Biggest Problem with Nagios: Poor Setup/Installation

[Paul L. Allen]

Cook, Garry writes: 

> I wouldn't trust docs written in scenario C, because like I said above,
> only a new user is far enough removed from Nagios to know what problems
> are likely to crop up when you don't yet know anything about the
> software.

You're right.  However, a good FAQ system mitigates the problem.
Ideally, many FAQs should get incorporated into the documentation so
they are no longer asked.  Some FAQs cover obscure or rare scenarios,
some cover stuff that many people have problems with. 

In a good documentation regime, the FAQs are actually infrequently-asked
questions because the other questions are answered by the documentation.
However, that's a theoretical balance: in practise too much documentation
is as unhelpful as too little.  Ideally, the documentation should be a
step-by-step walk-through.  The problem comes when people with no
experience of *nix and no knowledge of TCP/IP or network services are
tasked with monitoring network services using NAGIOS running on a *nix
box.  Do you explain "ls -al" to them or do you say "if you don't know
how to do this, you shouldn't be trying to configure NAGIOS"? 

In an ideal world, any monkey could read the docs and install and
configure NAGIOS.  In the real world, we don't have the effort to cater
to that.  Most of the FAQs should be folded into the documentation and/or
the install scripts.  Some of the FAQs should be answered by (IMO) "you
are too stupid to own a computer, please pack it in its original box and
return it to the shop you bought it from." 

-- 
Paul Allen
Softflare Support 



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