Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-18 Thread Israel Brewster
Using check_dummy with a service check titled No Services is exactly  
how we are doing this here. We have a number of hosts which we are  
really only interested in if the machine is running or not - so  
check_icmp is specified as the host check, and No services as the  
only service check. You are right, however, in that all these No  
Services show up in the service status list. If you don't want that,  
about the only way I can think of is to not associate any services  
with the host, and simply ignore the warnings you get about that when  
running nagios -v. This does cause some display issues, however (hosts  
without services tend to not show up in various screens) - thus the  
reason I opted to add the No services service.

---
Israel Brewster
Computer Support Technician II
Frontier Flying Service Inc.
5245 Airport Industrial Rd
Fairbanks, AK 99709
(907) 450-7250 x293
---



On Mar 16, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Deborah Martin wrote:


Folks,

Whilst using check_dummy as a service check does resolve the pre- 
flight warnings, it's not the solution I think I'm looking for.


The total number of service checks now includes the dummy checks  
which i've chosen to always exit as UP so that it doesn't show up as  
a service problem - which to me
doesn't sound like the right way to do this. I want all service  
checks to be useful service checks rather than have checks which  
would need to be ignored as they don't return
anything useful as with check_dummy - I wouldn't ever use that check  
in any Nagios SLA reporting.


What I really want to do is the following :

Hosts -- ssh check -- When CRITICAL alert under Host  
problems only.


The docs show a distinct difference for behaviour between Nagios  
2.0b4 and Nagios 3.0.6.


From Nagios 2.0b4, under Host Definitions:-
check_command:	This directive is used to specify the short name of  
the command that should be used to check if the host is up or down.  
Typically, this command would try and ping the host to see if it is  
alive. The command must return a status of OK (0) or Nagios will  
assume the host is down. If you leave this argument blank, the host  
will not be checked - Nagios will always assume the host is up. This  
is useful if you are monitoring printers or other devices that are  
frequently turned off. The maximum amount of time that the  
notification command can run is controlled by the host_check_timeout  
option.



From Nagios 3.0.6
check_command:	This directive is used to specify the short name of  
the command that should be used to check if the host is up or down.  
Typically, this command would try and ping the host to see if it is  
alive. The command must return a status of OK (0) or Nagios will  
assume the host is down. If you leave this argument blank, the host  
will not be actively checked. Thus, Nagios will likely always assume  
the host is up (it may show up as being in a PENDING state in the  
web interface). This is useful if you are monitoring printers or  
other devices that are frequently turned off. The maximum amount of  
time that the notification command can run is controlled by the  
host_check_timeout option.


The difference is highlighted in RED. So on changing the ssh  
check  from a service to a host definition (to prevent PENDING on  
the hosts), the pre-flight warnings now complain there are no  
services associated with the hosts. On big systems here (100 nodes+)  
this makes the pre-flight output really unreadable and not really  
accurate as surely we should be able to choose whether something is  
a host check or service check but not have to define BOTH!


Ultimately, I just want to filter SSH check problems to appear under  
Host problems rather than under Service problems so users can  
easily spot other service problem issues and not have to trawl  
through 100's of lines of output in the web interface. Believe me,  
Nagios web interface users can be a fickle bunch!


A switch to tell Nagios to not complain about this would be really  
useful unless anyone thinks of a good reason why this would be a bad  
idea.


any help / pointers would be appreciated, even if it's to tell me  
politely how stupid i'm being - I can take it!


regards,
deborah

From: Deborah Martin [mailto:deborah.mar...@kognitio.com]
Sent: 16 March 2009 15:34
To: 'Richard Quintin'
Cc: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

Thanks Richard. I'll give that a try.

regards,
deborah


-Original Message-
From: Richard Quintin [mailto:rich+nag...@quintinz.com]
Sent: 16 March 2009 15:26
To: Deborah Martin
Cc: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

You could use check_dummy for the host check and just have it always  
return OK.
Or perhaps the opposite you could add a check_dummy service check  
for all hosts.


Which you

[Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Deborah Martin
Hi Folks, 

Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and Nagios
2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh check (we
don't allow ping) 

So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up. 

