Install Nagios with RedHat or CentOS

The BigPanda agent is a low-footprint utility installed on the master host of your monitoring tool. It consumes alerts from the tool in real-time and then transmits them to BigPanda via TLS-encrypted HTTP calls.

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Python Compatibility

To use the Open Integration Manager for Agent-based integrations, Python version>= 3.8.0 and an Agent version >= 10.2 are required.

Prerequisites

python >= 3.8.0 is required for the latest version of the BigPanda Agent, and will be installed by the BigPanda Agent installer if it does not exist.

1. Ensure python3 is installed with the following command:

   $ sudo yum install -y python3
   

2. Verify the install with the following commands:

   $ python3 --version
   $ pip3 --version
   

Note: If pip3 was not installed as a dependency, it can be installed with sudo yum install -y python3-pip.

Note: Access to JFrog, pypi, and yum repositories are required to install all dependencies.

Install the BigPanda Agent on RedHat or CentOS

Connect to the host where your Nagios server is installed, and install the BigPanda agent package.

1. Add a new yum repository to download the BigPanda agent package.

    $ sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/bigpanda.repo
    
   ...
   
    [BigPanda]
    name=BigPanda
    baseurl=https://bigpandaio.jfrog.io/artifactory/int-rpm/bigpanda/agents/
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=0
    gpgkey=https://bigpandaio.jfrog.io/artifactory/int-rpm/bigpanda/agents/repodata/repomd.xml.key
    repo_gpgcheck=1 
   

2. Update the yum repos list to add the BigPanda repo.

    $ sudo yum update 
   

3. List all available packages with duplicates in the BigPanda repo.

    $ sudo yum list --showduplicates bigpanda-agent | expand
    
   Available Packages
    bigpanda-agent.x86_64       10.2.0-1.el7       BigPanda
    bigpanda-agent.x86_64       10.2.0-1.el8       BigPanda
    bigpanda-agent.x86_64       10.2.0-1.el9       BigPanda
    bigpanda-agent.x86_64       10.3.0-1.el7       BigPanda
    bigpanda-agent.x86_64       10.3.0-1.el8       BigPanda
    bigpanda-agent.x86_64       10.3.0-1.el9       BigPanda 
   

   Note: RHEL or Centos does not send the OS version to JFrog, so we need to cherry-pick the correct version for the OS.

4. Install the BigPanda agent package.

    $ sudo yum install bigpanda-agent-<version-number> 
   

   Note: Append the version number to the package name, (i.e. bigpanda-agent-10.3.0-1.el7).

Note: For the OIM, bigpanda-agent v10.0.0+ is required.

Configure the BigPanda Agent

1. Generate the agent's configuration file:

   $ sudo bigpanda-config --init --token <Your Org Bearer Token>
   $ sudo bigpanda-config --add nagios-notifications --app-key <Your App Key>
   
   

2. Add the Nagios user to the bigpanda group by running the following command:

   sudo usermod -a -G bigpanda <Nagios username>
   

3. Start the BigPanda agent service by running the following command for RHEL or Centos 7 & 8:

    sudo service bigpanda start
   

Configure Nagios

Configure Nagios to send notifications to BigPanda.

1. Edit the main configuration file (nagios.cfg). The default location is: /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg.

   • Add the following line: cfg_file=/etc/bigpanda/bigpanda-contact.cfg
   • Ensure that notifications are enabled enable_notifications=1

2. In the file where your host objects are defined (for example, templates.cfg):

   • Add the bigpanda contact to the contact_groups.
   • Set the notification_options for the host to: d,r,u,f,s.

   For example:

    define host{
            name                            generic-host
            contact_groups                  admins,bigpanda
            notification_period             24x7
            notification_options            d,r,u,f,s
    } 
   

   If the contact_groups option is not already listed in your definitions, you can add it.

3. In the file where your service objects are defined (for example, templates.cfg):

   • Add the bigpanda contact to the contact_groups.
   • Set the notification_options for the service to: c,r,w,u,f,s.

   For example:

    define service{
            name                            generic-service
            check_period                    24x7
            contact_groups                  admins,bigpanda
            notification_interval           60
            notification_period             24x7
            notification_options            c,r,w,u,f,s
    } 
   

   If you have already configured notification options on a more specific template or definition, those settings will take precedence over the generic settings.

   To get the most out of this integration, ensure all of the desired notifications are sent to BigPanda.

4. Restart the Nagios service.

   • RHEL or Centos

      sudo service nagios restart
     

Test the Integration

1. Run the following command:

    /usr/bin/bigpanda-notification --send-test
   

   A test alert should arrive in a few moments.

2. In BigPanda, click the Incidents tab at the top of the screen.

3. Confirm that the test alert was received.

4. Since it's a test alert, it won't be resolved automatically. Click Resolve incident to manually resolve it.

Success

The next time Nagios sends a notification for an alert, you will see the alert in the Incident Dashboard.