op5 Monitor 4.2
Reference Manual
op5 Monitor is a highly flexible monitoring system for monitoring of IT
infrastructure. op5 Monitor is based on the widely known open source
monitoring system Nagios.
This manual includes information on how to use and configure op5 Monitor
and its components.
This manual is written using the same structure as the Web Interface - so as to function as a reference manual where you can easily find the answers to the specific part of Monitor you are looking for.
If you can not find what you are looking for, please read through the index for any possible keywords, or look at the table of contents for the appendixes.
This manual is targeted for a technical audience. The manual covers how
to use and configure op5 Monitor through its web interface. For
configuration using direct console access or SSH, see the op5 System
manual.
op5 Monitor is used and configured in a web interface using any standard
browser. The most common browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera
have been tested.
The interface is protected by using both authentication ( username and
password ) and by SSL
1.1 which enables a secure manner for accessing the
web interface using
encryption.
The start page is the first page that you access by typing
https://a.b.c.d/ in your browser. Change a.b.c.d to the IP
address of your op5 Monitor system.
This will show general information about the system, shortcuts
to monitor, support information and more.
To access op5 Monitor simply click on the op5 Monitor logo. This will
direct you to the https://a.b.c.d/monitor/ page which is the direct
link to op5 Monitor. You can bookmark this link to get directly to
op5 Monitor without having to go through the start page.
The portal link gets you right back to the op5 System start page. The
start page gives you information about the installed products, how to
get support and, if you are running op5 Appliance - an easy way to install
updates.
Since op5 System version 3.0 you can update all your op5 Software using
yum - more information on this is available in op5 System manual.
There are two modes for the navigation menu, an advanced mode with the
full set of selections in the menu and a simple mode with a limited set
of selections.
When you log on to op5 Monitor for the first time the side menu will be
displayed in simple mode. Just click on the Advanced
menu link to change mode to advanced mode. The
menu will show a full set of selections and the Advanced menu item
will change name to Simple menu. To return to simple mode just
click on the Simple menu link.
3. Viewing Current Monitoring Information
The
monitoring section in the web menu is related to problem management and status of your network.
Some of the views described in this section have a ''webconfig icon`` that
looks like this:
Click on the ''webconfig icon`` if you want to edit the configuration for the
host or service you are viewing.
3.1 Tactical Overview
The Tactical Overview window enables the user to get a summarized
picture of the overall network health. It also displays status of the
system and gives you the possibility to enable and disable some
functions on a system wide basis.
-
Network Outages if a host - for example a switch - goes down, it causes
hosts connected to it become unreachable from the op5 Monitor system.
This will then be listed as a Network Outage. You
can se what host is causing the outage and also how many hosts that are
affected if you follow the link.
-
Hosts gives you a summarized view of the host and their status. There
are four different states:
-
Down the host is not responding.
-
Unreachable. The host is unreachable for the system
due to a network outage (see network outage)
-
Up the host is working fine.
-
Pending the host has not yet been checked; the check of
the host is in a queue about to be executed.
-
Services gives you a summarized view of the service status. There are
five different states:
-
Critical the service check responds with a value that
is within the configured critical level.
-
Warning the service check responds with a value that is
within the configured warning level.
-
Unknown the service of a host does not respond correctly
to a service check, or the service check is misconfigured.
-
Ok the service is working fine.
-
Pending the service has not been checked yet. The check
is queued, about to be executed or is configured to never be executed.
-
Monitoring Features You have the possibility to enable and
disable some functionality on global basis. Just by clicking on the
vertical bars labeled ENABLED you can change the configuration.
-
Flap Detection. If a host or a service is changing
state between an ok and a non-ok state with high frequency, the host
or service is flapping and the alarms are suppressed. Monitor has the
ability to detect flapping. Flap Detection can be enabled or disabled
in this menu.
-
Notifications. All status changes, from an ok to a
non ok and vice versa is a status change. All status changes can create
notification to the configured contacts via email or sms. In this menu
the notifications can enabled or disabled for the whole system.
-
Event Handlers. Event handler is a function that
enables the execution of commands whenever a state change occurs, one
possible use for this is to automatically restart a process that has
died. These can be enabled or disabled in this menu.
-
Active Checks. When determining if a host or a
service is ok Monitor performs an active check is. I.e. a plugin is
executed for that host or service. This menu choice enables or disables
that function.
-
Passive Check. Monitor has the ability to receive
check results from the outside where the check initially was not
performed by Monitor. An example is SNMP traps which are sent from a
host. This menu choice enables or disables the processing of these
check results.
-
Monitoring Performance. This information
box gives you information about the op5 Monitor performance. For more
information see, Performance Info.
-
Network Health. This information box displays an
overall system status for hosts and services. It changes color between
green and red depending on how good or bad the status is.
Host and Service detail gives you a detailed status list of all hosts.
The list is sorted on the hostname column by default. You can
change this by clicking on the arrow icons next to the header of each
column. You can also apply filters on what you want to be displayed on
the page.
3.2.1 Host Detail
-
Host. Shows you the configured name of the host.
-
Status. Shows the current status of the host.
-
Last Check. Lists the date and time when the last check was executed.
Note: Hosts are by default only checked when there is a problem with a service,
therefore this value can be very old.
-
Duration. Shows you the amount of time the host has been in the current
state.
-
Status Information. Shows you the output of the host check.
To get more detailed information about a specific host simply click on
the hostname.
-
Useful links to status pages and reports for the selected host.
-
Base information about the host. Hostname, description, ipaddress and so
on.
-
Host State Information gives you more
detailed information about the host status
-
Host Commands lets you issue commands for that specific host. Read more:
Host Commands
-
Host Comments lets you add a comment for that specific host, it also
lists all comments if there are any.
3.2.1.2 Host Commands
-
Locate Host On Map: Link to status map with focus on the host
-
Disable Active Checks Of This Host: This can be used to
temporary disable the host checks for that host.
-
Re-schedule the next check of this host: This command is used to schedule
the next check of the selected host. Monitor will re-schedule the
host to be checked at the time you specify. If you select the force
check option, Monitor will force a check of the host regardless of both
what time the scheduled check occurs and whether or not checks are
enabled for the host.
-
Submit Passive Check Result For This Host: This command is used
to submit a passive check result for the selected host. It can for
example be used to clear the state on a passive host.
-
Stop Accepting Passive Checks For This Host: This command is
used to stop Monitor from accepting passive host check results that it
finds in the external command file for a particular host. All passive
check results that are found for this host will be ignored.
-
Stop Obsessing Over This Host: This is only used when
configuring certain redundant solutions and should normally not be
used.
-
Acknowledge this host problem: This alternative is only
displayed if the host is in a non ok state. It lets you acknowledge the
problem and type in a log message. This message is sent out as a
notification and also displayed in the system for everybody to see.
This functionality is highly recommended.
-
Disable Notifications For This Host: This command is used to
prevent notifications from being sent out for the specified host. You
will have to re-enable notifications for this host before any alerts
can be sent out in the future. Note that this command does not disable
notifications for services associated with this host.
-
Send custom host notification: This command is used to send a custom notification about the specified host. Useful in emergencies when you need to notify admins of an issue regarding a monitored system or service. Custom notifications normally follow the regular notification logic in op5 Monitor. Selecting the Forced option will force the notification to be sent out, regardless of the time restrictions, whether or not notifications are enabled, etc. Selecting the Broadcast option causes the notification to be sent out to all normal (non-escalated) and escalated contacts. These options allow you to override the normal notification logic if you need to get an important message out.
-
Delay next host notification: This alternative is only
displayed if the host is in a non ok state. It lets you delay the next problem notification that is sent out for the specified host. The notification delay will be disregarded if the host changes state before the next notification is scheduled to be sent out. This command has no effect if the host is currently UP.
-
Schedule Downtime For This Host: This command is used to
schedule downtime on the selected host.
-
Disable Notifications For All Services On This Host: This
command is used to prevent notifications from being sent out for all
services on the selected host. You will have to re-enable
notifications for all services associated with this host before any
alerts can be sent out in the future. This does not prevent
notifications from being sent out about the host unless you check the
Disable for host too option.
-
Enable Notifications For All Services On This Host: This
command is used to enable notifications for all services on the
selected host. Notifications will only be sent out for the service
state types you defined in your service definition. This does not
enable notifications for the host unless you check the
Enable for host too option.
-
Schedule A Check Of All Services On This Host: This command is
used to schedule the next check of all services on the selected host.
If you select the force check option, Monitor will force a check of all
services on the host regardless of both what time the scheduled checks
occur and whether or not checks are enabled for those services.
-
Disable Checks Of All Services On This Host: This command is
used to disable active checks of all services on the selected host.
When a service is disabled op5 Monitor will execute any service checks.
In order to have Monitor check the service in the future you will have
to re-enable the service. Note that disabling service checks may not
necessarily prevent notifications from being sent out about the host
which those services are associated with. This does not disable checks
of the host unless you check the Disable for host
too option.
-
Enable Checks Of All Services On This Host: This command is
used to enable active checks of all services on the selected host. This
does not enable checks of the host unless you check the
Enable for host too option.
-
Disable Event Handler For This Host: This command is used to
temporarily prevent op5 Monitor from running the host event handler on
the selected host.
-
Disable Flap Detection For This Host: This command is used to
disable flap detection for the selected host.
3.2.2 Service Detail
-
Host: Shows you the configured name of the host.
-
Service: Shows you the name of the service.
-
Status: Shows the current status of the service.
-
Last Check: Lists the date and time when the last check was
executed.
-
Duration: Shows you the amount of time the service has been in
the current state.
-
Attempt: Shows you how many attempts the system has made to
decide the current state of the service.
-
Status Information: Shows you the output of the service check.
The output data from service checks can be parsed and displayed as graphs. Click on the graph icon that is displayed next to the service name to see the graphs.
There are atleast five graphs displayed for each service - 4hour, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.
