The FreeBSD Diary

Note: Big Brother requires a web server.  So install it on a box which already has apache installed.  See the Apache topics for more information.

cd /usr/ports/net/bb
make install

The file to read is ./work/bb/README.INSTALL.  In there, it suggests that you subscribe to the Big Brother mailing list.  I did.  So should you.  To subscribe:

Send an e-mail to MajorDomo@taex001.tamu.edu  
In the body of the e-mail message (not the Subject line),
place the statement: 

    subscribe bb

Here is a list of some of the things you should do.  Most of this list has been obtained from /usr/local/share/doc/bb/README.

• create a symbolic link from /usr/local/bb/www to somewhere within your webserver tree.  On a default apache install, the following command will do this:

ln -w /usr/local/bb/www /usr/local/www/data/bb

You can then access the Big Brother output through the URL http://www.yourwebserver.org/bb/

• edit runbb.sh and ensure BBHOME is set like this: BBHOME="/usr/local/bb"
• modify ./etc/bb-hosts to contains the list of machines you wish to monitor.   See /usr/local/share/doc/bb/README for the format of this file.
• After modifying the bb-hosts file, remember to run ./etc/bbchkhosts.sh to check for any errors.
• If you want web-based history, modify ./web/bb-hist.sh much the same way as you modified runbb.sh and copy it to your webserver's CGI directory (in my case, /usr/local/www/cgi-bin/).
• Modify ./etc/bbdef.sh to specify how Big Brother reacts to various situations.
• In ./etc/bbwarnsetup.cfg you can specify who to email about various things.   See the pagemaster token.

./runbb.sh

The install creates the script /usr/local/etc/rc.d/bb.sh which will start Big Brother for you after each reboot.