The sad side of version 2.0 - serviceextinfo

[Paul Smith 02]

Okay, love Nagios, been using it since 1.0beta something, and now I'm
implementing version 2.0.

 

I love the speed of the new version, the instant host search is superb,
but what happened to the serviceextinfo?

 

It's now verified as it's loaded, which is a good idea and sadly a lot
of work for me, I have long lists of hosts that don't run a service but
had an serviceextinfo entry for convenience. My fault, I'll clean it up.

 

 

So, into my observations:-

 

1) Redundancy. Now we have:-

 

define service {

            use                               generic-service

            host_name                    MyHost

            service_description       This is my service

            check_command           check_nrpe!check_my_service

}

 

define serviceextinfo {

            host_name                    MyHost

            service_description       This is my service

            notes_url
http://mynotes/ThisIsMyService.html

}

 

WHY!

 

IMHO, the serviceextinfo should be merged into the 'define service'
command, so all I really needed is:-

 

define service {

            use                               generic-service

            host_name                    MyHost

            service_description       This is my service

            check_command           check_nrpe!check_my_service

            notes_url
http://mynotes/ThisIsMyService.html

}

 

Obviously, to make things backward compatible both methods should be
allowed. This could also be applied to the hostextinfo, but as I only
have 130 hosts and 4000 services, my emphasis is on the service side of
things.

 

2) Meaningless icon_image. Now we have a notes_url and an action_url,
why do we only have a single icon_image? Shouldn't there be a notes_icon
and action_icon?

 

3) Drill thru. In the old version, clicking on the icon displayed
against a service in the "Service Status Details" used to execute the
notes_url, now it takes you to the extinfo.cgi. I guess this is because
we have a notes_url and an action_url so we don't know which to go to.

 

4) graph_url. Now that we have multiple URL's against a service, why not
add the one everybody wants, a link takes the user to a graph of the
service. I am not suggesting that the base Nagios system should offer a
graphing facility, just the chance to list a URL to it.

 

5) More icons. Taking points 2+3+4 into account, I would like to see an
icon for each URL defined appearing on the "Service Status Details"
display, etc. I think I am in favor of dropping icon_image and having a
default icon for notes_url, action_url and graph_url. Obviously, I am
suggesting that clicking on the icon takes you thru to the URL.

 

Your comments are welcome.

 

I would love for Ethan (or another skilled Nagios developer) to just
agree to all this and a day later we have 2.1b1 available. It would take
me awhile to familiarise myself with all the code to be able to do this.

 

PS: In my hacked 1.2 code, all acknowledge critical alerts shows in
lylic instead of red, takes your mind off them and onto the important
ones, but this should probably be done by the new web interfaces coming
for Version 3.x

 

Paul



This communication together with any attachments transmitted with it ("this E-Mail") is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is privileged and confidential.  If the reader of this E-Mail is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited.  Addressees should check this E-mail for viruses.  The Company makes no representations as regards the absence of viruses in this E-Mail.  If you have received this E-Mail in error please notify our IT Service Desk immediately by e-mail at postmaster at cpw.co.uk  Please then immediately delete, erase or otherwise destroy this E-Mail and any copies of it.

Any opinions expressed in this E-Mail are those of the author and do not necessarily constitute the views of the Company.  Nothing in this E-Mail shall bind the Company in any contract or obligation.

For the purposes of this E-Mail "the Company" means The Carphone Warehouse Group Plc and/or any of its subsidiaries.

Please feel free to visit our website:  http:// www.carphonewarehouse.com or http://www.phonehouse.com

The Carphone Warehouse Group Plc (Registered in England No. 3253714) 1 Portal Way, London W3 6RS

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.monitoring-lists.org/archive/developers/attachments/20060308/a847db8b/attachment.html>