# New in PNP 0.6.x

The work on the new version 0.6.x is in full progress.

Starting with version 0.6.x we switch from subversion to GIT. The sourcecode is already available on sourceforge.

Functions implemented already

- Webfrontend based on Kohana
- Webfrontend based on jQuery Themes
- Javascript-functions using jQuery plugins
- process_perfdata.pl will be able to use one RRD database per datasource
- improved installer. Specification of directory layouts using –with-layout
- RRDtool errors are now displayed as images. no more missing images
- PNP templates cannot overwrite internal variables anymore
- PNP templates of version 0.4.x can still be used
- PDF functions recoded
- Template default.php optimized
- Export from RRD databases into XML, CSV and JSON format using the RRDtool “xport” function
- Page functions recoded
- Error pages links to online FAQ
- Mouseover Popup in Nagios frontend via jQuery.clueTip plugin
- Full support of rrdcached

back to contents | system requirements

pnp-0.6:new-features

# About PNP

## System requirements

PNP mandatory requires valid performance data of nagios plugins.

So what is this performance data?

The output of a nagios plugin up to nagios 2.x is limited to one line. When the plugin produces performance data, it is divided into two parts. The pipe symbol (“|”) is used as a delimiter.

Example check_icmp :

     OK - 127.0.0.1: rta 2.687ms, lost 0% | rta=2.687ms;3000.000;5000.000;0; pl=0%;80;100;;

resulting in the text on the left side of the pipe symbol

     OK - 127.0.0.1: rta 2.687ms, lost 0%

and the performance data

      rta=2.687ms;3000.000;5000.000;0; pl=0%;80;100;;

Performance data is designed for automatic processing. The format is specified within the Developer Guidelines (you'll find an excerpt here) but should be exemplified here nonetheless:

      rta=2.687ms;3000.000;5000.000;0;
       |    |  |    |         |     | |
       |----|--|----|---------|-----|-|----- * label
            |--|----|---------|-----|-|----- * current value
               |----|---------|-----|-|----- unit ( UOM = UNIT of Measurement )
                    |---------|-----|-|----- warning threshold
                              |-----|-|----- critical threshold
                                    |-|----- minimum value
                                      |----- maximum value

Value marked with * are mandatory. All other values are optional.

Several data series are separated by blanks. The actual data must not contains any blanks. If the label contains blanks, it has to be surrounded by single quotes.

## Required Software

- Perl >= 5.x without additional modules
- RRDtool >= 1.x, better 1.2 but not compulsory
  Attention: installing RRDtool without a packet manager might lead to missing dejavu fonts. If you see graphs without text then this may be the cause.
- PHP >= 5.1.6 for the Webfrontend based on Kohana
- Nagios >= 2.x or Icinga
- Kohana needs the module “mod_rewrite” to be enabled. For details please have a look at the documentation of your web-server specific to your distribution.

## License

PNP is licensed under GPL 2

## Download

Development of PNP is organized using Sourceforge.Net. PNP is registered under “PNP4nagios”.

The current stable version of 0.4.x can be found in the download area: Sourceforge Download

If you want to be up to date you can use the latest developer version of 0.4.x which is generated automatically on a daily basis from the SVN repository.

Starting with PNP 0.6.x the source code repository was switched from SVN to GIT.

The current development can be viewed anytime at http://pnp4nagios.git.sourceforge.net/. Clicking on PNP Devel version will download an archive containing the latest version.

## Support

PRIOR to support questions please make sure that you have verified certain things described under verify your installation.

The developers and helpers are present on a separate board at http://www.nagios-portal.org and will be informed about new postings in the PNP-section. Postings in english will be answered as well.
After registering as a user please fill in the profile regarding operating system and PNP version used. Please mention if you used a package or compiled the sources. Please mark successfully solved threads by adding ”[solved]” to the title as it helps other users to find a solution for their problem.

The mailing lists on Sourceforge can be used to request support (and are limited to english):

pnp4nagios-users: users list for general questions regarding configuration. Please state your operating system and PNP version

pnp4nagios-devel: devel list for suggestions and error reports. Please state your operating system and PNP version

pnp4nagios-checkins: the checkin list automatically contains changes to the SVN repository

## Storage

Performance data will be stored in Round Robin Databases using RRDtool. That means that after some time the oldest data will be dropped at the “end” and it will be replaced by new values “at the beginning”.

Various intervals provide for different resolutions. Using the defaults allows to store the data with a resolution of one minute for the last two days, five minutes resolution for ten days, 30 minutes resolution for 90 days and 6 hours resolution for four years. The increasing interval causes averaging of the data which leads to smaller max values. This not an error of PNP.

Using this storage format the size of the files will stay the same over time. Per datasource you will need approx. 400 KB.

## Statistics and links to Sourceforge

- Downloadable files: 83561 total downloads to date
- Developers on project: 6
- Project name: PNP4Nagios
- Activity percentile (last week): 99.74%
- Mailing lists (public): 3

back to contents | PNP modes

pnp-0.6:about

# The art of collecting data

PNP supports several modes to process performance data. The modes differ in complexity and the performance to be expected.

The following image shows the connections between Nagios, PNP and RRDtool

Nagios invokes a command for every host and every service whose performance data should be processed. Depending on the mode you choose the data will be passed to process_perfdata.pl or will be written to temporary files and processed at a later time. process_perfdata.pl writes the data to XML files and stores them in RRD files using RRDtool.

Before you choose a mode please read the documentation and decide which way will be the best for installation.

# The modes in comparison

## Synchronous Mode

The “synchronous mode” is the simplest and easiest to set up. Nagios will call the perl script `process_perfdata.pl` for every service and host, respectively, to process the data. The synchronous mode will work very good up to about 1.000 services in a 5 minute interval.

## Bulk Mode

In bulk mode Nagios writes the necessary data to a temporary file. After expiration of a defined time the file will be processed in one piece and deleted afterwards.

The number of calls of process_perfdata.pl will be reduced to a fraction. Depending on time and the amount of collected data there will be much less system calls. Instead, process_perfdata.pl will run longer.

Note Using this mode you should keep an eye on the runtime of process_perfdata.pl. While it is running to process data nagios will not execute any checks.

snippet of var/perfdata.log:

    2007-10-18 12:05:01 [21138] 71 Lines processed
    2007-10-18 12:05:01 [21138] .../spool/service-perfdata-1192701894-PID-21138 deleted
    2007-10-18 12:05:01 [21138] PNP exiting (runtime 0.060969s) ...

71 lines were processed in 0.06 seconds. This will be the data volume of about 2000 services und processing using a 10 second interval. It means we blocked nagios for exactly 0.06 seconds.

## Bulk Mode with NPCD

Viewing from Nagios this is the best way of processing because Nagios will not be blocked.

Nagios again uses a temporary file to store the data and executes a command after expiration of a certain time. Instead of immediate processing by process_perfdata.pl the file is moved to a spool directory. As moving a file inside the same filesystem nearly takes no time nagios is able to execute crucial work immediately.

The NPCD daemon (Nagios Performance C Daemon) will monitor the directory for new files and will pass the names to process_perfdata.pl. Processing of performance data is decoupled completely from nagios. NPCD itself is able to start multiple thread for processing the data.

## Bulk Mode with npcdmod

This scenario includes npcdmod.o, an NEB-module. This module reduces the configuration of the “Bulk Mode with NPCD” to a mere two lines in nagios.cfg

This mode is similar to “Bulk Mode with NPCD” and it is exactly the same functionality and the same performance.

## The decision

Which mode you choose will depend on the size of your Nagios installation. You will find theses terms throughout the documentation.

