IT staff can configure Nagios to monitor critical IT infrastructure components, including system metrics, network protocols, applications, services, servers, and network infrastructure.

Nagios sends alerts when critical infrastructure components fail and recover, providing administrators with notice of important events. Alerts can be delivered via email, SMS, or custom script. You can schedule downtime to prevent alerts during maintenance and upgrade windows. When you integrate this service, you can acknowledge alerts and begin resolving outages and investigating security alerts immediately. Alerts can be escalated to different groups if they are not acknowledged in a timely manner.

The Nagios integration contains reporting features that provide a historical record of outages, events, notifications, and alert response for later review. Availability reports help ensure your SLAs are being met. Trending and capacity planning graphs and reports allow you to identify necessary infrastructure upgrades before failures occur.

Ways to Integrate with Nagios

BigPanda provides two ways to integrate with Nagios—via notifications or via logs. The notification-based method is the default and recommended integration; however, the log-based method is also supported. Review this detailed feature comparison to choose the method that best meets your needs.

Install the Integration

Administrators can install the integration by following the on-screen instructions in BigPanda.

Migrate Between Nagios Integrations

If you have previously installed the log-based Nagios integration, you can migrate to the notification-based integration. Similarly, you can migrate from the notification-based integration to the log-based integration.

Before You Start

• Ensure your BigPanda agent is upgraded to version 8.3.0 +. You can check the version in the agent configuration file: /etc/bigpanda/bigpanda.conf. If your version is older than the required version, upgrade to the latest version of the BigPanda agent.

• Obtain access to the Nagios configuration files.

• Determine the app key for your current Nagios integration.

Migrate from Nagios Logs to Nagios Notifications

Configure the BigPanda Agent

1. Remove the log-based integration from the agent by running the following command:

bigpanda-config --remove <YOUR_APP_KEY>

2. Add the notification-based integration by running the following command:

bigpanda-config --add nagios-notifications --app-key <YOUR_APP_KEY>

3. Restart the BigPanda agent service by running the following command.

sudo service bigpanda restart

Configure Nagios to Use the BigPanda Contact

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

sudo usermod -a -G bigpanda <Nagios username>

2. In the nagios.cfg file:

• Add the following line: cfg_file=/etc/bigpanda/bigpanda-contact.cfg

• Ensure that notifications are enabled. enable_notifications=1

3. 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.

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

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

4. 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.

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
}

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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.

5. Restart the Nagios service.

Migrate from Nagios Notifications to Nagios Logs

Configure Nagios to Stop Using the BigPanda Contact

1. In the nagios.cfg file, remove the following line: cfg_file=/etc/bigpanda/bigpanda-contact.cfg

2. In the files where your host and service objects are defined (for example, templates.cfg), remove the bigpanda contact from the contact_groups list in the generic-service and generic-host definitions.

define service{
        name                            generic-service
        check_period                    24x7
        contact_groups                  admins
        notification_interval           60
        notification_period             24x7
}

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If bigpanda is the only contact in your contact_groups option, you can delete the whole line.

3. Restart the Nagios service.

Configure the BigPanda Agent

1. Remove the notification-based integration from the agent by running the following command:

bigpanda-config --remove <YOUR_APP_KEY>

2. Add the log-based integration by running the following command:

bigpanda-config --add nagios --app-key <YOUR_APP_KEY>

3. Restart the bigpanda-agent service:

sudo service bigpanda restart

Uninstall the Integration

Deleting an integration requires changes to both the integrated system and BigPanda. You must uninstall the integration on the integrated system and then delete the integration from BigPanda.

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When replacing an existing integration with a new tool or system, we recommend configuring the new integration first to ensure no data is lost.

Stop Sending Data to BigPanda

On the integrated system, disable any settings that send data to BigPanda.

Manually resolve any open alerts sent from the integration to remove the associated incidents from your incident feed. These incidents will not automatically resolve without an ok status from the original sending integration.

Stop Sending Data from BigPanda

In BigPanda, disable any settings that send data to the integrated system. This includes modifying or removing AutoShare rules or Environments that are tied to the integration.

Delete the Integration from BigPanda

1. In BigPanda, navigate to the Integrations tab and select the desired integration from the list.
2. In the integration details on the right, click Delete Integration. A support message opens, pre-populated with a request to delete the selected integration.
3. Press Enter to send the request.
4. The BigPanda support team will remove the integration from the UI.

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This procedure does not remove any data from BigPanda or the integrated system. As needed, remove data from each system before deleting the integration.