NagMIN Guide

Author: Christian Bock

Contact: nagmin-documentation@krisbe.de

FOR THE UP TO DATE VERSION HAVE A LOOK AT

http://www.krisbe.de/nagmin
NagMIN Guide 2 / 44 Version 0.6 / 07-27-2005
Version Date Changes Annotations
0.1 03-27-2005 initial version work in progress
0.2 03-28-2005 explanation of features and bug fixes added still work in progress
0.3 05-07-2005 Minor corrections, spelling etc.
0.4 06-13-2005 Complete revision “hidden features”
still missing
0.5 07-20-2005 Some additional “hidden” features explained
and comments on gentoo updated.
0.6 07-27-2005 Comments on Sylog/Cisco Config Viewer

NagMIN Guide 3 / 44 Version 0.6 / 07-27-2005

Table of Contents
1 Abstract...............................................................................................................................7
2 Requirements......................................................................................................................8
2.1 Packages.....................................................................................................................8
2.1.1 Common Prerequisites.........................................................................................8
2.1.2 Nagios .................................................................................................................9
2.1.3 NagMIN................................................................................................................9
2.2 OS – Notes................................................................................................................10
2.2.1 gentoo.................................................................................................................10
2.2.1.1 Nagios.........................................................................................................10
2.2.1.2 NagMIN.......................................................................................................10
3 Installation.........................................................................................................................11
3.1 Prerequisites..............................................................................................................11
3.2 Sources......................................................................................................................11
3.3 Nagios........................................................................................................................12
3.3.1 Sources..............................................................................................................12
3.3.2 Configure............................................................................................................12
3.3.3 Make ( Install )....................................................................................................13
3.4 MySQL.......................................................................................................................14
3.4.1 Overview.............................................................................................................14
3.4.2 Sources..............................................................................................................14
3.4.3 Configure ...........................................................................................................14
3.4.4 Make ..................................................................................................................14
3.4.5 Some additional setup........................................................................................14
3.5 Perl.............................................................................................................................15
3.5.1 Configure............................................................................................................15
3.5.2 Make...................................................................................................................15
3.6 Perl Modules..............................................................................................................16
3.6.1 Make (install)......................................................................................................16
3.7 Webmin......................................................................................................................17
3.7.1 Sources..............................................................................................................17
3.7.2 Installation..........................................................................................................17
3.8 NagMIN......................................................................................................................18
3.8.1 Sources..............................................................................................................18
3.8.2 Installation..........................................................................................................18

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4 Configuration.....................................................................................................................19
4.1 Nagios........................................................................................................................19
4.2 Webmin......................................................................................................................19
4.3 NagMIN......................................................................................................................20
4.3.1 NagMIN Database Setup...................................................................................20
4.3.2 Initial Configuration Of NagMIN.........................................................................22
4.3.3 NagMIN Generated Nagios Config....................................................................23
4.3.3.1 Database.....................................................................................................23
4.3.3.2 System Host................................................................................................23
4.3.3.3 Templates....................................................................................................24
4.4 SSH............................................................................................................................25
4.5 Cron...........................................................................................................................25
4.6 Apache.......................................................................................................................26
4.6.1 httpd.conf............................................................................................................26
5 NagMIN Features Explained.............................................................................................27
5.1 Overview....................................................................................................................27
5.2 Centralized Management .........................................................................................27
5.3 Nagios Database Integration.....................................................................................28
5.4 SNMP Interface Scanning.........................................................................................28
5.5 SNMP Interface Performance Monitoring With Threshold Alerting...........................29
5.6 NagMIN Web Portal...................................................................................................30
5.7 Nagios Extended Information Integration..................................................................32
5.8 NMAP Port Scanning.................................................................................................32
5.9 Nagios Logo Management........................................................................................32
5.10 Nagios Plugin Tester...............................................................................................32
5.11 Configuration Upload...............................................................................................33
5.12 ServiceGroups.........................................................................................................33
5.13 Dynamic Host Creation............................................................................................33
5.14 Dynamic Service Creation.......................................................................................33
5.15 Verification Feature..................................................................................................34
5.16 Default Data Entry...................................................................................................34
5.17 Global Data Updates...............................................................................................35
5.18 Multiple Database Support......................................................................................35
5.19 Search Capabilities..................................................................................................35
5.20 Multi-Lingual Support ..............................................................................................35

