The Industry Standard in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Purpose
This document describes how to keep tabs on your network latency with Smokeping and Nagios XI.
Target Audience
This document is intended for use by Nagios XI Administrators who would like to be notified when there are network latency problems,
either within an internal network or with an external host like a web serer.
Installing Smokeping
The first thing you!ll need to do is install Smokeping. This can be done on a separate machine or the Nagios XI serer. Installing it on a
separate machine is recommended howeer, to aoid potential performance issues with your XI serer.
Installation can be done in a few different ways. If your distribution proides a package for Smokeping, that is almost certainly the
easiest and most recommended way to install it. "therwise the recommended method of installation on #ed $at % &ent"S is to use our
installation script to automate the otherwise ery inoled manual installation procedure. 'nfortunately, this script is ery much
distribution( and architecture(specific and will not work on unsupported platforms. #unning the following commands will install
Smokeping to )opt)smokeping on a #ed $at or &ent"S system*
# cd /tmp/
# wget http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagiosxi/scripts/xi-smokeping.tar.gz
# tar xzvf xi-smokeping.tar.gz
# cd xi-smokeping/
# ./install-smokeping.sh
"nce Smokeping is installed you will need to configure it to monitor the
desired hosts. This is outside the scope of this document and you
should consult Smokeping!s official documentation for more
information.
If eerything is set up correctly, you should be able to iew graphs of
Smokeping!s data at*
http*))myserer.example.com)smokeping)smokeping.cgi +this may differ
according to your installation method,.
-eep in mind that once edit your Smokeping configuration you will
need to restart Smokeping. Thankfully, Smokeping runs as a serice
so restarting Smokeping is as simple as
# service smokeping restart
"r
# /etc/init.d/smokeping restart
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(etting Notifications 8rom Smokeping
Now that Smokeping is installed and configured, it!s time to integrate
Smokeping with Nagios XI and begin receiing notifications based on
Smokeping!s data. This procedure will differ depending on whether
you are running Smokeping on your XI serer or an external serer.
The instructions here will coer local installations on your XI serer
only. To monitor a remote Smokeping installation you should consult
the N#62 document listed in the Additional #esources section at the
end of this document. Included with the installation script tarball aboe
was a Nagios plugin called check7smokeping. 8ou will need to copy
this file to )usr)local)nagios)libexec)check7smokeping*
# cp /tmp/xi-smokeping/check_smokeping \
/usr/local/nagios/libexec/
Now that the plugin is installed, you will need to create a command
definition utili9ing it. In XI!s web interface, naigate to &onfigure(:&ore
&onfig ;anager(:&ommands(:Add New.
Name the command check_smokeping and set the command type to !check command!. The command line should be as follows*
!"#$%/check_smokeping -r /opt/smokeping/data/&$'% &$'(
<inally, you should now be able to create serices for your
Smokeping hosts. 8ou can use existing hosts which hae other
serices associated with them, or you can create new hosts in XI
specifically for Smokeping. In either case Smokeping should hae
been preiously configured to monitor that host. To add a host
naigate to the &ore &onfig ;anager, and under $osts you should
find an Add New button. 8ou only need to proide a $ost Name and
$ost Address at a minimum, then add the xiwi9ard7generic7host
template by clicking the =Insert> button after selection it from the
dropdown menu. ?hen you!e set up the host to your specifications,
click the =Sae> button.
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Now click Add New on the serices configuration page. $ere you will
need to proide a configuration name, which by default is usually the
same as the hostname. 8ou should also choose a serice
description and associate it with your host. The check command
should be check_smokeping and &$'% should be the file name
of your hosts ##@ file relatie to your Smokeping data directory
+)opt)smokeping)data) with the included installation script,. <inally,
you should include the generic-service template. &lick sae,
apply configuration, and you should be doneA 8our first check results
will begin filtering within a few minutes. Note that there is no
performance data included with the check7smokeping plugin, so you
will not get graphs inside of Nagios XI. $oweer, you can iew
graphs using the Smokeping web interfaceA
Additional :esources
http*))oss.oetiker.ch)smokeping)doc)index.en.html
http*))library.nagios.com)library)products)nagiosxi)documentation)BCD(monitoring(hosts(using(nrpe
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