Announce: NSClient++ 0.3.4 [Windows agent]

[Michael Medin]

(since I don't have my own email-list ... yet I announce on and off here,
hope no one disagrees to much, I do try to keep it to a minimum)

New version of NSClient++ 0.3.4 released and I recommend everyone to
upgrade since there is a nasty bug in the previous version regarding
process checks which has been fixed.


Hrumph, what is this NSClient++ you ask?
Go to the all new domain and find out http://nsclient.org but in short it
is  "nsclient" compatible NRPE service for Microsoft Windows with a lot of
built-in checks.


New version I say?
What is so amazingly new I need to be bothered you ask?
The major new things (apart from the check-proc issue) are:
   1. The new system tray that works on Vista and beyond. (in beta)
   2. Quite a lot of fixes and improved error handling all over.

A slightly more detailed list:
(for a really detailed on read the CHANGELOG)
    * Minor tweaks to CheckServiceState ("missing services" are now
handled better)
    * Added some "reasonable checks under [External Alias] for the
CheckExternalScripts.dll module.
    * CheckEventLog now supports "long eventlog names" (you can now use
the alias used in the event viewer)
    * BREAKING CHANGE filter=new is now the default so unless you use the
new filtering you need to specify filter=old instead!
    * Brand new (but highly unstable?) System tray support for windows
Vista and beyond
    * SVN tree now has a sample dot-net plugin (with C++ wrapper)
    * Installer now "uninstalls" as it "should"
    * Improved error handling for the WMI checks as well as some additions.
    * Fixed issue with & and : on some commands via check_nt.
    * Added sample powershell script as well as a workaround for making
them run.
    * Added DebugOutput to so you can use use sysinternals DebugView to
see logging before the agent starts.
    * Removed all (I think) asserts replacing them with exceptions (should
I hope reduce crashes and instead leave some form of errors)


So where do I fond this spankingly shiny new version you ask?
You can find this new version on the (all new non-offensive domain name
http://nsclient.org :) as well as nagios forge and source forge.

Download links:
 * http://nsclient.org/nscp/downloads (release and nightly builds)
 * NagiosForge http://www.nagiosforge.org/gf/project/nsclientpp/frs/
 * SourceForge
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=131326&package_id=144099


Will it be a lot of work to upgrade you ask?
Well, The simplest way is to:
 1. net stop nsclientpp
 2. backup the old .ini file(s)
 3. unzip the new files
 4. restore (merge?) the old .ini file(s)
 5. net start nsclientpp

And if you feel this is tor arcane for you you can uninstall the previous
version and then re-install the new one. (the next version will
automagically uninstall it self during upgrade so this is the last time
you need to do things by hand).


Will it crash all the time and reboot my server you ask?
Baaah I tell you, baaahh (not the sound sheep makes by the way).
I hope so I have done a bit of stability testing on this one and it came
up clear but still I don't run all possible checks so one never knows.
A good thing to have in mind is that the "new system tray" is probably not
stable so be ware if you use it.


Humm... new system tray you ask?
Well, if you are on XP (or beyond) remove the good old SysTray.dll module
and instead change the following:
[settings]
shared_session=1

and you should see a brand new system tray when you (re)start the service
and/or login.
But again this is a new concept and it has a bunch of "problems" so take
care when you use it.
I aim to improve this and would really like to get feed back from people
trying it out so please use it but I would choose a test/development/*
(the * does not mean production here BTW) server so when it crashes no one
will be all to angry with you.


And whats in the future you ask?
I shall now start merging the stable/development branch and after that do
some thing like what Nagios did with their versioning.
In short there will be both a stable version as well as a "development
version" so you will end up with "builds from both" the 3.3.x branch as
well as the "new" 0.4.0 branch. I wont be as explicit as them as to have
odd/even numbers but I shall try to keep a slightly closer "bug fix
schedule" then before.

The main new (planned) features for the 0.4.x branch are:
 * Improved installer (that can handle upgrades seamlessly)
 * Rewritten settings handling that works seamlessly with the registry as
well as unicode so you can use all them "fancy foreigner characters"
 * Add encoding support so you (again) can use "fancy foreigner
characters" in your service and performance checks.
 * dot-net plugin wrapper so you can write plugins in ".net" more easily.
 * A new "type" of plugin so you can add transparent authentication to NRPE.
 * <your feature here> (just request it, who knows... might be there)

Did you actually read all this I ask?
Nahh... though not... but writing it sure beats updating that dreadfully
boring "developer guidelines" document I really should be working on at
work.

// Michael Medin


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