<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2180" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Straight from my recommendation plan to my management....hope it helps...............</H1> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Nagios vs. Big Brother<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></H1> <o:p> </o:p> Listed below are operational, administrative and service functionality features, in comparison, that set Nagios above Big Brother. A list, of these comparisons, is outlined in attachment 2 (Added features of Nagios over Big Brother).<o:p></o:p> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></H1> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Operational Functionality<o:p></o:p></H1> <o:p> </o:p> Some of the operational functions that Nagios has built-in that Big Brother does not (all are accomplished through the user interface):<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to disable and enable host and service checks.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to schedule impromptu downtime for services and host.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to disable and enable host and service notifications.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to schedule immediate service and host checks for active checks.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to leave comments about a service or host.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to easily acknowledge alerts.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to restart the Nagios process.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Various other Nagios services can be controlled from the user interface.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Provides an overall view of the network hierarchy, which shows “parent-child” relation.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">View configuration from the user interface.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Administrative Functionality<o:p></o:p></H2> <o:p> </o:p> Some of the administrative functionality Nagios has built-in that Big Brother does not:<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in">Ability to set host and service dependencies. Service and host dependencies are an advanced feature that allows you to control the behavior of hosts and services based on the status of one or more other hosts or services. <o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=a> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in">A service can be dependent on one or more other services.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in">A service can be dependent on services that are not associated with the same host.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in">Service dependencies are not inherited.<o:p></o:p></LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in">Service dependencies can be used to cause service execution and service notifications to be suppressed under different circumstances.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=2> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in">Template-based configuration files. The benefits of using the template-based config file format is that you can create object definitions that have some of their properties inherited from other object definitions. Template-based object definitions allow you to create large numbers of objects using just a small number of definitions in your config file(s). Nagios template-based configuration files are far superior to Big Brother configuration files in areas of configuring notifications, time frames, contacts, contact groups, host, host groups, service and host dependencies, command definitions, host and service escalations…etc.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=3> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in">The ability to set security and authorization of designated CGI’s and command functions. <o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=4> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in">A PHP (widely-used general-purpose scripting language) web interface has been developed to make changes to the configuration files.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Service Functionality<o:p></o:p></H2> <o:p> </o:p> Some of the service functionality Nagios has built-in that Big Brother lacks or does not support:<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports event handlers. Event handlers are optional commands that are executed whenever a host or service state change occurs. An event handler could proactively fix problems, troubleshoot failures, or any myriad of customized events.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=2> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports active service checks. Active service checks are initiated from the Nagios server, providing server-side network monitoring.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=3> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports flap detection. Flapping occurs when a service or host changes state too frequently, resulting in a storm of problem and recovery notifications. Flapping can be indicative of configuration problems (i.e. thresholds set too low) or real network problems. When flap detection is enabled Nagios will suppress notifications, until flapping has stopped.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=4> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios provides more flexible UNIX support. The UNIX (Sun, HP, Linux, Mac OSX, AIX…etc) clients provide both active and passive checks. Active checks are handled by the “nrpe” daemon and passive checks are handled by the “nsca” daemon. Client checks are handled by plugins. Plugins are scripted or compiled applications that gather information from the client. Client programs can be written to gather disk, cpu, memory, network, LDAP, database, web-server, or just about any metric you may wish to monitor. Nagios comes with pre-defined plugins that can be customized to meet any UNIX environment.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=5> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios provides more flexible Microsoft support. The Microsoft client of choice is NSClient. NSClient provides support for disk, CPU, file age, services, processes, uptime, memory, and practically any available performance counter. NSClient does not currently support Event Log messages (in development). Not to worry, the power of PERL prevails. Using the PERL Net::Nsca module, a client side application can be written to capture Microsoft Event Log messages and send to the Nagios server as a passive check. Three other options are using SNMP or with some modification the “Event Catch” application Tim Dunlevy wrote or a UNIX syslog facility could be used as a viable Event Log reporting service for Nagios. Because of this versatility, monitored Event Log messages can be better defined. <o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=6> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports notification escalations. Notification escalations are used to add additional contacts to service and host notifications if a problem persists. <o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> Example: After a problem with a service occurs a notification message will be sent to the individuals responsible for the administration of the specific server. If that problem persists, without acknowledgement, then after a predetermined number of notifications the server administrator(s) and a group of second-level individuals would be notified. This escalation process can continue for as many levels of notification that are needed to obtain a response to the alert.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=7> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports logging of performance data. Performance data can be used to graph and report on system performance metrics. This service is useful for troubleshooting and trending possible problems.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=8> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports the integration with other software such as Port sentry, RRDTool, MRTG…etc.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=1 start=9> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in">Nagios supports service check parallelization and service check interleaving. Parallelization means Nagios can spawn numerous checks at once on the monitoring server. Interleaving allows for a more even distribution of service checks, reduced load on remote hosts, and faster overall detection of host problems.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> Lane Williams Linux Systems Administrator ITSD/IDS Johns Hopkins University APL <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV></DIV> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>-----Original Message----- From: nagios-users-admin@lists.sourceforge.net [mailto:nagios-users-admin@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of Brent Ryan Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 2:46 PM To: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Nagios-users] Nagios Vs. Big Brother </DIV> <DIV>I know there is some obvious answers to this, but is there any documentation of pros/cons for these monitoring applications?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Why is nagios better then Big Brother?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Brent</DIV> Don't miss the 2005 Blackboard Users Conference April 12-14 in Baltimore, MD! Visit <A href="http://www.blackboard.com/about/events/BbUC05/index.htm" target=_blank>http://www.blackboard.com/about/events/BbUC05/index.htm</A> for more information. This e-mail is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. It may include Blackboard confidential and proprietary information, and is not for redistribution. </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>