Batarim Utilization Logger

Purpose

This application will log various utilization statistics (e.g., overall CPU and RAM usage) into a CSV file along with what applications were using the most CPU and RAM at a given time and what window was focused. This CSV file can then be analyzed to determine if there are any problems with resource utilization levels, if any applications are stressing the hardware, or for any other purpose that you would like.

The application's installer automatically sets up the logger to run at 15 minute intervals and write out the entry to a log file. By default, the logger places the log file in C:\ProgramData\Batarim\batarim_<version>.csv on Windows and /var/log/batarim_<version>.csv on Linux.

How to Change the Logging Frequency

On Windows, run schtasks /delete /tn Batarim\Batarim, then run schtasks /create /tn Batarim\Batarim /tr "\"<path_to_install>\task.vbs\"" /sc MINUTE /mo <new_logging_frequency>.

On Linux, if you installed through a package manager or installed as root, open up batarim's crontab by running crontab -u batarim -e with sudo privileges or the root account and change the number after */ to the number of minutes that you want it to wait between log entries.

On Linux, if you installed the package manually as a non-root user, open your own crontab by running crontab -e and change the number after */ to the number of minutes that you want it to wait between log entries.

Linux Security Notes

On Linux, Batarim's installer tries to create a seperate system account for Batarim (called batarim) that runs the logger and owns the log file. Since the logger attempts to log what window you have focused, the Batarim user account requires access to your X session so it will insert a line into your user's GDM start-up script (~/.gnomerc) to grant it access. Removing that line will still allow the application to run but it will not be able to determine what window you have focused when the logger is run.

Linux Dependencies

• coreutils
• cron
• grep
• libc-bin
• libc6
• libstdc++6
• libx11-6
• procps
• sed
• x11-xserver-utils
• cmake, version 2.8 or higher (if compiling)
• gcc, version 4.5.2 or higher (if compiling)

Compiling and Installing on Linux

1. Either clone the Git repo or download and untar the source archive, tar -xvzf batarim.tar.gz
2. Enter the project directory, cd batarim
3. Generate a UNIX makefile, ./cmake_scripts/generate.sh
4. Enter the release build directory, cd build/release
5. Compile the application, make
6. If you have sudo privileges or are root and are on Ubuntu Linux or Linux Mint, create a Debian package with make deb and run dpkg --install batarim_<version_number_and_arch>.deb
7. If you do not have sudo privileges or are not root or are not on a Ubuntu Linux or Linux Mint, install the application with, make install, specify a value for the DESTDIR flag if you would like to change the installation directory prefix (not recommendend)
8. If you did not run make install as root, you will need to add the DESTDIR path with /usr/local/lib appended to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable or Batarim will not be able to locate a required shared library.
9. If there are any errors that occur after the files have been copied as part of make install, correct them and re-run ./install_scripts/setup.sh at the root of the project directory (as root if you ran make install as root).

Uninstalling on Linux (with a manual compile and install)

1. Go to your downloaded version of the source archive and generate the UNIX makefile if necessary following the instructions above
2. Go to build/release
3. Run make uninstall
4. Note, there is currently a known issue where in some cases the files installed will not be deleted, in that case it is safe to manually remove the files as the teardown script run as part of the uninstall should have stopped the logging cronjob

Windows Dependencies for Compiling

• CMake, version 2.8 or higher
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 or higher

How to Set Up a Build on Windows

1. Clone the repository or download and unzip the source archive
2. Enter the cmake_scripts directory
3. Run generate.bat
4. Click Configure in the bottom left of the GUI
5. Select your preferred environment or build system (e.g., a version of Visual Studio)
6. Click Generate which is next to Configure, once the configuration is done
7. Close the window once generation is done
8. Your Visual Studio solution file will be in the build directory under the root of the repository
9. If you wish to clear the build, you can either delete the build directory or run clear.bat under cmake_scripts
10. Building the solution in the Release configuration will result in an MSI file being generated in build\bin\release alongside all DLL and EXE files

Project Documentation (including information on contributing code)

For project documentation and information on contributing code, please take a look inside the docs directory.