Panel then you do not need a reboot), go to
    the Control Panel, choose "Services", find your Big
    Sister services and set appropriate start options.
    That's all I hope ...

    If you would like to use another tool than SrvAny you
    will have to setup your services yourself. Note that
    Big Sister will not work with Idetix Invoker.

    Provided you have installed the binary distribution
    >0.34 the path is not (too) hard coded in the binaries
    any more: Double clicking install32.exe will make
    Big Sister work even if not installed in the default
    directory.

## Running Big Sister

    NOTE: you do not need to install Perl if you have got
          the binary Big Sister release

    NOTE: Please get the latest ActivePerl release for
          Win32. Some other versions did not implement
          the socketioctl() call Big Sister absolutely
          needs ...

    NOTE: The perl command must be in your path or bbd
          won't be able to update your Web-Pages.

    Provided that Big Sister is installed in C:\bigsis you
    can run Big Sister by invoking (in a command window):

    	c:
    	cd \bigsis
    	perl bin/bb_start32

    You are strongly encouraged to register Big Sister as
    NT services.

    NOTE: On win32 platforms bb_event_generator will need the Net::SMTP
          package to send alarm mails. Implicitly this means you need an
          SMTP server somewhere (use mailhost=hostname in bb_event_generator.cfg).
          MAPI is not supported yet (but will be).

## Stopping Big Sister

    Out of the task manager kill off the running 'Perl'
    tasks (okay, I will implement a "bb_start32 stop"
    command soon) or - if installed as services - go to
    the Control Panel / Services, find the appropriate
    service and click on the 'Stop' button.

## Checking NT systems

    Many checks are now reported to work on NT systems too. They
    include:

    	EventLog:		eventlog
    	Performance Monitor:	load diskfree memory diskload
    	Network:		about all of them

## Limitations and pitfalls

    1. Due to a poor implementation of both signal handling
       and socket library timeouts often do not work correctly
       on NT. Therefore some things (e.g. the TCP monitor) will
       have longer timeouts than on Unix systems or in a few
       cases no timeouts at all.

    2. The Status collector will not answer any requests during
       history log file transfers as done by e.g. "bsadmin archivelogs".
       This is not considered a serious problem since you only
       archive logs every few days or do not archive them at all.

    3. When sending alarms the Alarm Generator will need an SMTP
       mailhost somewhere. Use

    	mailhost=mymailhost

       in bb_event_generator.cfg