nagios how repeat check service more time different argument - nagios

Question

I have one host on nagios defined like that:
define host {
host_name my-host
address ip
display_name my-host
hostgroups windows,windows-process-count
use windows-server
_PROCESSNAME my-process1.exe
_PROCESSCOUNT 1
}
On this host I check only that my-process1.exe is up.
but I need to check more process (my-process1, my-process2 etc....)
I would like check more process, defining like that:
define host {
host_name my-host
address ip
display_name my-host
hostgroups windows,windows-process-count
use windows-server
_PROCESSNAME my-process1.exe
_PROCESSCOUNT 1
_PROCESSNAME2 my-process2.exe
_PROCESSCOUNT2 1
_PROCESSNAME2 my-process3.exe
_PROCESSCOUNT2 4
etc...... for x process that i must control on this server
}
but in this way i must define x services, x hostgroups and x commands.
This is very uncomfortable and not very elegant.
what is the best way to get this result?

Answer 1

Unfortunately I don't think there is an elegant way to do it as you would like to. I have always worked with Nagios using a service-oriented approach, means I define a monitoring for one service or process and then I link all the hosts or hostgroups that use that process and need monitoring, even if it is one server. For me, I found that as the most reliable, tidy and sustainable way.
If you can afford a generic alert when any of the service fails, you could prepare a custom command to check all of them in one separate script, I would not like to see it like this in my dashboard.
I know that it is what you want to avoid but, If I were you, and considering you have a single server to monitor these processes, I would prepare a separate service file, something like:
#!/bin/bash
srvCfg = "/etc/nagios3/conf.d/host1procs.cfg" # I am using Nagios over Debian
server="host1"
processes=("process1.exe" "process2.exe")
srvGroup="customservicegroup"
for proc in "${processes[#]}"; do
echo "define service{" >> $srvCfg
echo " use generic-service" >> $srvCfg
echo " host_name $server" >> $srvCfg
echo " servicegroups $srvGroup" >> $srvCfg
echo " service_description Process monitoring for $proc" >> $srvCfg
echo " check_command check_nt!PROCSTATE!-d SHOWALL -l $proc" >> $srvCfg
echo "}" >> $srvCfg
done
I assumed that your example is just an example and the process names are not actually iterable to generate the list. That script will result in a file like:
define service{
use generic-service
host_name host1
servicegroups customservicegroup
service_description Process monitoring for process1.exe
check_command check_nt!PROCSTATE!-d SHOWALL -l process1.exe
}
define service{
use generic-service
host_name host1
servicegroups customservicegroup
service_description Process monitoring for process2.exe
check_command check_nt!PROCSTATE!-d SHOWALL -l process2.exe
}
You will have to define the servicegroup if you want all of the services to be automatically in it, if not take out the servicegroups line.
I know it is not the answer you are looking for, but hope it helps