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 5.21 Easy Database Editing............................................................................................36
5.22 Reports....................................................................................................................36
5.23 Database Backup ...................................................................................................36
6 Some more Adons............................................................................................................37
6.1 Overview....................................................................................................................37
6.2 Cisco Config Viewer..................................................................................................37
6.3 Syslog Viewer............................................................................................................38
7 System start and system services....................................................................................39
7.1 Daemon.....................................................................................................................39
7.2 Cron-Jobs..................................................................................................................39
8 Troubleshooting................................................................................................................40
8.1 Checklist....................................................................................................................40
9 Backup .............................................................................................................................41
9.1 Paths and Files..........................................................................................................41
9.2 MySQL.......................................................................................................................41
10 ToDo................................................................................................................................42
11 Glossary..........................................................................................................................43
12 References......................................................................................................................44

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1 Abstract

NagMIN claims to be a single point of Nagios configuration and offers quite a large set of
features. Unfortunately these features are not documented, that means they are more or
less useless for us. But still, after some initial headaches I set up a distributed Nagios
environment whose configuration is in the hands of NagMIN .
I try to explain all I found out about NagMIN and especially all about the installation
process and “basic” features, but I am only human as you guys are so please tell me about
your opinion, subjects that have to be discussed or that are not appropriately documented.
Do not hesitate to contact me at nagmin-documentation@krisbe.de because I would like to
keep this documentation as useful as possible.
And still have a look at Frederick's documentation because I will not repeat that document,
except the installation process which I hope I can make a bit clearer to you.
Topics you can find in his document you can not find here are: Design Strategy,
Inheritance, Notification Aggregator, NagMIN Navigator, NagMIN/Nagios Table Definitions.
The additional benefit of this document is the explanation of how to use the undocumented
features and perhaps if there will be some feedback, this can be a knowledge base for
unsolved issues in the current version of NagMIN.
There still do exist lots of bugs especially in the Portal / Graph / RRD area. With the help of
this version of the document, the WebPortal can be set up.
Questions I have are about the nagmin_fping. How does that work?
There are some issues with the RTT and Availability on the WebPortal home. Has
anybody solved that issue already?

And of course after the criticism a lot of thanks to Frederick who invested that much time to
bring up NagMIN which has some really useful features. I would be happy if he found
some time to support the process again.

NagMIN Guide 7 / 44 Version 0.6 / 07-27-2005

2 Requirements

2.1 Packages

2.1.1 Common Prerequisites

– MySQL
– MySQL is mandatory as well. NagMIN is storing all its information in it.

– OpenSSL

– OpenSSH
– used for distribution to remote Nagios servers

– Net-SNMP ( optional )
– Net-SNMP is optional but is needed if you want to use the automated discovery of
interfaces and traffic statistics etc. in NagMIN.

– RRDTool ( optional )
– RRDTool is optional, but is needed for automated generation of rrd files e.g. for the
automated interface discovery traffic statistics in the NagMIN WebPortal.
– Dependencies: pkg-config, gnome-config, libpng, freetype2, cgilib, libart

– Nmap ( optional )
– You can run NagMIN perfectly without Nmap, but of course can't use some features
of automatic host and service discovery and configuration.
– Dependencies: libpcap (Unix) or winpcap (Windows), GTK+

– Apache

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2.1.2 Nagios

– Nagios 1.*
– Be aware that the current Version of NagMIN ( 2.2.0 ) only supports Version 1.* of
Nagios. There is currently no support of Nagios2!
– Dependencies: gd

– Nagios Plugins
– The Nagios Plugins package includes service checks. These are not contained in
the Nagios distribution.

2.1.3 NagMIN

– Webmin
– NagMIN is a Webmin module, so Webmin is mandatory :-)

– Perl Modules
– DBI
– Dependencies: Net::Daemon, RPC::PIServer
– Bundle::DBD::mysql
– Crypt::DES
– Digest::SHA1
– Digest::HMAC
– Net::SNMP
– HTML::Template
– Net::SSLeay

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2.2 OS – Notes

2.2.1 gentoo

The gentoo system runs almost out of the box. You just have to “emerge” the packages
above, except Nagios. NagMIN has to be installed manually.