The graphs are generated using PNP4Nagios from the performance data output from the plugins. If you try running a plugin such as /opt/plugins/check_http manually, you will see that there is the data that is presented in the webgui, followed by a pipe and more detailed numbers.
It is these detailed numbers to the right of the pipe that is saved as performance data, and later used to generate graphs.
If you wish to enable your own plugins to create graphs, please read about templates in ![[*]](file:/usr/share/latex2html/icons/crossref.png)
php4nagios templates
To get more detailed information about a specific service simply click
on the service name.
-
Useful links to status pages and reports for the selected service.
-
Base information about the service. Service description, which host the
service is located on and which service groups the service is member
of.
-
Service State Information gives you more detailed information about the
service status
-
Service Commands lets you issue commands for that specific service. Read
more: Service commands
-
Service Comments lets you add a comment for that specific service, it
also lists all comments if there are any.
3.2.2.3 Service commands
-
Disable Active Checks Of This Service: This can be used to
temporary disable the checks for that service.
-
Re-schedule Next Service Check: This command is used to
reschedule the next check of the selected service. op5 Monitor will
re-schedule the service to be checked at the time you specify. If you
select the force check option, op5 Monitor will force a check of the
service regardless of both what time the scheduled check occurs and
whether or not checks are enabled.
-
Submit Passive Check Result For This Service: This command is
used to submit a passive check result for the selected service. It can
for example be used to clear the state on a passive service.
-
Stop Accepting Passive Checks For This Service: This command is
used to stop op5 Monitor from accepting passive check results for the
selected service. All passive check results that are found for service
will be ignored.
-
Stop Obsessing Over This Service: This is only used when
configuring certain redundant solutions and should normally not be
used.
-
Acknowledge This Service Problem: This alternative is only
displayed if the host is in a non ok state. It lets you acknowledge the
problem and type in a log message. This message is sent out as a
notification and also displayed in the system for everybody to see.
This functionality is highly recommended.
-
Disable Notifications For This Service: This command is used to
prevent notifications from being sent out for the selected service. You
will have to re-enable notifications for this service before any
alerts can be sent out in the future. This does not prevent
notifications from being sent out about the host unless you check the
Disable for host too option.
-
Delay Next Service Notification: This alternative is only
displayed if the service is in a non ok state. It lets you delay
the time until next notification is sent out. Normally op5 Monitor is
configured to only send out one notification when a problem occurs but
if you have configured reoccurring notifications you can use this
command.
-
Send custom service notification: This command is used to
send a custom notification about the specified service.
Useful in emergencies when you need to notify admins of
an issue regarding a monitored system or service. Custom
notifications normally follow the regular notification
logic in op5 Monitor. Selecting the Forced option will
force the notification to be sent out, regardless of the
time restrictions, whether or not notifications are enabled,
etc. Selecting the Broadcast option causes the notification
to be sent out to all normal (non-escalated) and escalated
contacts. These options allow you to override the normal
notification logic if you need to get an important
message out.
-
Schedule Downtime For This Service: This command is used to
schedule downtime on the selected service.
-
Disable Event Handler For This Service: This command is used to
temporarily prevent op5 Monitor from running the host event handler on
the selected service.
-
Disable Flap Detection For This Service: This command is used
to disable flap detection for the selected host.
Many views below Monitoring provide you with the ability to filter what
the page shall display. If you click on any of the links below ``Host
Status Totals'' and ``Service Status Totals'' a textbox named ``Display
Filters'' shows. This box tells you the filter that has been defined.
Default mode is no filter applied. Filters are used at many places in
op5 Monitor, for example when you click on some of the links in
Tactical Overview.
A host group is used to group one or more hosts together for display
purposes. You can for example create host groups to reflect the
geographical locations of your hosts or type of host. A host can be a
member of several host groups.
The available views for host groups are:
- Host Group Summary
- Host Group Overview
- Host Group Grid
Hostgroup Summary shows you a table with a row for each host group and
three columns, Host Group, Host Status Totals and Service Status
totals. This is a god view if you quickly want to get a summary of all
your host groups.
Hostgroup Overview draws one table per host group listing each host and
a summary of service status totals.
Hostgroup Grid is the most detailed view it shows one table per host
group listing each host and service with colors representing status.
A servicegroup
definition is used to group one or
more services together for display purposes. You can for example create
a group and include all services related to a specific service you
provide, process, disk usage, cpu usage, internet connectivity and so
on. You can also create groups based on service type. A service can be
a member of more than one service group. The service groups can also be
used when creating Availability reports.
The available views for service groups are:
Servicegroup Summary shows you a table with a row for each service group
and three fields, Service Group, Host Status Totals and Service Status
Totals. This is a god view if you quickly want to get a summary of all
your service groups.
Servicegroup Overview draws one table per service group listing each
host and a summary of service status totals.
Servicegroup Grid is the most detailed view it shows one table per
service group listing each host and service with colors representing
status.
The Status Map gives you a graphical view
of the
network including the relations between the hosts. The Map also shows
what parts of the network that is functional, non-functional and if
there are any network outages.
In the upper right corner you can change a couple of settings that
controls the layout and behavior for the status map.
-
Layout Method, there are a couple of layout methods
available
-
User-supplied coords, you can configure
x and y coords for your hosts (see host Extras for more information)
-
Depth layers, shows only one level of the network at a time. Click on a
host to display the host and the underlying layer.
-
Collapsed tree, shows the network in a tree layout with everything
centered towards the middle
-
Balanced tree, shows the network in a tree layout but with the
underlying levels centered below each parent host.
-
Circular, shows a circular layout.
-
Circular (Marked Up), this is the default selection. It shows a circular
layout with a background that shows the different levels of the network
and also changes color depending of the status of the hosts.
-
Circular (Balloon), shows a circular layout with each host represented
as a balloon with the size determined of how many services that are
monitored for the host. More services gives you larger balloons.
-
Drawing Layers, together with Layer mode you can select to include or
exclude hosts based on hostgroup from the status map. Default is to
show all hosts.
-
Scaling factor, simply changes the size of the status map image. 0.0 is
default, if you want to display half the size enter 0.5, double the
size 2.0 and so on.
Note: If your network is large or designed in a flat way, for example a
layer 2 ethernet network, the status map isn't really usable. Take a
look at Network Map or Hyper Map instead.
4.2 Network Map
The network map is an enhanced version of the status map with
possibility to create highly customized views of a network by just
click and place hosts, host groups and views on a map.
The image above shows an exmaple configuration of the network map, a
background image of Europe including 3 custom maps.
Configuration of the network map is done from the configuration box in
the upper right corner
-
View settings, is displayed by default and let you change Map mode.
What's displayed below Map mode is determined off what you select.
There are 4 available map modes, View hostgroup, View custom map
(default), Edit hostgroup and Edit custom map. Each of the modes is
displayed further down.
-
Global Settings, lets you change refresh rate of the page and Map scale.
With map scale you can change the size of your network map.
With View hostgroup you can view a map of each hostgroup. You get a drop
down menu with all hostgroups listed.
View custom map let you select from all custom maps that are defined.
Custom maps are configured with Edit custom map.
Here you can configure the layout of the hosts. You can place the hosts
where you want by first clicking on the host to select it and then clicking
on the location where you want to place the host. You can also select it
from the ``Select object:'' drop down menu and then click on the new
location for the host.
4.2.4 Edit custom map
Custom maps are configured in a tree hierarchy. This makes it possible
to have several network layers.
In the top you have ``Custom view tree:'' where you can navigate through
the tree. Below you have ``Select task''.
Available tasks are:
-
Create new custom view: Allows you to create new views
-
Rename this view: Allows you to rename the selected view
-
Add items to this view: Allows you to add items (host groups
and hosts) to the selected view
-
Remove items from this view: Allows you to remove items (host
groups and hosts) from the selected view
-
Handle background images: Allows you to upload new background
images (must be .png format), Set default background and delete
existing background images.
4.3 Hyper Map
Hyper Map is a java applet that draws all hosts and connections and then
lets you - using the mouse - drag the map or click in it to change its layout.
If you click on a spot on the map it will center itself to that spot. If
you hold the mouse pointer over a host you will se a status summary for
the host. If you click on a host you will get to the service detail
page for that host.
By using event correlation
op5 Monitor will
suppress all host alarms that comes from hosts behind a faulty host.
Monitor is preconfigured with knowledge of the physical structure of
the network and creates a notification of which host that is causing
the outage. Digging into the problem at a deeper level is left to the
user, as there is any number of things which might actually be the
cause of the problem.
-
Severity: In order to display the
problem hosts in a somewhat useful manner, they are sorted by the
severity of the effect they are having on the network. The severity
level is determined by two things: The number of hosts which are
affected by problem host and the number of services which are affected.
Hosts hold a higher weight than services when it comes to calculating
severity. The current code sets this weight ratio at 4:1 (i.e. hosts
are 4 times more important than individual services).
-
Host: Name of the host causing the network outage
-
State: State of the host
-
Notes: Link to comments for the host, if there are no comments
N/A is displayed
-
State Duration: For how long has the outage been going on
-
Hosts Affected: Number of hosts affected by the outage
-
Services Affected: Number of services affected by the outage
-
Actions: A couple of icons that links you to different status
pages for the host causing the outage. For a full list of icons and images see Table of Icons.
The host problems view is similar to the Host Detail view. The
difference is the display of status, The host problems view only shows
hosts in a non ok state.
The service problems view is similar to the Service Detail view. The
difference is the display of status, service problems only shows
services in a non ok state.
Unhandled problems show all problems that is not in scheduled downtime,
or has not been acknowledged as stated in the Display Filter info box.
The idea of this view is that is should give the user a good view of new
problems that hasn't been taken care of. Unhandled Problems is a good
status view for helpdesk staff.
Simple search box
that let you search for a host by
typing the initial letters of the host name in the field that says
``show host'' in the main menu. Press enter and the host and its
services detail will be shown.
Note: This is really a simple search, it will only show the first match
and the search is case sensitive.
