Re: [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...

2010-01-26 Thread Martin Melin
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 ncc...@gmail.com 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

Re: [Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...

2010-01-26 Thread Steve Shipway
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=28t=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.commailto: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...

2010-01-26 Thread Andrew Davis
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=28t=1648 
http://www.steveshipway.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28t=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

[Nagios-users] Virtual Machines - define as parent or as host dependency...

2010-01-25 Thread Andrew Davis
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