Archive for the 'Components' Category

How to Add Nagios Network Analyzer Reports in Nagios XI

If you are currently using both Nagios XI and Nagios Network Analyzer, the release of Nagios XI 2014 has made it very easy to add Nagios Network Analyzer reports in XI. All you need to do is to configure the Network Analyzer Component in Nagios XI. Here’s how you do it:

  • From the Nagios XI Web interface, click on the Admin menu, then click on the Manage Components menu.
  • Find the Nagios Network Analyzer Component and click on the Edit Settings button.
  • Click the Add a Server button.
  • Enter the required information, and click Apply Settings.

Nagios Network Analyzer Component Settings

Continue reading ‘How to Add Nagios Network Analyzer Reports in Nagios XI’

Check Out the New Scheduled Backups Component in Nagios XI 2014

One of the coolest new features in Nagios XI 2014, is the Scheduled Backups Component. Backups may not sound cool and exciting, but in the event that your Nagios system has a major issue, or you want to restore on a fresh system, having off-disk backups can be a lifesaver. The Scheduled Backups Component also makes backups extremely easy and straight forward! Are you excited yet? If not, you’ll get there once we are done going through the many available options.

To get started head over to your local Nagios XI machine, and log into the web interface. Once you’re in, open up the Admin page and select Scheduled Backups, down on the bottom left area of your interface. You should see all three backup options are initially disabled, and there is currently no last backup size, as none have been run.

Nagios XI 2014 Scheduled Backup Component

Continue reading ‘Check Out the New Scheduled Backups Component in Nagios XI 2014’

Using the Mass Acknowledge Component in Nagios XI

The Mass Acknowledge component in Nagios XI 2014 makes it very easy to mass acknowledge problems with hosts/services that are in non-OK state. The component allows you to suppress additional alerts to be sent out, while a team member works on resolving the issue(s). This component can also be used to schedule downtime for hosts/services, or schedule immediate checks in bulk.

From the Nagios XI Home page, navigate to Incident Management –> Mass Acknowledge. Select the function you would like to use from the Command Type drop-down menu. Then, select the hosts/services you wish to target. You can select some of the hosts/services by clicking on each checkbox or you can select all of them at once, by clicking on the Check All Items button. If you suspect that there are more hosts/services in a non-OK state than those you see on the page, you can always click on the Update List button on the top to update the list.

Next, set the length of downtime in minutes, and enter a comment. You have an option to choose whether to send or not to send alerts. Simply select or deselect the appropriate Notify checkboxes. Also, you have an option to make some (or all) of your comments Sticky or Persistent.

Note: If you want acknowledgement to disable notifications until the host/service recovers, check the Sticky acknowledgement checkbox. On the other hand, if you would like the host/service comment to remain once the acknowledgement is removed, check the Persistent acknowledgement checkbox.

Finally, click on the Submit Commands button.

Mass Acknowledgements and Downtime Scheduling in Nagios XI

Continue reading ‘Using the Mass Acknowledge Component in Nagios XI’

Keeping an Eye on Problematic Services with the Status Info Dashlet

The Status Info Dashlet has been available on the Nagios Exchange website for about a year now. It is a very cool dashlet, that in my opinion, doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The Status Info Dashlet allows you to display the current status of a service as a dashlet on a dashboard in nice big numbers, and is especially useful in cases when you want to keep an eye on a problematic service.

Setup and Installation of the Status Info Dashlet is quite easy:

First, you need to download the dashlet from the Nagios Exchange site: Status Info Dashlet
Direct Download Link: statusinfo.zip

Next, add the dashlet from the Nagios XI web interface:
Admin -> System Extensions -> Manage Dashlets -> Browse -> statusinfo.zip -> Open -> Upload Dashlet

Once the dashlet has been successfully installed, you can add it to a dashboard of choice:
Dashboards -> Add Dashlets -> Available Dashlets
and clicking on the “dashify” icon in the upper left corner of the dashlet to add it to a Dashboard .

You will see the “Add To Dashboard” interface, which has many different options, allowing you to customize your dashlet. The first three options on the top allow you to set the dashlet’s title, the dashboard, where you would like the dashlet to be added to, and the refresh rate. Below these three options, you will see eight tabs for even more customizations. I will go through each one briefly, and describe the most basic choices.

1) Object-1

Here you can select the object (service), that you want your dashlet to use. You also have an option to show the current service status as text, set the background color, “trim” the output (the beginning or the end), in order to discard the information that you don’t need. You can also show the last refresh time and the refresh interval underneath the object.

2) Object-2

This is NOT a place, where you can select a second object (service) – the name is a bit misleading. Here you can change the object text formatting (text size, weight, style, color, etc.)

3) Text

From here, you can add additional text to your dashlet and style it how you want.

4) Name

The menu allows you to select the name format that you want to appear in the dashlet. The available options are:

– Host
– Host – Service Name
– Service Name
– Service Name – Host

You can also format the text (size, style, color, etc.)

5) Layout

This allows you to select how you want the dashlet displayed. There is a drop-down menu with a various combinations for displaying “Text”, “Object”, and “Name”.

6) Preview

When you click on this tab, you will see a preview of what your dashlet will look like.

7) Help

The help menu explains in details the various options that exist in each section/tab.

8) License

Here you can read the license for this dashlet.

After you selected all of the options you want, just click on the “Add it” button on the bottom. Then you can go to the dashboard, where you added that dashlet and view status info for your service.  You’ve now successfully added the Status Info Dashlet to your Nagios XI views.  It’s as easy as that.