Big Brother (software)

Big Brother (alias BB) was a tool for systems and <a href="/facts/Network_monitoring/dt0cvIqS">network monitoring</a>, generally used by <a href="/facts/System_administrator/zNhThrh9">system administrators</a>. The advent of the <a href="/facts/Dynamic_web_page/psjqGKBx">dynamic web page</a> allowed Big Brother to be one of the first monitoring systems to use the web as its <a href="/facts/User_interface/e9sPEWVD">user interface</a>. Prior to this, monitoring tools were generally console based, or required graphic terminals such as <a href="/facts/X_Window_System/ac2vRIQL">X Window</a> to operate. Big Brother produces <a href="/facts/HTML/sSc3fT78">HTML</a> pages containing a simple matrix of hosts and tests with red and green dots to denote system status. Big Brother was named after <a href="/facts/George_Orwell/aIQhGvNh">George Orwell</a>'s character <a href="/facts/Big_Brother_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)/o6KfXBPp">Big Brother</a> from his novel <a href="/facts/Nineteen_Eighty-Four/cXSp743f">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a>. E-mail from Big Brother originated from the <a href="/facts/Ministries_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four/a5hAM9xq">Ministry of Truth</a>, and users of the software were called Brothers.
The application was designed to allow non-technical users to understand system and network status information through a simple interface and presentation, using a matrix to display status information for overhead displays in Network Operations Centers (NOCs). It was designed to monitor <a href="/facts/Computer/SQe1aK05">computer</a> systems and <a href="/facts/Computer_network/3w5RM99p">networks</a>, and for this reason does not use <a href="/facts/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol/UNYPVA1C">SNMP</a> natively, instead using a <a href="/facts/Client%25E2%2580%2593server_model/FSnf27C5">client–server model</a> and its own network <a href="/facts/Communication_protocol/5uady7cB">communication protocol</a>. Clients send status information over port <a href="/facts/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers/c30Xg4d4">TCP port 1984</a> (possibly a reference to the novel <a href="/facts/Nineteen_Eighty-Four/cXSp743f">1984</a>) at five-minute intervals. Since the clients only send information to a specific monitoring server, its creators claim it is more secure than SNMP-based protocols, which poll clients for information. For this reason, Big Brother was featured at <a href="/facts/SANS_Institute/BY9sjgow">SANS Institute</a> security conferences in 1998. 1999, and at a SANSFIRE conference in 2001.
Big Brother has also been cited in a number of books on <a href="/facts/System_administrator/zNhThrh9">system administration</a>, <a href="/facts/Computer_security/7E5dIy7G">computer security</a>, and <a href="/facts/Computer_network/3w5RM99p">networking</a>. The application supports <a href="/facts/Redundancy_(engineering)/odqzTmIo">redundancy</a> via multiple displays, as well as <a href="/facts/Failover/Lw0rXfv9">failover</a>. Network elements can be tested from multiple locations and users can write custom tests.
An <a href="/facts/Open-source_model/uDWVYJ4V">open-source</a> version of the project exists: between 2002 and 2004 it was called bbgen toolkit, between 2005 and 2008 it was called Hobbit, but to avoid breach of trademark, it was renamed <a href="/facts/Xymon/VKKRFok5">Xymon</a> which is still in development and use.

Big Brother (software) open-in-new

Big Brother (software)