All hosts and services can have one or more comments related to it. A
comment is a free text note of your choice.
Host name: The host the comment is related to.
Service: The service the comment is related to.
Entry Time: Date and time when the comment was added.
Author: The author of the comment.
Comment: The comment itself.
Comment ID: A Unique ID number for the comment, it can be used
as a reference number.
Persistent: If the comment is persistent or not. Comments that
are not persistent will be removed if the op5 Monitor process is
restarted. Acknowledgement comments are however kept over process restarts as long as the problem stil persists, regardless if the comment is persistent or not.
Type: What kind of comment, User, System or Acknowledgement.
Expires: This is only used for comments automatically added by
the system such as scheduled downtime or flapping comments.
Actions: Possibility to delete a comment.
Using scheduled downtime
enables you to plan
for system work ahead. When a host or service is scheduled for downtime
op5 Monitor suppresses alarms for that host or service. Furthermore op5
Monitor informs you about when a host or service is scheduled for
downtime through the web interface. Information about the scheduled
downtime is also stored in the logs so that planned system work does
not affect availability reports (read more on Availability).
It is possible to schedule downtime for hosts, services, entire host
groups and service groups. You can also configure triggered downtime
for hosts located below a host currently in scheduled downtime.
Basically the Schedule Downtime view is a summary of all currently
configured scheduled downtime for hosts and services. In this view you
can schedule new downtime. It is however even easier to schedule
downtime from the views Host Information, Service Information, Hostgroup
Information and Servicegroup Information.
Host name: Host name which the downtime affects.
Service: Service which the downtime affects.
Entry Time: Time for creation of the scheduled downtime.
Author: The name of the author of the scheduled downtime.
Comment: Comments to the scheduled downtime.
Start time: Start time and date of the scheduled downtime.
End Time: End time and date for the scheduled downtime.
Type: If the downtime is a fixed entry, it starts at the
``Start Time'' and ends at the ``End Time''. If the schedule
isnt fixed then it starts when the host or service
goes down in-between the Start and End time and lasts as long as the
configured duration (very useful if you don't really know when you will
start your maintenance)
Duration: Is the duration of flexible scheduled downtime.
Downtime ID: Unique ID of the scheduled downtime.
Trigger ID: ID of the downtime that triggers start of this
downtime.
Actions: Allows you to delete a configured scheduled downtime.
The process information window gives you information about the monitor
system as well as giving you the possibility to run system wide
commands.
Program Start Time: The date and time when the monitor process
was started or reloaded.
Total Running Time: The amount of time Monitor has been up and
running.
Last External Command Check: The date and time when the last
check for external commands was executed. op5 Monitor's web gui is
controlled using external commands so it needs to check for them
often.
Last Log File Rotation: Date and time when the log files where
rotated.
Monitor PID: op5 Monitor's Process ID.
Notifications Enabled: (Yes or No)
Service Checks Being Executed: (Yes or No)
Passive Service Checks Being Accepted: (Yes or No)
Host Checks Being Executed: (Yes or No)
Passive Host Checks Being Accepted: (Yes or No)
Event Handlers Enabled: (Yes or No)
Obsessing Over Services: (Yes or No)
Obsessing Over Hosts: (Yes or No)
Flap Detection Enabled: (Yes or No)
Performance Data Being Processed: (Yes or No)
Shutdown the Monitor process: Shutdown the Monitor program. You
may do this either by the system console, or via a SSH connection.
Note: If you have an op5 Monitor Appliance system you can do this in
the ``Configure System''.
You can find more information about accessing the linux terminal in op5 System manual.
Restart the Monitor process: The op5 Monitor process stops and
starts again.
Disable Notifications: All notifications are disabled.
Stop executing service checks: This will cause op5 Monitor to
stop all execution of all service checks.
Stop accepting passive service checks: This will cause op5
Monitor to stop accepting all passive service checks.
Stop executing host checks: This will cause op5 Monitor to stop
all execution of host checks.
Stop accepting passive host checks: This will cause op5 Monitor
to stop receiving external host checks.
Disable event handlers: This will cause op5 Monitor to disable
event handling (automatic reaction to events).
Start obsessing over services: Only used in certain redundant
setups.
Start obsessing over hosts: Only used in certain redundant
setups.
Disable flap detection: Disable the detection of hosts and
services pending between different states.
Disable performance data: This command is used to disable the
processing of performance data for hosts and services on a program-wide basis.
6.2 Performance
Info
op5 Monitor gives you detailed information about its performance.
r[0pt]0pt
6.2.1 Services
Actively Checked
The textbox to the left shows you how many active service checks the
system has done in a time frame of 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1
hour and since program start. An active check is a check that op5
Monitor has scheduled and executed it self. Read more about Services
Passively Checked below. The values can be used to get an idea of how op5
Monitor is performing. If you have configured a default check interval
of five minutes you should have a value close to 100%.
The textbox to the right shows:
-
Check Execution Time: This is the time it
takes for op5 Monitor to execute its checks. The average value should
be fairly low, close to one second in most cases.
-
Check Latency: This value tells you how far behind
the system is when scheduling its checks. The average value should be
fairly close to zero.
-
Percent State Change: It tells you the stability of the monitored
infrastructure. If the average value is high it tells you that a
lot of things in your infrastructure are changing state. If the
value is low it can mean that everything is constantly up or down.
6.2.2 Services
Passively Checked
The textbox to the right shows you how many passive service checks the
system has done in a time frame of 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1
hour and since program start. A passive service check is a check where
the check result has been delivered to op5 Monitor from an external
source, for example a script. Normally most checks are actively checked
so the values can be quite low or equal to zero.
The textbox to the left shows you how many active host checks the system
has done in a time frame of 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour and
since program start. An active host check is a check that op5 Monitor
has scheduled and executed it self. Read more about Hosts Passively Checked
below. Host checks are normally not scheduled to be checked at a
certain interval, default behavior is that op5 Monitor only executes
host checks if there is a problem with one of the hosts services. The
values in this box can therefore only be used as a performance
measurement if you have configured op5 Monitor to actively check all your hosts.
Note that if you haven't configured op5 Monitor to actively check all your hosts
and still have a lot of active hosts checks being executed then you
probably have an unstable network and a large ``percent state change''
value.
6.2.4 Hosts Passively
Checked
The textbox to the right shows you how many passive host checks the
system has done in a time frame of 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1
hour and since program start. A passive host check is a check where the
check result has been delivered to op5 Monitor from an external source,
for example a script. Normally most host checks are actively checked.
This is op5 Monitors working schedule. The list includes all services
that are scheduled and information about when last check was executed
and when next check will be. The list can be sorted as with the host
and service detail by clicking the arrows next to the name host,
service, last check or next check. The list will be sorted in ascending
or descending order.
Host: The host name for which the check is to be executed.
Service: The Service name for which the check is to be
executed.
Last Check: When the check was last performed.
Next Check: When the next check will be performed.
Active Checks: If active checks is enabled or disabled.
Actions: The calendar icon links you to specify a new time for check
execution. The X let you disable an active check for that service and
host.
The Monitoring headline basically covers everything in op5 Monitor that
is happening in real time. It shows you the status on your hosts and
services right now. The Reporting headline is about letting the user
create historical reports from the information that op5 Monitor has
collected.
Trends display a graphic view of status on a host or a service during a
selected report period. This graphical view can also be reached from
Availability reports.
Select the preferred report type, Host or Service.
Select host or service you want the report based on.
Now you have the ability to select report options to customize your
report.
Report period: Choose by a set of predefined report periods or
choose ``CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD'', and specify Start and End date.
Start Date (Inclusive): Specify Start Date if ``CUSTOM REPORT
PERIOD'' was selected above.
End Date (Inclusive): Specify End Date if ``CUSTOM REPORT
PERIOD'' was selected above.
Assume Initial States:
Whether to assume logging of initial states or not. Default values are
YES. For advanced users the value can be modified by editing the
nagios.cfg config file located in the /opt/monitor/etc directory.
Assume State Retention:
Whether to assume state retention or not. State retention determines if
op5 Monitor should retain the states of hosts and services between
program restarts. Default is YES. For advanced users the value can be
modified by editing the nagios.cfg config file located in the
/opt/monitor/etc directory.
Assume States During Program Downtime: If op5 Monitor is not running for
some time during a report period we can by this option decide to assume
states for hosts and services during the downtime. Default value is
YES.
Include Soft States: A problem is
classified as a SOFT problem until the number of checks has reached the
configured
max_check_attempts value. When
max_check_attempts is reached the problem is reclassified as HARD and
normally op5 Monitor will send out a notification about the problem.
SOFT problem's does not result in a notification. If you select YES,
SOFT states will be included in the report, if NO only HARD states will
be included.
First Assumed Host State: If there is no information about the
host or service in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status
of the host/service. Default value is ``Current State''.
First Assumed Service State: If there is no information about
the host or service in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume
status of the host/service. Default value is ``Current State''.
Backtracked Archives (To
Scan For Initial States): How many log archives to look through when
searching for initial states. op5 Monitor is configured to rotate the
log monthly.
Click on ``Create Report'' to proceed and create the report.
The graph that is created shows what state the host has been in over the
selected report interval. You can zoom into the graph by clicking on
it.
The availability report shows availability of hostgroups, servicegroups,
hosts or services during a selected report period.
op5 Monitor comes with two different kinds of availability reports.
The standard one that comes with Nagios and a new one with extended
functionality and nicer presentation. As default the new availability
report is used but you can always reach the old reports by clicking
on the Old Availability link.
Select the preferred report type, Hostgroup(s), Host(s), Servicegroup(s) or Service(s).
Select the object / objects for which you want to produce your report.
Now you have the ability to select report options to customize your report.
Reporting Period: Choose by a set of predefined report periods or choose “CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD”, and specify Start and End date.
Start Date (Inclusive): Specify Start Date if “CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD” was selected above.
End Date (Inclusive): Specify End Date if “CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD” was selected above.
