How to Setup the NagiosGraph Plugin on Nagios Monitoring Server

If you have not setup the Nagios Server have a look at that link to setup the Nagios server.

NagiosGraph

In this post we will setup the nagiosgraph plugin to graph performance data of our monitored host and services.

Download and Install

Download the nagiosgraph plugin and extract:

$ wget 'https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/nagiosgraph/nagiosgraph/1.5.2/nagiosgraph-1.5.2.tar.gz' -O nagiosgraph-1.5.2.tar.gz
$ tar -xvf nagiosgraph-1.5.2.tar.gz

Install dependencies and install the nagiosgraph plugin:

$ apt install libnet-snmp-perl libsensors4 libsnmp-base libtalloc2 libtdb1 libwbclient0  snmp whois mrtg  libcgi-pm-perl librrds-perl libgd-perl libnagios-object-perl nagios-plugins-contrib
$ ./install.pl --check-prereq
$ ./install.pl --layout standalone --prefix /usr/local/nagiosgraph


Destination directory (prefix)? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph]
Location of configuration files (etc-dir)? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/etc]
Location of executables? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/bin]
Location of CGI scripts? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/cgi]
Location of documentation (doc-dir)? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/doc]
Location of examples? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/examples]
Location of CSS and JavaScript files? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/share]
Location of utilities? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/util]
Location of state files (var-dir)? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/var]
Location of RRD files? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/var/rrd]
Location of log files (log-dir)? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/var/log]
Path of log file? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/var/log/nagiosgraph.log]
Path of CGI log file? [/usr/local/nagiosgraph/var/log/nagiosgraph-cgi.log]
Base URL? [/nagiosgraph]
URL of CGI scripts? [/nagiosgraph/cgi-bin]
URL of CSS file? [/nagiosgraph/nagiosgraph.css]
URL of JavaScript file? [/nagiosgraph/nagiosgraph.js]
URL of Nagios CGI scripts? [/nagios/cgi-bin]
Path of Nagios performance data file? [/tmp/perfdata.log]
username or userid of Nagios user? [nagios]
username or userid of web server user? [www-data]
Modify the Nagios configuration? [n] y
Path of Nagios configuration file? [/usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg]
Path of Nagios commands file? [/usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg]
Modify the Apache configuration? [n] y
Path of Apache configuration directory? /etc/apache2/sites-enabled

Ensure that your nagiosgraph configuration under apache: /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/nagiosgraph.conf has the following config (might be standard)

Ensure the following configuration is set under nagios main config:

$ vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

process_performance_data=1 
service_perfdata_file=/usr/local/nagios/var/service-perfdata.log 
service_perfdata_file_template=$LASTSERVICECHECK$||$HOSTNAME$||$SERVICEDESC$||$SERVICEOUTPUT$||$SERVICEPERFDATA$ 
service_perfdata_file_mode=a 
service_perfdata_file_processing_interval=30 
service_perfdata_file_processing_command=process-service-perfdata-for-nagiosgraph

Ensure that we have the following commands in place for nagiosgraph:

$ vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg

define command {
  command_name process-service-perfdata-for-nagiosgraph
  command_line /usr/local/nagiosgraph/bin/insert.pl
}

Create the template graphed-service, this will be mapped to each service that needs to be graphed in nagiosgraph:

$ vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/templates.cfg

define service {
      name              graphed-service
      action_url        /nagiosgraph/cgi-bin/show.cgi?host=$HOSTNAME$&service=$SERVICEDESC$' onMouseOver='showGraphPopup(this)' onMouseOut='hideGraphPopup()' rel='/nagiosgraph/cgi-bin/showgraph.cgi?host=$HOSTNAME$&service=$SERVICEDESC$&period=week&rrdopts=-w+450+-j
      register        0
      }

Next configure the services that needs to be graphed on nagios graph. Note, we only need to append the service template that we defined in our template configuration from above:

Note, if you have not checked out Nagios Server Setup post, in that post the inital configuration of the below config is explained.

$ vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers/vpn.cfg

define host {
    use                      linux-server
    host_name                WEB01
    alias                    WEB01
    address                  10.10.10.10
    max_check_attempts       5
    check_period             24x7
    notification_interval    30
    notification_period      24x7
}

define service {
    use                    generic-service,graphed-service
    host_name              WEB01
    service_description    PING
    check_command          check_ping!100.0,20%!500.0,60%
}

define service {
    use                      generic-service,graphed-service
    host_name                WEB01
    service_description      SSH
    check_command            check_ssh
    notifications_enabled    1
}

define service {
    use                      generic-service,graphed-service
    host_name                WEB01
    service_description      HTTP
    check_command            check_http
    notifications_enabled    1
}

Test the nagios config and restart if there are no warnings:

$ /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg
$ systemctl restart nagios
$ systemctl restart apache2

Access your nagios server at http://nagios-ip/nagios and you will find that the graph icon next to the service will open the graph in a new tab, like the screenshot below:

Up Next

Next, Monitor your first Server with Nagios

Thank You

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