Nagios

Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Checks and their execution
Advanced congurations
An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Laurent Andrey
Remi Badonnel
LORIA - INRIA Grand Est

ISSNSM2008, Zurich
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
1/32
2/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Key concepts
Functional architecture
Services and service states
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Local checks
Remote checks
Conclusions
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
References
Motivations
References
www.nagios.org: ocial distribution (core, plugins and

documentation)
www.nagiosexchange.org: lots of complementary plugins

W. Barth.
Nagios, System and Network Monitoring.
Open Source Press GmbH, rst edition, 2006.
ISBN: 1-59327-070-4.
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
3/32
References
Motivations
What is Nagios? What is Nagios useful for?

A widely-used monitoring tool for trouble-shooting

Simple and open source

Network, system, service levels
With a sophisticated (?) notication system to inform

administrators when something goes wrong
Nagios provides support to administrator(s) for detecting
problems before users (including the boss!)

Mail server failure

Hard drive overload
Network outage
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
4/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Key concepts
Key concepts
Colored area concept

Green/Yellow/Red (Ok/Warning/Critical)
No performance analysis or display (a priori)
Checks using external commands (plugins)
Various possibilities for remote checks
Possibility for passive checks (from managed resources)
Web interface + notications
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
5/32
Key concepts
config
Data Reaping
Resource State Calculation
Web Interface
log
Notification System
Filters, Contact Delivery
NAGIOS
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
6/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Key concepts
Architecture at run-time
Data reaping + notication system= nagios processes

Web interface

Can be run as a service (rcX.d, soft runlevel)

External web server (Apache)
Bunch of cgi scripts (part of Nagios)
Conguration

Simple text les

Or a postgres database
Logs (local les)
Named pipe (unix domain socket) to enable nagios to receive

commands (from cgi, passive asynchronous events)
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
7/32
Key concepts
Service, service check

Service

Service delivered by a software

Percentage of free space on a partition
Bandwith usage on a network interface ...
Service check

Provides state information on a service

Returns a value: OK, WARNING, CRITICAL (exit status 0, 1,
2), UNKNOWN (exit status 3, due to time out or plugin
runtime trouble) to reect the Nagios view about this service
Can be local (OS calls) or remote (ICMP, NRPE, SNMP ...)
Is implemented by a plugin (external command/script)
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
8/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Key concepts
Service states
Service states are the mirror of what nagios observes
States: OK, WARNING, CRITICAL, UNKNOWN
Transitions from one state to another one based on results

provided by checks
Critical and warning states are shadowed by related soft states

A service goes rst to a soft state

Attempt count mecanism to reach a denitive hard state
User notication can only occur when hard states are reached
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
9/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Key concepts
Service state diagram

ok ; ac 1 ; recovery
warning
ac + +
ac < mca
warning
ac + +
ac < mca
ok
ac 1
warning
ac ==mca
problem
warning
/ Hard Warning
u: L
mm
m
u
warning
m
u
mmm
ac ==mca
uu
okm; ac 1
u
problemuu
mmm
u
m
m
m
uu
vmm
warning
critical
u
u
warning
ac + +
ac + +
critical
uu
O hRRRR
4 OK
u
ac <mca
ac <mca
u
critical
RRR
u
R
uu
ac ==mca
u
ok ; ac
RR1R
problem
uu
u
RRR
u
R uu
)

/
Hard Critical
/ Soft Critical
R
X
critical
critical
Soft Warning
R
ac + +
ac <mca
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
ac + +
ac ==mca
problem
critical
ac + +
ac < mca
ok ; ac 1 ; recovery
critical
10/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Key concepts
Service state diagram legend
HS hard state, using normal check interval between 2

checks
S soft state, using retry check interval between 2 checks
RS / transition triggered by a check with a return status of

RS { ok, warning, critical }
ac++ /
Attempt Count is incremented when transition is

triggered
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
11/32
Key concepts
Service state diagram legend (ctd)
ac<mca/
transition is triggered if Attempt Count is smaller

than the service conguration attribute:
max check attempts
ac==mca
/
transition is triggered if Attempt Count is equal to

the service conguration attribute: max check attempts
ac1 /
Attempt Count is set to 1 then the transition is

triggered
a user notication { problem, recovery } is
generated when this transition is triggered
notication
/
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
12/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Nagios conguration
Object-oriented representation
A nagios object describes a specic unit: a service, an host, a

contact, a contactgroup ... with attributes and values
kind of inheritance mechanisms, dependencies amongst objets
Set of conguration les

Main le: nagios.cfg (ref. to other cfg. les)

