WARNING: This information has not been updated since October, 1997!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
INDEX ENTRY FOR NOCOL:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Name: NOCOL - Network monitoring package

Version: 4.01 and 4.2beta5

NOTE: A new version of NOCOL is expected to be released soon.
      Look up http://www.netplex-tech.com/software/nocol for more information.

Author(s): Vikas Aggarwal <vikas@navya.com>
           with contributions from many

Ftp source: ftp.navya.com:/pub/vikas

Description:
     
     NOCOL/NetConsole (Network Operation Center On-Line) is a network
     monitoring package that runs on Unix platforms and capable of
     monitoring network and system variables such as ICMP or RPC
     reachability, RMON variables, nameservers, ethernet load, port
     reachability, host performance, SNMP traps, modem line usage,
     appletalk & novell routes/services, BGP peers, etc.  The software
     is extensible and new monitors can be added easily.

    The software consists of a number of individual, standalone
    monitoring agents that poll the various network and system
    parameters and put it into a common data format. All the monitors
    have a common display and postprocessing interface (such as
    logging, notification, etc.). The design allows running just one
    set of monitoring agents and *any* number of display agents, and
    all of the displays see the same consistent set of data.

    Additionally, each event is assigned a severity (determined by
    comparing against user defined threshold values) which is
    gradually escalated, thus preventing false alarms and a
    customized priority notification based on the severity. There are
    four severity levels ranging from Critical thru Info, and each
    event typically steps through each one of these severities until
    it reaches its maximum allowed level. 

    The display uses UNIX 'curses' screen management and can thus run
    on a large variety of terminals. The user running the display can
    select the minimum display severity-only events above this
    minimum severity level are displayed. 

    A Web interface has also been added which uses the HTML REFRESH
    meta tag for displaying the nocol events. 

    To date, the various monitoring agents developed are:

        - IP ICMP monitor (using IP 'multiping')
        - OSI reachability monitor (using OSI ping)
        - RPC portmapper monitor (using 'rpcping')
        - Ethernet load (bandwidth & pps)
        - TCP port monitor
        - Unix host performance (disks, memory, swap, load, nfs, collisions)
        - SNMP variables monitor (RMON, Cisco router, terminal server)
        - TCP data throughput monitor
        - Nameserver (named)
        - SNMP traps
        - Syslog logfile monitor (for specified patterns)
        - NTP stratum of hosts (Network Time Protocol)
        - UPS (APC) battery level monitor
        - Usage of terminal server modem lines (busy lines)
        - Appletalk route monitor (for cisco routers)
        - Novell service monitor
        - BGP peer status

    A PERL interface is available for developing additional monitors in
    the PERL programming language (it is fairly easy to add additional
    monitors to the package). 

    -- Quoted from the README file in the distribution.

Advertised architectures:

   The README says "Has been compiled on Solaris2.2, SunOS4.1.1,
   Ultrix4.2, BSDI/386."  The file PORTING gives hints for compiling
   on these and also HP/UX, DEC OSF, AIX3.2.

Prerequisites: C Compiler, gunzip utility, and Perl.