Feature Request: Power Events Report for Devices

[adnan29979]

Problem Description Currently, I manage a number of Raspberry Pis that are tasked with sending data to a custom web application almost whenever it turns on. To ensure reliability and proper operation, it's crucial for me to verify that each Raspberry Pi's power events correlate with the data transmission times to the web application. This involves checking if a Raspberry Pi was powered on but failed to send data to the web app as expected.

Currently, this process requires manually checking the power events for each device within MeshCentral, which is both time-consuming and repetitive. Because I work with many devices, this task really slows me down and makes it hard to keep track of everything.

Proposed Solution I propose a feature addition to the "Generate Report..." feature under Events>Reports within MeshCentral. Specifically, I suggest adding a new report type focused on device power events. This feature would greatly streamline the monitoring process by providing a consolidated view of power events across all devices for a specified period and downloading the report. The suggested options for the report generation include:

• Type: (Add) Power Events to the existing options like Remote Sessions, User Traffic Usage, User Logins, and Database Records.
• Device Group: Allow selection of specific device groups or all devices.
• Event: Provide options to filter by "Power On", "Power Off", or "All" power events.
• Time: Offer selections for Time Range, Last Day, Last 7 Days, and Last 30 Days, including a custom Time Range option.

Additional Context To better illustrate the proposed feature, I have included edited images showcasing how it might look within MeshCentral:

(P.S. I love Meshcentral and the developers who have made this)

[si458]

this is an extension of my issue from a 2 years ago https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral/issues/4207 i have been looking into this recently, so fingers n toes!

EDIT: once ive added the events into the db (my issue), then the reports can come after! (your issue)

[adnan29979]

Wow okay, 2 years ago! Interesting. Do you mean adding new events into the db like computer switched on (startup), computer online (maybe internet came back online), etc? (your issue) Kudos to you for working on it. Rooting for you, brother.

[si458]

@adnan29979 yes, once I can get it inserting that type of info into the DB, then I can add your issue where u want to show a report for this information! baby steps 👣

also don't forget to donate! https://www.si458.co.uk/2024/01/05/donation/ every penny helps keep me motivated and carrying on with bug fixes and improvements!

[si458]

Device Powered On - Device Turned On - Device Switched On

what sounds best?

[adnan29979]

Yup. Baby steps are the way to go. 'Device Powered On' sounds cool and goes well with the existing nomenclature of MeshCentral such as "Power off devices", "Power off". Thanks for asking, Simon. I'm honored.

[si458]

how does this look? its only very basic information but its a start! so it shows 'Device Powered On' BUT the time it shows in the web ui is the time on the meshcentral server, where as if you click the event, you get the time the computer said it powered on sadly i cant control the time displayed in the events as this is the time the event is INSERTED into the DB

[adnan29979]

Wow. Thank you for sharing this; it indeed represents an excellent start to this feature. It looks good as well. Regarding the time discrepancy you mentioned, I don't see it posing a significant issue. IMO, if both the machine's and the server's clocks are synchronized with a time server online, the difference should be small, averaging at most a minute. This seems entirely manageable under most circumstances.

Another thought - what if we added an option in config.json or somewhere else, to hide power events from the 'My Events' tab if the admin wants to? These events would still be INSERTED in the database, just not visible in that tab. This could really help when managing lots of devices, like 1000 or so, preventing the tab from getting swamped with power events. It'd make it easier to keep track of other key events, like user logins, failures, etc for administrative purpose.

[si458]

@adnan29979 baby steps... 👣

[si458]

im currently just checking the last boot up time thats already displayed in the details tab and IF its within 5 minutes of running the sysinfo in meshcore.js, then the machine must of just started up!

this however will cause an issue IF the meshagent service crashes and keeps restarting itself within the first 5 minutes of startup, you will get notifications like mad!

and also in the past i had a machine which altho windows set the lastbootuptime to say 10.05am, the machine took 15mins to load to the desktop, which is when meshagent connected, SO that means it didnt catch the fact it started up as it wasnt within 5 mins!

[adnan29979]

Ah okay. The meshagent service crashing and sending indefinite notifications is a big issue. I'm wondering, could diving into the system's logs via the Event Viewer help get a handle on this? Maybe using the logs as a sort of confirmation check to ensure it's genuinely a startup event.

[si458]

im not an advanced C developer sadly so thats beyond my scope!

but as for the crashing, im only talking about IF meshagent crashed over n over within the first 5 mins, afterwards it wouldnt be effected because it the time would be > 5 mins. its the same if you restart the meshagent service but not the actual computer, the checker would see the lastbootuptime is > 5mins from when it ran!

im still looking into the shutdown feature, as windows can KILL the meshagent process during shutdown, so the meshagent would have no way of knowing the machine was shutting down

[adnan29979]

Hey, how's the addition of new events like computer switched on (startup), computer online (maybe internet came back online), etc going on? Just curious.

[si458]

sorry, i started it but i didnt push/merge it cuz i wanted to do a little more testing

[adnan29979]

Ahh okay. No worries. Take your time.

[si458]

right ok so ive added the first one 'Device Powered On' and it used the lastbootuptime and checks if less then 5 minutes! not ideal but works a treat! im still thinking how to do other ones, like requesting to shutdown, resquest to reboot, etc...

[adnan29979]

Alright. Thanks for notifying me. I will use the master files to test it and provide you feedback.

[Pinkbyte]

While this is indeed a useful feature, it does not fit well on large environments(~3000 devices in our case) - we have vast amount of log events about devices powered on with rare amount of another useful ones . Can we make this feature optional? Maybe not the logging itself, but displaying those kind of logs. Some kind of checkbox filter in 'My Events'?

Also, filtering does not work well, no matter what i chose in 'Filter' - current view is still spammed with new 'Device powered on' events

[si458]

@Pinkbyte that's OK! Always happy to have community feedback! I never through about 3000 devices showing on and off to be honest I only manage 100 devices and most of them stay on, as they arent laptops.

Would you prefer a new filter box to only show certain events? Or an option in config.json to not show powerevents? Or both?

[Pinkbyte]

@si458, checkbox is good , but option in config.json would be fine too - whatever is easier to implement. Also - should i make another bugreport about filtering issue i mentioned(new events showing on 'My Events' page regardless of chosen filter) or it would be fine to leave it here as a comment?

[si458]

@Pinkbyte no plz open another bug report issue about that As I'm sure the filter works? It just filters based on event types rather than the events itself!?