How do you test a large configuration?

[Carroll, Jim P [Contractor]]

For service checks, one option would be to change the warning /
critical thresholds.  If you're using NRPE, make the changes to
nrpe.cfg on the client and restart the nrpe daemon (or just sit
and wait, if you're kicking it off using (x)inetd).

If you find that the check you're doing turns out to be difficult
to simulate, see if you can't set up the checks on a non-critical
host.  Prove the trivial case there, then extrapolate.

Another option, if you get management blessing, would be to start
an unused service (eg, ftpd if ordinarily you don't use it) and
monitor it.  Get Nagios configured and reloaded, wait for it to
register as OK, then disable it on the client.  If Nagios doesn't
squawk within a reasonable timeframe, there's a problem.

Also consider that at *some* point, you'll need to do either some
reactive maintenance or some preventative maintenance on some host.
Make sure the appropriate checks are in place before you down the
service or host.  If you've done your homework, Nagios should light
up, and inboxes and pagers should be seeing some activity.

If you're using one of the logfile scrubbers, inject a string into
the file that you feel Nagios should alert you on.

HTH.

jc

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karl DeBisschop [mailto:karl at debisschop.net]
> Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 6:31 AM
> To: skip at pobox.com
> Cc: nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] How do you test a large configuration?
> 
> 
> On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 11:58, Skip Montanaro wrote:
> > I have a practical problem.  I've been running Nagios for a 
> couple weeks now
> > on my laptop, adapting more and more of the configuration 
> data from our
> > current system.  At this point I have
> > 
> >     * 155 host definitions
> >     * 159 hostextinfo definitions
> >     * 205 service definitions
> >     * 63 contact grounds
> >     * 18 contacts
> >     * 25 escalations
> > 
> > and various smaller numbers of other definitions.
> > 
> > Now I have a practical problem.  Given that many of the 
> systems being
> > monitored are critical and can't be taken down to test that 
> stuff works
> > properly, how do I go about testing my configuration?  When 
> I reload the
> > system it obviously checks some things for me.  Other stuff, "leaf
> > information", isn't so easy to check automatically (emails, 
> pager numbers,
> > missing service definitions, escalation ordering, etc).
> > 
> > To the greated extent possible, I'd like to avoid 
> discovering mistakes in my
> > configuration when a machine goes down and nobody notices.  
> Other than
> > (actually, in addition to) tediously desk checking 
> everything, do people
> > have any suggestions for checking large configurations?
> 
> Use iptables on the nagios box to block communication with 
> various ports
> on various servers. Do this in a controlled manner and you should be
> able to test most of your configs.
> 
> --
> Karl
> 
> 
> 
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