However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the above) with
SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files (services.cfg
and hosts.cfg) 
on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as Pending. So I then
moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and can see that
the more hosts I move the  less hosts are pending. That's good so far...

But, when I run the pre-flight check (/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v
nagios.cfg), I now get warnings to say some hosts don't have any service
checks associated with it! 
This is true as some nodes will only have ssh checks against them whilst
others will have other checks against them. I'd rather it didn't warn me as
I have hundreds
of hosts appear in the pre-flight check warnings and it now looks incredibly
untidy to see all this. 

How can I get rid of these warnings ? 

I'm probably missing something here so any help would be appreciated. I'm
wondering for example, if I should force the initial state to be UP for
hosts rather than 
moving the ssh service check to a host check. But then what would happen if
the service check found a node was down - would it reflect that in the host
problems ? 

regards,
deborah 




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Berks, RG12 1RB. VAT number 864 4378 92.

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Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Richard Quintin
You could use check_dummy for the host check and just have it always
return OK.
Or perhaps the opposite you could add a check_dummy service check for
all hosts.

Which you choose will depend upon your personal preference and how you
want dependencies to be handled.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Deborah Martin
deborah.mar...@kognitio.com wrote:
 Hi Folks,

 Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and Nagios
 2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh check (we
 don't allow ping)

 So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up.

 However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the above) with
 SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files (services.cfg
 and hosts.cfg)

 on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as Pending. So I then
 moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and can see that
 the more hosts I move the  less hosts are pending. That's good so far...

 But, when I run the pre-flight check (/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v
 nagios.cfg), I now get warnings to say some hosts don't have any service
 checks associated with it!

 This is true as some nodes will only have ssh checks against them whilst
 others will have other checks against them. I'd rather it didn't warn me as
 I have hundreds

 of hosts appear in the pre-flight check warnings and it now looks incredibly
 untidy to see all this.

 How can I get rid of these warnings ?

 I'm probably missing something here so any help would be appreciated. I'm
 wondering for example, if I should force the initial state to be UP for
 hosts rather than

 moving the ssh service check to a host check. But then what would happen if
 the service check found a node was down - would it reflect that in the host
 problems ?

 regards,
 deborah

 ***
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 solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.

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 via e-mail, we can not guarantee that any email or attachment is free from
 computer viruses and you are strongly advised to undertake your own
 anti-virus precautions.

 Kognitio grants no warranties regarding performance, use or quality of any
 e-mail or attachment and undertakes no liability for loss or damage,
 howsoever caused.

 Kognitio Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. Registered
 number 0212 7833. Registered Office: 3a Waterside Park, Cookham Road,
 Bracknell, Berks, RG12 1RB. VAT number 864 4378 92.

 Kognitio Inc, a company incorporated in Delaware, principal office 180 North
 Stetson, Suite 3500, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
 ***

 --
 Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
 powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
 easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
 software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
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-- 
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Database  Application Administration
Virginia Tech

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Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
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Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Deborah Martin
Thanks Richard. I'll give that a try. 

regards,
deborah 


-Original Message-
From: Richard Quintin [mailto:rich+nag...@quintinz.com] 
Sent: 16 March 2009 15:26
To: Deborah Martin
Cc: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

You could use check_dummy for the host check and just have it always return
OK.
Or perhaps the opposite you could add a check_dummy service check for all
hosts.

Which you choose will depend upon your personal preference and how you want
dependencies to be handled.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Deborah Martin
deborah.mar...@kognitio.com wrote:
 Hi Folks,

 Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and 
 Nagios
 2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh 
 check (we don't allow ping)

 So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up.

 However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the above) 
 with SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files 
 (services.cfg and hosts.cfg)

 on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as Pending. So I 
 then moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and can 
 see that the more hosts I move the  less hosts are pending. That's good so
far...

 But, when I run the pre-flight check (/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v 
 nagios.cfg), I now get warnings to say some hosts don't have any 
 service checks associated with it!

 This is true as some nodes will only have ssh checks against them 
 whilst others will have other checks against them. I'd rather it 
 didn't warn me as I have hundreds

 of hosts appear in the pre-flight check warnings and it now looks 
 incredibly untidy to see all this.