Report Time Period: What time the report should be created for. The default blank selections means no filtering will be performed and the report will be created for all time within the selected Reporting Period.
Count scheduled downtime as uptime: Select if downtime that occurred during scheduled downtime should be counted as uptime or not.
Assume Initial States: Whether to assume logging of initial states or not. Default values are YES. For advanced users the value can be modified by editing the nagios.cfg config file located in the /opt/monitor/etc directory.
First Assumed Host State: If there is no information about the host or service in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status of the host/service. Default value is “First Real State”.
First Assumed Service State: If there is no information about the host or service in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status of the host/service. Default value is “First Real State”.
Assume States During Program Downtime: If op5 Monitor is not running for some time during a report period we can by this option decide to assume states for hosts and services during the downtime. Default value is YES.
Include Soft States: A problem is classified as a SOFT problem until the number of checks has reached the configured
max_check_attempts value. When max_check_attempts is reached the problem is reclassified as HARD and normally op5 Monitor will send out a notification about the problem. SOFT problem’s does not result in a notification. If you select YES, SOFT states will be included in the report, if NO only HARD states will be included.
Output in CSV format: The CSV (comma-separated values) format is a file format that stores tabular data. This format is supported by many applications such as MS Excel, OpenOffice and Google Spreadsheets.
Save report: Checking this checkbox gives you the possibility to save you report for later re-use. You will need to supply a name for your report if you select to save it.
Tip: To be able to later schedule your report for automatic reoccurring e-mail delivery, you need to save the report.
Click on “Create report” to create the availability report
The report displays a couple of values related to availability, in this example hostgroup availability.
% Time Up: The amount of time the host has been in the state UP during the report period.
% Time Unreachable: The amount of time the host has been in the state UNREACHABLE during the report period.
% Time Down: The amount of time the host has been in the state DOWN during the report period.
% Time Undetermined: The amount of time the host has been in UNDETERMINED state. This describes the time where op5 Monitor for some reason does not have any data in the report period. For example if a report includes a host which has not been existing in op5 Monitor’s configuration during the whole report period.
There are two summary values in each report
Average: This is the average value for a group of hosts/services. It is calculated by adding the % Time for each host/service and then divide the total value with the amount of hosts/services in the group.
Group Availability (SLA): This value is only calculated for UP and PROBLEM states (for services OK and PROBLEM states). It displays the amount of time where all hosts/services in the group has been UP/OK or in a PROBLEM state at the same time.
Example:
If you have five hosts and one of the has been up in 80% of the
chosen period, the rest of the 100%. Then the Average is 96%.
As you can see we only have all servers UP in 80% during the
chosen period therefor we get 80% UP in the Group Availability (SLA).
Note: PROBLEM states includes all states except UP/OK.
7.3 Old Availability
The availability report shows availability of
hostgroups
, servicegroups, hosts or services during a
selected report period.
Select the preferred report type, Hostgroup, Host, Servicegroup or
Service.
Select the object for your report. Note that you can now select to
create a report for all objects in the list or for one specific
object.
Now you have the ability to select report options to customize your
report.
Report Period: Choose by a set of predefined report periods or
choose ``CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD'', and specify Start and End date.
Start Date (Inclusive): Specify Start Date if ``CUSTOM REPORT
PERIOD'' was selected above.
End Date (Inclusive): Specify End Date if ``CUSTOM REPORT
PERIOD'' was selected above.
Report Time Period: What
time should the report be created for.
Assume Initial States:
Whether to assume logging of initial states or not. Default values are
YES. For advanced users the value can be modified by editing the
nagios.cfg config file located in the /opt/monitor/etc directory.
Assume State Retention:
Whether to assume state retention or not. State retention determines if
op5 Monitor should retain the states of hosts and services between
program restarts. Default is YES. For advanced users the value can be
modified by editing the nagios.cfg config file located in the
/opt/monitor/etc directory.
Assume States During Program Downtime: If op5 Monitor is not
running for some time during a report period we can by this option
decide to assume states for hosts and services during the downtime.
Default value is YES.
Include Soft States: A
problem is classified as a SOFT problem until the number of checks has
reached the configured max_check_attempts
value. When max_check_attempts is reached the problem is reclassified
as HARD and normally op5 Monitor will send out a notification about the
problem. SOFT problem's does not result in a notification. If you
select YES, SOFT states will be included in the report, if NO only HARD
states will be included.
First Assumed Host State: If there is no information about the host or service
in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status of the
host/service. Default value is ``Current State''.
First Assumed Service State: If there is no information about the host or service
in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status of the
host/service. Default value is ``Current State''.
Backtracked Archives (To
Scan For Initial States): How many log archives to look through when
searching for initial states. op5 Monitor is configured to rotate the
log monthly.
Click on ``Create Availability Report'' to create the availability report.
The report displays a couple of values related to availability, in this
example hostgroup availability.
Host: The name of a specific host in the group.
% Time Up: The amount of time the host has been in the state
UP during the report period.
% Time Down: The amount of time the host has been in the state
DOWN during the report period.
% Time Unreachable: The amount of time the host has been in
the state UNREACHABLE during the report period.
% Time Undetermined: The amount of time the host has been in
UNDETERMINED state. This describes the time where op5 Monitor for some
reason does not have any data in the report period. For example if a
report includes a host which has not been existing in op5 Monitor's
configuration during the whole report period.
There are two values displayed for each time above except for the %Time
Undetermined value. The values without parenthesis represent the part of the report period where op5 Monitor for certain can determine what state the host has been in. The values within parathesis is the part of the report period where op5 Monitor has assumed a certain state. In other words the value within parathesis includes the certain time plus parts of the undetermined time based on qualified guesses.
There are also two summary values for each hostgroup report.
Average: This is the average value for the group. It is
calculated by adding the % Time for each host and then divide the
total value with the amount of hosts in the group. This can also be
done on servicegroup reports.
Group Average: This value is only
calculated for UP/OK states. It displays the amount of time where
all hosts in the group has been UP/OK at the same time.
SLA (Service Level Agreement) reporting is a report that visualizes if we met the agreed level of service, i.e. uptime, or not.
Start by selecting the preferred report type, Hostgroup, Host, Servicegroup or Service.
Now you have the ability to configure report settings
Reporting Period: Choose by a set of predefined report periods or choose “CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD”, and specify Start and End date.
Start Date (Inclusive): Specify Start Date if “CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD” was selected above
End Date (Inclusive): Specify End Date if “CUSTOM REPORT PERIOD” was selected above
Report Time Period: What time should the report be created for.
Tip: This can be used for SLA reporting.
Count scheduled downtime as uptime: Select if downtime that occurred during scheduled downtime should be counted as uptime or not.
Assume Initial States: Whether to assume logging of initial states or not. Default values are YES. For advanced users the value can be modified by editing the nagios.cfg config file located in the /opt/monitor/etc directory.
First Assumed Host State: If there is no information about the host or service in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status of the host/service. Default value is “Current State”.
First Assumed Service State: If there is no information about the host or service in the current log file, op5 Monitor can assume status of the host/service. Default value is “Current State”.
Assume States During Program Downtime: If op5 Monitor is not running for some time during a report period we can by this option decide to assume states for hosts and services during the downtime. Default value is YES.
Include Soft States: A problem is classified as a SOFT problem until the number of checks has reached the configured
max_check_attempts value. When max_check_attempts is reached the problem is reclassified as HARD and normally op5 Monitor will send out a notification about the problem. SOFT problem’s does not result in a notification. If you select YES, SOFT states will be included in the report, if NO only HARD states will be included.
Enter SLA: Here you specify the expected availability for each month.
Tip: If you enter a value for the first month and click on the icon just above the textfield you will get the option to autofill the other months as well.
If you want to use this report at later date you can click ''Save SLA`` and select a name for the report. Only saved reports can be scheduled for automatic e-mail delivery. You can however save the report after you have created it.
Click on “Create report” to create the SLA report
Once you have created the report you can saved it, print it, view it as pdf and schedule it for automatic reoccuring e-mail delivery using the icons on the top right side.
7.5 Alert History
Alert history displays a raw log of state changes. This can be useful to
debug problems in you IT infrastructure that normally would go
undetected. An even more detailed log can be displayed on Event Log.
In the top right option box you can affect what should be displayed in
the log.
The information in the log is divided in segments consisting in log
entries with one hour of log data for each segment.
The alert summary report gives you a subset of possibilities to create
different reports based on the data op5 Monitor has collected.
The page gives you the possibility to create a subset of standard
reports and it is also possible to create customized reports.
With the custom reports you can create a various amount of report types.
This user-manual does not cover them all, but one very usefull is mentioned below.
Select the Top 25 Hard Service Alert Producers from the Standard Reports
drop down menu and click ``Create Summary Report''.
This will create a report that can be use to prioritize your work since
it will show you the things causing most problems in your environment.
7.7 Notifications
This is a raw log of the notifications that op5 Monitor has sent. It can
be used to verify that notifications has been sent out and also to see
who should have got the notifications.
Host: The name of the host, you can click on the hostname to
get more information about the host.
Service: The name of the service the notification is about, if
it is a host notification this is displayed with N/A. You can click on
the service name to get more information about the service.
Type: What kind of notification that was sent.
Time: Timestamp that shows when the notification was sent.
Contact: The contact that the notification was sent to, you can
click on the contact name to se full contact details.
Notification Command: The command used to send the
notification, se more on Check Commands.
Information: The status output that resulted in the
notification. This is not necessary the information sent in the
notification it just indicates the reason for the notification.
7.8 Event Log
The event log is a raw log of events in the system. This can be
interesting if you want to do troubleshooting on the op5 Monitor system
or your IT infrastructure.
This log is also available for advanced users in text format directly on
your op5 Monitor system in /opt/monitor/var/nagios.log
The log file is rotated once every month and moved to
/opt/monitor/var/archive/. The rotation interval can be changed by
advanced users by editing the variable `log_rotation_method' in
/opt/monitor/etc/nagios.cfg.
