システム管理な雑記 -- Sleeve notes of a sysadmin -- : Tools

Honeynet Security Console

kenji — Sun, 16 May 2004 23:36:00 GMT

It seems very neat. I decided that I should evaluate this, with sebek!

Note: [IIS] How to have NNTP Feed?

kenji — Sun, 09 May 2004 22:01:00 GMT

From Bernard's article.
Errors in IIS 6.0 Documentation

I have once tested this NNTP Feed feature of IIS 6.0, with Shavlik's news server.
It seems I have to dig more on this.;-)

Thanks, Bernard!

Tool: Quest Software Quest Central (Freeware)

kenji — Sun, 09 May 2004 21:36:00 GMT

From SQLJunkies.

Quest Software Quest Central for SQL SERVER - FREEWARE Now Available
http://www.quest.com/quest_central/sql_server/freeware/

It features things like this:

Database Administration
Space Management
24x7 Monitoring
Performance Diagnostics with Spotlight
Database Analysis
Load Testing and Data Generation

Hmm, sounds not too bad, you know.

Tool: Syslog Turbo, DHCP Turbo, etc.

kenji — Sun, 09 May 2004 19:48:00 GMT

Softwares from Weird-Solution seems somewhat cool.

http://www.weird-solutions.com/

As for Syslog Turbo there are things that is helpful for daily sysadmin jobs, like analysis and log rotation features. We can manipulate it with a sql-like dialect, which may be fairly useful as long as you are familiar with SQL.

There are other easy-to-manipulate server softwares like DHCP, BOOTP, and TFTP so please check them out.

Tool: ieSpell

kenji — Sun, 09 May 2004 08:25:00 GMT

A spell checker for IE. I found it when I did some spell-checks on the previous article. This tool is for English only, it seems. Still, it is very cozy.

ieSpell - A Spell Checker for Internet Explorer

Just a note of log consolidation issues.

kenji — Sun, 09 May 2004 04:13:00 GMT

There are numbers of tasks around sysadmins and security engineers at the data centers, which include log management and monitoring the servers/clients to check if there is an unusual thing happening/ongoing.

I have begun to think of this one year ago when around me there were many of "untouched" or unmanaged as for the system environment. With such a server, when a trouble happens there is no one who could trace what is wrong or what should be done, or worse, when the box downs. It is not cool....

So, to trace the anomalies I am now heading in log consolidation/management to have evidence enough for troubleshooting and detection of problems.

What I have completed:

consolidating logs and alerts of network appliances, routers, (managed) switches, firewalls.
This means I have to collect both syslog messages and SNMP traps.

To do this I am using WinSyslog from Adiscon as a central location for storing syslog messages and Kiwi Syslog Daemon to collect SNMP Traps. From Kiwi SNMP traps are translated into syslog and be poured in the syslog storage.
consolidating Event log entries from Windows Machines.
For this I am using NTSyslog I got from SourceForge. I am still in a half way as it cannot handle multi-byte languages properly, especially around (what do you say in English? We say this "kaigyo code" in Japanese) and Chinese characters.

Another point here is the future possibilities of using of Log Parser, which is written by a guy in Microsoft.
We can handle eventlog messages in multi-byte languages without a fear with the current versions of the tools released, as it handles those characters as Unicode.
We engineers in regions with multi-byte languages welcome this tool very much as we do not have to think about "how to localize this cozy tool?", etc, etc.

I am not yet planning utilizing this very kewl and cozy tool in my framework because I want to design "effortless and yet cohered" design, though.
I emphasize here that I am planning to improve/change the whole design so there is such a high possibility that I will be using this tool.

In the MVP Summit 2004 some of us Japanese MVPs had a chance to discuss on the tool with the author, in which we have heard there will be much improvements in severals of the coming versions. I promise he is so dedicated and is so enthusiastic. ;-)
Choosing the base platform.
I chose the following stuffs for this system:
A. Log consolidation
Windows 2000 Server/Server 2003
IIS 5.0 and later
Active Server Pages
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Adiscon WinSyslog 4.2 or later
Kiwi Syslog Daemon (to just translate SNMP Traps into syslog messages, without an effort.)
Softether (as providing the VPN way to collect logs of servers in several segments of different locations on the Internet.)

