network monitoring system

---

What is CaiCai

CaiCai is a fully configurable network monitoring system.
It runs continuously (i.e. like a daemon) and keeps monitoring the user-specified IPs and services, presenting a self-updated HTML report page.
Also, CaiCai logs all the abnormal events and triggers an (user defined) alarm when something is not normal.
The file logs may be used directly by the user or (and that's interesting) by accessing the CaiCai's Heuristic Log Analyser HTML page.

CaiCai does not require SNMP-enabled hosts.
There are lots of SNMP analysers around, CaiCai is not a direct equivalent for them.
Let's put in different words: CaiCai is like SNMP, without SNMP.
CaiCai is a tool to be used with hosts which:

• Do not support SNMP.
• You do not have access to enable a SNMP service.
• You do not want to enable a SNMP service.
• You do not want or do not have access to install any additional software at the server side.

These are the tests currently supported by CaiCai:

• DHCP
  Checks whether DHCPD is alive. Also detects parallel (non authorized) DHCPDs.
• DNS
  Checks whether the DNS is working.
• FTP
  Checks the specified FTPd servers.
• HTTP
  Checks the specified HTTPd servers.
• PING
  Checks whether a host replies or not.
  This is interesting to test whether a link is alive, or at which point the link is broken.
  (obviously you need to ping a host, a router or a managed switch)
• POP3
  Checks the specified POP3d servers.
• SMTP
  Checks the specified Sendmail/alike servers.
• IMAP
  Checks the specified IMAP servers.
• HTTPS
  Checks the specified HTTPSd servers.
• SMB
  Checks whether the specified hosts with SMB (Samba/W*ndows) file sharing services are working or not.
• and more modules to come...

CaiCai's modular architeture adds convenience since it makes possible to write new test modules easily.
CaiCai is a free (as in freedom) software, distributed under the GNU GPL license.


System requirements
Just one Un*x machine (Linux, BSD, etc).
(there's no need to install any additional software at the servers' side)

CaiCai is a system composed by several scripts (Bash and Python) working together,
so it also needs basic tools such as:

• bash
• date
• dhcpcd
• grep
• host (bind-utils)
• ping (iputils)
• sed >= 4 (<= 3.x won't work properly)
• sleep
• telnet
• wget
• Python >= 2 if you want to use the Log Analyser

Installation and configuration

1. Install the RPM package:
   # rpm -ivh caicai-X.X-X.noarch.rpm
   OR
   unpack the tar file and
   # ./configure
   # make
   # make install
2. Configure the preferences in /etc/caicai/
   
3. Start the init script:
   # /etc/init.d/caicai start

Files available for download

The available files for download are listed in this page


What means "CaiCai"? How do I pronounce that?

"Cai" means "(it) falls" in Portuguese.
It's a joke on how often the network breaks. So by saying "caicai" we're sort of "asking" it to break at that very moment (since it's going to happen anyway).

Approximate pronounciation in some languages:

• English: Kyle-Kyle
• Spanish: Cay-Cay
• Polish: Kaj-Kaj
• Belarusian, Ukranian, Russian: Кай-Кай

Contacting the author

Daniel Mealha Cabrita
dancab@gmxnomorespam.net -- (remove the "nomorespam" string)

---

Online since: October 31st, 2004
Last updated: November 20th, 2005