Nagios and DB support.

[Andreas Ericsson]

Kevin Phillips wrote:
> I understand that moving forward with 2.0 nagios is no longer going to
> support databases, mysql, etc.
> 

That is correct. Instead there's support for callback modules which can 
do database updates (or whatever any C-coded program can, really) for you.

> I think that what I am looking for below would best be accomplished by a
> database, if I am wrong please point me in the right direction.
> 

Best is a subjective term. I believe database support was dropped 
because it was a hassle to keep the support up to date with database 
development while maintaining support for older releases as well.

This meant Ethan didn't have very much time left to incorporate new 
features in the Nagios code. It is "best" for Nagios as a project if it 
keeps evolving. It evolves faster if it depends on and supports less 
external applications (such as databases).

> I am looking for nagios to monitor and log events so I can report them for
> my SLA.  What I need to know is, when a system goes down and when it comes
> back up.  This information would best be stored in a database so I can query
> monthly, quarterly, annualy, etc.
> 

A database is just files stored in memory by a socket handling program 
with some extremely fast hashing code and an interpreter of some form 
(generally for the structured query language, which is predominant in 
databases).

> I also need to log results of check commands so that I can create monthly,
> quarterly, and anual reports as to performance of systems.
> 
> Is nagios able to do this w/o database support?

Yes indeed, but it will take a while longer to generate the report in 
question because the cgi's don't employ such superior hashing as most 
databases does and they are written to do more than one thing, which a 
custom SLA reporting script wouldn't have to be. However, I expect a 
total of 4 minutes of waiting per year is a quite acceptible loss in 
productivity.

>  I have looked at the nagios
> logs and notice it does log these events, but doesn't time-stamp them.
> 

Your eyes must be deceiving you. A general log-line in a nagios archive 
looks something like this;

[23490098209] SOMETHING;hostname;status;something;somethingelse

The number within brackets is a timestamp (number of seconds since the 
UNIX epoch, 00:00:00 Jan 1 1970). The avail.cgi program can generate 
very nice SLA reports from these logfiles and, as of a few months back, 
even let you pick a timeperiod for which you have service providing 
responsibilities.

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


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