Plugin / Scanner Pause to allow for Device updates

[PrctclIT]

Can there be an overall Pause Updates - Plugins, so to allow for quicker updating of the Device list, especially with a new setup or major changes?

Utilizing NetAlertx on Docker for the first time while setting up a home lab / security system using OPNsense - RSTIMPRT and TP-Link Omada - OMDSDNOPENAPI plugins (which work great by the way) to update the NetAlertx captured devices, which result in 1 - 5 minute pause between saves / updating the device list. I believe to understand why the delay exists (single-threaded PHP execution and SQLite write-serialization) and get it that's better to confirm a record is fully written before moving on to the next task.

I'm aware of the option to download and upload the Devices to NetAlertx, though the interface is very functional and I wanted to fully utilize the UI before resorting to any typos that may occur with the download / upload Devices option.

Thanks for the consideration and for your work on this project.

[jokob-sk]

Hi

Thanks for the suggestion. Would a global pause scan setting (true/false or for period after settings are saved) work? Please elaborate which and why.

I'd rather not introduce another mechanism to pass values to the backend if not necessary, but let me know your thoughts and I might change my stance.

[PrctclIT]

Hi jokob-sk, and appreciate I'm no programmer, though I was thinking of a single switch where the plugins (which I'm interpreting is the source of all the automated updates to the Device database) would be paused and any updates to the Device database is done by the user manually through the "Devices" interface, as per your current setup. Then once the user is done with the updates, they would click on the switch to un-pause the plugins allowing for NetAlertx plugins to run as normal. The alternative is that I would go into each of the plugins, and at the "When to run" setting I would switch it to disable and then save.

Let me know if you have further questions. Thanks,

[jokob-sk]

Thanks for the info - please test as per #1754 and comment there if any feedback or issues occur

[PrctclIT]

Hi Jokob, will do so in the next couple of days though I appreciate your quick response and thank you.

[PrctclIT]

Hi Jokob, the quick results, yes it mostly worked (there were occasional 1 minute delays, when I hit pause and then after saving and going back to the Device list). And I like / appreciated the way you update the top right "status" window (colored text on white background), nice touch.

What I observed after spending about an hour of testing:

With NetAlertx in normal mode (the pause button shows on the top message bar)

• it takes 3 - 5 minutes between device updates before "refreshing" is complete and I can fully access the Device listing;
• most delays is 4 minutes, with all delays taking a minute and between 4 - 8 seconds before "refreshing" is complete;
• started the majority of my testing by hitting Save at 00 seconds mark within a device edit screen, then moving to Device screen to see "Refreshing" being displayed;
• my testing shows that all delays take a minimum of a minute, and it appears like that the pause doesn't stop mid-way through a minute (i.e. all of my observations had access back to the Device screen within 4 - 8 seconds after it hit 00 seconds for the minute, it never happens at say 3 minutes and 30 seconds after hitting Save and then going to the Device screen).

With NetAlertx in pause mode

• again like what you did with the status screen with the information provided and noting the pause countdown from 30 minutes, with it updating over time;
• after hitting pause and editing then saving a device, there was a 1 or 2 minute delay before "Refreshing" was done;
• subsequent Device changes (individual or multi-edit) and going back to the Device were made instantaneously (repeated this twice);
• changes to the Device list updated items, sometimes don't show up till you hit the NetAlertx Refresh button (could be a browser issue versus NetAlertx).

Let me know if you would like the specific notes I took to provide the above, along with the captured App log, and I'll send them to your netalertx@gmail.com email address?

Oh, and likely you did this on purpose but my attempt to copy the data to the new Docker container before I installed ghcr.io/netalertx/netalertx-dev-unsafe:sha-f9be6af, resulted in starting up from scratch. Please confirm that was your intention, and I did take advantage of making sure my documentation is correct to set them up again. Though I can't seem to get the OPNsense / RSTIMPRT running on the "unsafe" version (one of the reasons I was delayed in responding back) even after fixing a typo.

• Getting a "Device path not configured and response is not an array for "OPNsense Kea DHCP4""

Will await your feedback or questions if any.

[jokob-sk]

Thanks for testing this so thoroughly, and I’m glad to hear it mostly worked and that you like the updated status display.

The restore should have worked when moving to the new Docker container. I also haven’t seen the RSTIMPRT issue you mentioned with OPNsense.

For these and the other issues you found, please open separate issues rather than continuing them in this discussion. I’ll investigate them once they’re reported as separate issues, with the relevant logs and details attached.

Thanks again for taking the time to test and provide such detailed feedback.