panopta Agent - monitoring software

Description
===========
The agent monitors software and records various OS and system metrics, based on settings for the machine set
on the panopta site.

Installation
============
The package should take care of all of the installation. Upon install, a cron file
is created in /etc/cron.d/ and added to the agent user's cron tab.

Basic Operation
===============
The installation of the agent creates a new user on the system, and makes a cron tab
for that user. The cron is set to run the agent once every minute. If the agent cannot make
contact with the external servers, it saves a cache of its local monitoring data (up to a 
couple of days worth) until it can regain a connection. The services and metrics that the
agent checks can be chosen online in the control panel. The agent should work fine as long as 
it can make outgoing HTTPS connections to the endpoint specified in the config file. 

Config File
===========
The main config file should be located at /etc/panopta-agent/panopta_agent.cfg after install. Check here to make sure that
the server_key variable matches up with the server key for your server page in the control panel.
If you need to change the server key, run:

    python /usr/bin/panopta-agent/panopta_agent.py --server-key [key]

Plugin Config File
==================
The plugin config file is located at /etc/panopta-agent/panopta_agent_plugins.cfg. This file is for
settings specific to each plugin (where applicable). This is mainly a place to put credentials
for mysql or mongo so check commands can be run.

Sample Plugin Config File:

    [mysql]
    username=x
    password=x
    
    [mongo]
    username=x
    password=x

Uninstalling the agent
======================
Removing the package you installed with should take care of removing the agent. For RPM:

    rpm -e panopta_agent

For debian:

    dpkg -r panopta-agent  

The agent is cronned to run once every minute. If for some reason uninstalling the package
doesn't work, check your /etc/cron.d folder and delete the cron file.

Bulk Deployment
===============
Normally when you want to have a server monitored by the agent, you add the
server in the control panel and then install the agent on the target machine. If you want 
to deploy the agent to a large number of servers without having to add each one in the 
control panel, you can do the following:

. Go to the control panel and get your customer key
. Deploy the following config file to /etc/panopta-agent/panopta_agent.cfg
. Put the customer key and heading in the config file, as shown below:
    
    [agent]
    customer_key = xxxxxx

Then deploy the agent package to all the servers and install. The agent on each of those
machines will sync with the server using your customer key for verification, and will automatically
add each of your servers to the control panel.

Custom Plugins
==============
The agent comes with pre-written plugins for checking common software (MySQL, Apache, etc) and 
OS checks. If you want to track behavior of some software that's not included or custom written,
you can write your own custom plugin that can be tracked by the agent:

. Place your plugin file in /usr/share/panopta-agent, so the agent will be able to find it 
. In your python file, create a class that subclasses Plugin from /usr/lib/panopta-agent/agent_util.py
. Override the "textkey" variable to be the name you desire for the plugin. This will also be used
  as a label in the logs.
. Override the "description" variable to be a string describing the plugin
. The check() function is where the main work happens. You should perform whatever checks you need,
  and return an integer based on whether it was succesful or not (i.e. 1 for up, 0 for down). In
  the control panel, you can set a check to see if the value is greater, less, or equal to whatever
  you specify.