back to contents | installation

pnp-0.6:modes

# PNP 0.6.x Downloads

## Current stable PNP Version

Changes can be tracked on pnp4nagios.git.sourceforge.net

The current Version is pnp4nagios-0.6.7.tar.gz

## Latest Devel Version

pnp4nagios-head.tar.gz

This is allways the latest GIT HEAD Version

Last Update: Tue Dec 14 22:55:01 CET 2010

# ChangeLog

pnp-0.6.11 ??/??/2011 pnp-0.6.10 12/15/2010 * Feature: Add RRDTool Option –only-graph if graph height is below 32px to create thumbnails * Feature: RRDTool Option –width and –height is now allowed in templates * Feature: RRDTool DS Type for UOM of “c” changed from COUNTER to DERIVE * Feature: Pass query string from special controller to image controller ( Matthew Garrett ) * Feature: Authorisation against mk_livestatus API added * Feature: Sample nginx webserver config added ( by evax@users.sourceforge.net ) * Feature: Kohana backport to support PHP 5.1.6 ( Kudos to Andreas Ericsson ) * Bugfix: Sort list of special templates * Bugfix: Urlencode hostname and service description ( Reported by Yannick ) * Bugfix: corrected warning/critical thresholds in ticker/alerter functions pnp-0.6.7 09/27/2010 * Bugfix: Page config parser fix (Beau Gunderson) * Bugfix: Zoom window size fixed (Report by Rudolf Labuschagne) * Bugfix: Fixed undefined offset while using 'ds_name' in templates (Reported by Vladimir Bilik) * Bugfix: Npcdmod respects process_perf_data option used in hosts and services definitions ( Reported by Wolfgang Barth ) * Template: New Template check_nagiostats.php used with check_nagiostats written by Jochen Bern pnp-0.6.6 08/07/2010 * Bugfix: Fixed max amount of graphs per template * Bugfix: Autodetect PNP base URL * Bugfix: Too short npcdmod perfdata_template to take perfdata + overhead, increased +1024byte * Bugfix: Ignore files in var/perfdata and check for empty directories * Bugfix: Reducing memory usage while parsing page config (Laurent Freval) pnp-0.6.5 07/09/2010 * Feature: Special Templates are back tpl_special * Feature: New rrdtool helper functions makes template design easier tpl_helper * Feature: config.php → 'recursive_template_search' is enabled by default * Feature: config.php → 'template_dirs' is now an array of directorys to search for PNP templates pnp-0.6.4 06/03/2010 * Update: jQuery Update to 1.4.2 * Update: jQuery-ui Update to 1.8 * Feature: New configure Option –with-base-url * Template: New template check_ntp_time.php (Mathias Kettner) * Feature: New i18n files for fr_FR (Yannig Parre) * Feature: New jQuery Theme 'multisite' pnp-0.6.3 03/16/2010 * Feature: New helper script libexec/rrd_convert.pl → rrd_convert * Bugfix: Ignore old XML files while building the service list * Template: New template check_hpasm.php * Bugfix: Installer now checks for json_decode() * Workaround: Allow “trailing unfilled semicolons”. Workaround for nsclient++ * Template: Updates for check_openmanage.php, check_hp_bladecenter.php and check_dell_baldecenter.php ( Trond Hasle Amundsen )” pnp-0.6.2 12/23/2009 * Feature: XML_WRITE_DELAY option added to process_perfdata.cfg as suggested by Mathias Kettner * Feature: New template integer.php * Update: FPDI update to 1.3.1 * Feature: PNP will now work with lighttpd and php-cgi * Template: check_mk-ps.perf.php added ( by Mathias Kettner ) * Feature: PNP will now work without mod_rewrite → webfe * Bugfix: Wrong pdf link used on site 'pages' and 'basket' * Bugfix: Incorrect group permissions on spool directory pnp-0.6.1 11/22/2009 * Feature: RRD heartbeat per check_command → tpl_custom * Feature: New config.php option pdf_graph_opt * Feature: Recognize the 'background_pdf' option in page definitions → pages * Feature: Recognize the 'source' option in page definitions → pages * Feature: Array $TIMERANGE now available for templates → timeranges * Bugfix: ./configure –sysconfdir no longer ignored * Feature: Store internal runtime statistics on a per minute base * Feature: Added two widgets views/widget_menu.php and views/widget_graph.php pnp-0.6.0 10/30/2009**

- Webfrontend based on Kohana
- Webfrontend based on jQuery Themes
- Javascript-functions using jQuery plugins
- process_perfdata.pl will be able to use one RRD database per datasource
- improved installer. Specification of directory layouts using –with-layout
- RRDtool errors are now displayed as images. no more missing images
- PNP templates cannot overwrite internal variables anymore
- PNP templates of version 0.4.x can still be used
- PDF functions recoded
- Template default.php optimized
- Export from RRD databases into XML, CSV and JSON format using the RRDtool “xport” function
- Page functions recoded
- Error pages links to online FAQ
- Mouseover Popup in Nagios frontend via jQuery.clueTip plugin
- Full support of rrdcached

pnp-0.6:dwnld

# Upgrade to version 0.6.x

The web-frontend has been completely rewritten and is now based on the PHP MVC framework Kohana. This leads to changed dependencies which must be checked prior to installation.

Note: At first an upgrade is like a new installation. Afterwards some changes should be made which are described further down.

Without specifying any options during `./configure` PNP 0.4.x was installed below an existing Nagios-Installation at `/usr/local/nagios`.

Without specifying any options during `./configure` PNP 0.6.x will be installed in a separate directory at `/usr/local/pnp4nagios`, i.e. it should be viewed as an independent application.

Note: It is sufficient to copy the *.rrd files from the old to the new location. They contain the data The *.xml files are recreated every time new performance data arrives as they contain meta information. The internal structure of the xml files has changed so you wouldn't be able to use them either way.

## Comparison of the structure

Summary of a PNP 0.4.14 installation

    ./configure
    ...
    *** Configuration summary for pnp 0.4.14 05-02-2009 ***

      General Options:
      -------------------------         -------------------
      Nagios user/group:                nagios nagios
      Install directory:                /usr/local/nagios
      HTML Dir:                         /usr/local/nagios/share/pnp
      Config Dir:                       /usr/local/nagios/etc/pnp
      Location of rrdtool binary:       /usr/bin/rrdtool Version 1.3.1
      RRDs Perl Modules:                FOUND (Version 1.3001)
      RRD Files stored in:              /usr/local/nagios/share/perfdata
      process_perfdata.pl Logfile:      /usr/local/nagios/var/perfdata.log
      Perfdata files (NPCD) stored in:  /usr/local/nagios/var/spool/perfdata/

Summary of a PNP 0.6.0 installation

    ./configure
    ...
    *** Configuration summary for pnp4nagios-0.6.0 07-30-2009 ***

      General Options:
      -------------------------         -------------------
      Nagios user/group:                nagios nagios
      Install directory:                /usr/local/pnp4nagios
      HTML Dir:                         /usr/local/pnp4nagios/share
      Config Dir:                       /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc
      Location of rrdtool binary:       /usr/bin/rrdtool Version 1.3.1
      RRDs Perl Modules:                FOUND (Version 1.3001)
      RRD Files stored in:              /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata
      process_perfdata.pl Logfile:      /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata.log
      Perfdata files (NPCD) stored in:  /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool

      Web Interface Options:  -------------------------         -------------------
      HTML URL:                         http://localhost/pnp4nagios/
      Apache Config File:               /etc/apache2/conf.d/pnp4nagios.conf

Looking at these lines result in the parameters to be changed and the upgrade strategy.

## Adjustments

The templates of the action_url definitions have changed. Instead of ”/nagios/pnp” the URL should be ”/pnp4nagios” and instead of “index.php” now “graph” will be used.

    define host {
      name       host-pnp
      register   0
      action_url /pnp4nagios/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$
    }

    define service {
      name       srv-pnp
      register   0
      action_url /pnp4nagios/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$
    }

The definitions for the preview popup function are similar

    define host {
       name       host-pnp
       action_url /pnp4nagios/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$' class='tips' rel='/pnp4nagios/popup?host=$HOSTNAME$
       register   0
    }

    define service {
       name       srv-pnp
       action_url /pnp4nagios/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$' class='tips' rel='/pnp4nagios/popup?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$
       register   0
    }

Attention: It is not an error that the strings in front and after “class” contain only one quote.

Other than described in the 0.4.x documentation these templates can be used for Nagios 2.x and 3.x.

The variables in the files in the templates folder have to be initialised before first use. Example

    $lower = ""

Earlier you were able to append to variables which weren't initialised before first use. Example:

    foreach ($DS as $i) {
        $def[1] .= "DEF:var$i=$rrdfile:$DS[$i]:AVERAGE " ;

Now you have to change that to

    $def[1] = "";
    foreach ($DS as $i) {
        $def[1] .= "DEF:var$i=$rrdfile:$DS[$i]:AVERAGE " ;

Constants in template files don't work anymore, so that they have to be converted to variables.

    define("_WARNRULE", '#FFFF00');

may be changed to

     $WARNRULE = '#FFFF00';

Please keep in mind that all occurrences have to be changed .

## Upgrade scenario using NPCD

1. planning the new setup
2. perform test installation and acquaint oneself with the new system
3. create backup of the old installation
4. install PNP 0.6.x at `/usr/local/pnp4nagios`
5. make install-config
6. make install-webconf
7. reload Apache
8. test Apache-config
   1. call of `/pnp4nagios` has to report an empty perfdata directory
9. create `/usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg` from `npcd.cfg-sample`
   1. check paths and adapt changes from 0.4.x if necessary
10. adjust all paths in nagios.cfg to the new PNP installation
11. adjust all paths in the command definitions
12. stop npcd using `/etc/init.d/npcd stop`
13. `make install-init` installs the new init script for npcd
14. `/etc/init.d/nagios stop`
15. copy `/usr/local/nagios/share/perfdata` to `/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata`. Attention: check the permissions
16. `/etc/init.d/npcd start`
17. `/etc/init.d/nagios start`

pnp-0.6:upgrade

# Installation

The installation of PNP will be described in more detail. It is expected that nagios was compiled from source and is located in /usr/local/nagios.
Attention: The description applies to the developer version PNP 0.6.0.
Please note that PNP has to be configured after the installation.