2.2.1.1 Nagios

The nagios-core package comes with an use flag “mysql”. You can not use it as is
because it compiles MySQL support for the Host Extended Information, too. We need this
information to be generated into Nagios config files like all other configs. To achieve this
we have to modify the files

/usr/portage/net-analyzer/nagios-core/nagios-core-1.2-r*.ebuild

in line 79 from

use mysql && myconf="${myconf} --with-mysql-xdata"

to

use mysql && myconf="${myconf} --with-mysql-downtime --with-mysql-comments

--with-mysql-status --with-mysql-retention"

emerge nagios-core-1.2-r*.ebuild digest

(Re)install the nagios-core.

2.2.1.2 NagMIN

You have to install NagMIN itself manually as described in the following chapters.

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3 Installation

3.1 Prerequisites

In this document I assume that all software is installed in default places. Of course these
may vary from software to software, but I expect it to be under
/usr/local/<name[and version of the software]>
For comments on sources see the next chapter.

3.2 Sources

Personally I prefer to build my systems from source for several reasons. These are:
1) I ALWAYS had problems building a system entirely on rpms for various reasons. Which
led me to install a package from source which then was not compatible with an installed
rpm so I had to ... but perhaps you know the game :-)
2) I got full control over the compile options, so the software is compiled especially for my
needs.
3) It is easy to update just the packages that need to be updated.

Some Unix/Linux freaks may know better, but my default path for all sources is

/usr/local/src

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3.3 Nagios

You should have Nagios running and have played around with it before you are going to
install NagMIN, but to give you some idea of the installation process, here it is.

3.3.1 Sources

Sources are available at www.nagios.org.

Be aware to take the latest 1.* version because NagMIN currently does not support
version 2!

3.3.2 Configure

What I am showing you below is some config for an advanced MySQL-installation an

some more features using performance data of Nagios. I will not discuss these in this
document.
One may argue not to use MySQL anymore as it is not supported by Nagios2 anymore.
And if you think about it twice, you will recognize that the object definitions of Nagios are
never subject of using MySQL or not, they are always stored in text files, in 1.* and 2, too!

cd /usr/local/src/nagios-1.2
./configure \
--enable-embedded-perl \
--with-perlcache \
--with-default-perfdata \
--with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/ \
--with-mysql-inc=/usr/local/mysql/include/mysql/ \
--with-mysql-comments \
--with-mysql-retention \
--with-mysql-downtime \
--with-mysql-status \
--without-statuswrl
The reduced version is sufficient until you have some experience and understand Nagios:
./configure

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Is that easy?

3.3.3 Make ( Install )

make all
make install
make install-init
make install-commandmode
make install-config

Installation process finished.

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3.4 MySQL

3.4.1 Overview

MySQL is the place NagMIN is storing its information, so setup is mandatory. Please refer
to MySQL documentation as well.

3.4.2 Sources

Available at: www.mysql.org.

3.4.3 Configure

./configure \
--prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--without-debug

3.4.4 Make

make
make install

3.4.5 Some additional setup

useradd mysql
groupadd mysql
chown -R mysql.mysql /usr/local/mysql
/usr/local/src/mysql<version>/scripts/mysql_install_db
cp /usr/local/src/mysql<version>/support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d
chmod +x /etc/init.d/mysql.server
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin

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3.5 Perl

3.5.1 Configure

./configure

3.5.2 Make

make
make install

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3.6 Perl Modules

3.6.1 Make (install)

Each of the Perl modules listen in the chapter “Requirements” has to be installed via

perl Makefile.PL
make
make install

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3.7 Webmin

3.7.1 Sources

www.webmin.com

3.7.2 Installation

Simply type

./setup.sh

in the source directory.

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3.8 NagMIN

3.8.1 Sources

nagmin.sourceforge.net

3.8.2 Installation

Unpack the NagMIN source in /usr/local/

tar zxvf nagmin-2.2.0.tar.gz
mv nagmin-2.2.0 nagmin

Set the permissions of /usr/local/nagmin to the needs of your system

chmod -R nagios:nagios /usr/local/nagmin

The NagMIN module is then installed via Webmin:

-> Webmin
-> Webmin Confiuration
-> Webmin Modules
-> From local File, choose the nagmin*.wbm from nagmin-src directoy

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4 Configuration

4.1 Nagios

All you need for an successful NagMIN setup is a running Nagios setup. If you are
installing from scratch, you can use the sample config files from Nagios.
Rename the /<nagios-etc>/*.sample to *.cfg
Do a
nagios -v /<nagios-etc>/nagios.cfg
until you have corrected all the errors.

