In reading thru the Ruby Google Group, there seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what should be done inside
of a Rails process and what should be done outside it. Generally if it take any time at all, you should be it outside
the Rails Web Server. In windows you can do a Windows Service, in Linux/Unix you would do a daemon.

This is a example of a windows service that scans cisco switches, finds new nodes, and keep track of there mac
address and there port. Even builds a network map.

The app consists of a Rails app to display the data, and take in configuration information. Which is put in a database,
such as sqlite3, and updated by this Windows Service.

As long as the Service is running, the data will be updated. If I was doing it again, I'd use rufus-scheduler to
wrap the scanning and the mapping.

require 'rubygems'
require 'win32/daemon'
include Win32
require 'logger'
require 'win32/process'
require 'net/ping'
#Note that most of your requires need to go in the service init

class IPAddr
   def succ()
       return self.clone.set(@addr + 1)
       end
end

class AirstateDiscovery

def doscan()
    ProcessNetworks()
    ProcessDiscovery()
    return
    end


def ProcessDiscovery()
    Mac.find(:all).each do |mymac|
          mydevice = mymac.device
          if mydevice
             mynet = Network.find_network_by_ip(mymac.ip)
             if mynet #Ok we have a valid network
                Device.find_device_type(mymac.ip,mydevice)
             end
          end
    end
end


def ProcessSwitches()
    Switch.find(:all).each do |myswitch|
            if myswitch.enabled
               if myswitch.switch_type == "cisco"
                     cisco = CiscoSwitch.new(myswitch)
                     #begin
                       cisco.update_macs()
                     #rescue
                     #  end # Rescue
                     cisco = nil
                  end #if myswitch.switch_type == "cisco"
               end # myswitch.enabled
            thegraph = SwitchGraph.new(myswitch)
            thegraph.graph()
            thegraph = nil
            end # find do
end

def ProcessNetworks()
  ProcessSwitches()
  return
  
  # Brute Force Scan
    Network.find(:all).each do |mynet|
            ProcessSwitches() # Networks is "long" running, Switch is "fast"
            if mynet.enable
               startip = mynet.ip_start
               endip   = mynet.ip_end
               ip = IPAddr.new(startip)
               while ip.to_s != endip 
                  ProcessWmi(mynet,ip.to_s)
                  ip = ip.succ()
                  end
               end
            end
end # def Process Networks

end # class AirStateDiscovery 
   
class Daemon
      def service_init
          end

      def service_main
     
         require 'ipaddr'
          Dir.chdir("\\projects\\airstate")
          require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../config/environment.rb'
          require 'lib/cisco_phone'
          require 'lib/managepc'
          require 'lib/switchgraph'
          @mywork = AirstateDiscovery.new
          mylog = Syslog.new
          mylog.whom = "AirStateDiscovery"
          mylog.logmessage = "Discovery Starting"
          mylog.save
         while running?
            @mywork.doscan()
            sleep 3
         end
      end
end


# Test Code
#          require 'ipaddr'
#          Dir.chdir("\\projects\\airstate")
#          require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../config/environment.rb'   
#          require 'lib/managepc'
#          require 'lib/cisco'
#          require 'lib/switchgraph'
#          require 'lib/cisco_phone'
#          @mywork = AirstateDiscovery.new
#          while 1
#            @mywork.doscan()
#            end
#          exit

Daemon.mainloop