How to disable host checking

[Darren Gamble]

Good day,

> I am using Nagios 1.0b5.  I monitor several hosts that are 
> behind firewalls
> and therefore are un-pingable.  Because of this Nagios 
> reports that the
> hosts are down.  In Netsaint configs you could simply not include the
> check_host_alive directive to skip ping check.  According to 
> the docs for
> Nagios, when using the new template based config for the 
> hosts.cfg file I
> should be able to leave the check_command field blank to skip any host
> checking.  This fails when starting the Nagios configuration 
> check with the
> following error:
> 
> Reading configuration data...
> 
> Error: NULL variable value in object definition.
> Error: Could not add object property in file
> '/usr/local/nagios/etc/hosts.cfg' on line 30.
> 
> Not including the field at all results in Nagios never flagging the
> connection as good which leaves the hosts perpetually grey 
> (unchecked).
> What's the best workaround for this with Nagios?  I'd like 
> the hosts to show
> up as good (green).  :)
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark

If you have at least one service OK for a host, Nagios will (should) assume
that the host is up and mark it as green if it was "pending" before.  Note
that you should have at least one service for every host (I presume that you
do, but just in case...).  Note that you can not leave the command blank,
but according to the docco you can leave out the entire check_command.

I've never completely omitted the check_command entry from a host.  Ideally,
you should have SOME sort of way to check if the host is down.  You don't
have to use the default host check command to do it- you could use a script
that connects to a particular port on your firewall that forwards to that
host, for example.  Or, write a script that talks to the firewall in some
manner and gets the status of the server that way.

============================
Darren Gamble
Planner, Regional Services
Shaw Cablesystems GP
630 - 3rd Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
T2P 4L4
(403) 781-4948


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