Tutorial

Nagios is one of the service monitoring systems that is provided on the software market. One of the biggest advantages of this system is its flexibility. In this article, a basic Nagios configuration will be regarded for working with devices for server room monitoring NetPing on the example of UniPing server solution v3 and a set of sensors.

To implement a regarded solution, we will need:

• A server with Ubuntu 18.04 operating system, or a similar one (IP address 192.168.0.150);
• Working installation of Nagios Core 4.4.1 (hereinafter Nagios) on a server (installing and configuring will be described in the article);
• UniPing server solution v3 - 1 pc. (IP address 192.168.0.100);
• 1-wire temperature sensor - 1 pc.;
• 1-wire humidity sensor - 1 pc.;
• door sensor - 1 pc.;
• supply voltage sensor - 1 pc.;
• liquid sensor - 1 pc.;
• airflow sensor - 1 pc.

When choosing a monitoring system for the IT infrastructure of a business, there is a need to take into consideration a range of factors. First, there is a need to evaluate if the functionality of a monitoring system matches your technical and business requirements. Then, there is a need to examine peculiarities of deployment and support to choose a tool that corresponds to your infrastructure and a competence level of IT specialists.

In this article, we will examine peculiarities, differences, and similarities of two popular monitoring systems Zabbix vs Nagios.

Cacti is an open-source web application. The system allows building graphs using RRDtool. Cacti gathers statistical data for specific periods of time and allows representing them in a graphic view. Most often, standard templates are used to represent statistics on a processor load, memory allocation, number running processes, using incoming/outgoing traffic. Basically, Cacti is only a shell to visualize accumulated monitoring data, namely drawing graphs. In this article, we will regard a way of extending Cacti features for sending SMS notifications on monitoring events (SMS gateway for Cacti). To send SMS, it is possible to use the next devices of NetPing company:

• hardware gateway for sending and receiving SMS notifications NetPing SMS;
• device for monitoring microclimate of server rooms UniPing server solution v4/SMS;
• device for remote controlling of the power supply (IP power distribution unit) for server equipment NetPing 8/PWR-220 v4/SMS

This allows minimizing the expenses for third-party services of SMS distribution because in this case, the cost of each SMS will be equal to one specified in the plan of your mobile network operator with no additional commissions.

Microclimate monitoring of a server room, conditioner rotation system and other beautiful words set neither us nor you from maintaining a basic order in a server room. There is a chance to be a perfectionist and put each cable close to another one, or it is possible to scatter totally unnecessary stuff all over the server room and forget what labeling is and let it be. In this article, it will be discussed what a server room should never look like. Here, you will not see any horror pictures in a server room, when braided wires come down from the walls and wrap crooked racks with an ugly net. The article will discuss a pretty regular server room in a pretty usual company.

Logically, this article is a continuation of the article "Example of Monitoring a Server Room on a Basis of OpenNMS and NetPing Devices". Within this article, a feature of configuring SMS notifications from OpenNMS using NetPing SMS (SMS gateway for OpenNMS) will be regarded. 

When network engineers and administrators work, they often need to receive notifications in any time seven days a week. What communication means can be more suitable for this than SMS? Using external SMS services critically depends on the Internet connection, but what to do if there is a need to receive notifications about Internet connection failure? USB GSM modems could solve this issue but their operation stability and often level of support are not the best. There are very few modems that can boast working 24/7 without external maintenance (manual checking, scripts or other means). In addition, it must be connected to a server or a PC for operation. In turn, this server or PC will work as an SMS gateway, which is not the simplest and not the most reliable scheme. A proper solution in this situation would be the use of NetPing SMS. It is a standalone device that is connected to the Ethernet network and working as an SMS gateway for any monitoring system, service, or any other system. In addition, it has no disadvantages described above because it works independently as it does not need an Internet connection and a computer for the operation, and the 24/7 operation is implied.

This article suggests that you have already installed and configured the OpenNMS monitoring system and it works correctly. A configuring process of Open NMS monitoring system has been described before.

