Ø Subject: A stupid idea? Using "twitter" like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
No, not crazy. If you have a console automation product like Netview/390 or something similar (I think you said you have Unicenter), and a convenient Linux host, it's actually pretty easy. Using the real Twitter is a bad idea, unless you really want those status messages archived in the Library of Congress forever and ever, but that's your neck if you want to do it that way. Same idea as below. One way you could do it is: 1) Configure syslog on USS. In your /etc/syslog.conf, put the following line: *.* @convenient.linux.host.com and comment everything else out. 2) See if you have a USS program called "logger". If you don't, it's pretty easy to build from the Linux sources. What logger does is write a line to syslog, using the parameters you set wrt to syslog facility, etc. 3) On your convenient.linux.host, install a XMPP (aka Jabber) line mode client. There's lots; pick one your Linux distribution supports. Create a Jabber conference room for each class of message you might want to subscribe to. The OpenFire package has both a Jabber client and server, IIRC. There's a Java Jabber client. I think someone even wrote a COBOL Jabber client (sick, sick!) 4) On your convenient.linux.host, run something like this: "tail -f /var/log/user6.log | awk -s "$2 $4" | xmppmsg -f z...@host.com<mailto:z...@host.com> -t $dest - " 5) Configure your console automation tool to recognize the messages you want to make available and have it run "logger -s user7 $message" to log the message to syslog on z/OS. The message is automatically transferred to the Linux host and sent out as a Jabber message to the conference room. Anyone who wants to follow that conference room can use any Jabber client they like and the message appears. If you already have the console event stream (or whatever you want to monitor and get notices for) integrated with Unicenter, just install the Jabber client on the Unicenter machine, and use Unicenter's action routines to call the Jabber client to deliver the message. Jabber is fully encrypted, implements strong authentication, and logs everything. You can even set up most Jabber clients to respond to a message (kind of a poor-man's RPC) to trigger some event if you feel it necessary. There are phone, www, pc - pretty much anything - Jabber clients. If you weren't aware of it, Google Talk is a Jabber implementation -- a really, really big one. You probably could build the Jabber client and server on USS if you wanted; that'd keep it all on the MF. If you have Linux guests on Z, this is a good utility server function. Keep in mind, though, that implementing "happy messages" in your jobs will likely make any job scheduling product you buy very "unhappy". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
