87 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
87 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
================================================================================
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nagios-plugins for Debian
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================================================================================
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below is a collection of various bits of information that might be
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helpful to users of nagios-plugins in debian.
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================================================================================
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plugins and dependencies
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some plugins require additional libraries and programs. to prevent you from
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having to install dozens of further packages that you don't actually need,
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there is no strict dependency on some of them.
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see /usr/share/doc/nagios-plugins-standard/README.Debian.plugins for details.
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================================================================================
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how to use plugins
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================================================================================
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- you can invoke the plugins with "--help" to get help how to use the plugins
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- a short usage can be usually obtained by just running the check without
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arguments
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- if you need more information, how to use plugins, have a look at:
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http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/plugins.html
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================================================================================
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predefined / shipped check commands
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================================================================================
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we are shipping predefined checks, to make users life easier. at the first look,
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this seems really nice. providing checks for every special case (see check_http)
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may end up in a unsupportable state of our package.
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for example one check is testing a service on a special port, where we provide
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a check command. after some time, this service changes its port after some time,
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cause the developers of this software decided for any reason to do so. changing
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the port in the existing check will break installations, which are using the
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service with the old behavior. new users will getting confused of not using the
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correct port for their shiny service.
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cause of this conflict, we try to provide flexible checks, which may look
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complicated at first, but giving the user more power.
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a good example for using such a general approach is check_nt / check_nscp. some
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3rd party sources (guessing they can traced back to one) are suggesting using
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two args in some way like:
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define command {
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command_name check_nt
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command_line $USER1$/check_nt -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -p 12489 -v $ARG1$ $ARG2$
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}
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beside specifying not the port, we are not using "$ARG2$", cause all arguments
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of "$ARG2$" can just be used in "$ARG1$" without any problem.
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this gives you the possibility to use every check in your service definition,
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without the problem about changes in your environment. you can easily change
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your service definition as soon your environment changes without breaking the
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command definition.
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================================================================================
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different plugin packages and how to avoid installing massive dependencies
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================================================================================
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if you're frustrated by all the crap being brought in by nagios-plugins (for
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example if you're installing nrpe or nsca on a remote host), try the
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nagios-plugins-basic package.
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================================================================================
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plugins needing root privilege
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================================================================================
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the check_dhcp, check_icmp and maybe others plugins require root privileges to
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run, because of the low-level packet mangling that they perform.
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but, in the interest of the "safe default", these plugins will not
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be installed with the suid bit set. there are two recommended ways
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about overriding this on your system:
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- set the suid bit with dpkg-statoverride:
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# dpkg-statoverride --update --add root nagios 4750 $plugin
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where $plugin is the specific plugin you want to grant such privileges.
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- use sudo to grant the permissions and modify your plugin config
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of these two, the first is recommended because it's the simplest and
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has the same effect as the second.
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