4.2 Webmin

Webmin runs out of the box. One good thing is perhaps to activate https. You do this at
-> Webmin
-> Webmin Configuration
-> SSL Encryption
-> Redirect non-SSL requests to SSL mode? -> Yes
-> Save

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4.3 NagMIN

4.3.1 NagMIN Database Setup

In order to be successful with the database setup, you have to have a running, error free
Nagios config. See chapter on Nagios config. And of course MySQL has to be running as
well.

First you have to create the NagMIN database. By default NagMIN calls this database
“nagios” but as I have a distributed system using several databases for several purposes I
chose to call it “nagmin”. Nice idea isn't it? The user is, you might guess it: “nagmin”, but
thats all up to you.

mysqladmin -p create nagmin

mysql -p
mysql> GRANT ALL ON nagmin.* to nagmin@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'somepw';
Of course as you want to get used to Webmin, you can do this with the Webmin MySQL
module as well.

Unfortunately there is no setup script supplied in version 2.2.0, so you have to take the
script from 2.1.0. Unfortunately that does not meet the requirements of 2.2.0 that means a
fix is needed. I have done some ( but not all ) fixes.
But anyways, what the script does is to read you nagios.cfg. And your cgi.cfg an parses
the information into SQL statements that we put into MySQL later.
In the original documentation it reads “Please Note! You may lose some host and service
configuration information since NagMIN puts as many objects in templates as possible”.
Luckily I did not experience this so far.

Download the NagMIN setup script from www.krisbe.de/nagmin.

cp setup <nagmin-src>/
cd <nagmin-src>/

Now execute the setup script and answer all questions, but:

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DO NOT BUILD THE DATABASE
because the script has some errors in sql production. And it is me, too who is to lazy to fix
that. Anyone already has a working script? Please tell me!

chmod +x setup
./setup
grep INSERT ./install/nagmin_load.sql > ./install/insert.sql
mysql -p nagmin < ./install/nagmin_init.sql
mysql -p nagmin < ./install/nagmin_services.sql
mysql -p nagmin < ./install/insert.sql

In table HostDetail create the field

time_zone varchar(5) default GMT+1

Set some attribute default values:

device_type='default'
connection_typ='default'
This are the groups for the devices in the WebPortal. If you leave these as they are, you
might wonder why the devices do not sow up accordingly.

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4.3.2 Initial Configuration Of NagMIN

Go to the
Module Config
and go carefully through ALL of the options, especially do the following ( for you it is easy
now, some options drove me crazy to find out, honestly ):

– change the database name to “nagmin” or whatever you called it. If you later decide to
add another database for your distributed Nagios system you can have a list of space
separated database names here.
– set “USE DBI” to YES ,
– set “Administration Password” via “Set to”. It is important to set the password here
because the initial NagMIN dialog is asking you for the password but for some bug
reason does not except any password. You have to enter it here!
– Modify “Path to mysql*” to suit your system.

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4.3.3 NagMIN Generated Nagios Config

4.3.3.1 Database

We already learned that we can configure several databases. In chapter “NagMIN-

Database Setup” we already set up a database for the local system called “nagmin”. If you
want to setup another database just add the database name in
Module Config
to
NagMIN Databases
with a space (“ “) as a separator.

4.3.3.2 System Host

For every database we have to choose a “system” host. For your localhost this will be
localhost, or representative and for an remote host, the remote DNS and IP, respectively.
What you have to do is to
create your host in the Host table.
Add the host to the System table.
You can choose whether this is a
Local Host
If your are setting up a localhost you choose “yes”. If you choose “no” NagMIN will try to
transfer the config via ssh/scp to the remote host.

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4.3.3.3 Templates

Now, you have to slightly fix the configuration read from your text files. This has to do with
the template infrastructure of Nagios and NagMIN. Have a look at the Nagios and NagMIN
documentation for further information.
For the moment it is enough to go to
Contact Templates
and to create a
– generic-contact
Press “Verify” to see if there are some more inconsistencies in the current configuration
and fix them.
To further configure your Nagios system, you simply have to fill out the tables. To do that
in an appropriate way you should understand the philosophy of how Nagios configuration
files are structured. Especially do read the Nagios documentation about templates. It might
help you.

