Host checks instead of service checks

[Israel Brewster]

Using check_dummy with a service check titled "No Services" is exactly  
how we are doing this here. We have a number of hosts which we are  
really only interested in if the machine is running or not - so  
check_icmp is specified as the host check, and "No services" as the  
only service check. You are right, however, in that all these "No  
Services" show up in the service status list. If you don't want that,  
about the only way I can think of is to not associate any services  
with the host, and simply ignore the warnings you get about that when  
running nagios -v. This does cause some display issues, however (hosts  
without services tend to not show up in various screens) - thus the  
reason I opted to add the "No services" service.
-----------------------------------------------
Israel Brewster
Computer Support Technician II
Frontier Flying Service Inc.
5245 Airport Industrial Rd
Fairbanks, AK 99709
(907) 450-7250 x293
-----------------------------------------------



On Mar 16, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Deborah Martin wrote:

> Folks,
>
> Whilst using check_dummy as a service check does resolve the pre- 
> flight warnings, it's not the solution I think I'm looking for.
>
> The total number of service checks now includes the dummy checks  
> which i've chosen to always exit as UP so that it doesn't show up as  
> a service problem - which to me
> doesn't sound like the right way to do this. I want all service  
> checks to be useful service checks rather than have checks which  
> would need to be ignored as they don't return
> anything useful as with check_dummy - I wouldn't ever use that check  
> in any Nagios SLA reporting.
>
> What I really want to do is the following :
>
> Hosts -->> ssh check -->> When "CRITICAL" alert under "Host  
> problems" only.
>
> The docs show a distinct difference for behaviour between Nagios  
> 2.0b4 and Nagios 3.0.6.
>
> From Nagios 2.0b4, under Host Definitions:-
> check_command:	This directive is used to specify the short name of  
> the command that should be used to check if the host is up or down.  
> Typically, this command would try and ping the host to see if it is  
> "alive". The command must return a status of OK (0) or Nagios will  
> assume the host is down. If you leave this argument blank, the host  
> will not be checked - Nagios will always assume the host is up. This  
> is useful if you are monitoring printers or other devices that are  
> frequently turned off. The maximum amount of time that the  
> notification command can run is controlled by the host_check_timeout  
> option.
>
>
> From Nagios 3.0.6
> check_command:	This directive is used to specify the short name of  
> the command that should be used to check if the host is up or down.  
> Typically, this command would try and ping the host to see if it is  
> "alive". The command must return a status of OK (0) or Nagios will  
> assume the host is down. If you leave this argument blank, the host  
> will not be actively checked. Thus, Nagios will likely always assume  
> the host is up (it may show up as being in a "PENDING" state in the  
> web interface). This is useful if you are monitoring printers or  
> other devices that are frequently turned off. The maximum amount of  
> time that the notification command can run is controlled by the  
> host_check_timeout option.
>
> The difference is highlighted in RED. So on changing the "ssh  
> check"  from a service to a host definition (to prevent PENDING on  
> the hosts), the pre-flight warnings now complain there are no  
> services associated with the hosts. On big systems here (100 nodes+)  
> this makes the pre-flight output really unreadable and not really  
> accurate as surely we should be able to choose whether something is  
> a host check or service check but not have to define BOTH!
>
> Ultimately, I just want to filter SSH check problems to appear under  
> "Host problems" rather than under "Service problems" so users can  
> easily spot other service problem issues and not have to trawl  
> through 100's of lines of output in the web interface. Believe me,  
> Nagios web interface users can be a fickle bunch!
>
> A switch to tell Nagios to not complain about this would be really  
> useful unless anyone thinks of a good reason why this would be a bad  
> idea.
>
> any help / pointers would be appreciated, even if it's to tell me  
> politely how stupid i'm being - I can take it!
>
> regards,
> deborah
>
> From: Deborah Martin [mailto:Deborah.Martin at Kognitio.com]
> Sent: 16 March 2009 15:34
> To: 'Richard Quintin'
> Cc: nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks
>
> Thanks Richard. I'll give that a try.
>
> regards,
> deborah
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Quintin [mailto:rich+nagios at quintinz.com]
> Sent: 16 March 2009 15:26
> To: Deborah Martin
> Cc: nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks
>
> You could use check_dummy for the host check and just have it always  
> return OK.
> Or perhaps the opposite you could add a check_dummy service check  
> for all hosts.
>
> Which you choose will depend upon your personal preference and how  
> you want dependencies to be handled.
>
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Deborah Martin <Deborah.Martin at kognitio.com 
> > wrote:
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and
> > Nagios
> > 2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh
> > check (we don't allow ping)
> >
> > So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up.
> >
> > However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the  
> above)
> > with SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files
> > (services.cfg and hosts.cfg)
> >
> > on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as "Pending".  
> So I
> > then moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and  
> can
> > see that the more hosts I move the  less hosts are pending. That's  
> good so far...
> >
> > But, when I run the pre-flight check (/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios  
> -v
> > nagios.cfg), I now get warnings to say some hosts don't have any
> > service checks associated with it!
> >
> > This is true as some nodes will only have ssh checks against them
> > whilst others will have other checks against them. I'd rather it
> > didn't warn me as I have hundreds
> >
> > of hosts appear in the pre-flight check warnings and it now looks
> > incredibly untidy to see all this.
> >
> > How can I get rid of these warnings ?
> >
> > I'm probably missing something here so any help would be  
> appreciated.
> > I'm wondering for example, if I should force the initial state to be
> > UP for hosts rather than
> >
> > moving the ssh service check to a host check. But then what would
> > happen if the service check found a node was down - would it reflect
> > that in the "host problems" ?
> >
> > regards,
> > deborah
> >
> >  
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> -- 
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>
>
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