 How can I get rid of these warnings ?

 I'm probably missing something here so any help would be appreciated. 
 I'm wondering for example, if I should force the initial state to be 
 UP for hosts rather than

 moving the ssh service check to a host check. But then what would 
 happen if the service check found a node was down - would it reflect 
 that in the host problems ?

 regards,
 deborah

 **
 * This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential 
 and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom 
 they are addressed.

 Any unauthorised distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
 Whilst Kognitio Limited takes steps to prevent the transmission of 
 viruses via e-mail, we can not guarantee that any email or attachment 
 is free from computer viruses and you are strongly advised to 
 undertake your own anti-virus precautions.

 Kognitio grants no warranties regarding performance, use or quality of 
 any e-mail or attachment and undertakes no liability for loss or 
 damage, howsoever caused.

 Kognitio Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. 
 Registered number 0212 7833. Registered Office: 3a Waterside Park, 
 Cookham Road, Bracknell, Berks, RG12 1RB. VAT number 864 4378 92.

 Kognitio Inc, a company incorporated in Delaware, principal office 180 
 North Stetson, Suite 3500, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
 **
 *

 --
  Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex 
 Builder(TM) are powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform 
 capabilities. Quickly and easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, 
 the Eclipse(TM)based development software that enables intelligent 
 coding and step-through debugging.
 Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-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.
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--
Richard Quintin, DBA
Database  Application Administration
Virginia Tech

***
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended 
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. 

Any unauthorised distribution or copying is strictly prohibited. 
Whilst Kognitio Limited takes steps to prevent the transmission of viruses via 
e-mail, we can not guarantee that any email or attachment is free from computer 
viruses and you are strongly advised to undertake your own anti-virus 
precautions. 

Kognitio grants no warranties regarding performance, use or quality of any 
e-mail or attachment and undertakes no liability for loss or damage, howsoever 
caused. 

Kognitio Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number 
0212 7833. Registered Office:  3a Waterside Park, Cookham Road, Bracknell, 
Berks, RG12 1RB. VAT

Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Deborah Martin
Folks, 

I should have also mentioned that the reason for doing this is to filter out
host problems separately to service problems. 
If I leave ssh checks as a service and 44 nodes are switched off, I see 44
ssh critical alerts under Service Problems. I'd rather see 44 ssh critical
alerts under
Host Problems. (I thought my method below would a good way to filter these
out). When we resize database systems, we only want to know about critical
alerts 
for the database as a service problem (we may reduce a DB by 50 nodes but DB
is still valid for monitoring) 

regards,
deborah

 _ 
 From: Deborah Martin  
 Sent: 16 March 2009 15:06
 To:   'nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net'
 Subject:  Host checks instead of service checks 
 Importance:   High
 
 Hi Folks, 
 
 Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and Nagios
 2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh check
 (we don't allow ping) 
 
 So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up. 
 
 However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the above)
 with SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files
 (services.cfg and hosts.cfg) 
 on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as Pending. So I then
 moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and can see that
 the more hosts I move the  less hosts are pending. That's good so far...
 
 But, when I run the pre-flight check (/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v
 nagios.cfg), I now get warnings to say some hosts don't have any service
 checks associated with it! 
 This is true as some nodes will only have ssh checks against them whilst
 others will have other checks against them. I'd rather it didn't warn me
 as I have hundreds
 of hosts appear in the pre-flight check warnings and it now looks
 incredibly untidy to see all this. 
 
 How can I get rid of these warnings ? 
 
 I'm probably missing something here so any help would be appreciated. I'm
 wondering for example, if I should force the initial state to be UP for
 hosts rather than 
 moving the ssh service check to a host check. But then what would happen
 if the service check found a node was down - would it reflect that in the
 host problems ? 
 
 regards,
 deborah 
 
 


***
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended 
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. 

Any unauthorised distribution or copying is strictly prohibited. 
Whilst Kognitio Limited takes steps to prevent the transmission of viruses via 
e-mail, we can not guarantee that any email or attachment is free from computer 
viruses and you are strongly advised to undertake your own anti-virus 
precautions. 