Warning: this log can be really large if you are at the end of
the month just before rotation or if you monitor a large amount of
hosts and services. The size of the log can even crash some browsers or
make your system slow and unresponsive. A good alternative to the Event
Log is the Alert History which contains a more filtered list of
events.
Schedule reports provides possibility to schedule automatic reoccuring e-mail delivery of the reports produced by
Availability and
SLA Reporting. The reports are sent out as pdf email
attachments to one or several recipients. The reports can be sent out on a monthly
or weekly basis.
To be able to schedule a report you first have to create and save it using Availability or SLA Reporting.
To configure a scheduled report do following
Select the preferred report type, Availability Report or SLA Report.
Select the saved report you want to schedule. A filename for the e-mail-attachment will be automatically suggested.
Now enter the email addresses of the recipients of the report. To enter multiple addresses, separate them by commas. If you want to you can also add a description to this schedule. This may be any information that could be of interest when editing the schedule and the report at a later time. The description-field is optional.
Note: As of op5 Monitor 4.1 you can now schedule a report on daily basis.
The View Configuration menu option enables you to view your entire
configuration. This can be useful if you for example quickly want a
list of all hosts with alias
and ip
address
. This tool is referred to from many places in
op5 Monitors web gui, for example when reviewing the Notifications
log.
The configuration is divided in different objects. To view a list of a
specific object type select that type from the Object Type drop down
list.
The configuration will be more deeply covered on the Configure
headline.
User options are normally configured from the Configure tool, this
option gives a user the option to change has own password without help
from an administrator.
Backup and Restore is an easy way to create a backup of op5 Monitor's
configuration and log files. With help of this function you can easily
restore an old configuration if the current one is messed up.
To create a backup simply click on the ``Back up your perfectly good
configuration'' link. After a short time, depending on the size of your
configuration and log files, a backup is created and the possibility to
download it or examine its contents is shown.
The backup is saved in tar.gz format which can be handled on most Linux
systems.
To restore a backup simply click on the ``restore an older
configuration'' link and select one of the available backups. The numbers
of the files is formated like this:
yymmdd.hh.mm
When restoring an old backup, not only the configuration is restored but
also the log files, so be careful with restoring really old backups
since you can loose a lot of history.
Note: it is still recommended to take a proper system backup using the
included op5backup.sh script or a backup agent from your existing
backup software provider. See the op5 System manual for information
about backup options.
8.3 Configure
There are two ways to configure op5 Monitor. One is to edit the text files
in the
/opt/monitor/etc directory. The other is to use Configure
which is a web based configuration GUI for op5 Monitor.
When you click on the Configure link in the navigation menu a copy of
the configuration in the text files is imported to a database. You can
force an import at any time by clicking on ``Undo Changes''. The
configuration can now be edited using the configure web gui.
To tell the server about any changes you've made on the current page,
you should click the Apply button at the bottom of each page when you are done with your changes.
After you have applied your changes you will get a warning, see image
below, that says you have unsaved changed data in the database.
To then save the configuration to disk, click the button ``Save''. This will result in
an export of the new configuration to the text files, after which op5 Monitor
reloads the new configuration.
The main menu consists of four menu selections:
-
Configure: returns to the configure start page listed above
-
Save Configuration: Verifies the configuration made, saves the
configuration and reloads the monitor process with the new
configuration
-
Undo Changes: If you havent clicked
Save Configuration the
Undo Changes link takes you back to
the configuration you had before doing changes
-
Configuration Help: Help window
The configuration is based on objects. There are several types of
objects, each one defining different things in the monitoring process.
Each object consists of a object name and a couple of variables that
needs to be configured. For example on a host object you configure
hostname, address
and so on.
In the configure tool you can add new objects and modify existing
objects. A lot of objects can be cross referenced in the configuration
and the configure tool helps you with this to.
In most of the listings you will find a small textfield called
``Filter by regular expression:''. Use this to filter out the content
you are interested in when viewing the different lists.
To add a host, click the New hosts
link. A new window appears that allows you to enter the data needed to
add the host.
To add several hosts at a time you have two options.
-
Autodetect network nodes. This function
scans one or several ip ranges to detect which IP addresses that
responds to ping.
-
You can also use the profile funktion wich is described in
Profiles and Cloning
SRC="file:/usr/share/latex2html/icons/crossref.png">.
To complete a new host a couple of variables need to be configured. Some
of the variables are optional, the required variables are:
host name,
alias,
address,
contact_groups
hostgroups.
If you fail to add information in these
fields the configuration of the new host will fail. You can get a
detailed description of all fields by clicking on ``Configuration
Help'' in the upper right corner.
Here is an explanation of each variable.
Add this host?: If you are
adding several hosts at a time, for example by using the autodetect
network nodes function described earlier, you can select which hosts to
add.
template: Specifies the template to
use for this host. Many values are similar for each host, therefore the
use of templates. Templates can be configured from the start page.
host_name: The name of the host
that you want to add, usually a short but descriptive name. Example:
router1
alias: Full description of the host,
since the host_name is supposed to be short you can
use this field to enter a more descriptive text. Example: Router for
main office.
address: The IP address or host name of
the host.
contact_groups: The contact
group(s) this hosts notifications will be sent to, one or more groups
can be selected.
hostgroups: The host group(s) that
the host will be a member of. The host can be a member of several
hostgroups.
parents: The parent(s) that this host
is physically connected to. Example: serverA is connected to switch1
and therefore has switch1 as parent. It is possible to have several
parents for redundant connections.
Note: There is a limitation in the
parent directive, you cannot have circular parent relationships.
Service Checks: Add items that
Monitor will scan for in the host. By default auto detect network
services are checked. This option scans the host for common used ports
and also looks for the presence of a client. You can also force checks
associated with a specific client to be included. This can be useful if
you havent installed the agent software yet.
Management Protocol: Choose
the management protocol used to configure the host. E.g. telnet for
routers and HTTP for switches. This will result in a URL, with the
specified management protocol, next to the host in Host Detail.
Example: telnet://router1/
Host Logo: Associate a logo to the
host. This logo will appear in the status map and network map. When
selecting a logo you will get a popup window with a preview.
FILE: The configuration file that this
data will be stored in, default is hosts.cfg. Don't change this if
you're not really sure what it does.
When you are done entering data, click on the Scan
hosts for services button to continue.
A port scan is now performed on the new hosts to detect common services
like ftp and http on the host, the scan also searches for any installed
agent.
This page is displayed in two segments, first ``Initial Service
Settings'' and below the results of the scan.
Initial Service Settings lets you change the service_template supposed
to be used for the services added when you add the initial services.
The result of the scan is displayed as two parts. First part is net
related services such as PING, HTTP, FTP and so on. Second part is only
displayed if an agent is installed, if that is the case a couple of
default checks, such as Disk Usage, CPU Load and so on, appear.
More information about agents is available at the op5 support website.
Check the services you want to add and click Continue
to step 3.
Thats it. You have now added a new host. You have the
options to go back and do configurations on the new host or its
services. If you feel youre done click save
configuration. The Pre-flight configuration check is
made, Monitor reloads the configuration and the new host is up and
running. If you encounter problems with the Save
Configuration you probably didnt
fill out the fields correctly or missed to enter data in the fields.
There is two ways to fix the configuration if the ``Pre-flight
configuration check'' fails.
The first is to try to fix any mistakes that you have done in the
configuration gui, pay attention to any errors or warnings displayed
during the ``Pre-flight configuration check''. The second one is to
simply restore an old backup using the Backup/Restore tool.
8.3.3 Hosts
To change the configuration of an existing host select the host in the
dropdown menu and click go. If you have a long list of hosts you may
use the ``Filter by regular expression'' to easier find the host you
are interested in.
You now have the option to configure a couple of host related variables
and objects.
At the top of the page you have a drop down menu where you quickly can
switch to another hosts configuration. Below that you have two scan
tools to help you with your configuration.
If you want to choose from a less extensive list of hosts, you can select what hosts to include using the Filter by regular expression field.
-
Scan host for generic network based services which simply does the same
scan that you do when adding new hosts.
-
Scan host for SNMP interfaces which can help you adding monitoring of
interfaces for a RFC1213 (MIB-II) compliant SNMP device.
Related items gives you shortcuts to, well related items. Basically,
lets say that you are about to make some configuration changes to your
host and discovers that you are missing the new contact_group that you
needed you can simply click on the ``Contact Groups'' link in the
related items section. It's supposed to speed up the configuration
process by saving you an extra click.
Note: to configure services for a host, click on the ``services for
host'' link in the related items section. Read more about how to
configure services on the Services for host headline.
The last part of the host configuration page is the host object box
itself. Next to the name of the host in the host object box there are
six links:
- dependencies
- escalations
- extras
- clone
- advanced
- delete
8.3.4 Dependencies
Host dependencies are an advanced feature of op5 Monitor that allows you
to suppress notifications and even check execution for hosts, based on
the status of one or more other hosts. Host dependencies are optional
and are mainly targeted at advanced users.
An easy way to get almost the same functionality would be to use the
parents directive instead.
host_name: This defines the host
that we are depending on, the parent host.
execution_failure_criteria:
If the parent host defined in `host_name' is in one
of the selected states this host's status will not be checked.
notification_failure_criteria:
If the parent host defined in `host_name' is in one
of the selected states notifications will not be sent out for this
host.
inherits_parent: This
indicates if this host shall inherit any existing dependencies on the
parent host defined by `host_name'.
FILE: defines where to store the
hostdependency object, do not change this if you are not absolutely
sure what it does.
8.3.5 Escalations
Escalations let you configure escalation of notifications for this host.
