Scalable Configuration Strategies?

[Russell Adams]

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Russell

On Fri, Aug 11, 2006 at 04:48:12PM +0200, Friedrich Clausen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> rob.moss at uk.bnpparibas.com wrote:
> > Good question, good thinking.
> > 
> > I think you are on the right track with the separate files/directories,
> > however if you have over 1,000 servers i think there may be other overheads
> > involved in parsing 1,000 or more individual files on startup, but that can
> > be checked later.
> 
> Yeah, that may become an issue but I will run some tests to see how it 
> will go. I think when we have 1000 servers/network elements, we will 
> have to get another Nagios server as the CPU usage from running all the 
> checks is already around 40% (with ~200 hosts and ~650 checks).
> 
> > 
> > I would go for individual host definitions per host including all of the
> > services that it runs, that way you can easily script something to write
> > out config files per server from a data source such as CSV. For example:
> > 
> > host,servce1,service2,serviceN...
> > host1.example.com,ssh,ping,http,https,someservice,someotherservice
> <snip>
> 
> We actually tried that idea but there are many exceptions (eg. community 
> names, different proc count thresholds, etc) and we had to start putting 
> parameters in the text file and it soon looked uglier and harder to edit 
> than the current Nagios config. But having it as a CSV and editing it in 
> a spreadsheet program might be better...
> 
> What I did do was make an "add_nagios_host.pl" script to quickly add a 
> host with common services configured. Then you would edit the config to 
> add non-standard checks.
> 
> I would like to make the whole config tree added to Subversion and then 
> when someone has edited the config they would commit their changes. It 
> would introduce an audit trail to figure out who broke what.
> 
> > I'm looking at a similar solution to monitor 9,000 or so Blade servers..
> > fun times!
> 
> Indeed! Good luck!
> 
> Fred.
> 
> > 
> > Internet
> > fred at derf.nl@lists.sourceforge.net - 10/08/2006 15:15
> > 
> > 
> > Sent by:    nagios-users-bounces at lists.sourceforge.net
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > To:    nagios-users
> > 
> > cc:
> > 
> > 
> > Subject:    [Nagios-users] Scalable Configuration Strategies?
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > My colleague and I are in the process of giving our bloated,
> > all-in-one-file Nagios configuration a re-haul. It was getting unwieldy
> > and error prone searching through the config file to add/modify hosts
> > and services. So I am emailing the list to get opinions and see what
> > other people do in their environments.
> > 
> > Initial Idea:
> > -------------
> > 
> > We have a multi-department Nagios server, eg. Network Admins, Windows
> > Admins and Unix Admins all use the same server. Currently every
> > department has their own file, eg. unix-hosts.cfg, network-elements.cfg,
> > etc. containing host definitions, hostgroups, service definitions all in
> > one file.
> > 
> > So we have decided to try out the "cfg_dir" statement in nagios.cfg as
> > the basis for our new configuration.  Our initial layout could be:
> > 
> > /etc/nagios - The main config files eg. nagios.cfg, resource.cfg,
> > contacts.cfg, timeperiods.cfg, template.cfg. These files would only be
> > editable by the system administrator of the Nagios box.
> > 
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin - Within here would be the config files for each
> > department. The directory and the files/dirs therein would be writeable
> > by the "unix-admin" group. We are thinking of organising it like:
> > 
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin/checkcommands.cfg
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin/contactgroups.cfg
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin/hostgroups.cfg
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin/hosts/host1.example.com.cfg
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin/hosts/host2.example.com.cfg
> > /etc/nagios/unix-admin/hosts/host3.example.com.cfg
> > .....
> > 
> > The other departments would have a similar tree structure and
> > permissions allowing them to modify their configurations.
> > 
> > Potential Issues:
> > -----------------
> > 
> > The main problem is what to do with common services; do we create
> > (Option 1) a, for example, ssh.cfg that lists all the hosts (or host
> > groups) that use SSH? Or (Option 2) do we add the SSH check into each
> > hosts config file seperately?
> > 
> > Option 1 pro - Easy to add new common service.
> > Option 1 cons - Must know in advance which services are common so as to
> > edit the correct file (either hostXX.example.com.cfg or ssh.cfg) config.
> > Will not always be clear. There are always exceptions.
> > 
> > Option 2 pro - Simple to configure, consistent.
> > Option 2 cons - Mass adding a service to many hosts will require
> > scripting or much time.
> > 
> > I am inclined to go with option 2 for simplicity's sake.
> > 
> > Any comments or improvements or just what works for you will be
> > appreciated!
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Fred.
> > 
> > 
> > 
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> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security?
> Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier
> Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo
> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642
> _______________________________________________
> Nagios-users mailing list
> Nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nagios-users
> ::: Please include Nagios version, plugin version (-v) and OS when reporting any issue. 
> ::: Messages without supporting info will risk being sent to /dev/null
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Russell Adams                            RLAdams at AdamsInfoServ.com

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security?
Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier
Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642
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::: Please include Nagios version, plugin version (-v) and OS when reporting any issue. 
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