Which tool is best for me: Nagios, OpenNMS, or something else?

[Mike Hamrick]

I can't speak for OpenNMS, but I think for Nagios the answer for a lot
of your questions is going to be:

"There isn't a way of doing this with the standard nagios plugin
package, but someone has probably written a plugin that does this,
check the Nagios Exchange site."

> % Confirm each machine is up/pingable/reachable [obviously!]

Obviously.

> % nmap each machine to make sure correct ports (varies by machine) and
> no others are open

This isn't a standard nagios plugin, however somebody has a plugin that
does this, a quick google search found:

http://ubermonkey.wordpress.com/2006/09/28/nagios-nmap-plugin/

> % Not all tests all the time: some tests should run less frequently
> (reduce the load);

You can define the check_interval on a service by service basis.

> % For machines running httpd, download several pages, diff to last
> copies of these pages, report "big" differences...

I'm guessing you'll have to code this plugin yourself in nagios.

> % For machines running sendmail, send a test email to one of the other
> machines running sendmail, which then confirms receipt; alert if not
> received. Also do other mail routing/delivery tests.

This is becomming a frequently asked question on this list.  Various
people have written plugins to do this, but it's been my experience
that most people who need this end up writing their own.

> % For machines running popd/imapd, simulate login to confirm
> authentication is working (popd/imapd auth isn't always local for us)

See default answer.  A quick google search found this page, which
confirms authentication on pop/imap.

http://www.jhweiss.de/software/nagios.html

> % Monitor files in /etc (eg, passwd, shadow, crontab) for changes.

You could do this with tripwire and then write a plugin that reads
the snmp trap, or trap logfile.

> % Ideally, the "something bad has happened" reporting can be
> configured-- it may be OK for "mailq -v" to be large for 10-15
> minutes, but not for 30 minutes (for example).

You can do this with nagios.  You can check every five minutes and
not go to a hard failure state until the check has failed six times.

Mike
















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