mentat-reporter.py

This Mentat module is a script providing periodical event reports to target abuse groups.

This script is implemented using the pyzenkit.zenscript framework and so it provides all of its core features. See the documentation for more in-depth details.

It is further based on mentat.script.fetcher module, which provides database fetching and message post-processing capabilities.

Usage examples

# Display help message and exit.
mentat-reporter.py --help

# Run in debug mode (enable output of debugging information to terminal).
mentat-reporter.py --debug

# Run with insanely increased logging level.
mentat-reporter.py --log-level debug

# Run in TEST DATA mode and MAIL TEST mode, force all reports to go to
# 'admin@domain.org'. In test data mode only events tagged with 'Test'
# category will be processed (useful for debugging). In mail test mode
# all generated reports will be redirected to configured admin email (root
# by default) instead of original contact, which is again useful for
# debugging or testing.
mentat-reporter.py --mail-test-mode --test-data --mail-to admin@domain.org

# Force reporter to use different email report template and localization.
mentat-reporter.py --template-id another --locale cs

Available script commands

report (default): Generate report containing overall Mentat system performance statistics within configured time interval thresholds.

Brief overview of reporting algorithm

Reporting algorithm follows these steps:

For all abuse groups found in database:
1. For all event severities (low, medium, high, critical):
  Fetch reporting configuration settings.
  
  Fetch events with given severity, that appeared in database in given time window and belonging to that particular group.
  
  Filter events with configured reporting filters.
  
  Remove events from detectors with low credibility.
  
  Threshold already reported events.
  
  Fetch relapsed events.
  
  Generate summary and/or extra reports and store them to database.
  
  Send reports via email to target abuse contacts.

Configuration

The application supports multiple means for adjusting the internal configurations. When appropriate the default values for each configuration is hardcoded in module source code. However there are several options to change the value:

Override the internal default value when instantinating the application object by passing different value to object constructor.
Pass the different value by configuration file.
Pass the different value by command line option.

The configuration values are assigned from the sources mentioned above in that particular order, so the value given by command line option overwrites the value written in configuration file.

Command line options

Configuration can be passed down to application by command line options. These options have the highest priority and will overwrite any other configuration values. Depending on the base object of the application different set of options is available.

Common application options

Following configuration options are available for all applications based on pyzenkit.baseapp:

--help

Display help and usage description and exit (flag).

--debug

Run in debug mode (flag).

Input various status information to stderr.

Type: boolean, default: False

--quiet

Run in quiet mode (flag).

Do not write anything to stdout or stderr.

Type: boolean, default: False

--verbose

Increase application output verbosity (flag, repeatable).

Type: boolean, default: False

--name alternative-name

Alternative name for application instead of default $0.

This value will be used to generate names for log, runlog, pid, status and other application files.

Type: string, default: $0

--config-file file-name

Name of the configuration file.

Type: string, default: autodetected

--config-file-silent

Do not complain in case given configuration file does not exist (flag).

Type: boolean, default: False

--config-dir file-name

Name of the configuration directory.

Type: string, default: autodetected

--config-file-silent

Do not complain in case given configuration directory does not exist (flag).

Type: boolean, default: False

--log-file file-name

Name of the log file.

Type: string, default: autodetected

--log-level level

Logging level [debug, info, warning, error, critical].

Type: string, default: info

--runlog-dir dir-name

Name of the runlog directory.

Type: string, default: autodetected

--runlog-dump

Dump runlog to stdout when done processing (flag).

Type: boolean, default: False

--runlog-log

Write runlog to logging service when done processing (flag)

Type: boolean, default: False

--pstate-file file-name

Name of the persistent state file.

Type: string, default: autodetected

--pstate-dump

Dump persistent state to stdout when done processing (flag).

Type: boolean, default: False

--pstate-log

Write persistent state to logging service when done processing (flag).

Type: boolean, default: False

--action action

Execute given quick action and exit. List of available actions can be displayed with --help option.

Type: string, default: None

--user name-or-id

Name/gid of the system user for process permissions.

Type: string, default: None

--group name-or-id

Name/gid of the system group for process permissions.

Type: string, default: None

Common script options

Following configuration options are available on top of common application options for all applications based on pyzenkit.zenscript:

--regular

Operational mode: regular script execution (flag).

Conflicts with --shell option.

Type: boolean, default: False

--shell

Operational mode: manual script execution from shell (flag).

Conflicts with --regular option.

Type: boolean, default: False

--command name

Name of the script command to be executed.

Type: string, default: autodetected

--interval interval

Execution interval. This value should correspond with related cron script.

Type: string, default: daily

--adjust-thresholds

Round-up time interval threshols to interval size (flag).

Type: boolean, default: False

--time-high time

Upper time interval threshold.

Type: float, default: time.time

Common fetcher script options

Following configuration options are available on top of common script options for all applications based on mentat.script.fetcher:

--db-host host-name

Name of the host running the database.

Type: string, default: localhost

--db-port number

Port number for connecting to database.

Type: integer, default: 27017

--db-timeout miliseconds

Socket timeout in miliseconds for communicating with database.

Type: integer, default: 3600000

--database db-name

Name of the database to connect to.

Type: string

--collection col-name

Name of the collection to connect to.

Type: string

Configuration files and directories

Configuration can be passed down to application using a combination of configuration file or configuration directory. The configuration file

The available configuration keys are very similar to command line options and the names differ only in the use of _ character instead of -. However there is a certain set of configuration keys that is available only through command line options and not through configuration file and vice versa.