1 le per object type: services.cfg, hosts.cfg, contacts.cfg,
checkcommands.cfg, misccommands.cfg, timeperiods.cfg ...
Requires an a priori knowledge
Conguration can also stand into a database
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
13/32
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Host
A service have to be linked to an host
Only UP and DOWN states
User notication (problem, recovery)

Same external checks than services

UP = (WARNING or OK), DOWN = CRITICAL

Typically: ICMP-based checks
No active checks if related services are OK
Host group (cosmetic ...)
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
14/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Other Nagios elements
contact, contactgroup: to specify who to notify, how to notify

and when to notify
Used in host and service denitions
command: to execute check plugins or to send user

notications
Links Nagios attributes found in denitions (ex: host name) to

plugin parameters
Already provided for most common plugins (see
checkcommands.cfg le)
Basic wrapping to send emails (misccommands.cfg le)
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
15/32
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Example scenario
dnsext
152.81.144.14
webloria
152.81.144.22
http://www.loria.fr
152.81.144.0/20
Internet
cat-481
152.81.0.0/20
nagios
152.81.9.211
dns1, preny
152.81.1.25
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
dns2, hugo
152.81.1.128
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Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Host denition (example)

hosts.cfg
define host {
webloria
host name
alias
w e b l o r i a l i n u x machine
address
152.81.144.22
check command
check h o s t a l i v e
max check attempts
3
check period
24 x7
notification interval
180
# 3 hours
notification period
24 x7
notification options
d,r ,f ,u
# down , r e c o v e r y , f l a p p i n g , u n r e a c h a b l e
contact groups
administrators
}
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
17/32
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Service denition (example 1)

services.cfg
define service {
host name
service description
check command
max check attempts
normal check interval
retry check interval
check period
notification period
# warning , c r i t i c a l , r e c o v e r y
contact groups
}
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
webloria
http s e r v i c e
check http
3
5
1
24 x7
180
24 x7
w, c , r , f , u
, flapping , unreachable
administrators
18/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Command denitions (example 1)
checkcommands.cfg
d e f i n e command{
command name
command line
}
check h o s t a l i v e
$USER1$/ c h e c k i c m p H $HOSTADDRESS$
command name
command line
}
check http
$USER1$/ c h e c k h t t p H $HOSTADDRESS$
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
19/32
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Service denition (example 2)

services.cfg
define service {
host name
dnsext
service description
dns s e r v i c e
check command
check name for given dns
!www. l o r i a . f r ! 1 5 2 . 8 1 . 1 4 4 . 2 2
max check attempts
3
5
1
check period
24 x7
180
notification period
24 x7
w, c , r , f , u
contact groups
administrators
}
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
20/32
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Command denition (example 2)
checkcommands.cfg
command name c h e c k n a m e f o r g i v e n d n s
c o m m a n d l i n e $USER1$/ c h e c k d n s H $ARG1$ a $ARG2$
s $HOSTADDRESS$
# $ARG1$ : f u l l y q u a l i f i e d name
# $ARG2$ : IP a d d r e s s
}
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
21/32
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Contact denition (example)
contacts.cfg
define contact {
contact name
alias
service notification period
host notification period
service notification options
host notification options
service notification commands
host notification commands
email
}
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
andrey
l a u r e n t andrey
24 x7
24 x7
w, u , c , r
d, r
n o t i f y bye m a i l
h o s t n o t i f y bye m a i l
andrey@loria . fr
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Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Object denitions
Other elements
Example scenario
Contactgroup denition (example)
contacts.cfg
define contactgroup {
contactgroup name
alias
members
}
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
administrators
group of a d m i n i s t r a t o r s
andrey
23/32
Local checks
Remote checks
Local checks
Getting information about your local system
Plugins based on system commands (such as ps, df, uptime)
check_disk -w 30% -c 15% -p /var
check_load -w 2.0,1.0,0.5 -c 4.0,2.0,1.0
check_procs -w 150 -c 250 --metric=PROCS
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
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Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Local checks
Remote checks
Direct network checks
Checking network services of remote hosts
Plugins based on network protocols
Directly executed from the Nagios machine
check_icmp -H 1.14.1.2 -w 100.0,20% -c 200.0,40%
check_tcp -H boston.loria.fr -p 7000
check_ftp -H ftp.inria.fr -p 21 -e 220
check_http -H http://www.esial.uhp-nancy.fr
check_smtp, check_imap, check_pop
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
25/32
Local checks
Remote checks
Checks using SSH (Secure Shell)
CLIENT
NAGIOS
sshd
(daemon)
check_by_ssh (plugin)
NETWORK
check_xyz
(plugin)
pub.key
priv.key
Nagios executes the check by ssh plugin
To run a plugin deployed on the remote machine
Based on asymetric keys to log without typing a password
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
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Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Local checks
Remote checks
Checks using NRPE (Nagios Remote Plugin Executor)
CLIENT
NAGIOS
nrpe (daemon)
check_nrpe (plugin)
ref
n
tcp connectio
NETWORK
ref1
ref2
...
check_xyz arg1 arg2

check_abc arg3 arg4
...
check_xyz
(plugin)
Nagios executes the check nrpe plugin
To interact with a dedicated daemon called nrpe
Based on pre-congured plugin invocations
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
27/32
Local checks
Remote checks
Other remote checks
Checks using SNMP