## Make and more

The installation of PNP is controlled by makefiles. The system is analyzed after invocation of ./configure and the detected values are tranferred to makefiles.

Please unpack PNP as user root:

    tar -xvzf pnp4nagios-HEAD.tar.gz
    cd pnp4nagios

./configure is to be called from the directory pnp4nagios.

    ./configure

Note: Without specifying any options user and group will be “nagios”. If you have different values then please use the parameters ”–with-nagios-user” and ”–with-nagios-group”, respectively. Using Icinga the call might be

    ./configure --with-nagios-user=icinga --with-nagios-group=icinga

Some lines run across the screen. The output at the end is important.

    *** Configuration summary for pnp4nagios-0.6.2 23-12-2009 ***

      General Options:
      -------------------------         -------------------
      Nagios user/group:                nagios nagios
      Install directory:                /usr/local/pnp4nagios
      HTML Dir:                         /usr/local/pnp4nagios/share
      Config Dir:                       /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc
      Location of rrdtool binary:       /usr/bin/rrdtool Version 1.2.12
      RRDs Perl Modules:                FOUND (Version 1.2012)
      RRD Files stored in:              /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata
      process_perfdata.pl Logfile:      /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata.log
      Perfdata files (NPCD) stored in:  /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool

      Web Interface Options:  -------------------------         -------------------
      HTML URL:                         http://localhost/pnp4nagios/
      Apache Config File:               /etc/apache2/conf.d/pnp4nagios.conf

      Review the options above for accuracy.  If they look okay,
      type 'make all' to compile.

The paths shown should be checked. If the displayed values aren't correct you can change them calling ./configure with appropriate options.
Attention: “Location of rrdtool binary” means path including name of binary! If necessary it can be specified using the following syntax:

     ./configure --with-rrdtool=/usr/local/rrdtool-1.2.xx/bin/rrdtool

     ./configure --help

shows the supported options.

Invoking

     make all

compiles the components like NPCD which are written in C

     make install

copies everything to the right places in the file system. The paths were already shows during ./configure.

After the installation of the program and HTML files you can copy a sample Apache configuration file to your web-server config directory

     make install-webconf

You can call

     make install-config

optionally. This way config files for process_perfdata.pl and npcd are copied to etc/pnp.

To install the NPCD Init script call

     make install-init

All these steps are combined in

     make fullinstall

Attention: After copying the configuration file for the web server you have to restart the web server (`service httpd restart` or `/etc/init.d/apache2 restart`, respectively).

## Update

The update of a 0.6.x version works (nearly) the same way as an installation. Please note that you have to call `./configure` with the same options you used during the first installation. Please check if you changed anything in the folder `share/templates.dist`. Own templates should be placed in `share/templates` to avoid being overwritten.
Attention: If you changed config.php then you should save this file before it is overwritten when you execute `make install-config`.

You can skip `make install-webconf` and `make install-init` because nothing changed between 0.6.x versions.

## The components

After installation the components of PNP were copied to the appropriate places in the file system. These are

the PHP-Files for the web-frontend in

     /usr/local/pnp4nagios/share/pnp

the data collector process_perfdata.pl in

     /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec

sample config files with the suffix `-sample` in

     /usr/local/pnpnagios/etc

the config file config.php for the web frontend in

     /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc

back to contents | configuration

pnp-0.6:install

# Configuration

The configuration of the already mentioned modes of performance data processing will be described in more detail.

## Synchronous Mode

The synchronous mode is the simplest way to integrate the data collector `process_perfdata.pl` into nagios. Every event will trigger an execution of `process-service-perfdata`.

Initially you have to enable processing of performance data in `nagios.cfg`. Please note that this directive might already exist in the config file. Default is “0”.

     process_performance_data=1

Data processing has to be disabled in the definition of every host or service whose performance data should NOT be processed.

    define service {
       ...
       process_perf_data 0
       ...
    }

Since Nagios 3.x it is possible to deactivate the export of environment variables (as part of optimizing the system for maximum performance). Unfortunately this directive has to be enabled to use the synchronous mode. So either you use the default value (which means that the export is enabled) or you define the variable in `nagios.cfg`

    enable_environment_macros=1

Additionally the command to process performance data is to be specified in `nagios.cfg`

     service_perfdata_command=process-service-perfdata

Starting with Nagios 3.0 it may be useful to enable processing of performance data for hosts as well. Due to changed host check logic Nagios 3 now performs regularly scheduled host checks.

     host_perfdata_command=process-host-perfdata

Nagios has to be notified about the referenced commands as well. If you used the quickstart installation guides for Nagios you can modify the definitions in commands.cfg. You can see that calling process_perfdata.pl doesn't require any arguments apart from specifing the option -d ( DATATYPE ) if you want to process performance data resulting from host checks.

    define command {
           command_name    process-service-perfdata
           command_line    /usr/bin/perl /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec/process_perfdata.pl
    }

    define command {
           command_name    process-host-perfdata
           command_line    /usr/bin/perl /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec/process_perfdata.pl -d HOSTPERFDATA
    }

Note `process_perfdata.pl` cannot be started under control of ePN ( embedded Perl Nagios ). Therefore the script is explicitly called using `/usr/bin/perl` ( or where you perl binary is located ). If you use Nagios 3.x or do not use ePN there is no need to specify `/usr/bin/perl`.

## Bulk Mode

Bulk mode is a bit more complicated than the synchronous mode but reduces the load on the nagios server significantly because the data collector `process_perfdata.pl` is not invoked for every service/host check.

In bulk mode Nagios writes the data to a temporary file in a defined format. This file is processed by `process_perfdata.pl` at certain intervals. Nagios will take care for starting and running it periodically.

Processing of performance data has to be enabled in `nagios.cfg`

     process_performance_data=1

Additionally some new directives are required

    #
    # service performance data
    #
    service_perfdata_file=/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/service-perfdata
    service_perfdata_file_template=DATATYPE::SERVICEPERFDATA\tTIMET::$TIMET$\tHOSTNAME::$HOSTNAME$\tSERVICEDESC::$SERVICEDESC$\tSERVICEPERFDATA::$SERVICEPERFDATA$\tSERVICECHECKCOMMAND::$SERVICECHECKCOMMAND$\tHOSTSTATE::$HOSTSTATE$\tHOSTSTATETYPE::$HOSTSTATETYPE$\tSERVICESTATE::$SERVICESTATE$\tSERVICESTATETYPE::$SERVICESTATETYPE$
    service_perfdata_file_mode=a
    service_perfdata_file_processing_interval=15
    service_perfdata_file_processing_command=process-service-perfdata-file

    #
    # host performance data starting with Nagios 3.0
    #
    host_perfdata_file=/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/host-perfdata
    host_perfdata_file_template=DATATYPE::HOSTPERFDATA\tTIMET::$TIMET$\tHOSTNAME::$HOSTNAME$\tHOSTPERFDATA::$HOSTPERFDATA$\tHOSTCHECKCOMMAND::$HOSTCHECKCOMMAND$\tHOSTSTATE::$HOSTSTATE$\tHOSTSTATETYPE::$HOSTSTATETYPE$
    host_perfdata_file_mode=a
    host_perfdata_file_processing_interval=15
    host_perfdata_file_processing_command=process-host-perfdata-file

Attention: Please note that these template definitions differ from the ones delivered in `nagios.cfg`!

The directives and their meaning:

- `service_perfdata_file` path to the temporary file which should contain the performance data.
- `service_perfdata_file_template` format of the temporary file. Data will be defined using Nagios macros.
- `service_perfdata_file_mode` option “a” specifies that data is to be appended to the file.
- `service_perfdata_file_processing_interval` the interval is 15 seconds
- `service_perfdata_file_processing_command` the command to be called during the interval.

The used commands have to be announced to Nagios. If you used the quickstart installation guides for Nagios you can modify the definitions in commands.cfg.

    define command{
           command_name    process-service-perfdata-file
           command_line    /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec/process_perfdata.pl --bulk=/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/service-perfdata
    }

    define command{
           command_name    process-host-perfdata-file
           command_line    /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec/process_perfdata.pl --bulk=/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/host-perfdata
    }

NOTE:

Because there is more data to process than in synchronous mode `process_perfdata.pl` will take longer to do this so you should check the TIMEOUT value in `etc/process_perfdata.cfg` and adjust it appropriately.

## Bulk Mode with NPCD

The configuration is identical to the Bulk Mode except for the used command. If you used the quickstart installation guides for Nagios you can modify the definitions in commands.cfg.

    define command{
           command_name    process-service-perfdata-file
           command_line    /bin/mv /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/service-perfdata /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool/service-perfdata.$TIMET$
    }

    define command{
           command_name    process-host-perfdata-file
           command_line    /bin/mv /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/host-perfdata /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool/host-perfdata.$TIMET$
    }

Using these commands the file service-perfdata will be moved to var/spool/ after the interval specified in `service_perfdata_file_processing_interval` has passed. The Nagios macro $TIMET$ is appended to the filename to avoid overwriting of old files unintentionally. The macro $TIMET$ contains the current timestamp in time_t format (seconds since the UNIX epoch).

