host object declarations

[Andreas Ericsson]

On 10/02/2012 02:52 PM, Marki wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I'd like to further discuss
> http://tracker.nagios.org/view.php?id=177
> which is about host object declarations.
> 
> You suggest using host_name as something that resolves. However, we don't have a
> (DNS) hostname for each device.

I'm suggesting what now? The only thing I'm saying in that bugreport is
that Nagios does not and will not complain when the "address" fields of
hosts are unique.

> Also, directive description (Nagios documentation) says: "This directive is used
> to define a short name used to identify the host."
> The description for the "address" directive actually needs something useful,
> again, see http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/objectdefinitions.html#host
> 
> You say one should switch to using them differently, i.e.
> host_name = ip address or DNS hostname
> alias = description
> because Nagios4 will do it that way (and Icinga already does).
> 

Nagios 4 won't do that. The one and only change in Nagios 4 is that "address"
will be set to the "host_name" variable if no "address" field is set. That
means people who want to use dns names for their hosts don't have to write
that info again in the address field.

> I guess I will then try to update my config that way:
> - use a DNS name (if one exists) in the "host_name" field, otherwise use the IP
> as host_name if there is no reverse lookup for it,
> - in that case I use a symbolic name in the "display_name" field,
> - and optionally a description in the "alias" field.
> Furthermore for devices that have no IP but should show as different hosts,
> define a "virtual" hostname with the IP address of the device's management
> station (that may be duplicate).
> 

You can't have two hosts with the same host_name. You really don't need to
change anything at all to make your configuration work the same way it
always has.

> Anyway I'd really like to know what everyone thinks about this, and how you do
> it in a sensible way.
> 

host_name is the short symbolic name that has to be unique but can be anything
you want.
address is the field that (usually) has to point to an ip address or that's
resolvable as a dns hostname.
display_name and alias are equally useless and are only meant to provide some
sort of help when receiving notifications or when viewing the UI.

You've been overthinking it and seriously misunderstood something. The way
you think Nagios 4 will be working isn't correct.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson at op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

Considering the successes of the wars on alcohol, poverty, drugs and
terror, I think we should give some serious thought to declaring war
on peace.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't let slow site performance ruin your business. Deploy New Relic APM
Deploy New Relic app performance management and know exactly
what is happening inside your Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, and .NET app
Try New Relic at no cost today and get our sweet Data Nerd shirt too!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/newrelic-dev2dev
_______________________________________________
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