Maybe take a look outside python: - Puppet
On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 3:49 PM, snorble <snor...@hotmail.com> wrote: > On Nov 17, 4:31 pm, Irmen de Jong <ir...@-nospam-razorvine.net> wrote: >> On 17-11-2011 5:17, snorble wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > I'm writing a tool for monitoring the workstations and servers in our >> > office. I plan to have a server and a client service that runs on each >> > workstation and reports back to the server (heartbeat, disk free >> > space, etc). >> >> > So far I am considering XMLRPC, or a client service that just >> > downloads a Python file and runs it. >> >> > With XMLRPC I don't know how to easily add features without having to >> > update every client. Also while playing with XMLRPC I learned that >> > when you run a registered function, it runs it on the server. I was >> > hoping it would run on the client, so that when I get the machine's >> > computer name (or disk space, etc) it will return the client's info. >> > It seems with XMLRPC I would have to hard code the functionality into >> > the client (i.e. client gets it's computer name, then calls the XMLRPC >> > function to pass it to the server)? I was hoping it would work more >> > like, "pass some code to the client to be run on the client, and >> > report it to the server". Almost XMLRPC in the reverse direction. >> >> > With the download-and-run approach, it seems trivially easy to add new >> > functionality to the clients. Just save the updated Python file to the >> > server, and clients download it and run it. >> >> > Are there any standard approaches to problems like this that can be >> > recommended? Thank you. >> >> The security implications are HUGE when you are thinking about >> transferring and executing arbitrary code over the network. Avoid this >> if at all possible. But if you can be 100% sure it's only trusted stuff, >> things are not so grim. >> >> Have a look at Pyro, or even Pyro Flame: >> >> http://packages.python.org/Pyro4/http://packages.python.org/Pyro4/flame.html >> >> Flame allows for very easy remote module execution and a limited way of >> transferring code to the 'other side'. >> >> Also what is wrong with running an XMLrpc server, or Pyro daemon, on >> your client machines? This way your central computer can call registered >> methods (or remote objects in case of Pyro) on the client and execute >> code there (that reports all sorts of stuff you want to know). Or have >> each client call into a central server, where it reports that stuff >> itself. Many ways to skin a cat. >> >> Regards, >> Irmen de Jong > > I'm thinking maybe the client service will have a small number of > generic features, such as reading WMI and SNMP values. That way the > server still dictates the work to be done (i.e. XMLRPC returns which > WMI/SNMP values to query), and the client remains relatively focused > and straightforward. > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