In the directory /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool/ files are gathered to be processed by NPCD.

NPCD monitors the spool directory and passes the file names to `process_perfdata.pl`. This way processing of performance data is completely decoupled from nagios.

Before starting NPCD you have to check the paths to the spool directory and to `process_perfdata.pl` specified in the config file `npcd.cfg`. The only thing that remains is to start NPCD.

     /usr/local/pnp4nagios/bin/npcd -d -f /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg

The option `-d` starts NPCD as a daemon in the background.

## Bulk Mode with NPCD and npcdmod

This mode uses the event broker module npcdmod.o. The flow of data is identical to “bulk mode with NPCD”. The internal perfdata routines of Nagios activated by the “*_perf_data_*” directives in nagios.cfg are *NOT* used anymore. The module npcdmod.o takes over the task of processing the data required by PNP.

Pro:

- The perfdata routines can now be used for other addons.
- The configuration is easier.
- It is the preferred mode of the PNP developers.

Adjustments in nagios.cfg:

    process_performance_data=1
    broker_module=/usr/local/pnp4nagios/lib/npcdmod.o config_file=/usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg

All other directives mentioned on this page must NOT be used.

Attention: If you have changed the value of `event_broker_options` from -1 to another value then please note that PNP needs the bits 2 and 3 set (0b01100). Make sure that the resultung value has these bits set because otherwise there will be no performance data to process.

After restarting Nagios information regarding the start of the module will be logged.

Excerpt from nagios.log

    [1277545053] npcdmod: Copyright (c) 2008-2009 Hendrik Baecker (andurin@process-zero.de) - http://www.pnp4nagios.org
    [1277545053] npcdmod: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg initialized
    [1277545053] npcdmod: spool_dir = '/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool/'.
    [1277545053] npcdmod: perfdata file '/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata.dump'.
    [1277545053] npcdmod: Ready to run to have some fun!
    [1277545053] Event broker module '/usr/local/pnp4nagios/lib/npcdmod.o' initialized successfully.

back to contents | checking the functionality

pnp-0.6:config

# Checking the installation

If everything went well until now you can try to call PNP using your web browser. When using the installation with default values PNP should be called using http://<server name>/pnp4nagios/. The first time you will see a page “PNP4Nagios Environment Tests” which includes different checks of necessary components. Obviously all checks have to be passed successfully before you can proceed. Please follow the instructions given on that page.

If all tests have passed *successfully* the file pnp4nagios/share/install.php can be deleted or renamed. Not till then the web interface is reachable.

Alternatively you can create a file called `pnp4nagios/share/install.ignore` which will prevent the call of the installer after further updates.

If you receive the message “PHP magic_quotes_gpc is deprecated” then please locate your `php.ini` and set the value to `Off`.

Called without any arguments PNP looks for RRD and XML files in pnp4nagios/var/perfdata and shows all graphs of the first host.

ATTENTION: Immediately after (re-)starting Nagios after you enabled the processing of performance data you will get error messages in your browser because performance data has to be collected and stored in RRD files. Depending on the check interval you are using you have to wait some time before you can view the first graphs.

## Debug Logfile

Calling `make install-config` during installation will create a sample config file `etc/process_perfdata.cfg-sample`. The values in the sample file will correspond to the defaults used by `process_perfdata.pl` so normally you do not have a file called `process_perfdata.cfg` while running the procedure.
However you can influence the way `process_perfdata.pl` works by changing options which have to be specified in `process_perfdata.cfg`.

The most important options launching PNP are LOG_LEVEL and LOG_FILE. We recommend setting the `LOG_LEVEL` value to “2” so you can track what process_perfdata.pl will do. Most likely we will ask for excerpts from perfdata.log if you open a support request on the mailing lists as well as the output of the verify_pnp_config script so please provide them .

During normal operation the debug level should be set to 0 to avoid performance issues due to unnecessary entries in the log file.

## Something went wrong

Some basic settings should be checked

1. Have any RRD and XML files been created? `process_perfdata.pl` will create a new directory under pnp/perfdata for every host. In this directory an RRD database and an XML file will be created for every service. The host data will be stored in `_HOST_.xml` and `_HOST_.rrd` respectively.
If graphing stops out of a sudden then open the appropriate XML file. There are two tags called <RC> and <TXT>. <RC> shows the return code of the RRDtool update and <TXT> a textual description.
Sometimes you have to specify additional options so that performance data is produced. In some cases a wrapper script might help.
However not all checks provide performance data. That applies - among others - to “check_ping” in contrast to “check_icmp” which does provide data (starting with Nagios plugin version 1.4.12 check_ping does provide performance data).
Using the web interface the detail information of hosts/services shows a field “Performance Data”. If it is empty there is no data available so no files are written to the appropriate directory and that is why PNP does not provide you with graphs!
The following image shows the information of a “PING” service. The output of the plugin is surrounded by a blue border, the performance data by a red one.

2. Has nagios called `process_perfdata.pl`? In the config file for process_perfdata.pl (`etc/process_perfdata.cfg`) you can increase the debug level. Data processing will be logged in `var/perfdata.log`.

3. Graphs are shown without text? Have a look at the requirements.

4. Using the npcdmod module the value of the nagios.cfg directive `event_broker_options` may have to be adapted if it was modified. You'll find some details here.

5. You can use the script verify_pnp_config.pl in the `scripts` directory of the installation folder or the `libexec` folder after installation to check your settings and if performance data is present and/or valid. The syntax is quite simple for that:

    ./verify_pnp_config.pl -m <mode>

whereas `<mode>` is one of “sync”, “bulk” or “npcd” (without quotes). Please note that using “default” will select “npcd” which is different from the behaviour in PNP 0.4.x.

back to contents | verify_pnp_config.pl

pnp-0.6:verify

# verify_pnp_config

In case of problems there is a script called `verify_pnp_config.pl` located in the `scripts` directory. It enables you to check the configuration settings as well as performance data of hosts or services. It can be used prior and during runtime of PNP.

* Note *: The information applies to verify_pnp_config v0.1.24 which is available in the current stable version downloadable via http://www.pnp4nagios.org/pnp/dwnld. Older versions may have fewer options so in the descriptions of the various options you will find hints to the PNP versions.

* Note *: In PNP 0.6.4 one line is missing in the script which results in an error so please add this line before executing it:

         $CPcfg{'$conf[\'max_age\']'} = 'n;^\(?[\d\* ]+\)?$';
         $CPcfg{'$conf[\'temp\']'} = 'd;;';
         $CPcfg{'$conf[\'base_url\']'} = "S;.+;";   # <-- add this line
         $CPcfg{'$conf[\'nagios_base\']'} = "S;.+;";
         $CPcfg{'$conf[\'allowed_for_service_links\']'} = 'S;[\S,]+;';

* Note *: The “long” options always start with two ”-” which isn't clearly visible in the text.

Checking the configuration can be done executing

    ./verify_pnp_config.pl -m <mode>

replacing <mode> by sync, bulk or NPCD.

Specifying the option `-h` or `–-help` respectively shows the following lines:

    -h, --help        print these lines
    -b, --basedir=s   Nagios Base directory (default: /usr/local/nagios)
    -B, --binary=s    Nagios binary (default: nagios)
    -c, --config=s    Nagios main config file (default: /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg)
    -m, --mode=s      PNP mode ("sync", "bulk", "NPCD")
    -l, --logfile=s   check configure log file
    -D, --pnpdir=s    PNP root dir (PNP version >= 0.6)
    -N, --npcdcfg=s   PNP config file for NPCD mode (default: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/pnp/npcd.cfg)
    -P, --ppcfg=s     process_perfdata config file (default: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/pnp/process_perfdata.cfg)
    -C, --cpcfg=s     PNP config file (config.php)
    -p, --precheck    use config files instead of objects cache
    -r, --rrdtool=s   specify the location of the RRDtool binary
    -R, --RRDpath=s   specify the perfdata directory (default: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata) or "no" for no check
    -U, --resource=s  location of the resource config file (default: /usr/local/nagios/etc/resource.cfg)
    -M, --monitor=s   specify the monitoring product (default: nagios; may be "icinga")
    -L, --layout=s    specify a layout (Nagios2, Nagios3, SuSE, Fedora)
    -T, --template=s  specify the path to the templates directory (default /usr/local/pnp4nagios/share/templates.dist)
    -u, --user=s      user of the perfdata directory
    -g, --group=s     group of the perfdata directory
    -q, --quiet       quiet mode, non-zero return code will indicate errors
    -o, --object=s    Nagios object (host name, service description)
    -t, --time        show warnings if RRDfiles are too old
    -s, --skip        skip check of installed packages
    -n, --native      show messages in native language (so far "es" or "de")
    -e, --english     show english messages/links
    -d, --debug       some debugging output
    -I, --info        show information about compile time variable settings

The Nagios program and access to the main configuration file are always necessary. If you have non-standard paths because you installed a Nagios package you can try to use one of the predefined layouts via the -L option. “suse” and “fedora” should work on the appropriate distributions while “nagios2” and “nagios3” should work on others depending on the Nagios version you installed. If none of these methods work you can use three options (-b, -B and -c) to specify the nagios base directory, the name of the binary and the place of the main config file. If the program name starts with a ”/” then this value is taken as an absolute path which isn't modified anymore. If it doesn't start with a ”/” then the path is composed of the basedir, the string “bin” and the binary. Using -U you can specify the location on the resource config file.

