SV: Nagios 2.0 stable

[Andreas Ericsson]

Sean Dilda wrote:
> jeff vier wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 10:31 -0500, Sean Dilda wrote:
> 
> 
>>
>>
>>> For most projects, terms like 'alpha' and 'beta' have certain 
>>> meanings in regards to how stable/tested the code is and how likely 
>>> it is to change before final release.  And likewise, official 
>>> releases tend to not do things like drastically change the config 
>>> layout as part of a bugfix, whereas an alpha or beta might.
>>
>>
>>
>> Oh?  As I said before, how is it that "stable" code from [some]
>> commercial companies have so many more problems than beta [and sometimes
>> alpha] code from the OSS community?
> 
> 
> I don't only care about stability in terms of if the program crashes/has 
> bugs.  I also care about stability in terms of lack of code churn.  I've 
> seen several betas before where functionality is added or removed 
> between the beta and the final release.  In addition to this, there's 
> also the possibility for subtle but important changes in the behavior of 
> the program.
> 

True enough. Someone might implement passive hostchecks for instance.

> I do do a lot of testing before I put something like nagios into 
> production.  And with nagios especially, part of that is figuring out 
> the best use of the features it offers and how to setup my configs.  I 
> don't know about you, but the only way I can keep myself sane with 
> nagios configs is to write my own config generator.  Some of the 
> configuration setup has changed between 1.2 and 2.0b2.  As such to 
> switch to it I'd have to sit down and reconfigure out the best way to do 
> my configs.

The logic hasn't changed. Only the format, and it isn't such a huge 
change after all. The tools at http://oss.op5.se/nagios might help with 
the conversion (make a backup first, I take no responsibility if 
anything breaks).

>  And there's also the possibility that the config setup 
> might change again before 2.0 final, and I'd rather only have to fix my 
> configs for 2.x once.
> 

This is just guesswork, but considering Ethan's previous changes I'd say 
that whatever's about to change won't break whatever you have. A little 
while ago the alias and address variables of host object definitions 
were made redundant (inherited from hostname if not set). That's a good 
thing but won't affect already complete configurations.

I'm looking in to adding cascading contact_groups (services inherits 
from host if not set, hosts inherits from hostgroups if not set), and 
removing the necessity for setting pager and/or email variable for 
contacts. Both are config changes that won't affect already working 
configurations.

>>
>>
>>> You may have no problems with it, and that's great.  However, there 
>>> are people out there whose job performance is tied to how well stuff 
>>> like this operates.  As such, they tend to make the wise choice of 
>>> waiting for an official release before investing time setting up 
>>> something and risking having to completely change your setup in a 
>>> couple of weeks.  To many professionals, having an official (as 
>>> opposed to beta) release is an indication from the developers that 
>>> this code is ready for prime time and will have bugfixes that don't 
>>> cause you to rework things.
>>
>>
>>
>> So test it.
>> Are you saying you'd do a blind deployment because Ethan says "I think
>> it's fine"?
> 
> 
> Look above, no.  What I'm saying is that I don't have time to test the 
> beta AND the final release.  Other people (like yourself) do, and I'm 
> glad they do.  Because it means that when 2.0 final comes out it will be 
> a better product.  But just because you and several others on here have 
> the time to test it and fix the bugs you find, doesn't mean everyone 
> else does.  As such, you shouldn't act like 1.2 is obsolete and people 
> should switch to 2.0, because for many of us, 2.0 isn't even an option 
> until the actual non-beta 2.0 release happens.
> 
> 
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-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson at op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Lead Developer


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