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4.4 SSH

NagMIN has a nice feature of distributing Nagios config to distributed Nagios machines.
Nagios uses SSH to upload the configs to the distributed machines. Unfortunately there is
no option to teach NagMIN about some SSH passwords. Be it a security whole or not, we
have to introduce the client to the server in order to skip the password process. The
disadvantage is that everybody as access without password from server to client!

– On the client run the following command:

ssh-keygen -t dsa -f $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa -P ''

– Copy $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub to the server.

– On the server run the following commands:

cat id_dsa.pub >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys

4.5 Cron

For the update of graphics in the WebPortal, you have to add the following line to your
crontab:
*/5 * * * * /usr/local/nagmin/sbin/nagcron.pl

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4.6 Apache

4.6.1 httpd.conf

This step is for the NagMIN WebPortal only. NagMIN itself is managed via Webmin.
Add these lines to you Apache config. This is the default I used for Nagios, too. As you can
see I recycled the Nagios httppasswd as well.

#
# NagMIN
#
ScriptAlias /nagmin/cgi-bin/ "/usr/local/nagmin/sbin/"
<Directory "/usr/local/nagmin/sbin">
Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride AuthConfig
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AuthName "Nagios Access"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users
require valid-user
</Directory>

Alias /nagmin/ /usr/local/nagmin/share/

<Directory "/usr/local/nagmin/share/">
Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride AuthConfig
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AuthName "Nagios Access"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users
require valid-user
</Directory>

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5 NagMIN Features Explained

5.1 Overview

The following chapters are based on the list of features taken from
nagmin.sourceforge.net. I introduce the chapters by citing Fredericks feature description
and, if necessary give further explanations about the usage.

5.2 Centralized Management

NagMIN can manage customized configurations for remote Nagios/NagMIN systems.

NagMIN uses ssh and scp to securely perform remote commands and to transfer
configuration files.

The setup of a remote Nagios machine is almost the same as the local machine. Be aware
that this machine must be a Nagios 1.* as well.

1) Copy the configuration files of the remote machine to a local directory.

2) See chapter “NagMIN-Database Setup” and simply follow the instructions. To
summarize the steps:
1. Create a database with mysqladmin whose name is representing the remote
instance,
2. point the setup script to the directory containing remote configs, ...
3) See chapter “NagMIN Generated Nagios Config”.
4) See chapter “Configuration”/ “SSH”.
5) Now try to beam the configuration to the remote host pressing “Activate”.

And as a little present there is a script called config_remote in <nagmin-src>/install/ doing

that work for you. More about that in the next version of this document.

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5.3 Nagios Database Integration

Compile Nagios with MySQL database support and add the Nagios DB schema to the
NagMIN database. NagMIN allows you to view this information and also uses the service
status information in its web portal.

5.4 SNMP Interface Scanning

NagMIN will perform an SNMP MIB II walk of SNMP enabled devices to learn their
network interfaces, descriptions, index numbers and speed.

That feature really helps all network administrators who have to monitor lots of interfaces
on router and switches. Unfortunately, there is some work to do to get it working.

cp nagmin-src/sbin/nm_check_interface /usr/local/nagios/libexec/
Did you install all the required Perl modules from Chapter “Requirements”?

Create a
Check Command nm_check_interface
with
Command Name nm_check_interface
nm_check_interface $USER1$/nm_check_interface -H $HOSTNAME$ -I
$HOSTADDRESS$ -C $ARG3$ -i $ARG1$ -s $ARG2$ -w $ARG4$ -c $ARG5$

Create a
Service Template nm_check_interface
with
Check Command nm_check_interface

Give the Nagios group writing permission to the nagmin/rrd/db directory.

Next you can perform the scan via the NagMIN System Management -> SNMP Interface
Scan.
Unfortunately you have to scan each single device, selecting all devices results in
scanning the first device only.

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5.5 SNMP Interface Performance Monitoring With Threshold Alerting

NagMIN uses the information stored in its Interfaces table, along with a NagMIN plugin
that polls SNMP information (input and output octets and errors) for each interface and
stores the results in an RRD database for each interface.