Without specifying any options the help page will be shown so you'll have to specify either the mode or an object.

Using the option `-m` (`–mode`) you specify one of the PNP modes whose settings will be checked. The option `-l <filename>` (`–logfile=<filename>`) allows to check the config during installation of PNP. You have to execute `./configure` (with additional options if necessary) first which creates the file `config.log`. This name has to be passed as parameter value. The script checks if software requirements are met and if several settings have been specified correctly. That includes a call of the RRDtool binary so you may use the option `-r <location>` (`–rrdtool <location>`) if the binary can not be found at `/usr/bin/rrdtool`.

The script checks if owner and group of the directories and files below the perfdata folder correspond to the values given in nagios.cfg. Additionally the xml files are checked for non-zero return codes of RRDtool. Using the option `-R` (`–RRDpath`) you can specify the directory where the RRD files are located if its place is non-standard. If you don't wish these checks to be performed please specify “no” as directory name. Using the options -u (–user) and -g (–group) you can specify user and/or group of the perfdata directory if they don't match the values of the nagios user.

After the installation the changes in `nagios.cfg` can be checked using the option `-p` (`–precheck`) before restarting nagios. This way you can correct any errors without restarting every time.

Together with the option `-o <object>` (`–object=<object>`) you specify a string which is compared to hostnames and/or service descriptions in the objects cache file. The string should be enclosed in quotes to escape blanks and several special characters. If the string matches the name and any performance data will be shown. If no or invalid performance data is present appropriate messages will be given.

Appending a semicolon to the string will result in comparing only hostnames, prepending a semicolon only inspects service descriptions. A semicolon within the string separates hostname and service description.

- hostname/service description ⇒ string matches hostname or service description
- hostname; ⇒ string only matches against hostnames
- ;service description ⇒ string only matches against service descriptions
- hostname;service description ⇒ hostname and service description have to match

Starting with PNP version 0.6 the directory layout has changed so all files are below a separate directory which can be specified using ”-D” (–pnpdir) if it differs from /usr/local/pnp4nagios. This also affects the options ”-N”, ”-P” and ”-C”, respectively, so you may not have to specify separate values for these options.

When using the NPCD mode you can use `-N <config file>` (`–npcdcfg=<config file>`) to specify the location of the config file if its name or location differs from the default (/usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg).

Using the option `-P <config file>` (`–ppcfg=<config file>`) you can specify the name of the config file for process_perfdata.pl if name or location differs from the default (/usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/process_perfdata.cfg).

Using the option -M (–monitor) enables you to specify the product which delivers the data to PNP. The default is “nagios” but “icinga” is supported now as well. Additionally you may have to use the options -b, -B and -c as well.

Sometimes changes in template files result in errors which are hard to find in the web GUI. Using the option -T the template files are checked for errors. Specify the path to the templates diretory as a parameter.

Per default the script checks if certain packages are installed. If you experience difficulties with these checks (or when you're sure the required packages are installed) you can use the option -s (–skip) to skip these checks.

Using -n (–native) you can specify “es” or “de” to see spanish or german messages, respectively.

The option `-e` (`–english`) enables you to force the use of english messages if the script detects german language settings.

The option `-d` (`–debug`) will output additional lines which may help during trouble shooting whereas -q (–quiet) suppresses all output. Errors will result in a non-zero return code.

The option `-I` (`–info`) shows the settings of variables like `prefix`, `datadir` and other things you might have changed during './configure'. In some cases we need to know these values and using this option is easier than searching different files. The option is available starting with PNP 0.6.7.

Each output line will start with a letter indicating the type of information:

`[I]` informational message about settings, things to be done, …
`[A]` actions to be taken
`[W]` warning message
`[E]` error message: PNP will not work without resolving the problem(s)
`[H]` hint: it might be worth reading the appropriate documentation
`[D]` debugging message, hopefully showing the source of your problem

back to contents | web frontend

pnp-0.6:verify_pnp_config

# Nagios web frontend

Of course PNP should be easily accessible. You do not want to search long for the right graph.

Nagios itself features external URLs using so called extended info configs. Due to changes between Nagios 2.x and Nagios 3.x both versions are described.

## Nagios 2.x

With Nagios 2.x the integration of external URLs into the nagios web interface is made using Extended Info Objects for services. For PNP we use the directive action_url to call the PNP web frontend with the appropriate options.

    define serviceextinfo {
       host_name             localhost
       service_description   load
       action_url            /pnp4nagios/index.php/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$
    }

You have to specify an additional Extended Info Definition for every service.

## Nagios 3.x

Since nagios 3.0 the action_url-directive has be moved to the host or service definition. This way the definition of URLs to the PNP-interface has been simplified. The serviceextinfo and hostextinfo definitions are deprecated.

First two nagios templates are defined. If you used the Nagios quickstart installation guides you can append these lines to templates.cfg:

    define host {
       name       host-pnp
       action_url /pnp4nagios/index.php/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=_HOST_
       register   0
    }

    define service {
       name       srv-pnp
       action_url /pnp4nagios/index.php/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$
       register   0
    }

These two templates can now be included via “use srv-pnp” or “use host-pnp” for services and hosts respectively. If you used the quickstart installation guide you might for example edit the file localhost.cfg and add the template to the host or service definition as follows:

    define host{
            use                     linux-server,host-pnp    ; Name of host templates to use
                                                             ; This host definition will inherit all variables that are defined
                                                             ; in (or inherited by) the linux-server host template definition.
            host_name               localhost
            alias                   localhost
            address                 127.0.0.1
            }

    define service{
            use                     local-service,srv-pnp   ; Name of service template to use
            host_name               localhost
            service_description     PING
            check_command           check_ping!100.0,20%!500.0,60%
            }

The links to the correct URLs are created automagically.

Tips: if you want to open the PNP window in your main frame (on the right of the menu) instead of a new page, just set `action_url_target=main` in your nagios cgi.cfg

## Popups

You can integrate PNP into Nagios in a way that you have current graphs without clicking any icons. This can be accomplished using the CGI Includes which allow us to include JavaScript code in the status detail view ( status.cgi ).

Prerequisites:

- PNP is installed and running
- the file status-header.ssi from the contrib/ssi/ folder of the PNP package was copied to /usr/local/nagios/share/ssi/.
  Attention: This file must NOT be executable. Otherwise it will be treated as a CGI which will result in an error.
  *Note to Apache admins*: Apache ssi and Nagios ssi only have a similar name.
- the appropriate service definition(s) has/have been modified. Please note that until Nagios 2.x you have to modify the serviceextinfo definition (which is deprecated starting with Nagios 3).

Definition:

    define host {
       name       host-pnp
       action_url /pnp4nagios/index.php/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=_HOST_' class='tips' rel='/pnp4nagios/index.php/popup?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=_HOST_
       register   0
    }

    define service {
       name       srv-pnp
       action_url /pnp4nagios/index.php/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$' class='tips' rel='/pnp4nagios/index.php/popup?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$
       register   0
    }

After a restart of Nagios (after modifying the definitions) the result might look like this:

back to contents | config options

pnp-0.6:webfe

# PNP Web Frontend

The behaviour of the PNP Web-Frontend can be controlled through the config file `etc/config.php`. This file will be overwritten during updates of PNP as the paths and options are detected during `./configure`.

Own adjustments should be made in `etc/config_local.php`. If this file does not exist the file config.php can be taken as a guideline.

## etc/config.php

Following the most important parameters:

The path to the RRDtool binary. Will be detected by `./configure`

     $conf['rrdtool'] = "/usr/bin/rrdtool";

Height and width of the RRD graphs

     $conf['graph_width'] = "500";
     $conf['graph_height'] = "100";

Screen sizes may vary, pages sizes won't. The following two directives enable you to specify different sizes for the creation of PDFs. If they aren't specified the values of the graph sizes are taken.

     $conf['pdf_width'] = "675";
     $conf['pdf_height'] = "100";

Additional options passed with every call of RRDTool, for example `—-slope-mode` to smooth the graphs

     $conf['graph_opt'] = "";

The path to the RRD and XML files created by `process_perfdata.pl`

     $conf['rrdbase'] = "/usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/perfdata/";

The path to the config file for the pages.

