              Monitoring & Administration Tool (MAT)
              --------------------------------------

*** NEW Additions ***
New to version 0.20 is the replication/mirroring tool.  This 
easy to use GUI allows a designated replication master to 
distribute files to MAT hosts


New in version 0.19 is a network enabled backup tool.  It has
many of the features of expensive backup packages including:
  - Ability to backup multiple hosts at the same time.
  - Online catalogs to make restores easy.
The backup GUI makes managing the backup jobs easy.  The backup
jobs are integrated into the MATd schedular.  The restore GUI is 
still under development, so the command line has to be used.


MAT is an enterprise monitoring and administration tool.  It allows
you as an administrator, or authorized individual, to manage a 
hetrogeneous UNIX network.  It hides 
most of the complexity of the standard configuration files making it 
easier administer.  The monitoring daemon provides historical 
information about a hosts status.  Several monitored parameters 
can be graphed to aid capacity planning.  The monitored parameters 
can trigger events when a threshold is exceeded, alerting 
administrators to problems.

MAT was born out of the need to download simple administrative 
tasks from skilled overworked people such as yourself to those who 
*really* need more to do. 

Some of the advanced features include the ability to upgrade it's self
as new versions, or upgrades become available, the ability to allow
other users to control some or all of the administrative functions.
The ability to see the "health" of a host.

MAT is in three parts, the MAT agent, the MAT daemon, and the MAT 
console.  The MAT agent does the actual work of modifing files, 
running commands, and inspecting the system.  The MAT daemon MATd
periodically monitors system parameters, and can send alarms.
The MAT console provides an easy to use GUI which sends commands to 
the MAT agent to manipulate and query standard UNIX configuration 
files.  It also provides an easy to use GUI for graphing the MATd
results and controlling the parameters monitored by MATd.

MAT is available  for Linux, SunOS 4.1.x, IRIX 6.x and Solaris.  
Currently MAT allows you to add, modify and delete the following:

	Users    (Site specific user defaults are supported)
	Groups
	Hosts
	Email Aliases
	Mounted filesystems
	Crontab entries
	DNS client configuration
	Login message (motd)
	Services
	Exported (shared) filesystems
	DNS domains & records (multiple)
	Most NIS records  
	Syslogd entries 

MAT allows you inspect many of the common system parameters including:
	All syslog files  (TK 8.0 recommended for this)
	Routes
        Processes
	Lastlog    
	Diskspace
	Exports

The monitoring deamon MATd can run scripts for monitoring of:
	Network Connectivity (through ICMP)
	Required Processes
	Disk usage
	CPU use
	Run queue
        User logins 
	FTP server status
	SMTP server status
	Network Interface Activity
A simple plotting tool allows you to graph the various monitored
parameters.  The monitoring scripts are written in Perl, and should 
be easy to customize and expand.  The MAT probe has been updated to 
display it's current status.



Requirements:
-------------
For the MAT agent you need a UNIX machine running:
	Linux 2.0.x or better   (libc5 is needed)
	SunOS 4.1.4
	Solaris 2.x
	IRIX 6.x  
	HPUX 10.20

The console requires:  Tcl/Tk  Version 8.0 or higher is recommended.
The console can be run on Win95/NT, however there are font problems.

The MATd daemon requires:  Perl 5.x 



Problems:
---------
If you have bugs to report please email them to: sblack@ee.ryerson.ca.
I can't say when I will be able to respond.  My job and new
development takes much of my time.  

	
Documentation:
--------------
Most of the documentation is built in to MAT.  Just run the MAT
console, and click on the Help button.  Several of the new tools
are not documented yet.


Logging:
--------
MAT operations are logged in a log file on each host, which is
readable through the MAT console.


Migration:
----------
As of 0.17 Mat will work directly with most config files.  NIS and
DNS require a little work.  See the Migration_Guide file for more 
details.


Future:
-------
MAT is continually evolving.  Development of the backup tool has been
underway for some time.  The replication/mirroring tool is an offshoot
of the backup tool.  Intrusion detection tools could be based on the 
same code.

The monitoring tool needs to be reworked to take advantage of command 
cacheing, and the other parameters available from the common UNIX 
commands.

A restore GUI is the most likely project for the next release, or a 
revamping of the best tools, and a switch out of freeware/shareware.