After you have done the scan like described in the previous chapter, you can configure
each of the interfaces in the Interfaces table. You can chose which Interfaces you want to
include in the monitoring.
SNMP Poll: Active | Inactive
The services for the active interfaces are automatically generated. The control of these
services is completely in the hands of Nagios.

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5.6 NagMIN Web Portal

NagMIN comes with a web portal that dynamically generates RRD graphs for hosts and
interfaces and allows you to drill down to the retrieved information that also includes input
and output interface errors as well as input and output octets. The Web Portal shows a
combined graph of all hosts per host group along with an calculated average for the entire
host group.

First you have to set up Apache to understand what to do with Perl files (*.pl).
Next add NagMIN to your Apache config. Have a look at the chapter “Configuration” /
“Apache” for that. Additionally, there is a file called side.pl ( http://yourhost/nagmin/cgi-
bin/side.pl ). This file is meant as a replacement for the original side.html from Nagios. Via
side.pl you can access the web portal and the additional NagMIN features.

But first, there is some more work to do:

vi /usr/local/nagmin/lib/NagMIN/Config.pm
– fix the config-path:
– from : unless (open(CFG,"$nagminRoot/etc/$configFile")) {
– to: unless (open(CFG,"$nagminRoot/<database-name>/$configFile")) {

Sad, but true, there is something to see but very incomplete:

1) The summary tables do not show all configured hosts, services etc.
2) I can't get the graphs to work
1. there are no graphs in http://myhost/nagmin/images/graphs//-gr-day.gif
3) Executing index.pl via browser results in some /var/log/messages:
DBD::mysql::st execute failed: Column: 'rtt_day' in field list is ambiguous at
/usr/local/nagmin/lib/NagMIN/Utils.pm line 72, <CMD> line 3.
DBD::mysql::st execute failed: Unknown column 'time_zone' in 'field list' at
/usr/local/nagmin/lib/NagMIN/Utils.pm line 72, <CMD> line 3.
DBD::mysql::st execute failed: Unknown column 'time_zone' in 'where clause' at
/usr/local/nagmin/lib/NagMIN/Utils.pm line 72, <CMD> line 3.
To fix this you have to extend the rtt_* and sla_* by the appropriate Table. You have to
add
HostGroup.rtt|sla* in HostGroup.pm, lines 50-57 and
HostGroup.rtt|sla* in HostGroupSummary.pm, lines 45-52.

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NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(rtt_day,1),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(rtt_week,1),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(rtt_month,1),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(rtt_year,1),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(sla_day,2),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(sla_week,2),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(sla_month,2),";
NagMIN/HostGroup.pm: $sql .= "truncate(sla_year,2),";

NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm: $sql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_day),0),";

NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
NagMIN/HostGroupSummary.pm:
$sql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_week),0),";
$sql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_month),0),";
$sql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_year),0),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_day),0),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_week),0),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_month),0),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(rtt_year),0),";
$sql .= "truncate(avg(sla_day),2),";
$sql .= "truncate(avg(sla_week),2),";
$sql .= "truncate(avg(sla_month),2),";
$sql .= "truncate(avg(sla_year),2),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(sla_day),2),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(sla_week),2),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(sla_month),2),";
$bsql .= "truncate(avg(sla_year),2),";

In order to get the HostGroups running in the WebPortal, you have to do the following
mkdir /usr/local/nagmin/tmp
chown nagios:nagios /usr/local/nagmin/tmp
chmod 660 /usr/local/nagmin/tmp

Now do an “SNMP Interface Scan” for each Host in order to make it visible in the
WebPortal, see chapter “SNMP Interface Scanning” for details.

Create a cron job for updating the diagrams. See chapter “Cron” for details.

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5.7 Nagios Extended Information Integration

NagMIN's web portal is designed to work with notes_urls in host and service extended
information to provide one-click access to network performance information.

There are links in the NagMIN web portal that redirect to the original Nagios status pages.

5.8 NMAP Port Scanning

NagMIN can perform an NMAP port scan on all or selected Nagios hosts or can scan a
network from the centralized or any remote NagMIN server. Output is written to a new
PortScan table in the system database so that you have a good inventory of your network.

Scan Hosts via “Port Scan Configurator”.

Next, go to table “Port Scan Information” and set the services you want to monitor to
Active=”Yes”, the others to “No”.

