Thanks everyone! I really should have looked at the manual. The address directive in the host definition is pretty clearly explained: "This directive is used to define the address of the host. Normally, this is an IP address, although it could really be anything you want (so long as it can be used to check the status of the host). You can use a FQDN to identify the host instead of an IP address, but if DNS services are not availble this could cause problems. When used properly, the $HOSTADDRESS$ macro will contain this address. Note: If you do not specify an address directive in a host definition, the name of the host will be used as its address. A word of caution about doing this, however - if DNS fails, most of your service checks will fail because the plugins will be unable to resolve the host name." which is what you were all saying! darn manual! stupid reading! thanks guys ... i owe ya! august <div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 24, 2008 2:03 PM, Yost, Karl <<a href="mailto:Karl.Yost@iqor.com"> Karl.Yost@iqor.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">You can put in a dns name for both the address and the hostname. I have done this for checking websites before ----- Original Message ----- From: <a href="mailto:nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net">nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net</a> <<a href="mailto:nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net">nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net </a>> To: Brock Kuhse <<a href="mailto:brock@kuhsefamily.org">brock@kuhsefamily.org</a>> Cc: <a href="mailto:nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net">nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net</a> <<a href="mailto:nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net"> nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net</a>> Sent: Wed Jan 23 21:53:34 2008 Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] how to monitor <a href="http://www.domain.com" target="_blank">www.domain.com</a> without host object but the host has no ip. can i make a host entry without an ip? i only need th host entry so i can create a service (which requires a host, right?). then i http_check -I against a dns name? i'm guessing like this: define host{ use generic-host ; Inherit default values from a template host_name <a href="http://www.mysite.com" target="_blank"> www.mysite.com</a> ; The name we're giving to this host alias Some Remote Host ; A longer name associated with the host address <a href="http://192.168.1.50" target="_blank"> 192.168.1.50</a> ; IP address of the host } address is bogus, i just want to be able to associate a service against this, i won't check it for anything. host_name is important because i need that DNS value for my http_check: define command{ name check_http command_name check_http command_line $USER1$/check_http -I $HOSTNAME$ } and use the HOSTNAME macro (not address) then create the service: define service{ use generic-service ; Inherit default values from a template host_name <a href="http://www.myhost.com" target="_blank"> www.myhost.com</a> service_description HTTP check_command check_http } my theory is that i then get a host called <a href="http://www.myhost.com" target="_blank">www.myhost.com </a> and have a service being executed against that host that does an check_http and uses the domain name (which is also the hostname and pulled by a macro) rather than the IP (cause it doesn't exist) seems ok - but i think i'm making this harder than i should be :-) when you say "we simply create a host object with the hosted site's IP / DNS" what does that look like? is the dns name the alias? a good example of this is <a href="http://www.9news.com" target="_blank"> www.9news.com</a> which is with akamai (not my site) if you dig it: [root@cottonwood cfgs]# dig <a href="http://www.9news.com" target="_blank">www.9news.com</a> ; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> <a href="http://www.9news.com" target="_blank">www.9news.com</a> ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 59275 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 9, ADDITIONAL: 5 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;www.9news.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: <a href="http://www.9news.com" target="_blank">www.9news.com</a>. 300 IN CNAME <a href="http://www.9news.com.edgesuite.net" target="_blank"> www.9news.com.edgesuite.net</a>. <a href="http://www.9news.com.edgesuite.net" target="_blank">www.9news.com.edgesuite.net</a>. 21600 IN CNAME <a href="http://a21.g.akamai.net" target="_blank">a21.g.akamai.net</a> < <a href="http://a21.g.akamai.net" target="_blank">http://a21.g.akamai.net</a>> . <a href="http://a21.g.akamai.net" target="_blank">a21.g.akamai.net</a>. 20 IN A <a href="http://210.9.72.174" target="_blank"> 210.9.72.174</a> <a href="http://a21.g.akamai.net" target="_blank">a21.g.akamai.net</a>. 20 IN A <a href="http://210.9.72.176" target="_blank">210.9.72.176</a> so to create a host to run the service check against is hard, cause the IP changes. august On Jan 24, 2008 1:25 PM, Brock Kuhse < <a href="mailto:brock@kuhsefamily.org">brock@kuhsefamily.org</a>> wrote: Sorry for the top post – I haven't quite figured out how to get Outlook 2007 to behave properly when replying to HTML emails (switching to plain text after I hit "Reply" doesn't seem to quote the original properly). I'm sure I'll figure it out. Soon. Anyway, we monitor plenty of clients for whom we track the status of their hosted sites in addition to their internal networks. For the hosted sites, we simply create a host object with the hosted site's IP / DNS name and assign checks normally (check_http variations primarily). - Brock From: <a href="mailto:nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net">nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net"> nagios-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net</a>] On Behalf Of August Simonelli Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 6:23 PM To: <a href="mailto:nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net">nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net </a> Subject: [Nagios-users] how to monitor <a href="http://www.domain.com" target="_blank">www.domain.com</a> without host object Hi Nagios-ers ... I need a little help with some logic here. In our network we have the usual set up: web servers -> VIP -> Cache -> VIP but then on top of the cache VIP we also use an external caching provider (no prizes for guessing who that is, akamai) this means all requests for <a href="http://www.mysite.com" target="_blank">www.mysite.com</a> go to this external source via cname, which then gets assigned a round-robin'ed IP. so it changes a lot. now, i want to monitor all kinds of page response times, error codes and such that i know check_http can do ... and i can do that easily as a service definition for my web server host objects, or my vip host object or my squid host objects etc. but ... and here's where i get confused ... i have no host objects for the external caches, so what IP do i do my http_check tests against to ensure that i'm hitting our outermost layer as a user would? put another way ... how would you all go about monitoring a website that isn't yours (say you wanted to monitor <a href="http://cnn.com" target="_blank">cnn.com</a> for all these things, what ip would you run your checks against? can i create a host with a domain name only? i'm sure this is easy and i'm just missing it ... so thanks for your gentle help! :-) august </blockquote></div>