Reporting and misc rave.

[Jim Pye]

All,

I have only been using Nagios for a week or two. Have a system
configured to monitor a five server network. I therefore have not used
all the features comprehensively but I do see some of the points Steve
mentions below as things I see missing - see my notes.

Note I am using v2.0rc2.

On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 12:39 +1300, Steve Shipway wrote:

> My wishlist for Nagios?
> 0) Two levels of access - readonly and manage - on a per contact, per
> service level.  Dont just give 'manage' access to everyone listed as a
> contact for that service.
True. I did work on a customers site where the management wanted access
to monitor what was going on but did not want to change or acknowledge
alerts etc.

> 1) Add downtime (and parent-in-downtime) flags to the log entries, also
> alert-disabled flags and all the other status flags.
I have not got into the logging and the history part yet so not sure
what is missing but it would seem that all parts and flags should be
logged if any of them are.

> 2) Add optional database plugins for mysql, mssql, oracle.... instead of the
> log files
Maybe this could be a plugin type technology that could be developed
separately from the nagios core.

> 3) More features in the map functions
The maps I have started to play with, but one area I see that could be
made configurable is the Tactical Overview. To me the layout of this
screen is a bit upside down, I see that the important data - the status
of hosts and services should be front and centre. The performance
information is secondary and should be below. I have had a look at the
tac.c source and see that it would not be too differcult to rearrange.
Might set this as a project for myself...

> 4) Something so you can see who will be alerted by a particular service at
> any given time
Maybe with your PERL skills Steve this could be pieced together via a
script that parses the config files.

> 5) A reporting tool for SLA reporting to give % time in unscheduled downtime
> over a whole hostgroup.
Working on larger sites I know that this sort of thing can be very
important. However have to watchout that, like the thread on reporting
graphs etc., is this really a function of Nagios or a more full on
HelpDesk system? Maybe for both Graphing and SLA type stuff an interface
be built to allow alternates to be used.

> 6) cmd.cgi should have dropdown lists where possible, and make checks for
> hostname/servicename validity.  I've already coded this in on our (1.2)
> version.
> 7) Downtime schedules should have an optional flag for 'repeat' that will
> re-scedule themselves for next day/week etc.
This problem I struck last night and yes it would be great to have a
repeating scheduled downtime on a host/service. This might be for
regular full offline backups etc that would happen regularly and the
service is going to be "off the air" and not reporting.

> 
> Thankyou for your time!  Maybe I should be posting to the nagios-devel list,
> or finding some time to help code these myself...
> 
> Steve
> 

My $0.02 (which isn't legal currency here in NZ anymore :-) 

Jim

-- 
Jim Pye
PyeNet Universal

email: jim.pye at pyenet.co.nz | Phone: +64 4 527 8284 | Fax: +64 4 528 9693
                     web site: http://www.pyenet.co.nz



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