The idea is that if you have a really important host you can send the
first notification to the default contact group in order for them to
solve the problem. If the problem is not solved in lets say 30 minutes
you can send the notification to a broader range of contacts.
contacts: which contact
should receive the notification. Normaly you use contact_groups
but sometimes it is needed to only add a single contact.
contact_groups: which contact
group(s) should receive the notification.
first_notification: which
notification, of the total amount notifications sent, is the first to
be sent out to this contact group(s).
last_notification: which
notification, of the total amount notifications sent, is the last to be
sent out to this contact group(s). If you specify 0 only one
notification is sent out.
notification_interval:
If the interval between first_notification
and last_notification is more than one
notification this specifies the interval in minutes between
notifications.
escalation_period: during
which time period is this escalation valid.
escalation_options: which
notifications that should be sent out.
Note: To make escalations work you need to set
`notification_interval' to something
else than 0 in the configuration for the host.
Note: When you start using escalations no notifications will be sent to the
contacts and contact_groups set on the service.
8.3.6 Extras
Extras let you configure cosmetic things as which logo you want to
associate with the host.
icon_image: The graphic file used
to represent the host in the status or network map
icon_image_alt: The alias
for the host, shown in the status map
statusmap_image: The image
used as a background in the status map
notes: notes for the server
action_url: The url used to manage
the host. i.e. telnet, http, ssh
notes_url: The documentation URL
for this host
2d_coords: The coordinates where
the icon should be placed in the status map when using user supplied
coords.
Using the
Clone button you can create a profile based on the host you are configuring.
This profile can later be used to create new hosts.
For more information, read Profiles and Cloning
.
When op5 Monitor realize that a child host is down it will test if the parent
host is down. If the parent host is down op5 Monitor will set the childhost
to unreachable state. The notifications sent out later on will be:
- Parent host: down
- Child host: unreachable
To avoid notifications about unreachable hosts you should change either the contact,
host or host template.
Contact:
Make sure unreachable is unchecked in host_notification_options
Host / Host template:
Make sure unreachable is unchecked in notification_options
There are many variables that can be configured for a host. Most of them
is being set by using templates and therefore not displayed in the host
configuration box. If you want to change one of those options you can
click on Advanced. This will expand the host configuration box to
include all variables, even those configured in the selected host
template.
template: Specifies the template to
use for this host. Many values are similar for each host, therefore the
use of templates. Templates can be configured from the start page.
host_name: The name of the host
that you want to add, usually a short but descriptive name. Example:
router1
alias: Full description of the host,
since the host_name is supposed to be short you can
use this field to enter a more descriptive text. Example: Router for
main office.
display_name: This option will
define a alternative name that will be displayed in the web interface.
Note: This option is not used by the CGIs at the moment but it will be
used in later versions of the web interface.
address: The IP address or host name of the host.
initial_state: By default op5 Monitor
will assume that all hosts are in UP states when in starts. You can override
the initial state for an object by using this directive.
Note: This has no effect if state retention is enabled, which is the default on op5 installations.
hostgroups: The host group(s) that
the host will be a member of. The host can be a member of several
hostgroups.
parents: The parent(s) that this host
will is physically connected to.
Example: serverA is connected to switch1 and therefore has switch1 as parent.
It is possible to have several parents for redundant connections.
If switch1 is DOWN then serverA will be UNREACHABLE.
Note: There is a limitation
in the parent directive, you cannot have circular parent relationships.
children: The hosts that are connected
to this host (using this host as a parent). This variable makes it
easier to configure parenting. Instead of configuring the parent
variable of each host connected to a switch you can use the children
variable from the switch and select the child hosts.
check_command: the check
command that should be run to determine status of the host. Read more
about check_commands on the Check Commands headline.
check_command_args: any
arguments required for the check command to work
contacts: The contact(s) this hosts
notifications are sent to.
contact_groups: The contact
group(s) this hosts notifications are sent to.
max_check_attempts: The
number of checks required for the host to enter HARD state and send out
notifications.
check_interval: The interval,
in minutes, between checks of this host.
retry_interval:The amount
of checks required for the service to enter HARD state and send
notifications.
check_period: During which time
period this host should be checked.
obsess_over_host:This
directive tells whether or not to obsess for commands run for this
host. Obsessing in this case meens, run a command after each host check.
The command that is defined as a normal ``command'' and is then added
in /opt/monitor/etc/nagios.cfg.
check_freshness:Here you
can configure the freshness threshold for passive checks in seconds.
If you set this to 0, op5 Monitor will automatically determine the threshold.
active_checks_enabled :
if checks are enabled or not, normally yes.
passive_checks_enabled:
Passive checks enabled, default is Yes.
event_handler: Event handler is
a check_command that is run every time a host
changes state.
event_handler_args: any
arguments needed for the event handler command.
event_handler_enabled:
specifies if event handlers should be used or not.
low_flap_threshold: se
below note about flap detection
high_flap_threshold: se
below note about flap detection
flap_detection_enabled:
If flap detection is enabled or not. Normally flap detection is enabled
on global basis and not per host.
flap_detection_options:This directive is used
to determine what host states the flap detection logic will use for this object.
Note: Flap detection is a useful mechanism to
detect reoccurring problems with a host or service. The logic works
like this.
The result of the 21 last checks is saved in the memory.
High_flap_threshold defines a value in percent of how much the host
or service has changed its state. If the
high_flap_threshold value is exceeded
the host/service enters flapping state. To exit flapping state the
percentage must go down to the
low_flap_threshold value.
process_perf_data: Most
of the plugins outputs data in two ways. The normal output which you
can see in your notifications and web gui, but also performance output.
Performance output is a more ``machine friendly'' output that can be
parsed by a script or a piece of software. Currently performance data
is used to create graphs of the check result for some standard checks.
retain_status_information:
Retain status information between restarts of op5 Monitor.
retain_nonstatus_information:
Retain other information between restarts of op5 Monitor.
notification_interval:
The interval in minutes when the host is down or unreachable. If this
is set to 0 (default) only one notification is sent out.
first_notification_delay:
The amount of minutes to delay the host notification. This can be
useful if you want to be able to reboot a server without notifying
anyone.
notification_period:
During which period notifications for this host should be sent out.
notification_options:
Which notifications that should be sent out for this host.
notifications_enabled:
If notifications are enabled or not, default is Yes.
stalking_options: Stalking
is used mainly for troubleshooting. If you enable stalking, op5 Monitor
will log everything related to the host. Note that this will probably
cause the log file to grow and therefore slow down all reports. Use
this with care.
FILE: Which file this host object should
be saved in.
The options below is also found in the Extras section.
icon_image: The graphic file used
to represent the host in the status or network map
icon_image_alt: The alias
for the host, shown in the status map
statusmap_image: The image
used as a background in the status map
notes: notes for the server
action_url: The url used to manage
the host. i.e. telnet, http, ssh
notes_url: The documentation URL
for this host
2d_coords: The coordinates where
the icon should be placed in the status map when using user supplied
coords.
8.3.10 Services for host
If you click on the ``Services for host'' link in the Host configuration
window you will be directed to the Service configuration window where
you can configure services.
The service objects defines what should be checked on your host.
The page is modeled almost the same way as the host configuration page
with other options.
The drop down lets you select another host for which services you want
to change, this makes it easier if you need to configure services on
several hosts.
You have the option to scan the host for new services, and also to scan
for available Interfaces using SNMP.
When you have selected host you will have a drop down list where you can
see the existing services for this host. There will also be an option called
``Add new service'' which you should chose to create a new service.
To edit a existing service simply edit the fields for that service and
press the <Enter> key or scroll down to the
bottom of the page and press Apply Changes.
At the bottom of the page you also have a button called ``Test this service''.
If you click on that button op5 Monitor execute a test so you may see if
your service works as it is supposed to.
In the header of each service objects you have the following options:
Service dependencies are an advanced feature of op5 Monitor that allows
you to suppress notifications and even check execution for services,
based on the status of one or more other services. Service dependencies
are optional and are mainly targeted at advanced users.
service: This defines the service that we are depending on.
dependency_period: This defines under what time_periods this
dependency will be used.
execution_failure_criteria:
If the dependent service defined in `service' is in one of the selected
states this services status will not be checked.
notification_failure_criteria:
If the dependent service defined in `service' is in one of the selected
states notifications will not be sent out for this service.
inherits_parent: This
directive indicates whether or not the dependency inherits dependencies
of the service that is being depended upon (also referred to as the
master service). In other words, if the master service is dependent
upon other services and any one of those dependencies fail, this
dependency will also fail.
Service escalations can be used to escalate notifications for certain
services. The idea is that if you have a really important service you
can send the first notification to the normal contact group in order
for them to solve the problem. If the problem is not solved in lets say
30 minutes you can send the notification to a broader range of
contacts.
contacts: which contact(s)
should receive the notification.
contact_groups: which contact
group(s) should receive the notification.
first_notification: which
notification, of the total amount notifications sent, is the first to
be sent out to this contact group(s).
last_notification: which
notification, of the total amount notifications sent, is the last to be
sent out to this contact group(s). If you specify 0 only one
notification is sent out.
notification_interval:
If the interval between first_notification
and last_notification is more than one
notification this specifies the interval in minutes between
notifications.
escalation_period: during
which time period is this escalation valid.
escalation_options: which
notifications that should be sent out.
Note: To make escalations work you need to set
`notification_interval' to something
else than 0 in the configuration for the service.
Note: When you start using escalations no notifications will be sent to the
contacts and contact_groups set on the service.
Extras let you configure cosmetic things as which logo you want to
associate with the service.
notes: notes for the service.
notes_url: The documentation URL
for this service.
action_url: The url used to manage
the service.
icon_image: The graphic file used
to represent the service in the Service Detail view.
icon_image_alt: The
alias for the service.
There are many variables that can be configured for a service. Most of
them is being set by using templates and therefore not displayed in the
service configuration boxes. If you want to change those options you
can click on Advanced. This will expand the service configuration box
to include all variables, even those configured in the selected service
template.