     $conf['page_dir'] = "/usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/pages/";

PNP pages will be refreshed every n seconds

     $conf['refresh'] = "90";

Max. age of RRD files in seconds. After reaching this value links to the graphs will be marked as inactive

     $conf['max_age'] = 60*60*6;

Base URL to the Nagios CGIs

     $conf['nagios_base'] = "/nagios/cgi-bin";

List of users who are allowed to view links to the services of the current host

     $conf['allowed_for_service_links'] = "EVERYONE";

List of users who can view/access the host search field

     $conf['allowed_for_host_search'] = "EVERYONE";

If PNP is called with a host only ( index.php?host=<myserver> ), the defined user is shown an overview of all services related to this host

     $conf['allowed_for_host_overview'] = "EVERYONE";

The periods of time the RRD graphs will show are determined using the array $views[]. The title and number of graphs can be specified globally in this place

    $views[0]["title"] = "4 Hours";
    $views[0]["start"] = ( 60*60*4 );

    $views[1]["title"] = "24 Hours";
    $views[1]["start"] = ( 60*60*24 );

    $views[2]["title"] = "One Week";
    $views[2]["start"] = ( 60*60*24*7 );

    $views[3]["title"] = "One Month";
    $views[3]["start"] = ( 60*60*24*30 );

    $views[4]["title"] = "One Year";
    $views[4]["start"] = ( 60*60*24*365 );

You can add more views ($views[5], …) but please keep in mind that under normal circumstances ALL views you defined are shown.

back to contents | timeranges

pnp-0.6:webfe_cfg

# Timeranges

In the overview PNP shows five timeranges which can be defined in config.php.

Additionally you can influence the timeranges via the URL. This can be useful to automatically create PDF documents. The ranges can be defined using the options “start” and “end”.

Example:

     pnp4nagios/graph?host=<hostname>&srv=<servicedesc>&start=-1week

The graph will start one week prior to the current date and time. It will end at the current timestamp.

start | end | view | result
--- | --- | --- | ---
|  |  | all views ending at current timestamp
x |  |  | all views starting at defined date
| x |  | all views ending at defined date
x | x |  | one view between the two dates
|  | x | one view ending at current timestamp
x |  | x | one view starting at defined date
| x | x | one view ending at defined date

Examples of different specifications

format | description
--- | ---
2009W04 | 4. week of 2009
1.5.2009 | May, 1st 2009
-1 day | one day back
-3 weeks | 3 weeks back
-1 year | one year back
yesterday | yesterday

back to contents | pages

pnp-0.6:timeranges

# Pages

“pages” provide the opportunity to collect graphs of different hosts/services on one page. That way - as an example - you can display the traffic rates of all tape libraries. Regular expressions are possible so you can accomplish a lot with only few definitions - provided that you have appropriate names. The directory specified using “$conf['page_dir']” contains one or more file with the extension ”.cfg”.

Comments start with a hash-sign (#) and are possible within lines as well. Each file contains a “page” definition which specifies the name of the page and it determines whether the following graph definition contains regular expressions or not.
The description behind `page_name` appears in the list of available pages and will be used as title of the browser window. Attention: “host_name” and “service_desc” refer to the name of the file in the perfdata directory, not to the definition in Nagios. Blanks are replaced by underscores (_).

    define page {
           use_regex 1		# 0 = use no regular expressions, 1 = use regular expressions
           page_name test-page	# page description
    }

One or more “graph” definitions follow:

    define graph {
           host_name       host1,host2,host3
           service_desc    Current_Load
    }

Attention: The list of host name will only work if you use `regex 0`!

    define graph {
           host_name       host4
           service_desc    Current_Users
    }

And now some definitions with regular expressions. At first all hosts whose names are starting with “Tape”:

    define graph {
           host_name       ^Tape
           service_desc    Traffic
    }

all hosts whose names are ending with “00”:

    define graph {
           host_name       00$
           service_desc    Load
    }

all services of localhost whose names contain “a” or “o”, respectively:

    define graph {
           host_name       localhost
           service_desc    a|o
    }

all services whose names contain an underscore followed by (at least) three digits on all hosts whose names start with “UX”:

    define graph {
           host_name       ^UX
           service_desc    _\d{3}
    }

back to contents | data export

pnp-0.6:pages

# Data export

PNP provides access to RRD data using the `xport` controller. The output format can be specified. At the moment the formats `xml`, `json` and `csv` are supported.

The controller can be called using the URL

    /pnp4nagios/xport/<format>?host=<hostname>&srv=<servicedesc>

whereas <format> has to be replaced with the desired format.

back to contents | templates

pnp-0.6:xport

# What are templates?

PNP uses templates to influence the appearance of RRD graphs.

The selected check_command determines which template will be used to control the graph. Following will be described where templates are stored and how the decision for the “right” template is made.

## What template will be used when?

Templates are stored at two places in the file system.

- share/templates.dist - for templates included in the PNP package
- share/templates - for custom made templates which are not changed during updates

If the graph for the service “http” on host “localhost” should be shown, PNP will look for the XML file `perfdata/localhost/http.xml` and read its contents. The XML files are created automatically and contain information about the particular host and service. The header contains information about the plugin and the performance data. The XML tag `<TEMPLATE>` identifies which PNP template will be used for this graph.

`/localhost/http.xml`

    <NAGIOS>
      <DATASOURCE>
        <TEMPLATE>check_http</TEMPLATE>
        <DS>1</DS>
        <NAME>time</NAME>
        <UNIT>s</UNIT>
        <ACT>0.006721</ACT>
        <WARN>1.000000</WARN>
        <CRIT>2.000000</CRIT>
        <MIN>0.000000</MIN>
        <MAX></MAX>
      </DATASOURCE>
      <DATASOURCE>
        <TEMPLATE>check_http</TEMPLATE>
        <DS>2</DS>
        <NAME>size</NAME>
        <UNIT>B</UNIT>
        <ACT>263</ACT>
        <WARN></WARN>
        <CRIT></CRIT>
        <MIN>0</MIN>
        <MAX></MAX>
      </DATASOURCE>
    ...
    </NAGIOS>

PNP will look for a template with the name `check_http.php` in the following sequence:

1. templates/check_http.php
2. templates.dist/check_http.php
3. templates/default.php
4. templates.dist/default.php

The template default.php takes an exceptional position as it is used every time no other applicable template is found.

## Creating own templates

PNP templates are PHP files which are included during execution of PNP using the PHP function include(). This means that every PHP code in templates will be interpreted so manipulation of all values is possible.

PNP template must have the following characteristics:

1. templates must contain valid PHP code.
2. templates must not create any output.
3. the two arrays $opt[] and $def[] have to be filled

These two arrays are used to call `'rrdtool graph`' so every option is possible that RRDtool supports. All options of RRDtool are described very thoroughly on the RRDtool Homepage.

If both arrays contain more than one set of data graphs will be created for every set.

Inside the templates the data from the related XML files can be used.

Using the relatively simple template response.php we will describe the most important options.

    <?php
    #
    $opt[1] = "--title \"Response Time For $hostname / $servicedesc\" ";
    #
    $def[1] =  "DEF:var1=$RRDFILE[1]:$DS[1]:AVERAGE " ;
    $def[1] .= "AREA:var1#00FF00:\"Response Times \" " ;
    $def[1] .= "LINE1:var1#000000 " ;
    $def[1] .= "GPRINT:var1:LAST:\"%3.4lg %s$UNIT[1] LAST \" ";
    $def[1] .= "GPRINT:var1:MAX:\"%3.4lg %s$UNIT[1] MAX \" ";
    $def[1] .= "GPRINT:var1:AVERAGE:\"%3.4lg %s$UNIT[1] AVERAGE \" ";
    ?>

Note: as the number (1) and the letter “L” look alike in this listing: the format ”%3.4lg” contains a small letter.

`$opt[1] = ”–title …` sets RRDtool options for the first set of data, here the title as you can see. Embedded quotes are masked using a backslash (\). The variables `$hostname` and `$servicedesc` were determined through the call of PNP and are available for the template as well.

`$def[1] = “DEF:var1=$RRDFILE[1]:$DS[1]:AVERAGE ”;` defines which data is to be read from which RRD file. $RRDFILE[1] contains the path to the RRD file of this service. $DS[1] refers to the first data series from the RRD file.

`$def[1] .= “AREA:var1#00FF00:\”Response Times \” ”;` the operator ”.=” appends more data to the array $def[1]. An area will be drawn using data from the variable `var1`. The color is defined in HEX notation #00FF00 (red, green, blue). The label is “Response Times”.

`$def[1] .= “LINE1:var1#000000 ”;` As completion of the just drawn area a line (LINE1) will be drawn in black (#000000).

`$def[1] .= “GPRINT:var1:LAST:\”%3.4lg %s$UNIT[1] LAST \” ”;
$def[1] .= “GPRINT:var1:MAX:\”%3.4lg %s$UNIT[1] MAX \” ”;
$def[1] .= “GPRINT:var1:AVERAGE:\”%3.4lg %s$UNIT[1] AVERAGE \” ”;`

The three GPRINT lines build up the caption for the graph. The current values are formatted using the printf syntax.