Collecting management information from SNMP agents

check_snmp plugin net-snmp snmpget
SNMP reply + warning and critical limits service state
Checks using NSCA (Nagios Service Check Acceptor)

Passive method where checks are initiated by the resources

themselves (close to SNMP traps)
A NSCA daemon waits for incoming check results (on the
Nagios machine), while the send_nsca program (on the
remote machines) sends messages containing check results
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
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Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
Making conguration more simple

Specifying Dependencies
Monitoring the same service on several hosts

setting the host name attribute of the service as a comma

separated list of host names
or setting an hostgroup name attribute for the service
Dening template-based objects

Notion of inheritance
Factorizing many low-interest attributes
register attribute to dene a template
use attribute to inherite from a template
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
29/32

Service and hostgroup (example)

define hostgroup{
hostgroup name
alias
members
}
dns hosts
h o s t s s u p p o r t i n g DNS
dns1 , d n s 2 , d n s e x t
define service{
hostgroup name
service description
check command
max check attempts
check period
notification period
contact groups
}
dns hosts
dns s e r v i c e
check name for given dns
!www . l o r i a . f r ! 1 5 2 . 8 1 . 1 4 4 . 2 2
3
5
1
24 x7
180
24 x7
w, c , r , f , u
administrators
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
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Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration

Specifying dependencies

Remainder: service critical state host check

How does Nagios make a dierence between:

Solution: dening dependency relationships amongst objects

(parents attribute)

case 1: webloria is really down

case 2: webloria is unreachable due to the network?
If an host is detected as down, the parent is checked

If the parent is OK, the initial host is really declared down
If not, the host is declared unreachable
Ex: cat-481 router dened as a parent of webloria
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
Introduction
Nagios at a glance
Nagios conguration
31/32

Conclusions
Open source monitoring solution
Based on simple concepts: checks, states, notications
Easily extensible and integrable
No discovery mechanism
Experience it during lab exercises!

Monitoring hosts and their services

Developing and testing our own plugin
Experimenting state transitions and notications
Laurent Andrey, R
emi Badonnel
32/32

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Introduction

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

LORIA - INRIA Grand Est

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

www.nagios.org: ocial distribution (core, plugins and

www.nagiosexchange.org: lots of complementary plugins

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

What is Nagios? What is Nagios useful for?

A widely-used monitoring tool for trouble-shooting

Simple and open source

With a sophisticated (?) notication system to inform

Mail server failure

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Colored area concept

No performance analysis or display (a priori)

Checks using external commands (plugins)

Various possibilities for remote checks

Possibility for passive checks (from managed resources)

Web interface + notications

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Data reaping + notication system= nagios processes

Can be run as a service (rcX.d, soft runlevel)

Simple text les

Logs (local les)

Named pipe (unix domain socket) to enable nagios to receive

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Service, service check

Service delivered by a software

Provides state information on a service

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Service states are the mirror of what nagios observes

States: OK, WARNING, CRITICAL, UNKNOWN

Transitions from one state to another one based on results

A service goes rst to a soft state

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Service state diagram

Service state diagram legend

HS hard state, using normal check interval between 2

S soft state, using retry check interval between 2 checks

RS / transition triggered by a check with a return status of

Attempt Count is incremented when transition is

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Service state diagram legend (ctd)

transition is triggered if Attempt Count is smaller

transition is triggered if Attempt Count is equal to

Attempt Count is set to 1 then the transition is

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

A nagios object describes a specic unit: a service, an host, a

Set of conguration les

Main le: nagios.cfg (ref. to other cfg. les)

Requires an a priori knowledge

Conguration can also stand into a database

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

A service have to be linked to an host

Only UP and DOWN states

User notication (problem, recovery)

UP = (WARNING or OK), DOWN = CRITICAL

No active checks if related services are OK

Host group (cosmetic ...)

An Introduction to Monitoring with Nagios

Other Nagios elements

contact, contactgroup: to specify who to notify, how to notify