DEV Community

Cover image for configure Nagios in our server :
Rahul Kumar
Rahul Kumar

Posted on

configure Nagios in our server :

#monitoring #devops

Why we need Continuous Monitoring :

  • In a large scale distributed applications we never know what kind issue we may ran into .
  • some of them are :
  • Failure in CI/CD pipeline .
  • Static code analysis .
  • Application side issue .
  • Infrastructure side issue .

And in big organizations server health and application Security can not be compromised at any cost .

What is continuous monitoring :

Continuous monitoring is a phase in our application development lifecycle which make sure that our application is getting continuously monitored and debugged if any issue .

Phases of continuous monitoring :

  1. Define
  2. Establish
  3. Implement
  4. Analyze
  5. Respond
  6. Review and Update

What is Nagios :

Nagios monitors your entire IT lifecycle to ensures systems, applications , services and business process are functioning properly .
Alt Text

Features of Nagios :

  • Using a master slave architecture .
  • Easy to write plugins .
  • Good web interface for visualization purpose .
  • Automate the e-mail sending in case of any network failure .

Architecture of Nagios :

Alt Text

How install Nagios (Ubuntu):

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install build-essentials libgd-dev openssl libssl-dev unzip apache2 gcc

  • Nagios user and group are used to run Nagios process

$ sudo useradd nagios

$ sudo groupadd nagcmd

$ sudo usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios

$ wget https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagioscore/releases/nagios-4.4.6.tar.gz

$ tar xpf nagios-*.tar.gz

$ cd nagios-4.4.6

$ ./configure --with-nagios-group=nagios --with-command-group=nagcmd

  • You can see the configuration using the configure command :

  • Now we have to build the project using the make command and then install it :

$ make -j4 all

$ sudo make install

  • Now run these commands to install Nagios sample files, binary files and it's sample config files . 
sudo make install
sudo make install-daemoninit
sudo make install-commandmode
sudo make install-config
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • We are using apache to serve Nagios web interface .

$ sudo make install-webconf

  • Enable the Apache rewrite and cgi modules with the a2enmod command:

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite

$ sudo a2enmod cgi

  • In order to execute commands via the web interface to Nagios add the web server user, www-data, to the nagios group:

$sudo usermod -a -G nagios www-data

  • Next we have to create a username and password for our user which can enable our user to login to the web interface .

$ sudo apt install htpasswd

$ sudo htpasswd -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

Enter Your Password :
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
Warning: If you create a user with a name other than nagiosadmin
you will need to edit /usr/local/nagios/etc/cgi.cfg 
and change all the nagiosadmin references to the user you created.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Restart the Apache server

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Installing the Nagios plugin : 

$ cd ~
$ http://www.nagios-plugins.org/download/nagios-plugins-2.3.3.tar.gz
$ tar zxf nagios-plugins-2.2.1.tar.gz
$ cd nagios-plugins-2.2.1

*configure their installation 
$ ./configure

* Now build and install the plugin

$ make
$ sudo make install
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Now we need to install check_nrpe plugin to monitor the remote plugins : 

cd ~
curl -L -O https://github.com/NagiosEnterprises/nrpe/releases/download/nrpe-3.2.1/nrpe-3.2.1.tar.gz
tar zxf nrpe-3.2.1.tar.gz
cd nrpe-3.2.1
./configure
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Now build and install check_nrpe : 
make check_nrpe
sudo make install-plugin
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Configure Nagios :

  • Navigate to the Nagios configuration file

$sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

  • Add this line to the config file 
...
#cfg_dir=/usr/local/nagios/etc/servers
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Uncomment this line 
cfg_dir=/usr/local/nagios/etc/servers
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Now we have to create a directory so that we can store our configuration file for each server .

$sudo mkdir /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers

open the Nagios contact file :

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

Find the email directive and replace it with yours

...
define contact{
        contact_name                    nagiosadmin             ; Short name of user
        use                             generic-contact         ; Inherit default values from generic-contact template (defined above)
        alias                           Nagios Admin            ; Full name of user
        email                           your_email@your_domain.com        ; <<***** CHANGE THIS TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ******
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Navigate to the directory and add a new command which is for defining check_nrpe command .

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg

...
define command{
        command_name check_nrpe
        command_line $USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -c $ARG1$
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This defines the name and specifies the command-line options to execute the plugin.

$ sudo systemctl start nagios

Access the Nagios web interface : 

http://nagios_server_public_ip/nagios
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Enter the login credentials .

Nagios dashboard

Monitoring :

ssh into the server you want to monitor.

$ ssh ubuntu@server_ip

$ sudo useradd nagios

cd ~
curl -L -O https://nagios-plugins.org/download/nagios-plugins-2.2.1.tar.gz
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
tar zxf nagios-plugins-2.2.1.tar.gz
cd nagios-plugins-2.2.1
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

then configure and build it

$ ./configure

$ make

$ sudo make install

cd ~
curl -L -O https://github.com/NagiosEnterprises/nrpe/releases/download/nrpe-4.0.0/nrpe-4.0.0.tar.gz
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
tar zxf nrpe-4.0.0.tar.gz
cd nrpe-4.0.0
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

$ ./configure

  • Now build and install NRPE and its startup script with these commands: 
make nrpe
sudo make install-daemon
sudo make install-config
sudo make install-init
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/nrpe.cfg

  • server_address: Set to the private IP address of the monitored server.
  • allowed_hosts: Add the private IP address of your Nagios server to the comma-delimited list.
  • command[check_hda1]: Change /dev/hda1 to whatever your root filesystem is called. 
...
server_address=second_ubuntu_server_private_ip
...
allowed_hosts=127.0.0.1,::1,your_nagios_server_private_ip
...
command[check_vda1]=/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_disk -w 20% -c 10% -p /dev/vda1
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

$ sudo systemctl start nrpe.service

$ sudo ufw allow 5666/tcp

  • Now you can check the communication with the remote NRPE server. Run the following command on the Nagios server:

$ /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H second_ubuntu_server_ip

  • On your Nagios server, create a new configuration file for each of the remote hosts that you want to monitor in /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers/. Replace the highlighted word, monitored_server_host_name with the name of your host:

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers/your_monitored_server_host_name.cfg

  • Add the following host definition, replacing the host_name value with your remote hostname, the alias value with a description of the host, and the address value with the private IP address of the remote host: 
define host {
        use                             linux-server
        host_name                       your_monitored_server_host_name
        alias                           My client server
        address                         your_monitored_server_private_ip
        max_check_attempts              5
        check_period                    24x7
        notification_interval           30
        notification_period             24x7
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Add some sevices
  • First, add this block to monitor load average: 
define service {
        use                             generic-service
        host_name                       your_monitored_server_host_name
        service_description             Load average
        check_command                   check_nrpe!check_load
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • Next, add this block to monitor disk usage: 
define service {
        use                             generic-service
        host_name                       your_monitored_server_host_name
        service_description             /dev/vda1 free space
        check_command                   check_nrpe!check_vda1
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Now restart and navigate to the web interface :

$ sudo systemctl restart nagios

nagios

Thanks for reading 🤖🤖🤖

Top comments (0)

Read next

notharshhaa profile image

Scripting in DevOps: A Complete Guide from Beginner to Advanced

H A R S H H A A -

afeez_adeyemo profile image

Creating and Configuring an Azure Storage Account

Afeez Adeyemo -

rescenic profile image

Best PowerShell Dev Environment on Windows

Muhammad Ridwan Hakim, S.T. -

abhinowww profile image

Difference Between DevOps and Full-Stack Engineer: Roles, Responsibilities, and Key Skills

Abhinav Anand -