B. MRTG and some other system monitors
For this I am using several up to now, and I am planning to consolidate the monitors in just a few nodes, as I want to include links for the graphs of MRTG in the system A. above. I intentionally have several nodes, as in such a way I can troubleshoot more precisely where the bottle neck/system down occurs.

What I am not yet doing:

Consolidating logs scattered around the system and messages written in other forms
As for these logs I am imagining api.log, setup.log, and so on which are written in the text format and scattered around the whole system for Windows OSes.
Consolidating Backup and Task Scheduling logs of Windows NT-Based OSes
Consolidating HFNETCHK/MBSA resultant texts.
Consolidating MRTG results
Consolidating results from tools for penetration testings like NIKTO, Syhunt, N-Stealth, Nessus, and so on.
Merging and consolidating /var/log/messages and so on in Unix platforms including FreeBSD and Linux.
Merging the logs of crond and the texts of logwatch from Unix platforms.
Consolidating results of system monitoring softwares like those released from Dell, HP, and so on.
Visualize the results to make it easier to confirm what is going on.
Issuing alerts via e-mail and web monitor pages.
The site design as a whole. (I am using IIS as a web server to show the results.)
Designing a fault-tolerant system for both SoftEther and the server.

Tool: Pagedefrag de Sysinternals

kenji — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 18:42:00 GMT

Un utilitaire pour les dossiers defragment qui ne sont pas faits après bootup.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml

Ev2T

kenji — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 05:45:00 GMT

It is a tool which converts event log messages to SNMP traps.
http://www.ncomtech.com/download.htm

As for multilbyte languages it may not be ready...
At least sending traps to Kiwi has been terrible when I used this tool with Japanese version of Windows Server 2003.
You may have to obtain a management app which is capable of handling multibyte messages like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
Anyway there seems no probs when used with English version of NT Kernel-based OSes.

Syslog management on Windows platforms.

kenji — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 05:18:00 GMT

Do you know WinSyslog from Adiscon? It is so cool a tool for us system operators/administrators.
Check it out at: http://www.adiscon.com/
(For Japanese: http://adiscon.port139.co.jp/)
This tool is so cool, as it allows you to consolidate all the standard error/log messages to one server. With MSSQL you can even display the messages via IIS 4/5. Merging Syslog, SNMP, and Windows Event logs are critical for system admins, to whom we can say this tool is the very solution for managing system health in general.
You can merge SNMP with syslog, using either the latest version of WinSyslog, or with Kiwi Syslog Daemon (http://www.kiwisyslog.com).
You can merge Windows event logs with the following tools:

1. Event Reporter from Adiscon

2. Event logs to syslog utility from Purdue University.

3. ntsyslog service tool from SourceForge

cf. I found a localised version of ntsyslog in Vector or Mado-no-mori, which uses EUC-JP for Japanese. If you have already deployed Linux- or *NIX-based solution for the consolidation of logs, this client is just-fit, it seems.

Note: there are other tools in the world to facilitate this function. According to Kawabata-san (http://www.kawabata.com/), you can even write up the tool that just-fits to your need. ;-)

***System Requirements:

A. System: See the URLs above
B. Human:

B-1. Knowledge of syslog (unix and network devices you use.)

B-2. Ability or Experience of manually parsing eventlogs on Windows

B-3. Ability to configure network devices to emit logs, if you think you'd like to add the target of monitoring.

B-4. Ability to configure SNMP on servers and clients to enable them to emit SNMP messages.

B-5. Ability/experience to configure server management tools like Allied Telesyn SwimView, HP OpenView or Dell Server Administrator /IT assistant for PowerEdge Systems.
(It is okay to use other administrative tools according to the needs at your managed networks. Tools above are just as examples.)

Outputs are just like this.(Special thanks to lg_de_sucre, a cool guy working together.)

Howto: Manage logs (delete unwanted/needless log messages)?

-> Create jobs (using T-SQL) from SQL Server Enterprise Manager.

Howto: merge the route and simplify the system?

-> Use SoftEther or other VPN products.

Howto: merge outputs of Snort?

-> Consult with docs around Snort.

http://www.winsnort.com/ or http://www.snort.org/ are both good-starts.

Ah, it seems I am gonna miss the last train, so see ya later!

YamaKen at the office in Tokyo.