Using BSDStats

If you want to have hardware manufacturers and applicationn vendors take you seriously, it helps to have metrics. Today I learned of BSDStats, which uses the sysutils/bsdstats shell script to collect information on hosts. I decided to try it and see what data is collected.

First I installed the script.

orr:/usr/ports/sysutils/bsdstats# make install
...edited...
===>  Installing for bsdstats-2.0_5
===>   Generating temporary packing list
===>  Checking if sysutils/bsdstats already installed
/bin/mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/periodic/monthly
/bin/cp /usr/ports/sysutils/bsdstats/files/300.statistics /usr/local/etc/periodic/monthly
/bin/cat /usr/ports/sysutils/bsdstats/pkg-message

********************
To enable the port, edit or create /etc/periodic.conf and add this line:
        monthly_statistics_enable=yes

To enable device reporting, add this line:
        monthly_statistics_report_devices=yes

To run it manually the first time, just run it as:
        /usr/local/etc/periodic/monthly/300.statistics

To view current statistics, go to:
        http://bsdstats.hub.org
********************

===>   Registering installation for bsdstats-2.0_5

I looked at /usr/local/etc/periodic/monthly/300.statistics and saw it was a shell script. To enable it I added the lines to /etc/periodic.conf as recommended above. Next I set a HTTP proxy environment variable and ran the script.

orr:/home/richard$ HTTP_PROXY=http://192.168.2.12:3128; export HTTP_PROXY
orr:/home/richard$ env | grep HTTP
HTTP_PROXY=http://192.168.2.12:3128
orr:/home/richard$ sh -x /usr/local/etc/periodic/monthly/300.statistics
+ [ -r /etc/defaults/periodic.conf ]
+ . /etc/defaults/periodic.conf
+ periodic_conf_files=/etc/periodic.conf /etc/periodic.conf.local
+ local_periodic=/usr/local/etc/periodic /usr/X11R6/etc/periodic
+ daily_output=root
+ daily_show_success=YES
...edited...
+ /bin/hostname
+ HN=orr.taosecurity.com
+ /usr/bin/uname -r
+ SYS=6.1-RELEASE
+ /usr/bin/uname -m
+ ARCH=i386
+ /usr/bin/uname -s
+ OS=FreeBSD
+ /usr/bin/fetch -qo /dev/null http://bsdstats.hub.org/scripts/getid.php?hn=orr.taosecurity.com
 &sys=6.1-RELEASE&arch=i386&opsys=FreeBSD
+ IFS=

+ /usr/bin/fetch -qo /dev/null http://bsdstats.hub.org/scripts/clear_devices.php?
 hn=orr.taosecurity.com
+ /usr/sbin/pciconf -l
+ /usr/bin/grep -v none
+ echo agp0@pci0:0:0:   class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71908086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
+ awk -F@ {print $1}
+ DRIVER=agp0
+ awk {print $4}
+ echo agp0@pci0:0:0:   class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71908086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
+ cut -c12-15
+ VEN=8086
+ echo agp0@pci0:0:0:   class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71908086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
+ awk {print $4}
+ cut -c8-11
+ DEV=7190
+ /usr/bin/fetch -qo /dev/null http://bsdstats.hub.org/scripts/report_device.php?driver=agp0&vendor=8086
 &device=7190&hn=orr.taosecurity.com
+ echo pcib1@pci0:1:0:  class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71918086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x01+ awk
 -F@ {print $1}
+ DRIVER=pcib1
+ echo+ awk+ cut pcib1@pci0:1:0:        class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71918086
 rev=0x03 hdr=0x01 {print $4} -c12-15
...truncated...

As you can see, various aspects of the system are being posted to a PHP script at bsdstats.hub.org. These populate the release and driver statistics.

Consider running this script to let vendors know you're using their products.