## Available variables

Using the data collector `process_perfdata.pl` PNP stores not only performance data but other values exported by Nagios. These values are stored in the XML file associated to the appropriate service.

In the first part of the XML file the performance data is stored in separate components.

    <NAGIOS>
      <DATASOURCE>
        <TEMPLATE>check_http</TEMPLATE>
        <DS>1</DS>
        <NAME>time</NAME>
        <UNIT>s</UNIT>
        <ACT>0.006721</ACT>
        <WARN>1.000000</WARN>
        <CRIT>2.000000</CRIT>
        <MIN>0.000000</MIN>
        <MAX></MAX>
      </DATASOURCE>
    ....
    </NAGIOS>

The field <DS> designates the data source and is used to identify the data series of the RRD files and is the key of the following arrays as well.

The array `$UNIT[1]` contains the unit of measurement of the first data series.

The XML file contains other information. When process_perfdata.pl is used in default mode all available macros are at hand with the current values. For the benefit of readability the following lines show only an extract.

    <NAGIOS>
    ...
      <NAGIOS_SERVICENOTIFICATIONID>8418</NAGIOS_SERVICENOTIFICATIONID>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICENOTIFICATIONNUMBER>0</NAGIOS_SERVICENOTIFICATIONNUMBER>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICEOUTPUT>HTTP OK HTTP/1.1 200 OK - 10087 bytes in 0.125 seconds</NAGIOS_SERVICEOUTPUT>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICEPERCENTCHANGE>0.00</NAGIOS_SERVICEPERCENTCHANGE>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICEPERFDATA>time=0.124811s;;;0.000000 size=10087B;;;0</NAGIOS_SERVICEPERFDATA>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICEPERFDATAFILE></NAGIOS_SERVICEPERFDATAFILE>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICEPROBLEMID>0</NAGIOS_SERVICEPROBLEMID>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICESTATE>OK</NAGIOS_SERVICESTATE>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICESTATEID>0</NAGIOS_SERVICESTATEID>
      <NAGIOS_SERVICESTATETYPE>HARD</NAGIOS_SERVICESTATETYPE>
      <NAGIOS_SHORTDATETIME>27-12-2007 13:51:23</NAGIOS_SHORTDATETIME>
    ...
    </NAGIOS>

The various XML fields can be used as variables in the PNP templates. Each field is available as a variable with the same name.

The value of the field `<NAGIOS_SERVICEOUTPUT>` is available as the variable `$NAGIOS_SERVICEOUTPUT`.

back to contents | custom templates

pnp-0.6:tpl

# Custom Templates

As already described under ”What are templates ?” the appearance of graphs depends on the check command used.

There are situations where this behaviour must be overruled. This has to be done when universal commands have been defined.

## CUSTOM_TEMPLATE

Example:

    define command {
      command_name check_nrpe
      command_line $USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -C $ARG1$ -a "$ARG2$"
    }

This would lead to a call of the check_nrpe.php template even when the monitored host would use a completely different plugin which is called via NRPE.

PNP, especially process_perfdata.pl, will search for a config file (<check_command>.cfg) in the etc/check_commands directory and read its contents (if available).

As our example command is called check_nrpe it will be searched for etc/check_commands/check_nrpe.cfg.

During installation a sample config file with the extension .cfg-sample is copied to etc/check_commands.

Two options can be set in this config file:

    # check_command check_nrpe!load!-w 4,4,4 -c 5,5,5
    # ________0__________|       |       |
    # ________1__________________|       |
    # ________2__________________________|
    #
    CUSTOM_TEMPLATE = 1

`CUSTOM_TEMPLATE = 1` assures that only the contents of $ARG1$ will be used as a template name. As $ARG1$ contains “load” in this example the template name would result in “load.php”.

`CUSTOM_TEMPLATE = 0,1` results in → “check_nrpe_load.php”

`CUSTOM_TEMPLATE = 1,0` results in → “load_check_nrpe.php”

## DATATYPE

The option “DATATYPE” controls the datatype which is used during creation of the RRD database. Default is “GAUGE”. For consecutive values the type should be “COUNTER”. Plugin-developers should use the unit “c” for counters but this is not always the case.

To set all datasources to COUNTER

    DATATYPE = COUNTER

Setting datasources to different types

    DATATYPE = GAUGE,GAUGE,COUNTER,COUNTER

This option has effect only during creation of the RRD database.

More datatypes are explained in the RRDTool documentation found at rrdcreate.

## MIN and MAX

In a few situations it might be necessary to limit the values which are valid for RRDTool.

RRD databases can be created with fixed minimum and maximum values. You will find further details at http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/doc/rrdcreate.en.html.

Account for the maximum value taken from the performance data

    USE_MAX_ON_CREATE = 1

Account for the minimum value taken from the performance data

    USE_MIN_ON_CREATE = 1

## RRD_STORAGE_TYPE

    RRD_STORAGE_TYPE = SINGLE

The option RRD_STORAGE_TYPE defines the kind of data storage.

Possible values are MULTIPLE and SINGLE, respectively.

SINGLE: A RRD database per service

MULTIPLE: One or more RRD databases per service. Each datasource will be stored in a separate RRD database.

ATTENTION: The data will not be migrated automatically! You will find a conversion script here.

## RRD_HEARTBEAT

Starting with PNP 0.6.1

    RRD_HEARTBEAT = 305

After <RRD_HEARTBEAT> seconds RRDtool expects new data.

More information at http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/doc/rrdcreate.en.html

back to contents | PNP in distributed environments

pnp-0.6:tpl_custom

# Distributed Systems

If Nagios is implemented as a distributed system you have to decide where PNP should be installed.

From a technical view this question is not important. PNP can be installed on the slave(s) as well as on the master server. Or only on the master?

If PNP is running on the master you have to make sure that data passed via send_nsca from the slave server(s) contains performance data. Often another check command is used on the master.

To help PNP on the master to recognize which check command was used on the slave to collect the information process_perfdata.pl responds to an additional field at the end of the performance data.

    OK - 127.0.0.1: rta 2.687ms, lost 0% | rta=2.687ms;3000.000;5000.000;0; pl=0%;80;100;; [check_icmp]

If PNP finds a string enclosed in brackets at the end of performance data it will be recognized as check command and will be used as PNP template.

Nagios documentation related to this topic can be found here. The command used in the documentation can be adapted easily.

    define command{
    	command_name	submit_check_result
    	command_line	/usr/local/nagios/libexec/eventhandlers/submit_check_result $HOSTNAME$ '$SERVICEDESC$' $SERVICESTATE$ '$SERVICEOUTPUT$'
    	}

should be changed to

    define command{
    	command_name	submit_check_result
    	command_line	/usr/local/nagios/libexec/eventhandlers/submit_check_result $HOSTNAME$ '$SERVICEDESC$' $SERVICESTATE$ '$SERVICEOUTPUT$ | $SERVICEPERFDATA$ [$SERVICECHECKCOMMAND$]'
    	}

# check_multi plugin

The plugin check_multi is one of the first plugins which uses new features of Nagios 3.x. Check_multi can execute multiple Nagios plugins but returns only results like a single service. The output of check_multi comprises of several lines to be able to display the amount of information.

This results in some difficulties for PNP which has to extract the information of several plugins from the performance data. Together with Matthias Flacke, developer of check_multi, we have found a solution to assign the data to the appropriate plugins.

back to contents | support of rrdcached

pnp-0.6:advanced

# RRDtool Cache Daemon

In large installations sooner or later one will recognize that processing the performance data will result in a relatively high I/O load. RRDtool has to do very much disk updates but cannot use the disk cache in an optimal way.

One improvement is made by collecting and sorting the data. It is more effective to write many updates to an RRD database in one block. The disk cache can be used more effectively that way.

The current RRDtool ( SVN trunk 1550+ ) contains rrdcached which should improve exactly this situation.

At this point I'd like to thank Florian octo Forster, Kevin Brintnall and Tobi Oetiker. The development of this daemon has been coordinated exemplary on the rrd-developers mailing list.

## Mode of operation

The rrdcached is working as a daemon in the background and opens a UNIX or TCP socket to wait for requests of rrdtool. Due to security reasons newer versions of rrdcached cannot use absolute paths for network access anymore so the only possible way are unix sockets.

### rrdcached

rrdcached recognizes some important options which are passed during startup.

Option -l defines the socket the daemon will listen for update requests. The default TCP port will be 42217.

    -l unix:/path/to/rrdcached.sock
    -l /path/to/rrdcached.sock
    -l 127.0.0.1
    -l 127.0.0.1:8888

Option -P specifies which commands are usable with the RRD data bases

    -P FLUSH,PENDING

Option -s allows to change the group ownership of the unix socket

    -s nagios

Option -m sets the permissions of the unix socket in the usual octal format

    -m 0660

Option -w specifies the interval (in seconds) the data will be written to disk.

    -w 1800

Option -z defines a maximum delay which will be used to spread the write cycles over a certain range [0-delay] to avoid parallel write accesses. The value of option -z must not be larger than -w.

