Biggest Problem with Nagios: Poor Setup/Installation

[Jeff Scott]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 12:05:12 -0700 (PDT), Sam Stave <sam_stave at yahoo.com>  
wrote:

> Well, i can tell you that this is an extremely poorly
> documented util.
>
> There is no place that states nor clearly describes
> the exact methods for getting a check to run -
> especially when it is not an actual service that a
> host is presenting to external users.
>
> There is a tremendous amount of trial and error and
> WTF type of reading and re-reading the config files to
> figure out how the thing is supposed to be configured.
>
> While this is a great way to really learn what the
> tool is doing and how it actually does it - just
> because one person with sys admin experience can make
> many deductions quickly and flow past any issues -
> most of the undocumented idiosyncrosis of the utility
> can be show-stoppers for the "average" person.
>
> I am writing a clear and concise installation and
> configuration run-book which i will publish on this
> list, so one example is:
>
> Nagios is a utility which is designed to natively
> check external services presented to clients on a
> network. Nagios will act as a client of the service
> and access the service to determine if it is actually
> running. In order to do this, Nagios requires that one
> host definition be placed in the host.cfg file
> (usually a host is defined as a single IP) - then
> services associated with this host can be listed in
> the service.cfg file. For example, host 10.1.1.1 may
> be a web/ftp server.
>
> For 10.1.1.1, you would tell Nagios to run a check_ftp
> and a check_http service check.
>
> Your host definition in host.cfg looks like this:
>
> [Standard host definition]
>
> A service check definition associated with a host
> should be entered into service.cfg like this:
>
> [standrd service definition]
>
> You can list as many service checks to a single host
> as you like.
>
> The services that Nagios can check natively are all
> *external* services. For internal system checks, such
> as check_disk check_load and other checks which must
> run commands on a local host, Nagios needs to be
> configured to run these checks via ssh. The
> check_by_ssh command allows for Nagios to SSH to a
> machine, execute a Nagios plugin that is *installed on
> the remote host* and report based on the output of
> that check.
>
> -----
>
> That is the level of description that Nagios does
> *not* have... and that was just off the top of my
> head... and I am new to Nagios. So i am sure that
> those who are much more familiar with it should have
> been able to write some better documentation.
>
> additionally, there are other issues, like what
> dependancy packages need to be added. The fact that it
> appears that check_by_ssh does *NOT* work when both
> the Nagios Server and Client are solaris (as I have
> found - check_by_ssh returns no output when I have
> both server and client as solaris boxes - but I am
> currently setting up both a linux server and client to
> verify this)
>
> The installation and configuration runbook that I am
> writing is for me, but i am happy to share it with the
> Nagios community....
>
> Sam
>

Sam,

I don't have any issues with docs, it all worked fine for myself, with  
very little effort....

Anyway, wanted to let you know there is no issue with checking from  
Solaris via SSH, thats all I do.  I have a Solaris8 based Nagios Server,  
and about 75 monitored hosts, and 500-600 service checks, almost all  
checked via ssh.  (I'm actually having more issues with my Redhat 9  
server, than any of my solaris systems.)  I'm working on a set of service  
checks that run via SSH only, but don't require any processes or scripts  
on the remote end, except for standard unix commands.  That way the  
service checks don't have to be compiled on every host.  And my vendors  
can't complain about "3rd party" software running on production systems.

Can you run the checks manually by hand?

Good Luck,
Jeff



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