Kognitio grants no warranties regarding performance, use or quality of any 
e-mail or attachment and undertakes no liability for loss or damage, howsoever 
caused. 

Kognitio Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number 
0212 7833. Registered Office:  3a Waterside Park, Cookham Road, Bracknell, 
Berks, RG12 1RB. VAT number 864 4378 92.

Kognitio Inc, a company incorporated in Delaware, principal office 180 North 
Stetson, Suite 3500, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
***--
Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-com___
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Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Jim Avery
2009/3/16 Deborah Martin deborah.mar...@kognitio.com:
 Hi Folks,

 Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and Nagios
 2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh check (we
 don't allow ping)

 So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up.

 However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the above) with
 SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files (services.cfg
 and hosts.cfg)

 on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as Pending. So I then
 moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and can see that
 the more hosts I move the  less hosts are pending. That's good so far...

 But, when I run the pre-flight check (/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v
 nagios.cfg), I now get warnings to say some hosts don't have any service
 checks associated with it!

 This is true as some nodes will only have ssh checks against them whilst
 others will have other checks against them. I'd rather it didn't warn me as
 I have hundreds

 of hosts appear in the pre-flight check warnings and it now looks incredibly
 untidy to see all this.

 How can I get rid of these warnings ?

 I'm probably missing something here so any help would be appreciated. I'm
 wondering for example, if I should force the initial state to be UP for
 hosts rather than moving the ssh service check to a host check. But then what 
 would happen if
 the service check found a node was down - would it reflect that in the host
 problems ?

You're right, it wouldn't.  For the host check, you need some method
of checking if the host is up.  If ssh is the only method at your
disposal to check if a host is up, and there are no other services you
can monitor as service checks then my humble opinion is you're best
off specifying ssh for both your host and service checks on those
hosts.  I am allowed to use ping, so I do.  For those nodes on which I
monitor no services, I also use ping as the service check - to me
that's functionally equivalent to using ssh for both, it's just a
different service.

If you're monitoring other services and you're only using the ssh
checks to see if the host is up or not, then I'd recommend just using
the ssh check as a host check, leaving the others as service checks.

I wonder, though, if it might be possible for you to check the host
using a passive check?  For example you could have cron send a check
using NSCA from your server every minute and use freshness checking to
see if the host is down or not.  I can't say I've ever tried it but
guess it's another option worth thinking about.



Cheers,

Jim

--
Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-com
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Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Deborah Martin
Folks, 
 
Whilst using check_dummy as a service check does resolve the pre-flight
warnings, it's not the solution I think I'm looking for. 
 
The total number of service checks now includes the dummy checks which i've
chosen to always exit as UP so that it doesn't show up as a service problem
- which to me 
doesn't sound like the right way to do this. I want all service checks to be
useful service checks rather than have checks which would need to be ignored
as they don't return
anything useful as with check_dummy - I wouldn't ever use that check in any
Nagios SLA reporting.  
 
What I really want to do is the following : 
 
Hosts -- ssh check -- When CRITICAL alert under Host problems only. 
 
The docs show a distinct difference for behaviour between Nagios 2.0b4 and
Nagios 3.0.6. 
 
From Nagios 2.0b4, under Host Definitions:- 
check_command:   This directive is used to specify the short name of the
http://193.35.206.171/nagios/docs/xodtemplate.html#command command that
should be used to check if the host is up or down. Typically, this command
would try and ping the host to see if it is alive. The command must return
a status of OK (0) or Nagios will assume the host is down. If you leave this
argument blank, the host will not be checked - Nagios will always assume the
host is up. This is useful if you are monitoring printers or other devices
that are frequently turned off. The maximum amount of time that the
notification command can run is controlled by the
http://193.35.206.171/nagios/docs/configmain.html#host_check_timeout
host_check_timeout option.  
 