5.9 Nagios Logo Management

NagMIN makes it easy to see what logos you've assigned to extended host or service
information along with an upload and delete feature. Logos uploaded into NagMIN are
automatically synchronized with your local and remote Nagios servers.

Note that you really have to upload the logos via the Logo Manager because he does not
synchronize into the other direction.

5.10 Nagios Plugin Tester

View all the Nagios plugins, see the help text for configuration options and run the plugins
to test your commands.

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5.11 Configuration Upload

The NagMIN setup utility will process your existing Nagios configuration files and load
them into a NagMIN database.

This is what we have done in chapter “NagMIN Generated Nagios Config”.

5.12 ServiceGroups

Nagios supports multiple hosts per service. NagMIN service groups support multiple
services per host. This gives you the ability to group services, like Nagios_statd, local
services, etc. into a service group. Then you assign a service group or groups to a host.
NagMIN will dynamically create the services for the host when activating a new
configuration.

Do not be confused with the Nagios feature of Service Groups introduced in Nagios2. It is
the same idea, but not compatible!

5.13 Dynamic Host Creation

NagMIN can create host entries and populate host groups while performing network
NMAP scans. NagMIN can learn your network for you.

5.14 Dynamic Service Creation

Protocol and Port fields have been added to the Service Template table that effectively
create a NagMIN service table similar to /etc/services. NagMIN dynamically creates
service definitions when activating a configuration by matching the PortScan table to
ServiceTemplates. You control which services are dynamically created by configuring the
ServiceTemplates. NagMIN can dynamically create hundreds or thousands of service
definitions.

After you have scanned the hosts via “Port Scan Configurator”, you can select the services
to monitor in the “Port Scan Information” table.

NagMIN Guide 33 / 44 Version 0.6 / 07-27-2005

5.15 Verification Feature

NagMIN has a verification feature where you create a NagMIN set of configuration files
that Nagios verification is run against. You perform all of your configuration and verification
without affecting your production configuration. You can view all of your NagMIN
generated active and verification sets of configuration files to assist with trouble-shooting.

This is one of the features that are working out of the box without you even noticing it.
Pressing the “Verify” button is to test your config offline. When no error occurs during
verification you can “Activate” the config. The config is copied to nagios/etc and Nagios is
restarted.

5.16 Default Data Entry

NagMIN supports default settings for many of the host, command and service template
settings. You only need to change a setting if you want to set it different from the default. It
also makes it easier for you to easily affect global changes by using the defaults as much
as possible.

A pretty nice feature. Have you noticed the * (asterisk) and ~ (tilde) symbols?
The asterisk stands for global default values. That are the values configured in “Module
Config”.
The tilde stands for the template default values. That are the values you configured in your
templates.
You can use these default values in you object definitions which makes the creation of
services much simpler end less time consuming. Of course you can change the default
values as necessary.
Practicing working with templates right from the start will save you a lot of time.

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5.17 Global Data Updates

NagMIN searches through Nagios tables to update host names, contact names, etc.,
wherever they occur.

Another fabulous feature. Remember the times crawling through all you text configs
because there is still a service left for a host you just deleted?
That will no longer happen to you because NagMIN is doing all the work for you. You just
delete a host and NagMIN is deleting the rest like service entries, hostgroup entries etc..

5.18 Multiple Database Support

NagMIN is a modified version of the MySQL Webmin module. You can create and load
multiple databases and activate the data of your choice through NagMIN.

If you worked through this documentation you already know how to do this. Have a look at
the chapter “NagMIN Generated Nagios Config”.

5.19 Search Capabilities

NagMIN has all the functionality of the MySQL module including excellent search
capabilities.

No searching in endless text configs any more. At the end of every table several searching
options are available making your life easier.

5.20 Multi-Lingual Support

NagMIN can be configured to support many languages by editing language files. Right
now NagMIN only speaks English. It might be able to make a poor stab at Spanish but will
need help to do more.

The English version is just perfect. Who needs a funny translation? OK, nice feature :-)

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5.21 Easy Database Editing

NagMIN is configured to use the minimum number of object definitions for Hosts and
Services. You may lose some settings if you have an existing Nagios configuration when
loading your data into NagMIN. However, simply add a field to the Host or Service table
definition, that matches the Nagios name exactly, and NagMIN will automatically detect
the field without having to make any other changes to NagMIN.

