nrpe on Microsoft machines

[Michael Tucker]

On Friday, January 16, 2004, at 02:58  PM, Neil wrote:

> Am I correct that nrpe on unix and rstatd on unix are 2 separate 
> options? If it is, I just might as well go with nrpe.

Yes, nrpe is the "Nagios remote plug-in executor". It's a program for 
running Nagios plugins locally on a remote host. (The plugin runs 
locally on the host; nrpe collects the output and returns it over the 
network to the Nagios server that initiated the query.) This is 
different from running rstatd (or any other RPC command) to query the 
status of a machine over the network. (Well, ok, there are certain 
similarities... the bottom line is similar, but the path is different.)

The only drawback to nrpe is that you are limited to plugins that other 
people have written, unless you can write one on your own. But there 
are a *lot* of plugins available.

> I thought, it was only for Windows machine. Problem is, where can I 
> find nrpe for unix that will work on Solaris?

Actually, on the contrary: nrpe is written for Unix. Go to the Nagios 
web site <http://www.nagios.org>, downloads area 
<http://www.nagios.org/download/extras.php>; there's a link for nrpe, 
which will allow you to download the source code. You'll have to 
compile it, preferably using gcc. You can download the gcc compiler for 
free from <sunfreeware.secsup.org>. Specify your version of Solaris 
(upper right scrollable list), then click the package you want to 
download (lower right scrollable list).

There is a NRPE_NT project also listed on that page, but I don't know 
anything about it. You'll have to explore that one on your own. :-)

I'm running Solaris 9. If you are, too, I don't mind sending you my 
compiled version of nrpe. However, from a strict security standpoint, 
if I were in your shoes I wouldn't accept it. I'm not a "trusted host", 
per se. You don't know who I am, or what I might have done to that 
program before sending it to you. You might trust me, but how would you 
answer the question if your boss asked you: "How do you know that guy 
didn't put something malicious in the code?" It would be best if you 
download the source yourself from the official site, and compile it 
yourself.

> About security, you're right. I will have to ask the guys to enable 
> tcpwrapper the nrpe service. In that way, nagios will be the only one 
> to connect to the daemon.

It's very easy to set that part up. Just edit /etc/inetd.conf, 
/etc/services, /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny; then restart the 
inetd daemon. The README file that comes with nrpe tells you how. If 
you have any trouble, I'd be happy to help you out since I got it 
working.

> Also eventually, if the managers will like nagios(coz now they liked 
> it), I will present to them a distributed nagios setup. Does this mean 
> that all the monitoring hosts will only be doing passive checks?

No, it works like this:

For a group of hosts to be monitored, there is a server doing the 
monitoring ("active checks"). This server is called a "distributed 
server". There might be more than one distributed server in your 
network, each monitoring a different group of hosts.

Each distributed server actively collects status information, then 
forwards it to the one server that does notifications, reports, etc. 
That server is called the "central server". It does *no* active checks 
of its own (unless you want it to); instead, it just checks "passively" 
for the reports forwarded to it by the distributed server(s).

There's a very good description of distributed monitoring in the Nagios 
documentation. Bring up your Nagios web interface and click on 
"Documentation" (at the top left, under "General"). Then click on 
"Table of Contents", then look for and click on "Distributed 
monitoring" (under "Advanced Topics"). There are even some nifty 
graphics and diagrams you can show your boss. :-)

> Thanks for the advice. It really helped.
>

Glad to help. I'm very new at this (Nagios) myself; I've only been 
trying to implement Nagios since late November. But I'm happy to share 
with you the things I've figured out. It's a way of giving back to the 
community, as thanks for the help that others have given me.

Yours,
Michael



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