Note: If you change any options to a value other than the one defined in
the template in use this option will not be changed on the service if it
is changed in the template.
template: Which template to use for
this service.
service_description: The
description of the Service.
display_name:This option will
define a alternative name that will be displayed in the web interface.
is_volatile: A volatile service
is a service that notifies contacts every time the check is run if the
check is in a hard non OK state. This can be useful when utilizing
passive service checks when the check result is received from an
external source.
check_command: Which check
command that shall be run to determine status of the service.
check_command_args: any
arguments required for the check command to work.
servicegroups: defines membership
in any service group.
initial_state:By default op5 Monitor
will assume that all services are in OK states when in starts. You can override
the initial state for an object by using this directive.
Note: This has no effect if state retention is enabled, which is the default on op5 installations.
max_check_attempts: The
amount of checks required for the service to enter HARD state and send
notifications.
check_interval:
The interval, in minutes, between checks of the service.
retry_interval:
The interval, in minutes, between checks if the previous check failed.
active_checks_enabled: Active
checks enabled, default is Yes.
passive_checks_enabled:
Passive checks enabled, default is Yes.
check_period: During which time
period this service should be checked.
parallelize_check: Allow
this check to be run in parallel with other checks. Default is Yes .
Changing this can drastically influence performance.
obsess_over_service:
This command can be used to tell op5 Monitor to run a script after each
service check. It can be used for certain redundant configurations.
Don't use this if you're not sure about what it does.
check_freshness: op5 Monitor
supports a feature that does freshness
checking on the results of host and service checks. This feature is
useful when you want to ensure that passive checks are being received
as frequently as you want.
freshness_threshold: This
directive is used to specify the freshness threshold (in seconds) for
this service. If you set this directive to a value of 0, op5 Monitor
will determine a freshness threshold to use automatically.
event_handler: Command that
should be run in case of a state change.
event_handler_args:
Arguments needed for the event handler command.
event_handler_enabled:
Enable or disable Event handlers. Default value is Yes.
low_flap_threshold: se
below note about flap detection.
high_flap_threshold: se
below note about flap detection.
flap_detection_enabled:
if flap detection is enabled or not. Normally flap detection is enabled
on global basis and not per service.
flap_detection_options:This directive is used
to determine what service states the flap detection logic will use for this object.
Note: Flap detection is a useful mechanism to
detect reoccurring problems with a host or service. The logic works
like this.
The result of the 21 last checks is saved in the memory.
High_flap_threshold defines a value in percent of how much the host
or service has changed its state. If the
high_flap_threshold value is exceeded
the host/service enters flapping state. To exit flapping state the
percentage must go down to the
low_flap_threshold value.
process_perf_data: Most
of the plugins outputs data in two ways. The normal output which you
can see in your notifications and web gui, but also performance output.
Performance output is a more ``machine friendly'' output that can be
parsed by a script or a piece of software. Currently performance data
is used to create graphs of the check result for some standard checks.
retain_status_information:
Retain status information between restarts of op5 Monitor. This is a
good thing to enable, otherwise the status will be lost when you save
your new configuration.
retain_nonstatus_information:
Retain other information between restarts of op5 Monitor. This is also
a good thing to enable to not loose status data when saving new
configurations.
notification_interval:
The interval in minutes between notifications, when the service is
Critical, Warning, or Unknown. If this is set to 0 (default) only one
notification is sent out.
first_notification_delay: This defines how long, in minutes,
op5 Monitor should wait before it sends out the first notification.
Default is 0. For services you have the choice to delay the first
notification, this can be useful if you dont want to be notified
for problems that only last a short time
notification_period:
During which period notifications for this service should be sent out.
notification_options:
Which notifications that should be sent out for this service.
notifications_enabled:
If notifications are enabled or not, default is Yes.
contacts: The contact(s)
this service notifications is sent to.
contact_groups: The contact
group(s) this service notifications is sent to.
stalking_options: Stalking
is used mainly for troubleshooting. If you enable stalking, op5 Monitor
will log everything related to the host. Note that this will probably
cause the log file to grow and therefore slow down all reports. Use
this with care.
The options below is also found in the Extras section.
FILE: Which file this host object should
be saved in.
notes: notes for the service.
notes_url: The documentation URL
for this service.
action_url: The url used to manage
the service.
icon_image: The graphic file used
to represent the service in the Service Detail view.
icon_image_alt: The
alias for the service.
8.3.15 Templates
There are three kinds of templates available.
-
Host Templates for hosts objects.
-
Service Templates for service objects.
-
Contact Templates for contact objects.
Above mentioned objects needs to have several variables configured, most
of those variables are the same for each object. To avoid unnecessary
work you can simply define your most common settings in templates and
then use those templates when configuring the objects.
Three different templates are shipped with the default configuration for
op5 Monitor, default-service, critical-service and
noncritical-service. The variables that differs between those
templates are,
`normal_check_interval',
`retry_check_interval' and
`max_check_attempts'. Services that use
the critical-service are monitored more often and notifies quicker
than services that uses the noncritical-service.
A hostgroup definition is used to group one or more hosts together for
display and / or reporting purposes.
To add, change or delete a host group choose the host group link from
the start page.
All host groups are listed after each other, represented with a shortcut
in top of the window. In bottom of the list you have the possibility to
add a new host group. On the right hand side of the host group
configuration window you can click delete to delete a single host
group.
hostgroup_name: Name of Host
group.
alias: Description of Host group.
members: Hosts that are members of this
host group, to select several hosts press and hold the
<Ctrl> key.
notes: notes for the host_group.
notes_url: The documentation URL
for this host_group.
action_url: The url used to manage
the host_group.
Click Apply changes in the bottom of
the window. Click Save
Configuration for the changes to take effect.
Note: Membership in hostgroups can also be configured
when adding new hosts or from the Hosts configuration page.
A servicegroup definition is used to group one or more hosts together
for display and / or reporting purposes.
To add, change or delete a servicegroup choose the host group link from
the start page.
All service groups are listed after each other represented with a
shortcut in top of the window. In bottom of the list you have the
possibility to add a new service group. On the right hand side of the
service group configuration window you can click delete to delete
chosen service group.
servicegroup_name: Name of
the service group
alias: Description of service group
members: Services that are members of
this service group
notes: notes for the service_group.
notes_url: The documentation URL
for this service_group.
action_url: The url used to manage
the service_group.
Click Apply changes in the bottom of
the window. Click Save
Configuration for the changes to take effect.
Servicegroups can be specifically useful to visualize business
processes. In the image above a servicegroup named
`email-service-group' is configured. If you put all service checks
that are related to email in that group, i.e. DNS, internet
connections, POP3, SMTP and so on, you will get a good view of how your
email service is working in total.
This information can be used for real-time troubleshooting but also
for reports.
To add, change or delete a contact choose the contacts link from the
start page.
Read more about the variables you can configure for contacts below.
template: Which template to use for
this contact.
contact_name: Short name of the
contact, it is recommended to use the login name that you normally
use.
alias: Full name of the contact, i.e. Mr.
Dummy User.
host_notification_period:
Time period for which this contact shall receive host notifications.
service_notification_period:
Time period for which this contact shall receive service
notifications.
host_notification_options:
Which host notifications that this contact shall receive.
service_notification_options:
Which service notifications that this contact shall receive.
host_notification_commands:
Command that is executed to send out host notifications. Op5 Monitor
comes with a default
host_notification_command, host-notify. This
command can send notifications using email and sms. You can also add
your own notification commands if you like.
host_notification_commands_args:
Arguments that might be
needed for the host_notification_command.
service_notification_commands:
Command that is executed to send out service notifications. Op5 Monitor
comes with a default service_notification_command,
service-notify. This command can send notifications using email and sms. You can also
add your own notification commands if you like.
service_notification_commands_args:
Arguments that might be
needed for the service_notification_command.
contactgroups: The contact
group(s) this contact is a member of.
email: This contacts email address, for
receiving email notifications.
pager: This contacts cell phone number,
for receiving SMS notifications.
Note: The number must include country
code. Example for a Swedish number, 46701123456.
address1 - 6: These variables are reserved for other kind of
notification options. If you create your own notification script you
can use these variables to specify notification data.
Tip: If you want to notify an individual with both email and SMS we
recommend to define two separate contacts with different host and
service notification options since you normally want to define
different settings for email and SMS.
A contact group definition is used to group one or more contacts
together for the purpose of sending out notifications. When a host or
service has a problem or recovers, op5 Monitor will find the
appropriate contact groups to send notifications to, and notify all
contacts in those contact groups.
contactgroup_name: Name of
the contactgroup.
alias: Description of the contact group.
members: Hosts that are members of this
host group, to select several hosts press and hold the
<Ctrl> key.
When done configuring click Apply
changes. For the changes to take effect choose the
Save Configuration from the start
page.
8.3.20 Commands
A command is an object that defines who op5 monitor executes scripts
and binaries such as plugins etc. Commands are a
very vital part of op5 Monitor. Commands are used to do the actual
monitoring, send notifications, execute event_handlers, external
scripts such as eventhandler scripts and so on.
The command consists of following parts.
command_name: A descriptive name of the command.
command_line: the actual command that should be executed.
The command line first defines the search path to the script or program
that should be run. The scripts / programs are called plugins. Read
more about plugins in the op5 plugins manual, available on op5 support
web.
Then any necessary variables are defined. Depending on what input the
plugin might need, different variables can be specified. The
check_icmp plugin above demands the variable `-H
<ipaddress>' where
<ipaddress> should be the IP Address of the host
that should be checked. To make command definitions more flexible
there are a subset of macros that can be used.
In this case we use the $HOSTADDRESS$ macro which will automatically
be translated to the IP Address of the host that the command is
run for.
A full list of available macros is available from the Nagios manual at
http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/macros.htmlhttp://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/macros.html
Time periods is time defining objects that span over a week. You can
define ``included'' time for each day of the week in the time period
definition.
You can also:
- use already defined time periods as excludes
- add exceptions based on dates and ranges of days
The timeperiod objects are used at many places in the configuration.
