FAQ-About
From OpenNMS
About the OpenNMS Project
Q: What is OpenNMS?
A: OpenNMS, the application, is the first enterprise-grade network management platform to be developed under the open-source model.
The goal is for OpenNMS to be a truly distributed, scalable platform for all aspects of the FCAPS network management model, and to make this platform available to both open source and commercial applications.
Currently, OpenNMS focuses on three main areas:
- Service Polling - determining service availability and reporting on same.
- Data Collection - collecting, storing and reporting on network information as well as generating thresholds.
- Event and Notification Management - receiving events, both internal and external, and using those events to feed a robust notification system, including escalation.
The OpenNMS Group is the commercial entity that funds the OpenNMS application development.
Q: Why Open Source?
A: We believe that true innovation cannot come from Goliath-sized organizations.
We also believe that open source is an even better fit for the network management arena than Linux is for operating systems. Unlike Linux, network management attempts to monitor and control many different technologies from many different vendors.
Consider the number of new network devices which come out every year. Commercial vendors cannot possibly hope to keep up with the load, and as such, have been reliant on "lowest common denominator" management techniques. However, an open source project where everyone — vendors, users, and consultants alike — can contribute stands a much higher probability of success.
Q: What language(s) is OpenNMS written in?
A: OpenNMS is mainly written in Java. The goal for OpenNMS 2.0 is to have a product that will install as a collection of .jar files.
There are a few areas that aren't Java:
- icmpd - The 1.4 Java API does not understand ICMP. Since ICMP echo requests ("pings") are the simplest way to test the responsiveness of an IP-based network device, no network management application will be complete without it. The goal is to separate the ICMP functions into their own daemon that OpenNMS will use if present and ignore if not. OpenNMS does not require ICMP in order to monitor network devices.
- Database - OpenNMS currently uses PostgreSQL as the underlying database, which is written in C. OpenNMS 2.0 will allow for a number of databases to be used through the adoption of Hibernate.
- RRDTool - OpenNMS uses JRobin (a Java port of RRDTool 1.0) by default, but can be configured to use RRDTool proper (which is written in C) for cases where JRobin is not suitable.
Q: Does OpenNMS Have a Map?
A: This is probably one of the most frequent questions asked by people new to OpenNMS: where's the map?
Maps are now available in the 1.6.x and 1.7.x releases. See
http://www.opennms.org/index.php/Maps
Map development was not an early priority for OpenNMS. See following discussion.
OpenNMS was developed by seasoned network management consultants. One of the more popular commercial NMS programs is Hewlett-Packard's Network Node Manager, which generates a network map that can be customized. Most of the OpenNMS creators had spend literally months of their lives customizing maps like those provided by NNM.
The problem is that, while pretty, automated maps have limited usefulness. It can be argued that even customized maps rarely return the investment made in creating them. Even with NNM, most experienced network managers rely more on the event list than the map.
So, rather than spending a huge amount of development effort on a map, OpenNMS chose a different route. On the main WebUI page there is a "real time console" (RTC) that reflects the status of categories of devices. Out of the box these categories reflect groups of devices like database servers, web servers, etc. However, anything in the database can be used to create a custom category list, and grouping devices by location, building, vendor, IP range, etc., is very common.
The categories list follows a basic tenet of OpenNMS: once configured it should be simple to use and as automated as possible. As new devices are added, the categories automatically update. There is no need for manual customization, such as would be required with a useful map.
That said, there is a group within OpenNMS working on a map. The beginnings of a map have been contributed to the code (read the maps.disable file in the etc directory of the OpenNMS installation). Those interested communicate on the maps mailing list. If you wish to work on that part of the project, check there.
Q: Where Is Information on the Current OpenNMS Release?
A: Please note that we now keep up-to-date release notes on the web site and in the latest RPM packages, they may have information about installation on your particular distribution, or other last-minute things that went into the release. Before asking questions on the list, PLEASE check the release notes and this FAQ thoroughly for information pertaining to your issue.
You can get a general idea of what's changed in the new release at the new and noteworthy page.
Q: What are the Supported Platforms?
A: As OpenNMS is written mainly in Java, it can theoretically run on any system that supports a 1.4 SDK.
Currently, the following Operating Systems are Supported with up-to-date builds:
- Linux
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux /CentOS (3, 4, and 5, x86 and x86_64)
- Debian Etch and Lenny (x86 and x86_64)
- Fedora Core (2 through 8, x86 and x86_64)
- Mandriva 2007 and 2008
- SuSE (9 and 10)
- Solaris 8, 9, and 10 (SPARC)
- Solaris 8, 9, and 10 (x86)
- Mac OS X (10.4+, PowerPC and x86)
- Windows 2000, XP, 2003 (Longhorn and Vista are untested)
Q: How do I subscribe/unsubscribe to the OpenNMS Mailing List(s)?
A: We use SourceForge mailing lists. You can find links to subscribe as well as view archives on the web at our mailing lists page.
Please note: when subscribing, remember the address you used, as you will need to send from that address or your post will be rejected.
To unsubscribe, please do not send a message to the list or to the list administrator. Go to the list information page for the list you wish to leave, and enter in your e-mail address at the bottom and edit your options.
Again, you will need to use the e-mail address you subscribed with.
When it asks you for a password, don't panic if you don't have one. Click the button that says "Email My Password To Me".
Q: What makes this project different from Nagios?
A: In addition to Nagios, people often ask about OpenNMS as compared to another large non-commercial network management project, Big Brother.
To discuss Big Brother first, their "Better than Free" license does not really qualify as a true open source license like the GNU GPL that both OpenNMS and Nagios are published under, so it can't really be considered in a comparison. This is not to discount the large Big Brother user community - if it works for you, great - but true open-source community-based developement is different from freeware/shareware.
As far as Nagios is concerned, the main difference is that OpenNMS was developed from the beginning to be an enterprise-grade solution capable of monitoring a theoretically unlimited number of devices (via a distributed and tiered system).
This is even alluded to with respect to SNMP datacollection in the Nagios documentation:
We sometimes compete with Nagios, but they are not our enemy. We look to that project to see where we can improve (such as by adding a log file parser). Use what works for you and what meets your needs.
We have some people using OpenNMS to monitor 25 servers or fewer, just because they like it, and we have people using OpenNMS to monitor 80,000 devices, which can be hard for any product to do well.
Q: Do you have some example availability reports that I could look at?
A: Sure, check the availability reports page.
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