Re: [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...
Thanks much for the info. Curious... you mention ESX and VSphere. Do you know if your check_vmware test also works against VMWare Server 2.x (free edition). We are running ESX internally, but have a single external server running VMWare Server 2.x with three VMs in it. Hence why I ask... A. Davis Email: ncc...@gmail.com "There is no limit to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan On 1/26/10 3:03 AM, Steve Shipway wrote: This is the way we do it, with Parents (not host dependencies). First we create a virtual object for the VMWare farm. This has a status of UP if any of the farm servers are up (using check_summary). This virtual 'host' has several services, using the v0.9 check_vmware, relating to the farm's alarms, storage volumes, etc. These services have service dependencies on the VirtualCentre service running on the Virtual Centre host. The Farm object has ALL of the ESX Servers as Parents. All the VMs in the farm have the Farm object as a parent. Some of them also use check_esx3 to alert on Alarms, CPU, and Memory usage within VMWare. This might seem a bit complex if you've only the one server, but as soon as oyu have multiple servers in the farm, and use DRS, you have to use a farm object for parents/dependencies. It might make more sense for these relationships to be host dependencies rather than parents i nmost cases, but we have a SAN mirrored environment to a seocnd ESX farm so that the VMs can be brought up ther ein the event of a complete farm outage, hence the use of Parents rather than dependencies. If you have VSphere4 (ESX4.0) with a SNMP-enabled Cisco virtual switch in the farm, you could probably make the virtual switch the parent device rather than having to use a farm object. The VMWare monitoring plugin we're using is v0.9 of check_vmware, from here: http://www.steveshipway.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1648 <http://www.steveshipway.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1648> check_summary is available from nagiosexchange.org (as is check_esx3 which is the forerunner of check_vmware) Steve *From:* Andrew Davis [ncc...@gmail.com] *Sent:* Tuesday, 26 January 2010 9:14 a.m. *To:* nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net *Subject:* [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency... I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, yet keep things as simple as possible. Say I have a server called Saturn running VMWare. I'm monitoring this server with Nagios. I also have three VM's on Saturn: Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto I want to suppress all host and service alerts on Jupiter, Mars, & Pluto if the host Saturn is down (unreachable). I do NOT want to suppress host or service alerts from Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto if the VMWare processes (services) are down on Saturn. Basically, if my VM server is completely unreachable, don't bother me about its client VM's. Am I better off doing this with a host dependency? Something like: *define hostdependency { host_name Host B dependent_host_name Host C notification_failure_criteria d,u } * Or am I better off defining Saturn as the parent of the VM's in the host config? Something like: *define host { host_name jupiter use VMs alias jupiter address 172.26.251.60 parents saturn, tpdmzsw1 }* I've successfully used the "parents" directive to define network topology, so I would think this would work. What might be the risks of defining both? -- A. Davis Email:ncc...@gmail.com "There is no limit to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan -- The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com___ Nagios-users mailing list Nagios-users@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
Re: [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...