    -z 1800

Option -p defines a PID file

    -p /var/run/rrdcached.pid

Option -j defines the path to a journaling directory. All requests will be logged there so that they can be processed after a restart in case the daemon crashes.

    -j /var/cache/rrdcached

These options may result in a call of rrdcached with the following parameters

     rrdcached -w 1800 -z 1800 -p /tmp/rrdcached.pid -j /tmp  -s nagios -m 0660 -l unix:/tmp/rrdcached.sock

### rrdtool

RRDtool itself will be informed about the daemon using the option –daemon=<socket>.

     rrdtool --daemon=unix:/tmp/rrdcached.sock update ...

Of course this has to correspond with the options of rrdcached!

## Integration into PNP

Because two components of PNP have to prepared for the use of rrdcached there are changes in two config files.

1. Adjustment of process_perfdata.cfg for the data collector process_perfdata.pl

    # EXPERIMENTAL rrdcached Support
    # Use only with rrdtool svn revision 1511+
    #
    RRD_DAEMON_OPTS = unix:/var/run/rrdcached.sock

2. Adjustment of config_local.php (or config.php) for the web interface

    #
    # EXPERIMENTAL rrdcached Support
    # Use only with rrdtool svn revision 1511+
    #
    # $conf['RRD_DAEMON_OPTS'] = 'unix:/tmp/rrdcached.sock';
    $conf['RRD_DAEMON_OPTS'] = 'unix:/var/run/rrdcached.sock';

The sample files contain the relevant options.

back to contents | migrating RRD files

pnp-0.6:rrdcached

# NPCD

NPCD (Nagios-Perfdata-C-Daemon) was written to provide an asynchronous mode to handle performance data with `nagios`.

## Introduction

In large nagios installations, your average check latency may increase to a non-acceptable high value. This means that Nagios should do a check at time `x` but actually does it `y` seconds later.

If you tell the Nagios core that you want to process the performance data after every single check this is doing well for a certain amount of checks but above this limit you will run into latency problems.

To reduce the number of actions for each check you can use the Bulk Mode which gathers performance data for some time and then lets the `Nagios core` execute the `<host|service>_perfdata_file_processing_command` or you can tell Nagios to just move the `perfdata_files` to a spool directory.

This move is a very fast action for the `Nagios core` and the `core` will be done with the processing of performance data and can continue to do what it should do: execute other checks, sending notifications, and so on.

## How it works

As mentioned above the Nagios process has finished its work with moving the performance data file to a spool directory but this won't bring the data into the RRD files.

For this task you can start `npcd` to have a look at the defined spool directory and start an action for every file which is found.

After NPCD starts running it will build a list of filenames found in `perfdata_spool_dir` and starts new threads for every filename and executes the `perfdata_file_run_cmd` with the optional `perfdata_file_run_cmd_arg` as an additional argument.

Since the perfdata files in the spool dir are in the same format as for the 'normal' bulk mode NPCD should execute `process_perfdata.pl` in Bulk Mode.

## Advantages / Disadvantages

Pro:

- Performance improvements for Nagios
  - because the performance data processing is detached from the `Nagios core` it has more time for its own work.
- no lost data
  - as long as `Nagios` writes perfdata files to the spool dir your data won't get lost if NPCD dies or you forgot to start it after a system reboot. NPCD will start with the first file found (they are sorted by the $TIME_T$ macro in chronological order) and update your RRD Files.

Con:

- no real time processing of performance data
  - since there is a delay in writing the performance data files by `Nagios` (`service_perfdata_file_processing_interval`)
  - another delay exists within NPCD which waits for up to 10 seconds after each directory scanning

# NPCD Config

You have to control NPCD with its own configuration file like the rolled out `npcd.cfg-sample` file.

Just rename it to `npcd.cfg` to start NPCD like this:

    /usr/local/pnp4nagios/bin/npcd -f /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg

or

    /usr/local/pnp4nagios/bin/npcd -d -f /usr/local/pnp4nagios/etc/npcd.cfg

to run in Daemon Mode (background).

Hint: If you decide to not rename the config file, it might be overwritten by a future update of PNP.

## npcd.cfg-sample

These are the essential configuration directives for NPCD:

    # Privilege Options
    user = nagios
    group = nagios

    # Logging Options
    log_type = syslog
    log_file = /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/npcd.log
    max_logfile_size = 10485760
    log_level=0

    # Processing Options
    perfdata_spool_dir = /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool/
    perfdata_file_run_cmd = /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec/process_perfdata.pl
    perfdata_file_run_cmd_args = -b

    # Thread Options
    npcd_max_threads=5

    # greedy options
    use_load_threshold = 0
    load_threshold = 10.0

    # Process Options
    pid_file=/var/run/npcd.pid

## The directives

- Privilege Options
  - user <username>
    - NPCD tries to drop 'root' privileges to switch to this user.
    - default: nagios
  - group <groupname>
    - NPCD tries to drop 'root' privileges to switch to this group.
    - Default: nagios
- Logging Options
  - log_type <syslog> or <file>
    - Log type that is uses by NPCD
    - Default: syslog
  - log_file </path/to/filename>
    - if `log_type = file` this will be the logfile used
    - Default: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/npcd.log
  - max_logfile_size <bytes>
    - NPCD will rotate the logfile if the filesize of the current log is above this limit
    - Default: 10485760 = 10 MByte
  - log_level <integer>
    - how much to log, possible values:
      - 0 = No Log - except errors
      - 1 = small Log - some more output
      - 2 = more Log (actual ALL log messages)
      - -1 = DEBUG Mode - ALL Logs and slower processing for debugging purposes
    - Default: 0
- Processing Options
  - perfdata_spool_dir </path/to/spool/dir/>
    - The directory where the perfdata file should be found
    - Default: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/var/spool/
  - perfdata_file_run_cmd </path/to/bin/filename>
    - This is the script/binary that NPCD will execute
    - Default: /usr/local/pnp4nagios/libexec/process_perfdata.pl
  - perfdata_file_run_cmd_args <option>
    - The argument added to the perfdata_file_run_cmd
    - Default: ”-b”
    - The command line will be created like this:

          <perfdata_file_run_cmd> <perfdata_file_run_cmd_args> <filename_from_perfdata_spool_dir>

- Thread Options
  - npcd_max_threads <integer value>
    - Defines how many parallel threads should be started
    - Default: 5
- Greedy Options
  - use_load_threshold <0 or 1>
    - defines if NPCD should _not_ start new threads if your system load is too high
      - 0 = disable
      - 1 = enable
    - Default: 0
  - load_threshold <float value>
    - if `use_load_threshold` is set to 1 this load limit must not be exceeded
    - Default: 10.0
- Process Options
  - pid_file </path/to/pid.file>
    - the path to the PID File
    - Default: /var/run/npcd.pid

back to contents | wrapper script

pnp-0.6:npcd

check_procs is an example for a plugin which doesn't deliver performance data:

    ./check_procs -a ndo2db -w 1: -c 0:
    PROCS OK: 2 processes with args 'ndo2db'

This can be changed with the following wrapper script

check_procs.sh

    #!/bin/bash
    LINE=`/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_procs $*`
    RC=$?
    COUNT=`echo $LINE | awk '{print $3}'`
    echo $LINE \| procs=$COUNT
    exit $RC

Now you'll get the number together with the required label

    ./check_procs.sh -a ndo2db -w 1: -c 0:
    PROCS OK: 2 processes with args 'ndo2db'| procs=2

pnp-0.6:wrapper

2.6. Performance data

Performance data is defined by Nagios as “everything after the | of the plugin output” - please refer to Nagios documentation for information on capturing this data to logfiles. However, it is the responsibility of the plugin writer to ensure the performance data is in a “Nagios plugins” format. This is the expected format:

'label'=value[UOM];[warn];[crit];[min];[max]

Notes:

1. space separated list of label/value pairs
2. label can contain any characters
3. the single quotes for the label are optional. Required if spaces, = or ' are in the label
4. label length is arbitrary, but ideally the first 19 characters are unique (due to a limitation in RRD). Be aware of a limitation in the amount of data that NRPE returns to Nagios
5. to specify a quote character, use two single quotes
6. warn, crit, min/ or max/ may be null (for example, if the threshold is not defined or min and max do not apply). Trailing unfilled semicolons can be dropped
7. min and max are not required if UOM=%
8. value, min and max in class [-0-9.]. Must all be the same UOM
9. warn and crit are in the range format (see Section 2.5). Must be the same UOM
10. UOM (unit of measurement) is one of:
    - no unit specified - assume a number (int or float) of things (eg, users, processes, load averages)
    - s - seconds (also us, ms)
    - % - percentage
    - B - bytes (also KB, MB, TB, GB?)
    - c - a continous counter (such as bytes transmitted on an interface)

It is up to third party programs to convert the Nagios plugins performance data into graphs.

Origin: http://nagiosplug.sourceforge.net/developer-guidelines.html#AEN201

pnp-0.6:perfdata_format