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How to run arbitrary scripts on linux?

I would like to be able to run arbitrary scripts on linux hosts, from the Application Performance Monitor.

Right now, I am just trying to get the most simple script possible to run, but am not having any luck.

Can anybody tell me what to put in the "Command Line" and (optionally) the Script Body blank?

I can tell (from the logs on the linux server) that Orion is authenticating properly, but I have no idea what it is trying to do.

At the moment I have this in the Command Line field:

/bin/echo -e "Message: this thing is wack\nStatistic: 0\n"

(in this case, I don't think the "Script Body" field matters, but it is certainly possible that I misunderstand how things are supposed to work).

I have also tried:

perl ${SCRIPT} arg1 arg2

in the Command Line field, and:

print "Message: Hooray perl?\n";
print "Statistic: 0";
exit 0;

in the "Script Body" field.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

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josh.clark

What distrobution of linux are you running? We've have some know bugs for some of the linux distros.

jshare

We are running Debian etch.

I'm not sure how that would really matter if it is able to ssh to the box and execute a command. In my "echo" test, i fully qualify the path to the echo binary, and the command is pretty self-contained.

jshare

I think I have a handle on where things go awry. Rather than invoking commands via ssh directly, this software appears to launch an interactive SSH session to the box (based on the fact that my .bash_history files are being updated).

In my .bash_history file I see things like: PS1="#PROMPT\\#"

followed by: sh

I think that the prompt setting command does not set the bash prompt to what the software is expecting to see, and so it sits there (probably waiting on "#PROMPT#" ) until the timeout is hit, at which point it disconnects.

This is consistent with the fact that you have both a "command line" and a "script body" field in the monitor definitions. I could not figure out what the "script body" would be for, but here is how I think it works now:

interactively log into the box
change the prompt to (in theory) something known
cat the "script body" into a temp file
invoke the interpreter specified in "command line" on the temp file (designated by ${SCRIPT} in the command line definition
get results back from the script
delete the temp file
log out

So it's getting stuck on step 3, because it never sees the prompt it expects to see, because it doesn't know how to set the prompt for bash.

Is there any way to workaround this bug in your software?

josh.clark

Your steps are correct and yes, this is a bug. We are working on a fix right now, but I'm not sure there is a workaround right now.