The Dude network monitor is an application developed by the Latvian company MikroTik that can significantly improve the operation of the network environment. The application automatically scans all devices in specific subnetworks, draws and complies a network map as well as tracks services of devices and warns if some services have issues. A current version of The Dude server (when writing this article, it was the version 6.43.7 Stable) works under RouterOS only and allows monitoring the entire network infrastructure, from routers and switches to servers and virtual machines. Devices for microclimate monitoring of server rooms and remote controlling of the power supply (IP PDU) by NetPing company can also be connected to The Dude network monitor. A connection process is explored in details here. Also, we examined the process of configuration of e-mail notifications from The Dude in our blog before. In this article, we will consider a way of expanding the functionality of The Dude for sending SMS notifications about monitoring events (SMS gateway for The Dude). To send SMS, it is possible to use the next devices by NetPing company:

• a gateway for sending and receiving SMS notifications NetPing SMS;
• a microclimate monitoring device for server rooms UniPing server solution v4/SMS;
• a device for controlling the remote power supply (IP power distribution unit) for the server equipment NetPing 8/PWR-220 v4/SMS

A feature of SMS notifications will allow IT personnel to react to network events quicker and minimize business downtime caused by the IT equipment failure. Also, a company will be able to significantly save on third-party services for sending SMS because in this case, the price of SMS will correspond to the price charged by the cell phone operator with no additional commissions.

Icinga is a monitoring system with the open source code. It was originally created as a branch of the Nagios monitoring system and resembles it very much. In this article, we will examine the example of configuring Icinga for working with the server room microclimate monitoring device UniPing server solution v4/SMS and install add-ons for building graphs and a map.

To implement a regarded solution, we will need:

1. A server with the installed Debian 9 (in the article, the IP address is 192.168.0.45);
2. UniPing server solution v4/SMS (in the article, the IP address is 192.168.0.100);
3. 1-Wire temperature sensor;
4. 1-Wire humidity sensor;
5. Door sensor;
6. Liquid sensor;
7. Airflow sensor;
8. Supply voltage sensor

This article is a logic sequel to the article «Example of Server Room Monitoring on the Basis of MONIT, INFLUXDB, GRAFANA, and NetPing Monitoring Units». Within this article, a feature of configuring SMS notifications from the Monit monitoring system using NetPing SMS gateway will be examined (hardware SMS gateway for Monit).

For sending SMS, it is possible to use the next devices of the NetPing company:

• a gateway for sending and receiving SMS notifications NetPing SMS;
• a device for monitoring microclimate of server rooms UniPing server solution v4/SMS;
• a device for remote power control (IP power distribution unit) for the server equipment NetPing 8/PWR-220 v4/SMS

A feature of SMS notifications will allow the IT personnel to react to events in the network urgently and thus minimize business downtime caused by failures in the operation of the IT equipment. Also, a company can significantly save on third-party services for SMS-sending because in this case, the cost of SMS will correspond to the tariff provided by the cell operator with no additional commissions.

«... A template is a set of objects that can be applied to several network nodes.

Objects may be as follows:

• data elements;
• triggers;
• graphs;
• groups of data elements;
• complex screens (starting from Zabbix 2.0);
• rules of a low-level detection (starting with Zabbix 2.0);
• web scenarios (starting from Zabbix 2.2)

As soon as many network nodes are similar or alike in a real-life, the sets of objects (data elements, triggers, and graphs...), created by you for a certain network node, can be useful for many nodes. Certainly, you can copy them for each new network node, but this would require a lot of manual work. Instead, you can use templates and copy these objects into one template and then apply it to any number of required network nodes.

These universal monitoring systems as Zabbix are most often used to collect information from various devices. Zabbix notifications are configured through email notifications or through integration into a corporate messenger, such as Slack.

NetPing setting up in OpenHAB is quite ordinary process since the device supports different management methods, including SNMP protocol. These devices are generally designed to function in server rooms for monitoring and remote power management, but they can be easily integrated into smart home for a variety of tasks.