monitoring server

[fretbrner]

I need to setup a box to monitor the current network. It consists of 8 buildings with 8 t1 coming into one buidling. What good monitoring software is out there that I can use to monitor bandwidth usage on different subnets, traffic, and also to monitor hardware(Servers, links, switches)

I have tried to use nagios, but had a little trouble installing. Still looking into it. Would like to have i use a web interface, and to be able to shoot off an email when an event happens.

Thanks

[davisfactor]

I use Nagios to monitor my network. It doesn't make pretty graphs for you but it will let you know when a server goes down. I also use it to monitor the disk space on my linux and win2k servers using nsclient: http://nsclient.ready2run.nl/

There is a big learning curve to Nagios, but the new version (which I'm slowing testing so I can migrate to it) has great documentation for setting it up for the first time.

If you want graphs, you can try cacti:
http://www.cacti.net/

I don't think this will alert you if the device goes down, but it might make a good companion to Nagios if you want graphing abilities.

[Gertrude]

Nagios is good once you get the hang of it. I see that as more of a tool for monitoring servers more so than checking for bandwidth utilization. So for running the checks on servers cpu, memory, processes, disk usage, pings to routers/switches etc I would say Nagios, or maybe even BigBrother..

http://www.bb4.org/


For checking bandwidth utilization, and keeping a history of it you may want to check out Cricket, and rrdtool.

http://cricket.sourceforge.net/

http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/rrdtool/

[m3rlin]

Im Looking for a network monitor too, im starting on Nagios, and gonna check Cacti.

But i have a question, those this tools provide a snmp deamon? in other words, if a manage to install nagios, will i need to do something else, or will that be enought?

And those anyone of this programs, can check free disk space in the workstations, programs installed and versions, cpu... etc?

Thanks

[davisfactor]

m3rlin, see my post on your thread :) I hopefully answered your question there.

But to answer it here also, Nagios does have the ability to receive SNMP data. You must have something installed on the machine you want to get the data from.

For polling my Windows machines, I use nsclient. I have already posted the comments on this thread.

Nagios won't make pretty graphs from the data it gets, it will simply send an alert if the data it receives is not in the thresholds you define.

For example, if one of my boxes gets above 95% disk space usage, I get a page on my cell phone.

Nagios has the ability to monitor a LOT of different types of data. The documentation for installing the new version is excellent and will definitely help getting it setup for the first time.

[m3rlin]

thanks alot for your replys i've checked the other thread, thats a good start point, the nagios and clients.
Im still trying to understand how snmp works.
i have a general ideia, but im having some problems to make it work.
i have been configuring my switch to activate snmp support, its already done, but i was trying to use HP Network Management, this program checks for a snmp managent service, and he founds one, he login, but when he is trying to useit, he says, can't find snmp management service.
Kind of wird. Im going to try nagios.

My goal here, is to check computers that are down and servers, disk space, programs installed and there versions, if he has all the updates(thing gonna install SUS), what programs are used the most, and pc configuration.

Thanks all for your help, you have been great :)

Thanks

[m3rlin]

Okey i have installed nagios, i have done everthing, but there is one step that i missed, im sure.

i add a user with.htpasswd done everthing, but im not sure where to give permissions, when i do

http://localhost/nagios he prompts for a username and password, i type the user and password and then he returns an error:
You don't have permission to access /nagios on this server

What must i do to be able to access?

Thanks

[fishface]

I've used http://mrtg.hdl.com/mrtg.html along side nagios in the past. Might help.

[m3rlin]

Thanks for the reply, it seams a very interesting tool, im gonna give it a try, but like i sayd before i need a tool that can tell me, informations of the workstations, like disk space, memory, installed software and versions.

But this tool its great do control the trafic in the routers

Thanks

[m3rlin]

Im reinstalling nagios, im trying to install the plugins but im having some problems with some errors here, that i can see what it is:

echo './'`check_radius.c
check_radius.c: In function `main':
check_radius.c:167: error: too few arguments to function `rc_avpair_add'
check_radius.c:168: error: too few arguments to function `rc_avpair_add'
check_radius.c:169: error: too few arguments to function `rc_avpair_add'
check_radius.c:179: error: too few arguments to function `rc_avpair_add'
check_radius.c:185: error: too few arguments to function `rc_send_server'
make[2]: *** [check_radius.o] Error 1

What can i do?

Thanks

[m3rlin]

Found the solution, just had to uninstall ppp client and pppoE

:)
Thanks anyway

[m3rlin]

after nagios installtion it should have *.cfg sample configurations in /usr/local/nagios/etc

But i only have nagios.cfg, cgi.cfg, and commands, but not the *.cfg that i need to run nagios

such as:
services
hosts
hosts group
contacts
contact group

where can i find them ? :(

Thanks for all the help

[davisfactor]

You have to install the sample configurations.

Here's the section of the INSTALLING file in the nagios-2.0b2.tar.gz file you downloaded:


Creating And Installing Sample Config Files
-------------------------------------------

Sample main, resource and CGI configuration files are automatically
created in your distribution distribution directory after you run the
configure script. The files are named 'nagios.cfg', 'resource.cfg'
and 'cgi.cfg' respectively.

1) If you want, you can install the sample config files into the
{prefix}/etc directory with the following command:

make install-config

[m3rlin]

Hmmm thanks, you are correct, i jumped that step.

Thanks a lot :)

[davisfactor]

Well, they don't put that step in their online documentation so it's an easy one to miss.

:)