Discovery and Monitoring Without Limit for COSUG 2013 - Colorado Springs Open Source Users Group

The Assimilation Project provides integrated IT discovery and monitoring aimed at risk management and mitigation. Discovery finds systems, services, dependencies, including services you aren’t monitoring and systems you’ve forgotten about. About 30% of all outside security breaches come through forgotten systems. Discovery is continuous and has zero-network-footprint. Monitoring is extremely scalable due to a radically distributed architecture. Discovery informs monitoring - simplifying configuration and maintenance.

The Assimilation Project software provides extremely scalable easy-to-configure monitoring, and creates a continually up to date, detailed configuration management database based on the Neo4j graph database. This talk will give an overview of the Assimilation project - its capabilities, current status and future plans.

Transcript

1. CO Spgs O S U G IT Discovery and Monitoring Without Limit using The Assimilation Project #AssimProj @OSSAlanR http://assimproj.org/ Alan Robertson <alanr@unix.sh> Assimilation Systems Limited http://assimilationsystems.com
2. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 2/36 CO Spgs O S U G Project Scope Zero-network-footprint continuous Discovery integrated with extreme-scale Monitoring • Continuous extensible discovery – systems, switches, services, dependencies – zero network footprint • Extensible exception monitoring – more than 100K systems • All data goes into central graph database
3. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 3/36 CO Spgs O S U G Questions • How many of you have monitoring? – Open or closed source? – How many of you are happy with it? • How many of you have discovery? – Open or closed source? – Is it continuous? – How many of you are happy with it?
4. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 4/36 CO Spgs O S U G Assimilation Project History • Inspired by 2 million core computer (cyclops64) • Concerns for extreme scale • Topology aware monitoring • Topology discovery w/out security issues =►Discovery of everything!
5. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 5/36 CO Spgs O S U G
6. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 6/36 CO Spgs O S U G An 8-dimensional overview • Problems Addressed • Unique Capabilities • Distribution of Work • Architectural Components • Discovery Graph Schema • Extensible Discovery API • Current Status • Project Needs
7. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 7/36 CO Spgs O S U G First Dimension: Problems Addressed Risk Management at extreme scale 1. Maintaining detailed discovery database 2. Discovering systems you've forgotten about 3. Discovering what (licensed) software you're running – and where 4. Monitoring services, systems and switches 5. Finding services you aren't monitoring
8. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 8/36 CO Spgs O S U G Risk Management/Mitigation • Intrusions • Licensed Software • Audit Risk • Outages • System management
9. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 9/36 CO Spgs O S U G Why Discovery? (DevOps) • Documentation: incomplete, incorrect • Dependencies: unknown • Planning: Needs accurate data • Best Practices: Verification needs data • ITIL CMDB (Configuration Mgmt DataBase) Our Discovery: continuous, low-profile
10. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 10/36 CO Spgs O S U G Second Dimension: Unique Powerful Features 1. Continuous Discovery 2. Zero network discovery footprint 3. Centralized graph database 4. We know everything that changes 5. Discover and update dependency information
11. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 11/36 CO Spgs O S U G (even more) Features... 6. Discovery and monitoring tightly integrated 7. Discovery and monitoring easily extensible 8. Naturally scalable to > 100K systems 9. Server failures distinguishable from switch failures 10.Minimal network load 11.Multi-tenant support
12. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 12/36 CO Spgs O S U G This all sounds unreasonable... • Huge scalability without complexity? • Discovery without sending packets? Really?
13. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 13/36 CO Spgs O S U G Third Dimension: Uniformly, fully distributed work Two philosophical underpinnings 1. Monitoring and Discovery are fully distributed 2. Reliable “no news is good news” Only responses to changes are centralized
14. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 14/36 CO Spgs O S U G Simple Scalability • I can explain how we distribute work so your grandmother would understand
15. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 15/36 CO Spgs O S U G Massive Scalability – or “I see dead servers in O(1) time” • Adding systems does not increase the monitoring work on any system • Each server monitors 2 (or 4) neighbors • Each server monitors its own services • Ring repair and alerting is O(n) – but a very small amount of work • Ring repair for a million nodes is less than 10K packets per day (approximately 1 packet per 9 seconds) Current Implementation
16. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 16/36 CO Spgs O S U G Minimizing Network Footprint (planned) • Support diagnosing switch issues • Minimize network traffic • Ideal for multi-site arrangements
17. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 17/36 CO Spgs O S U G Fourth Dimension: Architectural Components Three Architectural Components Collective Management Authority • One CMA per installation Nanoprobes • One nanoprobe per system Data Storage • Central Neo4j graph database
18. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 18/36 CO Spgs O S U G Basic CMA Functions (python) Nanoprobe management • Configure & direct • Hear alerts & discovery • Update rings: join/leave Update database Issue alerts
19. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 19/36 CO Spgs O S U G Nanoprobe Functions ('C') Announce self to CMA • Reserved multicast address (can be unicast address or name if no multicast) Do what CMA says • receive configuration information – CMA addresses, ports, defaults • send/expect heartbeats • perform discovery actions • perform monitoring actions No persistent state across reboots
20. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 20/36 CO Spgs O S U G Service Monitoring based on Linux-HA/Pacemaker LRM • LRM == Local Resource Manager • Well-proven architecture: – “no news is good news” AKA management by exception • Implements Open Cluster Framework standard (and others) • Each system monitors own services • Can also start, stop, migrate services
21. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 21/36 CO Spgs O S U G Monitoring Pros and Cons Pros Simple & Scalable Uniform work distribution No single point of failure Distinguishes switch vs host failure Easy on LAN, WAN Multi-tenant approach Cons Active agents Potential slowness at power-on
22. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 22/36 CO Spgs O S U G Why a graph database? (Neo4j) • Humans describe systems as graphs • Dependency & Discovery information: graph • Speed of graph traversals depends on size of subgraph, not total graph size • Root cause queries  graph traversals – notoriously slow in relational databases • Visualization is Natural • Schema-less design: good for constantly changing heterogeneous environment • Graph Model === Object Model
23. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 23/36 CO Spgs O S U G Fifth Dimension: Discovery API Scripts perform discovery – output JSON Three Discovery Snippets • OS information • Service discovery • Client discovery
24. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 24/36 CO Spgs O S U G How does discovery work? Nanoprobe scripts perform discovery • Each discovers one kind of information • Can take arguments from environment • Output JSON CMA stores Discovery Information • JSON stored in Neo4j database • CMA discovery plugins => graph nodes and relationships
25. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 25/36 CO Spgs O S U G OS discovery JSON Snippet { "nodename": "alanr-1225B", "operating-system": "GNU/Linux", "machine": "x86_64", "processor": "x86_64", "hardware-platform": "x86_64", "kernel-name": "Linux", "kernel-release": "3.8.0-31-generic", "kernel-version": "#46-Ubuntu SMP ...", "Distributor ID": "Ubuntu", "Description": "Ubuntu 13.04", "Release": "13.04", "Codename": "raring" }
26. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 26/36 CO Spgs O S U G sshd Service JSON Snippet (from netstat and /proc) "sshd": { "exe": "/usr/sbin/sshd", "cmdline": [ "/usr/sbin/sshd", "-D" ], "uid": "root", "gid": "root", "cwd": "/", "listenaddrs": { "0.0.0.0:22": { "proto": "tcp", "addr": "0.0.0.0", "port": 22 }, and so on...
27. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 27/36 CO Spgs O S U G ssh Client JSON Snippet (from netstat and /proc) "ssh": { "exe": "/usr/sbin/ssh", "cmdline": [ "ssh", "servidor" ], "uid": "alanr", "gid": "alanr", "cwd": "/home/alanr/monitor/src", "clientaddrs": { "10.10.10.5:22": { "proto": "tcp", "addr": "10.10.10.5", "port": 22 }, and so on...
28. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 28/36 CO Spgs O S U G Sixth Dimension: Graph Schema Two Schema subgraphs • Client / server dependency • Switch interconnect
29. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 29/36 CO Spgs O S U G ssh -> sshd dependency graph
30. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 30/36 CO Spgs O S U G Switch Discovery Data from LLDP (or CDP) CRM transforms LLDP (CDP) Data to JSON
31. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 31/36 CO Spgs O S U G Seventh Dimension: Current Status • First release April 2013 • Great unit tests • Nanoprobe code works well • Several discovery methods written • CMA restructuring finishing up • UI development underway • Licensed under GPL: commercial options available
32. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 32/36 CO Spgs O S U G Eighth Dimension: Get Involved! We need every talent! • Early adopters • Testers, Continuous Integration • Designers • Developers (C,Python, Shell, PowerShell, JavaScript) • Porters (esp Windows) • Promoters, publicists • Packagers • And so on...
33. CoSpgsOSUG 21 November 2013 © 2013 Assimilation Systems Limited 33/36 CO Spgs O S U G Resistance Is Futile! Mailing List bit.ly/AssimML #AssimProj @OSSAlanR Project Web Site assimproj.org Blog techthoughts.typepad.com assimilationsystems.com