Network Monitoring with Icinga

NETWORK MONITORING WITH ICINGA

Greg Parmer, Information Technology Specialist

Jonas Bowersock, Information Technology Specialist

Alabama Cooperative Extension System

Auburn University

Why Monitor?

Proactive Administration• Better service• Better coordination• Better inventory of

services• To reduce finger pointing• To save lives!• More time for other

things…like walks on the beach

Others vs Nagios vs Icinga

Big Brother• Years of good experiences• Recognized need for Aruba

monitor in 2011• Commercial “professional

edition”?• What next?

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_network_monitoring_systems)


Nagios• 1996 – started by Ethan Galstad• 1999 - released open source project “NetSaint”• 2002 – trademark issues prompted rename to Nagios (“Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On

Sainthood”)• 2007 – Ethan founded Nagios Enterpises LLC• Most downloaded monitoring software• Large, active plug-in community


Icinga• 2009 - Nagios fork• Open source community

project• Many contributors from

Nagios project (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1054340)

• Backward compatible – configs, plug-ins, add-ons

• 2014 – Icinga v2 due

Nagios & Icinga

2011 - Installed both Nagios and Icinga

Ran both from same config files for months

2012 – Use Nagios to monitor Icinga

Constant addition of service monitors since

(Right: aNag screenshot on Android phone)

What To Monitor?

Connectivity (check_ping)

Websites (check_http)

Disk usage (check_disk)

CPU usage (check_load)

Memory usage (check_swap)

Uptime (check_uptime)

File size (check_file_size.sh)

File age (check_file_age)

File shares (check_file_size)

Log files (check_log)

Non-standard ports (check_port)

Mail (check_smtp, check_mailq,more)

DNS (check_dns)

Certificate expirations (check_http)

Backup software (check_proc)

AV software (check_proc)

Check on printer (check_snmp)

Search: “Nagios plugins”

Example Definitionsdefine command{

command_name check-host-alive

command_line $USER1$/check_ping -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -w 3000.0,80% -c 5000.0,100% -p 5

}

define host{

name generic-switch ; The name of this host template

use generic-host ; Inherit default values from the generic-host template

check_period 24x7 ; By default, monitored round the clock

check_interval 5 ; every 5 minutes

retry_interval 2 ; Schedule host check retries at 2 minute intervals

max_check_attempts 6 ; Check each switch 6 times (max)

check_command check-host-alive ; check if routers are "alive“ (ping)

notification_period workhours_sans_au_holidays

notification_interval 160 ; Resend notifications

notification_options d,f,r,u ; d=dwn,u=unreach,r=recov,f=flap,s=sch dwntm,n=none

contact_groups helpdesk-plus

register 0 ; DONT REGISTER THIS - ITS JUST A TEMPLATE

}

Example Definitiondefine host{

use generic-switch ; Inherit default values from a template

host_name 4hcenter ; The name we're giving to this switch

hostgroups t1s ; Host groups this switch is associated with

}

define host{

use generic-switch ; Inherit default values from a template

host_name chiltonrec ; The name we're giving to this switch

hostgroups t1s ; Host groups this switch is associated with

}

Rinse and repeat…

Example Hostgroup Overview

Hostgroups

Notes and Actions Exampledefine host{

host_name AGITC

use generic-arubarap

hostgroups x-aruba

parents Aruba-Concentrator

notes_url https://sites.aces.edu/it/ForITstaff/Lists/Office_Network_ACESDB/DispForm.aspx?ID=2

action_url https://sites.aces.edu/it/ForITstaff/Shared%20Files/extra_county_info/agitc/

}

Example Hostgroup Overview

Note

Action

Notifications

So you say…

Our To Do List

Monitoring all websites

Monitoring all WordPress installs

Monitoring web page load times

Monitoring SQL server response times

Monitoring bandwidth to remote sites (better ideas?)

Monitoring the service which produces the next unexpected phone call

Questions?

Thoughts?

Suggestions?

Greg Parmer – parmega (at) auburn.eduJonas Bowersock – bowerjb (at) auburn.edu

Education

Network Monitoring with Icinga