This is the way we do it, with Parents (not host dependencies). First we create a virtual object for the VMWare farm. This has a status of UP if any of the farm servers are up (using check_summary). This virtual 'host' has several services, using the v0.9 check_vmware, relating to the farm's alarms, storage volumes, etc. These services have service dependencies on the VirtualCentre service running on the Virtual Centre host. The Farm object has ALL of the ESX Servers as Parents. All the VMs in the farm have the Farm object as a parent. Some of them also use check_esx3 to alert on Alarms, CPU, and Memory usage within VMWare. This might seem a bit complex if you've only the one server, but as soon as oyu have multiple servers in the farm, and use DRS, you have to use a farm object for parents/dependencies. It might make more sense for these relationships to be host dependencies rather than parents i nmost cases, but we have a SAN mirrored environment to a seocnd ESX farm so that the VMs can be brought up ther ein the event of a complete farm outage, hence the use of Parents rather than dependencies. If you have VSphere4 (ESX4.0) with a SNMP-enabled Cisco virtual switch in the farm, you could probably make the virtual switch the parent device rather than having to use a farm object. The VMWare monitoring plugin we're using is v0.9 of check_vmware, from here: http://www.steveshipway.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1648 check_summary is available from nagiosexchange.org (as is check_esx3 which is the forerunner of check_vmware) Steve From: Andrew Davis [ncc...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, 26 January 2010 9:14 a.m. To: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency... I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, yet keep things as simple as possible. Say I have a server called Saturn running VMWare. I'm monitoring this server with Nagios. I also have three VM's on Saturn: Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto I want to suppress all host and service alerts on Jupiter, Mars, & Pluto if the host Saturn is down (unreachable). I do NOT want to suppress host or service alerts from Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto if the VMWare processes (services) are down on Saturn. Basically, if my VM server is completely unreachable, don't bother me about its client VM's. Am I better off doing this with a host dependency? Something like: define hostdependency { host_name Host B dependent_host_name Host C notification_failure_criteria d,u } Or am I better off defining Saturn as the parent of the VM's in the host config? Something like: define host { host_name jupiter use VMs alias jupiter address 172.26.251.60 parents saturn, tpdmzsw1 } I've successfully used the "parents" directive to define network topology, so I would think this would work. What might be the risks of defining both? -- A. Davis Email: ncc...@gmail.com<mailto:ncc...@gmail.com> "There is no limit to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan -- The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com___ Nagios-users mailing list Nagios-users@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
Re: [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...
I think you should be fine with setting the VMWare host to be the parent of your guests. It's the simplest configuration, it meets your goals (host down suppresses guests, but host's services do not affect guests' notifications) and it has the added benefit of looking good in the Status Map :-) IMHO using parents for VMWare hosts/guests is within the intended use of the directive, even though the docs only talk about network equipment, because your guests are as directly dependent upon their host as a physical host is of its switch. On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 9:14 PM, Andrew Davis wrote: > I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, yet keep things as > simple as possible. > > Say I have a server called Saturn running VMWare. I'm monitoring this > server with Nagios. > I also have three VM's on Saturn: Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto > > I want to suppress all host and service alerts on Jupiter, Mars, & Pluto if > the host Saturn is down (unreachable). I do NOT want to suppress host or > service alerts from Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto if the VMWare processes > (services) are down on Saturn. Basically, if my VM server is completely > unreachable, don't bother me about its client VM's. > > Am I better off doing this with a host dependency? Something like: > > *define hostdependency { > host_name Host B > dependent_host_name Host C > notification_failure_criteria d,u > }* > > Or am I better off defining Saturn as the parent of the VM's in the host > config? Something like: > > *define host { > host_name jupiter > use VMs > alias jupiter > address 172.26.251.60 > parents saturn, tpdmzsw1 > }* > > I've successfully used the "parents" directive to define network topology, > so I would think this would work. What might be the risks of defining both? > > -- > > > A. Davis > Email: ncc...@gmail.com > > "There is no limit to what a man can accomplish >if he doesn't care who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan > > > > -- > The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation > Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the > business > Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts > Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com > ___ > Nagios-users mailing list > Nagios-users@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 > -- Martin Melin op5 AB http://www.op5.com http://www.op5.org/ http://www.op5.com/op5/products/network-monitor/nagios/ -- The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com___ Nagios-users mailing list Nagios-users@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
[Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...
I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, yet keep things as simple as possible. Say I have a server called Saturn running VMWare. I'm monitoring this server with Nagios. I also have three VM's on Saturn: Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto I want to suppress all host and service alerts on Jupiter, Mars, & Pluto if the host Saturn is down (unreachable). I do NOT want to suppress host or service alerts from Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto if the VMWare processes (services) are down on Saturn. Basically, if my VM server is completely unreachable, don't bother me about its client VM's. Am I better off doing this with a host dependency? Something like: *define hostdependency { host_name Host B dependent_host_name Host C notification_failure_criteria d,u } * Or am I better off defining Saturn as the parent of the VM's in the host config? Something like: *define host { host_name jupiter use VMs alias jupiter address 172.26.251.60 parents saturn, tpdmzsw1 }* I've successfully used the "parents" directive to define network topology, so I would think this would work. What might be the risks of defining both? -- A. Davis Email: ncc...@gmail.com "There is no limit to what a man can accomplish if he doesn't care who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan -- The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com___ Nagios-users mailing list Nagios-users@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