Archive for the 'Wizards' Category

Nagios XI VMware Virtualization Wizard Released

Nagios Enterprises is excited to announce the release of the VMware Virtualization Wizard for Nagios XI.

The VMware Virtualization Wizard monitors your VMware virtual environment by offloading the VMware checks to a vSphere Management Assistance (vMA) appliance.

This is achieved by utilizing the plugin box293_check_vmware, which has been written specifically for use on the vMA. Troy Lea (the author of box293_check_vmware) received a lot of feedback at the VMworld Conference after giving his talk on the plugin.

Why use the box293_check_vmware plugin? The plugin utilizes the VMware SDK. The SDK is notoriously CPU and Memory hungry, which can easily overload and cripple your Nagios XI host. By offloading the plugin to the vMA appliance, your Nagios XI server will not be affected as you monitor your VMware virtual environment.

The VMware Virtualization Wizard and installation instructions are available for download from the Nagios Exchange.

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How to Monitor Domain Expiration with Nagios XI 2014

Nagios XI - Domain Expiration WizardAnyone who rents or owns a domain knows that its registration will expire unless it is renewed. An expired domain can cause loads of issues for groups who rely on the accessibility of said domain whether they are large or small. One major issue that can stem from an expired domain in which you may have forgotten to renew is that a “squatter” could potentially register that domain under their own name and grab your valuable traffic for themselves. With the new Domain Expiration Wizard you can monitor down to the day of when your domain will expire. This is done by checking against the registrar to determine the time remaining so that you can renew your registration before it becomes too late. This is only one of the new wizards included in our latest release of Nagios XI 2014.

The Domain Expiration wizard can be ran in a few easy steps:

  • First, Enter the address of your domain:

Nagios XI - Domain Expiration Wizard

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How to Passively Monitor Windows Machines with NRDS & Nagios XI

In my previous article, I demonstrated how easy it is to passively monitor Linux machines with Nagios Remote Data Sender (NRDS) and Nagios XI. In today’s article, I will cover passive monitoring of Windows machines via NRDS.

Monitoring Windows machines via NRDS is no different than monitoring Linux boxes. You need to follow the same three steps:

  1. Adding Configuration
  2. Client Installation
  3. Configuring the host and its services

Step 1 – Adding Configuration

Go to Admin -> Monitoring Config -> NRDS Config Manager, click on Create Config, select Windows (32- or 64-bit) from the Operating System drop-down menu, and click on the Next button. You will see the Edit NRDS Config page. Most of the config options will already be populated for you with the default options. All you will need to do is type a config name, select a token from the drop-down menu, and click on the Apply button. For this example, we will be creating a config called “Win7x64”.

Edit NRDS Config

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Monitoring Website Defacement with Nagios XI 2014

There’s a new wizard in town and I don’t mean Gandalf the White!  The Website Defacement Wizard is a new wizard available in the latest release of Nagios XI 2014.

One of the worst things a company can suffer PR-wise is website defacement. At best, it will require restoring the page, and at worst it can be a nightmare of log review, security patches, and damage control. Time is of the essence in such a situation, so being alerted as soon as possible is of utmost importance. That’s where the Website Defacement Wizard comes in handy.

The Website Defacement Wizard allows you to monitor a web page for certain keywords, either alerting if they are present in the case of offensive or spam-related words, or alerting if they are missing, which may indicate a whole-page defacement. We provide a few pre-defined lists of words you may wish to look for, sorted into categories such as Profanity and Gambling. You can also add your own words or phrases, or remove certain words if they might be expected on the page (such as “unisex” on a page discussing clothing). If you would rather check to ensure the existence of a word or phrase, the process is similar and will be described in this article.

So without further delay, let’s walk through setting up a check:

In the Nagios XI interface, go to the Configure tab and click Run the Monitoring Wizard. Scroll all the way down the page and click Website Defacement.

Website Defacement Wizard - Nagios XI

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