check_multi advice to check "Internet available"

[Marc Haber]

Hi,

I am checking a number of servers which are "on the Internet", and are
thus likely to become unreachable for my Nagios installations in case
of an outage out there on the Internet. I would like to have a "host"
which I could use as parent host for all those servers so that I don't
get buried under an avalanche of HOST DOWN alarms should my Internet
go partly or fully down.

I have investigated using check_multi do help me with that, and have
come up with a solution which can help me with this task. I would like
to solicit your comments to that solution.

I have defined a number of hosts which are checked by Nagios proper,
just as normal hosts are. Their individual notifications may be
switched off, but I haven't done so since I like to see what's going
on at least in the start phase. Their hostnames all start with
mh-internet, so I can use a single check_multi config line to pull
them all into a single check_multi check. check_multi is then used as
service and host check on a "virtual host" called internet, which goes
CRITICAL when more than one mh-internet-foo host is CRITICAL.

Here is my detailed configuration:

/etc/nagios3/conf.d/internet.cmd:
statusdat [ internet ] = /^mh-internet-.*$/:my-defaultping

state[WARNING] = COUNT(WARNING) > 1
state[CRITICAL] = COUNT(CRITICAL) > 1
state[UNKNOWN] = COUNT(UNKNOWN) > 1


Nagios configuration:
define host {
        use                     mh-host
        host_name               mh-internet
        alias                   internet
        address                 127.0.0.1
        parents                 localhost
        check_command           check_multi!-f /etc/nagios3/conf.d/internet.cmd
}

define service {
        name                            my-internet
        use                             my-service
        service_description             my-internet
        check_command                   check_multi!-f /etc/nagios3/conf.d/internet.cmd
        host_name                       mh-internet
}

define command {
        command_name                    check_multi
        command_line                    /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_multi $ARG1$ $ARG2$ $ARG3$ $ARG4$
}

define host {
        use                     mh-host
        host_name               mh-internet-torres
        hostgroups              mh, ping
        alias                   torres.zugschlus.de
        address                 85.214.68.41
        parents                 mh-internet
}

define host {
        use                     mh-host
        host_name               mh-internet-heise
        hostgroups              mh, ping
        alias                   www.heise.de
        address                 www.heise.de
        parents                 mh-internet
}

define host {
        use                     mh-host
        host_name               mh-internet-google-de
        hostgroups              mh, ping
        alias                   www.google.de
        address                 www.google.de
        parents                 mh-internet
}

I am wondering whether this is a valid approach, or whether there
are better solutions for this challenge. If somebody familiar with
check_multi configuration, I would like to know whether there are any
possible issues hiding in my use of check_multi. Any comments will be
appreciated.

Greetings
Marc

-- 
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Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany  |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 3221 2323190

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