 
From Nagios 3.0.6 
check_command:   This directive is used to specify the short name of the
http://193.35.206.117/nagios/docs/objectdefinitions.html#command command
that should be used to check if the host is up or down. Typically, this
command would try and ping the host to see if it is alive. The command
must return a status of OK (0) or Nagios will assume the host is down. If
you leave this argument blank, the host will not be actively checked. Thus,
Nagios will likely always assume the host is up (it may show up as being in
a PENDING state in the web interface). This is useful if you are
monitoring printers or other devices that are frequently turned off. The
maximum amount of time that the notification command can run is controlled
by the
http://193.35.206.117/nagios/docs/configmain.html#host_check_timeout
host_check_timeout option.  
 
The difference is highlighted in RED. So on changing the ssh check  from a
service to a host definition (to prevent PENDING on the hosts), the
pre-flight warnings now complain there are no services associated with the
hosts. On big systems here (100 nodes+) this makes the pre-flight output
really unreadable and not really accurate as surely we should be able to
choose whether something is a host check or service check but not have to
define BOTH!
 
Ultimately, I just want to filter SSH check problems to appear under Host
problems rather than under Service problems so users can easily spot
other service problem issues and not have to trawl through 100's of lines of
output in the web interface. Believe me, Nagios web interface users can be a
fickle bunch! 
 
A switch to tell Nagios to not complain about this would be really useful
unless anyone thinks of a good reason why this would be a bad idea. 
 
any help / pointers would be appreciated, even if it's to tell me politely
how stupid i'm being - I can take it! 
 
regards,
deborah
 
  _  

From: Deborah Martin [mailto:deborah.mar...@kognitio.com] 
Sent: 16 March 2009 15:34
To: 'Richard Quintin'
Cc: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks



Thanks Richard. I'll give that a try. 

regards, 
deborah 


-Original Message- 
From: Richard Quintin [mailto:rich+nag...@quintinz.com
mailto:rich+nag...@quintinz.com ] 
Sent: 16 March 2009 15:26 
To: Deborah Martin 
Cc: nagios-users@lists.sourceforge.net 
Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks 

You could use check_dummy for the host check and just have it always return
OK. 
Or perhaps the opposite you could add a check_dummy service check for all
hosts. 

Which you choose will depend upon your personal preference and how you want
dependencies to be handled. 

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Deborah Martin
deborah.mar...@kognitio.com wrote: 
 Hi Folks, 
 
 Currently, the main nagios box (running old version of SuSE) and 
 Nagios 
 2.0b4 is running just with service checks, one of which is an ssh 
 check (we don't allow ping) 
 
 So in the web interface, I see all hosts as up. 
 
 However, I've built a new box (which hopefully will replace the above) 
 with SLES 10SP1 and Nagios 3.0.6. I've put the same config files 
 (services.cfg and hosts.cfg) 
 
 on the this new system. But now the hosts all show as Pending. So I 
 then moved the ssh check from a service check to a host check and can 
 see that the more hosts I move

Re: [Nagios-users] Host checks instead of service checks

2009-03-16 Thread Jim Avery
2009/3/16 Deborah Martin deborah.mar...@kognitio.com:

 So on changing the ssh check  from a
 service to a host definition (to prevent PENDING on the hosts), the
 pre-flight warnings now complain there are no services associated with the
 hosts. On big systems here (100 nodes+) this makes the pre-flight output
 really unreadable and not really accurate as surely we should be able to
 choose whether something is a host check or service check but not have to
 define BOTH!

 Ultimately, I just want to filter SSH check problems to appear under Host
 problems rather than under Service problems so users can easily spot
 other service problem issues and not have to trawl through 100's of lines of
 output in the web interface.

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand.  If there are other service
problems this implies you are monitoring services other than ssh on
that host.  In that case it is perfectly valid to have ssh as your
host check and various other checks as your service checks.  The
pre-flight nagios -v test then won't complain at all.

Please don't forget that the primary purpose of Nagios is to alert you
when a service important to you has a problem.  If a service isn't
important to you you probably shouldn't be monitoring it with Nagios.

If ssh is the only service important to you on a server and it's also
the only way to check whether it is up, it's perfectly valid to have
it both as a service and host check.

If it really bothers you, you could probably contrive an snmp query of
the port on the switch most local to the server to see if it's 'up' or
not.

Cheers,

Jim

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