checking remote processes

[Andreas Ericsson]

Lance Boon wrote:
> I want to check if certain processes are running on my remote hosts, can
> I use the check_nrpe plugin to determine that or do I have to use the
> ncsa plugin to do that. I'm a little confused about that. Any assistance
> or guidance would greatly be appreciated
> 

You can use check_nrpe (requires a daemon and compiled plugins on the 
remote host), check_snmp (requires configuration of an snmp agent daemon 
on the remote host and possibly handhacking a new plugin), check_by_ssh 
(requires configuration of passphraseless keys for passwordless 
authentication) or nsca and send_nsca to submit passive check results.

There are problems involved with all of them.
For NRPE, you'll have to either run without SSL or make sure ssl 
libraries and headers are available on both systems at build time. 
You'll also have to configure it properly to receive and handle requests 
from your monitoring server.

For check_by_ssh, you need to set up passphraseless keys for 
passwordless authentication. You can then run whatever commands you 
want. This is a slight security risk and should not be used if your 
monitoring host isn't in a strictly controlled environment.

NSCA is lenient on the monitoring servers system load, but forces you to 
configure monitoring on several hosts which can be a bit of a hassle. It 
also requires you to read up on submitting passive check results, 
compile plugins on the monitored host and set up passwords and means of 
authentication.

SNMP requires configuration of the snmp agent daemon. It can most likely 
do what you want, but not necessarily in a very straightforward way, and 
for the more exoting things it's a real pain to configure. On the bright 
side, it's the most secure (as net-snmp supports snmp version 3) and 
should most likely be available as a pre-compiled package for your system.

I suggest google as a starting point for reading up on what you need to 
do. Have fun.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson at op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Lead Developer


-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by: InterSystems CACHE
FREE OODBMS DOWNLOAD - A multidimensional database that combines
robust object and relational technologies, making it a perfect match
for Java, C++,COM, XML, ODBC and JDBC. www.intersystems.com/match8
_______________________________________________
Nagios-users mailing list
Nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nagios-users
::: Please include Nagios version, plugin version (-v) and OS when reporting any issue. 
::: Messages without supporting info will risk being sent to /dev/null