psTrace

psTrace is a traceroute analysis tool written in PythonV3 which retrieves traceroute/tracepath data from a PerfSONAR Measurement Archive (MA).

Features

• Results matrix of all traceroute test
• Detailed information for each traceroute test
• Historical Traceroute information for each traceroute test
• Email alerts when routes change
• Results accessed via a web browser as results are stored as HTML files

Prerequisites

• Python Version 3.5.2 +

• Python Jinja2 Template module - Install via pip for PythonV3

  $ pip install Jinja2
  

• Web Server (Apache, Nginx, etc)

• SMTP Server (Postfix, etc) that does not require authentication for sending out email alerts

• Access to a PerfSONAR Measurement Archive with traceroute/tracepath data

Using the psTrace Analysis Tool

1. Clone repository into your preferred directory

    $ git clone https://github.com/spgreen/psTrace.git
   

2. Soft link the psTrace html folder to the web document root that will be served by Apache.
   e.g. /var/www/html/ is the usual default directory served by Apache.
   Note: You will need to remove the html folder if it exist otherwise an error will occur creating the soft link

    $ ln -s /full/path/to/pstrace/html/folder/ /var/www/html
   

3. Edit the email constants within config.ini to values appropriate to your environment. Currently only supports sending emails to a SMTP server that does NOT require authentication.

   1. Set ENABLE_EMAIL_ALERTS = 1 to enable alerts when traceroute changes occur.
      Default: ENABLE_EMAIL_ALERTS = 0
   2. Multiple recipients can be added by modifying EMAIL_TO with one address after the other separated by a comma within the square brackets.
   3. EMAIL_SERVER is the SMTP Server that will be used to send out the email alerts.
      Default: EMAIL_SERVER = localhost

4. Run psTrace Tool

   $ python perfsonar_traceroute_analysis.py <PS MA base URL or IP> <period in seconds>
   

   or

   $ python3 perfsonar_traceroute_analysis.py <PS MA base URL or IP> <period in seconds>
   

   depending on your system

• -u <PS MA base URL or IP> is either the IP address or base url without http:// or https:// of the perfSONAR Measurement archive you wish to retrieve traceroute/tracepath data from.

• -t <period in seconds> - e.g. 86400 = analysis for last 1 day, 1290600 = analysis for last 2 weeks, etc

5. Results will be stored as HTML pages within the psTrace html folder

6. Access results by using a web browser and type the address of the web server hosting the results.

Schedule automatic psTrace analysis using Cron

• Setup a cron script

    $ crontab -e
  

• Add the following within said cron script:

    */30 * * * * /path/to/psTrace/perfsonar_traceroute_analysis.py  -u <PS MA base URL or IP> -t <period in seconds> 2>&1 >/dev/null
  

  1. -u <PS MA base URLs or IP> - either the IP address or base url without http:// or https:// of the perfSONAR Measurement archive you wish to retrieve traceroute/tracepath data from.
  2. -t <period in seconds> - e.g. 86400 = analysis for last 1 day, 1290600 = analysis for last 2 weeks, etc

This will run the perfsonar_traceroute_analysis.py script every 30 minutes. Change the time appropriately for your environment
e.g. For SingAREN's case, their PerfSONAR Node runs traceroute tests every 15 minutes so setting the cron script to run the analysis tool every 30 minutes is sufficient.