TheWitnesses MacTrack 2.0 Blog

[TheWitness]

All,

I will make this my tiny MacTrack 2.0 Blog. My first entry is as follows:

Today I made more progress on MacTrack 2.0. It is the first time since I started working on this release that you must make a Database Change not to have your systems Cacti Log spew with errors.

As of SVN Version 450, you must run the database_upgrade.php script. I have changed the Database Upgrade to skip all prior updates. So, you need to have an operational 1.1 system prior to implementing 2.0 unstable.

My work to date has been focused on a few fronts. Before today, I focused on implementing a few user features, bug fixes, and implementing real buttons instead of image based buttons. I also have reworked the end user interface to include a tabbed layout.

Users who try out the 2.0 unstable release will find an "Interfaces" tab. If you select it, you will not receive a page. Don't worry, just don't click it for now. It will eventually work real well.

On the request side, I NEED HELP!!! I need someone to donate a test environment, so that I can develop MacTrack 2.0 and when doing commits, be relatively confident that everything is working.

If you can loan me an system on your network with ssh and a functional Cacti 0.8.7d server, it would benefit the entire community. If you can do such a thing, PM me. I am ok signing any NDA your company requires if that is important.

That's all for today! Happy Easter!

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

Well it's been a long time since I have done MacTrack work. However, I was finishing up another project that smelled a whole like MacTrack, and needed a diversion. So, this weekend, I reved up the MacTrack brain and started making code changes.

I was able to code in some rather nice features, all inspired by other users. I was able to code in the MacWatch (aka Rogue/Stolen PC Detector/etc) code. So, it should be working now.

I also added Juniper Network Swtich Functions and also a nice integration that allows MAC/IP/DNS to come from Arpwatch to supplement the collection from switches and routers.

This week, I'll work on the UI so that all those broken action Icons start to work. Hope you all are enjoying MacTrack.

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

Well more progress was made today. I still have not included the Interfaces Tab yet. But, I did correct several UI issues using a database dump from a tester.

Many of the UI glitches are now worked out. So, I was thinking of adding interfaces, but now that I have a glass of wine in front of me, I'm doing some second guessing. Going to take another sip now, nice Merlot!

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

Ok, Interfaces is done, well mostly anyway. There are only a few things to complete before release. Summing them up:

1) MacAuth Daily Reports
2) Action Icons w/Actions Edit Device, View Graphs, View Interfaces, View MACS, etc.
3) Way to relate MacTrack hosts to Cacti Hosts
4) Exception Reporting Drop down Tweaks
5) Device Type Discovery (Like Scanner)

According to my one tester, there are no more SQL Errors in the SVN copy, but there remain a few PHP Warnings. They are minor. So, now it's ALL UI.

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

Too much has been happening all over. Now MacTrack has crept along for a few years. We, Gandalf and I will be releasing 2.2.0 very soon.

It's not everything that I want it to be, but it's getting better.

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

Well, MacTrack 2.5 is released. I have not done an announcement yet. Reinhard and I will let it simmer for a time, and let you early adopters run it for a while so that we can fix any remaining bugs.

It's been now just about 4 years since I released the first MacTrack plugin. Back then, I thought it was the cat's meow (after all it was free). Now four years later it did not look so good to me.

In my professional career, I now write web apps. Some of those web apps are pretty extensive and elaborate. In all the years that have passed, I can say that MacTrack started this for me.

MacTrack was the plugin that launched two other huge plugins for me. The first was RTM, which monitors LSF clusters and the second was Scanner which monitors internet switches. For both of those plugins, I used MacTrack as the starting point. I used the same internal processes for scanning and logging. So, you might imagine they are quite similar.

Neither are available here at the Cacti web site, but if you like the MacTrack plugin, you will definitely like them.

In the last 4 years, I can tell you how many plugins that I have written, cause there are just too many. Being that MacTrack was the first, I though it proper to finish it in 2.x for you. Enjoy.

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

Well 2.6 is out the door and there have been fewer and fewer bug reports. There's still a lot do to. Yesterday someone asked me to add CDP and LLDP to the system. Sounds easy enough. But, it will only happen when I get time. Won't be too long though. Maybe a few months. We'll see.

TheWitness

[TheWitness]

MacTrack 2.9 is now released. It's a bug fix release and there are no functional changes to speak of. However, with that said, the tool is behaving much better these days.

There are some reports floating about that DB Maintenance is not longer running. I have to check that out. Others report that the graphs don't work. However, I believe that is a web site specific issue.

There are a number of wishlist items that have been requested. Right now, I'm working on other projects. However, I will be doubling back to MacTrack in the next calendar year to get to the wish list.

Currently you can view the Features that have been requested here:

http://bugs.cacti.net/search.php?projec ... atus_id=80

Feel free to add your own.

TheWitness