That is perhaps the way to fix the incompatibility between Nagios 1.* and 2. If I'll have
some time within the next days ...

5.22 Reports

NagMIN already has some standard reports that will help troubleshoot and manage
Nagios and give you information regarding your network.

5.23 Database Backup

The MySQL module database backup routine. Active/Inactive Object Support - This is not
fully implemented yet, but you will be able to set a host, host group, service template, etc.,
as active or not. If the object is deactivated it will be removed from all configurations. This
is difficult since hosts, contacts, etc. are embedded in lists, but not impossible. For now,
particularly in the beta, make sure that Active is set to Yes for everything.

Another Database Backup feature is the possibility to store the current data into sql-files
via the NagMIN System Management.

NagMIN Guide 36 / 44 Version 0.6 / 07-27-2005

6 Some more Adons

6.1 Overview

Besides the features described in the previous chapter, there are some more features, that
can be found in the release notes.
“Cisco Config Viewer” and “Syslog Viewer” are both accessible through the Web Portal.

6.2 Cisco Config Viewer

In the host configuration of NagMIN you have got the option “Store Config”. Currently you
have the choice of disabling this option ( “No” ) or to save the configuration if it is a Cisco
device ( “Cisco” ). To get this working and if you have got some Cisco devices, try “Cisco”.
The Cisco Config Viewer works on the basis of SNMP and tftp. The configs are transferred
to the NagMIN server via tftp. The transfer of the configurations is triggered via SNMP.
That means, you first have to set up a tftpserver.

The configs are requested via cron:

02*** /usr/local/nagmin/sbin/nagmin_storeconfig

I manipulated /usr/local/nagmin/NagMIN/Utils.pm:

line 300:
# my $tftp_server = Config->var('nagmintftp');
my $tftp_server = "<IP of my tftp server>";

line 337:
my $SNMPSET = "snmpset -t $timeout -c <rwcommunity string> -v 1 $address
.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.2.1.55.$tftp_server s $config_file";

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6.3 Syslog Viewer

Run this daemon that copies the syslog messages to the database:

/usr/local/nagmin/sbin/nagmin_syslog

That's all. The web-interface is self-explaining.

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7 System start and system services

7.1 Daemon

/etc/init.d/mysql.server
/etc/init.d/nagios
/etc/init.d/webmin

7.2 Cron-Jobs

– You have to create a cron job for the updates of the WebPortal diagrams. See the
configuration chapter about cron.

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8 Troubleshooting

8.1 Checklist

– is MySQL running?
– No errors in MySQL log? ( hostname.log )

– Anything suspicious in /var/log/messages ?

– Anything suspicious in mail? ( e.g. info about cron )

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9 Backup

9.1 Paths and Files

/usr/local/mysql/mysql.dump
/usr/local/nagmin-2.2.0/
/usr/local/src/

9.2 MySQL

I wrote a little script controlled by cron called

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_dump.sh
looking similar to

mysqldump --password=somepw -K -e --result-file=/tmp/nagios.sql --compatible=mysql40

nagios
mysqldump --password=somepw -K -e --result-file=/tmp/nagmin.sql --compatible=mysql40
nagmin
tar -cvf /usr/local/mysql/mysql_dump.tar /tmp/*.sql
gzip /usr/local/mysql/mysql_dump.tar
rm /tmp/*.sql

If you have no company wide backup mechanisms you can use, at least store the backup
to another machine for the case of hardware failure.
And of course practice to setup the system using the backed up files !!!

You can store a *.sql manually via NagMIN using the “Backup Database” option on the
NagMIN System Management page.

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10 ToDo

– Create some patches from the knowledge gained in this document,

– apply all the fixes described in this paper to the sources,
– implement Nagios2 support.

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11 Glossary

NagMIN Guide 43 / 44 Version 0.6 / 07-27-2005

12 References

In unsorted manner

– Nagios, Plugins and a list of Nagios related software

– www.nagios.org
– NagMIN
– nagmin.sourceforge.net
– Net-SNMP
– www.net-snmp.org
– MySQL
– www.mysql.org
– Perl Modules
– www.cpan.org
– OpenSSH
– www.openssh.com
– Moving Files and Images Between a Router and TFTP Server vi SNMP
– www.cisco.com/warp/public/447/SNMP/11_7910.shtml

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