---
title: "Thanksgiving Break Development Projects"
description: "A list of potential development projects including system auditing, configuration generation, and monitoring tools"
author: "Colin McNamara"
tags: ["development","automation","monitoring","nagios","xml","system-administration","vmware"]
image: "https://colinmcnamara.com/images/blog/thanksgiving-break-development-projects/featured.png"
date: 2006-11-21
url: https://colinmcnamara.com/blog/thanksgiving-break-development-projects
---

# Thanksgiving Break Development Projects

What should I do this thanksgiving break? Here's my list of potential development projects:

## 1. Write a Host Auditing Application

**Existing Features:**
- Generates XML configs based on specific command generation
- Outputs to flat XML database

**New Features:**
- Runs from central monitoring platform
- Gathers host information first by shelling into boxes and gathering packages / processes
- Verifies application by NMAP of high number ports
- Outputs into individual HTTP / XML formatted files
- Creates index for easy host data access
- Could run locally to create a host status page
- Create nagios byhost config on output

**Thoughts:**
- This could go over really well
- Would be fun to write
- Could land me in scope creep hell
- Should I output through Apache, or a servlet...

## 2. Update the Real Time System Config Generator

**Existing Features:**
- Generates Content Switching configs from application data
- Has a web interface for development access
- Notifies help desk

**New Features:**
- Create firewall definition files
- Create nagios probe config
- Integrate XML submission probe generation

**Thoughts:**
- Nice to have, but 90% of the functionality is already there

## 3. Update Nagios System Config Generator (nagiosuploader)

**Existing Features:**
- Grabs system info when run locally
- Posts configs to monitoring server for processing

**New Features:**
- Host auditing to determine services monitored
- Clean up error condition handling
- Web interface for config generation

**Thoughts:**
- Having a web interface for users to fill out would lower my workload

## 4. Automate Web Application Error Reporting

**Existing Features:**
- None, well... manually executed text processing on log files. I wouldn't call that an application

**New Features:**
- Automation of customer / error code matrix grep statements
- Output in XML / http format web page and email
- Text only output in commented form {/* text */} for command line mail clients

**Thoughts:**
- Proves the point that certain people can be replaced by very small shell scripts (Unix humor)
- Should be a big hit with Client services
- Could drive the application "digital dashboard"
- Should be fun to practice using AWK for formatting data in a standard output
- Serious danger of scope creep
- May be better implemented in a MySQL back-end

## 5. Personal Growth Items

- Finish the VMware image for the 7206 emulator and post to VMware Technology Network for general use (delete IOS files before uploading)
- Read more of Long's storage book
- Write a sample chapter for Stay at Home Photography
- Get GTK pod to run under my cmcnamar account, not root (I think the iPod's file system doesn't like changing ownership or file attributes)
- Redo the 2cups homepage
- Clean the Garage.....