executing local plugins on remote servers...

[Carroll, Jim P [Contractor]]

You need the plugins compiled for the architecture of the client host and
install them there, regardless.

I prefer NRPE.  Others prefer using check_by_ssh.  Still others prefer using
check_snmp.  Some use NSCA, but primarily for running a child Nagios server,
sending the results to the main Nagios server.  (Still others prefer
nagios_statd.)

For Windows clients, you have a choice of NSClient.  Or to get creative.
:^)  At least one individual has tried to get NRPE to work under Cygwin.
(I'm not too sure how far he got.  I do wonder what he would have used for
plugins.)  Quite recently, Lennard Bakker has indicated that he intends to
write a version of NRPE for Windows, then create plugins for that
environment.  Stay tuned.

With the exception of NSClient, it pretty much boils down to using whatever
fits your needs.  check_by_ssh can leverage pre-existing 'permit ssh' rules
in firewalls, but doesn't scale well because of the computational overhead.
You might find that you'll need to attemt a trivial case of at least a few
options, just to see which ones seem pretty reasonable, and which ones seem
to require more hand crafting.  For example, I avoided nagios_statd, because
it required installing Python.  Not because I have anything against Python,
but rather to save having to maintain another language environment across
all hosts.  I've created NRPE tarballs:  One for Solaris 2.6, one for
Solaris8, and one for RH Linux.  Whenever a new host needs this, I drop it
in place and push the latest nrpe.cfg file to it.  (Eventually these should
get added to the Jumpstart/Kickstart servers, as appropriate.)

Just to set your expectations:  prepare to get a handful of differing
opinions on this, dabble a little, then pick the one that's right for *you*.

jc


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel_Casey at jbhunt.com [mailto:Daniel_Casey at jbhunt.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 3:41 PM
> To: nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: [Nagios-users] executing local plugins on remote servers...
> 
> 
> Am I correct in thinking that you have to have one of the following to
> execute the plugins on remote servers:
> 
> This will let you have the plugins on the main server, but 
> execute them
> locally and remotely?
>    Nagios Remote Plugin Executor (NRPE) 1.8
> 
> And with these, you have to have the plugins on each server?
>    Nagios Java System (nsjs)
>    Nagios Service Check Acceptor (NSCA) 2.2
> 
> Anyone have any thoughts/prefs?  I like the idea of using local
> commands/plugins to check remote resources.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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