Tripp Lite B092-016 - Nagios Integration; Nagios Overview

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Chapter 10: Nagios Integration
Nagiosisapowerful,highlyextensibleopensourcetoolformonitoringnetworkhostsandservices.ThecoreNagiossoftware
packagewilltypicallybeinstalledonaserverorvirtualserver,thecentralNagiosserver.
TrippLiteConsoleServerscanoperateinconjunctionwithacentral/upstreamNagiosservertoprovidedistributingmonitoring
ofattachednetworkhostsandserialdevices.TheConsoleServerscanembedtheNSCA(NagiosServiceChecksAcceptor)
andNRPE(NagiosRemotePlug-inExecutor)add-ons.ThisallowsthemtocommunicatewiththecentralNagiosserver,
eliminatingtheneedforadedicatedSlaveNagiosserveratremotesites.
TheConsoleServersembedabasicsetofdistributedmonitoringadd-onsandcanbeuploadedwithadditionalcustomizable
distributed monitoring.
Note: If you have an existing Nagios deployment, you may wish to use the Console Server in a distributed monitoring server
capacity only. In this case and if you are already familiar with Nagios, skip ahead to section 10.3.
10.1 Nagios Overview
Nagiosprovidescentralmonitoringofthehostsandservicesinyourdistributednetwork.Nagiosisfreelydownloadable,
opensourcesoftware.ThissectionoffersaquickbackgroundofNagiosanditscapabilities.Acompleteoverview,FAQand
comprehensive documentation are available at: http://www.nagios.org
NagiosformsthecoreofmanyleadingcommercialsystemmanagementsolutionssuchasGroundWork:http://www.
groundworkopensource.com
Nagiostakessometimetoinstallandcongure,butonceitisupandrunning,itprovidesanoutstandingnetworkmonitoring
system.WithNagiosyoucan:
• Displaytablesshowingthestatusofeachmonitoredserverandnetworkserviceinrealtime
• Useawiderangeoffreelyavailableplug-instomakedetailedchecksofspecicservices,e.g.,don'tjustcheckifa
databaseisacceptingnetworkconnections,checkthatitcanactuallyvalidaterequestsandreturnrealdata
• Displaywarningsandsendwarninge-mails,pagerorSMSalertswhenaservicefailureordegradationisdetected
• Assigncontactgroupswhoareresponsibleforspecicservicesinspecictimeframes