Most noticeably are in the contact objects where the timeperiods
defines when notifications should be sent out. You can also use
timeperiods to define when a service or a host should be monitored or
when you are creating availability reports.
timeperiod_name: short name
of the time period
alias: descriptive name of the time
period
exclude: Other timeperiod definitions
that should be excluded from this timeperiod.
Monday to Sunday: which time to include for each day. you can
define multiple times by separating them with comma. Example
00:00-01:00,03:00-06:00
Exception type: Specify what
type of exception you want to use; Date or Day
Depending on what kind of exception type you have chosen you will get different
settings choises. The two lists below describes them all.
Date
Interval: Chose Sinlge ate or Date range
Date: Choose the date that is supposed to be used in this Exception.
From date: If you chosed date range you will here set the start date
To date: If you chosed date range you will here set the end date
Frequency: How often the exception is repeated.
Valid values are positive integers greater than one. E.g:
Date range "2008-01-01 - 2008-12-31 / 5" means every fifth day of 2008.
Day range "1 monday march - 3 sunday may / 3" means every
third day between the first monday and the third sunday every month.
Date range "2008-06-01 / 14" means every 14th day from first of
june 2008. Note that this exception has no end.
Hours: which time to include for this exception. You can
define multiple times by separating them with comma. Example:
00:00-01:00,03:00-06:00
Day
Interval: Chose Sinlge day or a Day range
Weekday: Choose the weekday that is supposed to be used in this Exception.
From weekday: If you chosed Day range you will here set the start day
To weekday: If you chosed Day range you will here set the end day
Frequency: How often the exception is repeated. Valid values are positive integers greater than one.
E.g:
Date range "2008-01-01 - 2008-12-31 / 5" means every fifth day of 2008.
Day range "1 monday march - 3 sunday may / 3" means every third day between the first monday and the third sunday every month.
Date range "2008-06-01 / 14" means every 14th day from first of june 2008. Note that this exception has no end.
Hours: which time to include for this exception. You can
define multiple times by separating them with comma. Example:
00:00-01:00,03:00-06:00
Click on the Add botton to add your exception.
Added exceptions: Shows a list of the excpetions added to this time period.
8.3.22 Access Rights
Users of op5 Monitor web gui needs to provide a username and password to
gain access. There are seven different variables that control what
level of access a user has.
Password: Password for the user,
hidden by default.
Verify password: type the password a second time to verify
authorized_for_system_information
Gives the user access to the system / process information.
authorized_for_configuration_information:
Gives the user access to view and change configuration.
authorized_for_system_commands:
Gives the user access to issuing commands in the web gui. With commands
you can control certain functions in op5 Monitor, for example:
enable/disable notifications, scheduled downtime, acknowledge problems
and so on.
authorized_for_all_services:
Gives the user access to view all services, se Customizing views below
for more information.
authorized_for_all_hosts:
Gives the user access to view all hosts, se Customizing views below for
more information.
authorized_for_all_service_commands:
Gives the user access to issue commands for all services, se
Customizing views below for more information.
authorized_for_all_host_commands:
Gives the user access to issue commands for all hosts, se Customizing
views below for more information.
Recommended settings for an administrator would be to check all boxes.
For helpdesk staff it could be `authorized_for_system_information'
and `authorized_for_system_commands', that way they can acknowledge
problems but not change the configuration.
LDAP and Active Directory only.
If you are using LDAP based authentication you will be able to assign
rights per entire group of users.
Tick the box for the different types of rights available. See
Access Rights above for a descriptive list.
When you have added the rights you want to use, they will take effect
when you press Apply.
Take good care to not accidently lock yourself out.
This function allows you to export hosts from op5 Monitor to op5
Statistics in order to save time when configuring op5 Statistics.
For now this is fairly simple export functionality and does not do any
checks to detect if the host already has been exported so be careful.
Select which host(s) you want to export, change the SNMP Community if
needed and select which Host template to use in statistics. You can
also specify which host identifier in op5 Monitor that shall be used as
Host Description in statistics.
Click Export hosts and you are done.
A. Customizing Views
It is possible to configure a user with limited access to the system not
only by denying access to certain views using Access Rights but also by
only letting the user see a selected choice of hosts and services.
In smaller companies or organizations this might not be needed but for
larger enterprises it can be quite useful to be able to customize the
objects op5 Monitor displays for each user or team of users. This
function can also be useful if you are a hosting provider.
Customization of the gui can be done in three steps where the last step
is optional and only for advanced users since it requires editing html
or php files on the op5 Monitor system.
-
Configure a new contact.
-
Add the contact to an existing contactgroup or create a new contactgroup
specific for the new contact. If you created a new contactgroup make
sure to add the contact group for the hosts and services that you want
to make available in the customized view.
-
Configure a user in access rights with the exact same name as the
contact you created. When selecting options do not use the last foure
options, authorized_for_all_. By doing
this the new user will only see the hosts and services that uses the
contactgroup that he is a member of.
-
Create a directory in /opt/monitor/share/ with the same name as the
contact and user you just configured. Create your own index.php and
frame_menu.php files, you can use the files available in /opt/monitor/share
as start. Make sure to set the right permissions on the directory and
the files so that the web server can read the files.
Remember the fourth step is optional and only for advanced users.
To test your new ``limited'' simply log on as the new user you just
created.
B. Profiles and Cloning
Profiles and Cloning was a feature new to Monitor 3.2.x. It is a feature aimed at solving the task of configuring many similar servers without having to repeat many steps.
A profile is essentially a stored copy of a host. The profile can then be used when creating new hosts, creating an initial setup with services.
The profile will include services from the original host - when you create the profile you are presented with a choice of which services to include.
B.2.1 Creating a Profile
- Choose the Configure web menu
- Choose Go for the host you wish to copy
- Click the Clone button
- Select the services you wish to include
- Select Save as Profile
- Enter name and description for the profile you are creating
- Click Clone
You are then presented with the option of creating clones based on this new profile. If you do not wish to do this now, you can simply use the left hand web menu to return to Configure or another part of op5 Monitor.
- Choose the Configure web menu
- Click Profiles
- Click use next to the profile
- Select what parts of the profile you want to include
- Fill in the number of copies and click Continue...
- Fill out host details for the clones and click Create
Follow the instructions from Creating a Profile above, except do not click Save as Profile.
The services are a bit special when it comes to cloning in op5 Monitor. When you clone a service you will copy it to an other host instead of creating a new service.
To clone a service to an other host follow the list below:
- Choose the Configure web menu.
- Choose Go for the host you wish to copy.
- Click Services for host... in the ``RELATED ITEMS'' menu.
- Select the service you want to clone to other hosts click on Go and then on Clone.
- Select the hosts or host_groups you want to clone the service to and click on Clone.
- Now the service has been cloned to the hosts you selected. Click on Save to export to the configurations files.
The need for an IT department to follow up on user questions is quite obvious and most organisations use some sort of trouble ticket system for this.
The need to administer faults and preventive maintenance, however, is often forgotten about and that work is then performed as a part of general server and network maintenance.
Anybody who has worked using a trouble ticket system will recognize how it makes it easy to make sure that the work gets done even if someone is on holiday, and how it makes it easier to keep track of how time is spent.
In theory, an op5 Monitor notification equals a problem and could generate a trouble ticket. It is not always that easy though, so we will present an example scenario to illustrate how you can integrate op5 Monitor in your organisation.
If the notifications are annoying, they will be ignored. This is a very important rule of thumb - enabling notifications is better done slowly.
Most Monitor users have both email and mobile phone text messages for notifications. Typically, you should only send messages to mobile phones out of work hours, and only for the most important services and hosts. To throughout the workday receive text messages perhaps because of planned work does not tend to go down well.
You can also start off only sending critical notifications and host down messages via email, until you've seen that this works well and people know how to deal with the messages they receive.
It is very important to not have ``false'' alerts - meaning alerts that the administrators do not think of as faults.
For instance - a ping response time of 100ms is unacceptable if it is in the same switch, but on a WAN link it might be normal.
It is very important that anything red or orange on your op5 Monitor - perhaps you have your op5 Monitor on a wall mounted TV - should be trustworthy as an important issue to deal with. Therefore, on of the highest priorities for having a successful network monitoring is adjusting the levels so that the normal state of things is that everything is green.
When you have a new installation of Monitor, it should be up to date with regards to your servers and network structure.
A common mistake is to forgetting to update as new servers are added or changes are made.
To prevent your system from degrading over time, you should not only have at least one person with the dedicated responsibility of making sure op5 Monitor is up to date - but also it needs to part of the protocol for anyone installing servers to configure it in Monitor aswell. The web interface makes it easy for everyone in your IT department to manage their own servers and other devices.
It is essential that all notifications are dealt with.
If you have a false alarm it still needs action - the action is to change the service settings.
If you have a trouble ticket system already, alerts can be registered in this. op5 can offer integrations to make this automatic with some trouble ticket systems - ask us if you want to know about your possibilities. Automatically having a ticket opened for every notification is sometimes a very good idea.
Another option is having a mailbox that is shared by several system administrators, where all notifications are sent. An unread notification in the inbox would then mean that it has to be dealt with.
Monitor has strong features built-in to let your adminsitrators work together. Acknowledging alerts is such a feature.
When you receive an alert, you can acknowledge it using the web interface and make a comment to inform your colleagues about what you are planning to do.
Using the web view Unhandled Problems you can then overview alerts that have not been acked yet - a great way of knowing what has been dealt with or not.
Sometimes it is a good idea to have Unhandled Problems displayed on the wall near the NOC or System Administrators.
The administrators often know exactly what it means when the CPU usage on a specific server is high or a disk on a database server is nearing full.
People working less closely with the infrastructure might not know this though, and this is one of the reasons why using Service Groups is a good idea.
You can create a group of services for every actual function delivered by your IT staff - for instance grouping email services provides a great overview: If everything is green your email ought to be working properly.
It is also great to quickly find the problem if you know there is one - you just have to look in the right service group instead of having to look through everything.
Footnotes
- ...SSL
1.1
- Secure Socket Layer
