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Rahul Kumar
Rahul Kumar

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configure Nagios in our server :

#monitoring #devops

Why we need Continuous Monitoring :

  • In a large scale distributed applications we never know what kind issue we may ran into .
  • some of them are :
  • Failure in CI/CD pipeline .
  • Static code analysis .
  • Application side issue .
  • Infrastructure side issue .

And in big organizations server health and application Security can not be compromised at any cost .

What is continuous monitoring :

Continuous monitoring is a phase in our application development lifecycle which make sure that our application is getting continuously monitored and debugged if any issue .

Phases of continuous monitoring :

  1. Define
  2. Establish
  3. Implement
  4. Analyze
  5. Respond
  6. Review and Update

What is Nagios :

Nagios monitors your entire IT lifecycle to ensures systems, applications , services and business process are functioning properly .
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Features of Nagios :

  • Using a master slave architecture .
  • Easy to write plugins .
  • Good web interface for visualization purpose .
  • Automate the e-mail sending in case of any network failure .

Architecture of Nagios :

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How install Nagios (Ubuntu):

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install build-essentials libgd-dev openssl libssl-dev unzip apache2 gcc

  • Nagios user and group are used to run Nagios process

$ sudo useradd nagios

$ sudo groupadd nagcmd

$ sudo usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios

$ wget https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagioscore/releases/nagios-4.4.6.tar.gz

$ tar xpf nagios-*.tar.gz

$ cd nagios-4.4.6

$ ./configure --with-nagios-group=nagios --with-command-group=nagcmd

  • You can see the configuration using the configure command :

  • Now we have to build the project using the make command and then install it :

$ make -j4 all

$ sudo make install

  • Now run these commands to install Nagios sample files, binary files and it's sample config files . 
sudo make install sudo make install-daemoninit sudo make install-commandmode sudo make install-config
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  • We are using apache to serve Nagios web interface .

$ sudo make install-webconf

  • Enable the Apache rewrite and cgi modules with the a2enmod command:

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite

$ sudo a2enmod cgi

  • In order to execute commands via the web interface to Nagios add the web server user, www-data, to the nagios group:

$sudo usermod -a -G nagios www-data

  • Next we have to create a username and password for our user which can enable our user to login to the web interface .

$ sudo apt install htpasswd

$ sudo htpasswd -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

Enter Your Password :
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Warning: If you create a user with a name other than nagiosadmin you will need to edit /usr/local/nagios/etc/cgi.cfg and change all the nagiosadmin references to the user you created.
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  • Restart the Apache server

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Installing the Nagios plugin : 

$ cd ~ $ http://www.nagios-plugins.org/download/nagios-plugins-2.3.3.tar.gz $ tar zxf nagios-plugins-2.2.1.tar.gz $ cd nagios-plugins-2.2.1 *configure their installation $ ./configure * Now build and install the plugin $ make $ sudo make install
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Now we need to install check_nrpe plugin to monitor the remote plugins : 

cd ~ curl -L -O https://github.com/NagiosEnterprises/nrpe/releases/download/nrpe-3.2.1/nrpe-3.2.1.tar.gz tar zxf nrpe-3.2.1.tar.gz cd nrpe-3.2.1 ./configure
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  • Now build and install check_nrpe : 
make check_nrpe sudo make install-plugin
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Configure Nagios :

  • Navigate to the Nagios configuration file

$sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

  • Add this line to the config file 
... #cfg_dir=/usr/local/nagios/etc/servers ...
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  • Uncomment this line 
cfg_dir=/usr/local/nagios/etc/servers
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  • Now we have to create a directory so that we can store our configuration file for each server .

$sudo mkdir /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers

open the Nagios contact file :

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

Find the email directive and replace it with yours

... define contact{ contact_name nagiosadmin ; Short name of user use generic-contact ; Inherit default values from generic-contact template (defined above) alias Nagios Admin ; Full name of user email your_email@your_domain.com ; <<***** CHANGE THIS TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ****** ...
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  • Navigate to the directory and add a new command which is for defining check_nrpe command .

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg

... define command{ command_name check_nrpe command_line $USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -c $ARG1$ }
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This defines the name and specifies the command-line options to execute the plugin.

$ sudo systemctl start nagios

Access the Nagios web interface : 

http://nagios_server_public_ip/nagios
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Enter the login credentials .

Nagios dashboard

Monitoring :

ssh into the server you want to monitor.

$ ssh ubuntu@server_ip

$ sudo useradd nagios

cd ~ curl -L -O https://nagios-plugins.org/download/nagios-plugins-2.2.1.tar.gz
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tar zxf nagios-plugins-2.2.1.tar.gz cd nagios-plugins-2.2.1
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then configure and build it

$ ./configure

$ make

$ sudo make install

cd ~ curl -L -O https://github.com/NagiosEnterprises/nrpe/releases/download/nrpe-4.0.0/nrpe-4.0.0.tar.gz
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tar zxf nrpe-4.0.0.tar.gz cd nrpe-4.0.0
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$ ./configure

  • Now build and install NRPE and its startup script with these commands: 
make nrpe sudo make install-daemon sudo make install-config sudo make install-init
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$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/nrpe.cfg

  • server_address: Set to the private IP address of the monitored server.
  • allowed_hosts: Add the private IP address of your Nagios server to the comma-delimited list.
  • command[check_hda1]: Change /dev/hda1 to whatever your root filesystem is called. 
... server_address=second_ubuntu_server_private_ip ... allowed_hosts=127.0.0.1,::1,your_nagios_server_private_ip ... command[check_vda1]=/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_disk -w 20% -c 10% -p /dev/vda1 ...
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$ sudo systemctl start nrpe.service

$ sudo ufw allow 5666/tcp

  • Now you can check the communication with the remote NRPE server. Run the following command on the Nagios server:

$ /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H second_ubuntu_server_ip

  • On your Nagios server, create a new configuration file for each of the remote hosts that you want to monitor in /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers/. Replace the highlighted word, monitored_server_host_name with the name of your host:

$ sudo nano /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers/your_monitored_server_host_name.cfg

  • Add the following host definition, replacing the host_name value with your remote hostname, the alias value with a description of the host, and the address value with the private IP address of the remote host: 
define host { use linux-server host_name your_monitored_server_host_name alias My client server address your_monitored_server_private_ip max_check_attempts 5 check_period 24x7 notification_interval 30 notification_period 24x7 }
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  • Add some sevices
  • First, add this block to monitor load average: 
define service { use generic-service host_name your_monitored_server_host_name service_description Load average check_command check_nrpe!check_load }
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  • Next, add this block to monitor disk usage: 
define service { use generic-service host_name your_monitored_server_host_name service_description /dev/vda1 free space check_command check_nrpe!check_vda1 }
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Now restart and navigate to the web interface :

$ sudo systemctl restart nagios

nagios

Thanks for reading 🤖🤖🤖

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