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Monitoring objects Configuration : Main Objects
   
Main objects
The configuration is based on objects. There are several types of objects, each one defining different things in the monitoring process.
Each object consists of a object name and a couple of variables that needs to be configured.
For example on a host object you configure
host name
address
notifications
active checks
etc.
In Configure you can
add new objects
modify existing objects
remove existing objects.
A lot of objects can be cross referenced in the configuration and Configure helps you with this too.
In most of the listings you will find a small text field called Filter by regular expression. Use this to filter out the content you are interested in when viewing the different lists.
Required directives
All objects have a list of directives that are required when adding a new object. The other directives can be left out. They will then get the op5 Monitor defaults value.
This does not mean you have to set every directive for every object. One solution is called templates. They make it a lot easier to manage a large set of objects. Read more about templates in Using templates on page 59.
Hosts
Hosts are one of the central objects in the monitoring logic. Important attributes of hosts are as follows:
Hosts are usually physical or virtual devices on your network (servers, workstations, routers, switches, printers, etc) but it could be practically anything you can reach and monitor from the op5 Monitor server.
Hosts have an address of some kind, IP address or host name.
Hosts does not need a service directly associated to them, the services can be inherited from a hostgroup. A host can also exist without services.
Hosts can have parent/child relationships with other hosts, often representing real-world network connections, which is used in the network reachability logic.
Required directives
The following directives are required for a host object.
host_name
address
max_check_attempts
check_period
contacts
contact_groups
notification_interval
notification_period
The table below describes the required directives for the host object
 
Directive
Type
Description
host_name
string
This is the id of the object. I may not contain any space in the value.
alias
string
A more describing name for the object.
address
string
The address the host is reached by, preferably an IP address to make sure the host is reachable even if the DNS is down.
max_check_attempts
integer
Is used to define the number of times op5 Monitor will retry checking the host if it returns any kind of problem state. Setting this value to 1 will cause op5 Monitor alert directly without any retry.
check_period
time_period
During this period the host is checked. It can be any time period defined in op5 Monitor.
contacts
contact
Single contacts used to send notifications to and gives access to this host for users who do not have access to all hosts.
contact_groups
contact_group
Contact groups used to send notifications to and gives access to this host for users who do not have access to all hosts.
notification_interval
integer
Number of minutes between renotifications. Set this to 0 if you only want to have one notification sent out.
notification_period
time_period
During this period the notifications are sent out if any alerts are created. It can be any time period defined in op5 Monitor.
Services
A service can be practically any thing that you can measure and monitor on a host. It is almost only your imagination and programming skills that sets the limit for what you can monitor with a service.
A service
must be connected to a host
can check things by tcp, agents, snmp etc.
use a check command (Commands on page 44) to communicate with the plugin (Plugins on page 45) that gets all the data.
Required directives
The following directives are required for a service object.
host_name
service_description
check_command
max_check_attempts
check_interval
retry_interval
check_period
notification_interval
notification_period
contacts
contact_groups
The table below describes the required directives for the host object
Directive
Type
Description
host_name
host_name object
The host the service is connected to.
service_description
string
This is the id of the object. It must be unique on a host but may be reused on other hosts.
check_command
command object
This is the short name of the command that is executed during service checks.
max_check_attempts
integer
Is used to define the number of times op5 Monitor will retry checking the host if it returns any kind of problem state. Setting this value to 1 will cause op5 Monitor alert directly without any retry.
check_interval
integer
The number of minutes between normal service checks.
retry_interval
integer
The number of minutes between retry checks when a service has gone into a problem state before the state becomes hard.
check_period
time_period
During this period the service is checked. It can be any time period defined in op5 Monitor.
contacts
contact
Single contacts used to send notifications to and gives access to this host for users who do not have access to all hosts.
contact_groups
contact_group
Contact groups used to send notifications to and gives access to this host for users who do not have access to all hosts.
notification_interval
integer
Number of minutes between renotifications. Set this to 0 if you only want to have one notification sent out.
notification_period
time_period
During this period the notifications are sent out if any alerts are created. It can be any time period defined in op5 Monitor.
 
Contacts
A contact is used for two purposes:
to send notifications to
permissions to view a objects in the monitoring part of op5 Monitor.
A contact is not the same as the login account given access rights to the system.
Required directives
The following directives are required for a service object.
contact_name
host_notifications_enabled
service_notifications_enabled
host_notification_period
service_notification_period
host_notification_options
service_notification_options
host_notification_commands
service_notification_commands
The table below describes the required directives for the host object
Directive
Type
Description
contact_name
string
The id of the contact object.
host_notifications_enabled
yes/no
Used to determine whether or not the contact will receive notifications about host problems and recoveries.
service_notifications_enabled
yes/no
Used to determine whether or not the contact will receive notifications about service problems and recoveries.
host_notification_period
time_period object
The time period when the contact will receive any host notifications.
service_notification_period
time_period object
The time period when the contact will receive any service notifications.
host_notification_options
Down, Unreachable, Recovery, Flapping start and stop, Scheduled downtime start and stop
 
Used to set what type of host notifications the contact shall receive.
service_notification_options
Critical, Warning, Unknown, Recovery, Flapping start and stop, Scheduled downtime start and stop
 
Used to set what type of service notifications the contact shall receive.
host_notification_commands
command object
The command used to send the host notifications
service_notification_commands
command object
The command used to send the service notifications.
notification_period
time_period
During this period the notifications are sent out if any alerts are created. It can be any time period defined in op5 Monitor.
 
Local users
Local users are user accounts that makes it possible to login to the op5 Monitor GUI using the default driver. For more information about drivers see LDAP Integration chapter
Local users does not have any thing to do with notifications or the permissions of viewing objects in op5 Monitor.
Local users can be connected to a contact by giving the username the same name as the id (contact_name) of a contact.
A local user can also be created by checking the box “Configure access rights for this contact” when creating a contact.
Required directives
The following directives are required for a access rights object.
username
password
The table below describes the required directives for the host object.
Directive
Type
Description
username
string
The username is the id of the access rights and also used as login username.
password
string
The password is used for the login.
Group Rights
Group rights determents the permission the user will have. For more information about group right, see Authorization on page 50
Time periods
Time periods is time defining objects that span over a week. You can define included time for each day of the week in the time period definition.
You can also:
use already defined time periods as excludes
add exceptions based on dates and ranges of days
The time period objects are used at many places in the configuration. Most noticeably are in the contact objects where the time periods defines when notifications should be sent out.
You can also use time periods to define when a service or a host should be monitored or when you are creating reports.
A time period in detail
The following tables describes the directives of a time period and how to use them.
The table below describes the first part of directives of a time period.
Directive/option
Description
timeperiod_name
short name of the time period
alias
descriptive name of the time period
Monday to Sunday
which time to include for each day. you can define multiple times by separating them with comma. Example 00:00-01:00,03:00-06:00
Exception type
Specify what type of exception you want to use; Date or Day
Depending on what kind of exception type you have chosen you will get different settings choices. The two lists below describes them all.
The table below describes the exception part of a time period.
Directive/option
Description
exclude
Other predefined time period definitions that should be excluded from this time period.
Exception type
Specify what type of exception you want to use; Date or Day
The table below describes exception by Date:
Directive/option
Description
Interval
Choose Single ate or Date range
Date
Choose the date that is supposed to be used in this Exception.
From date
If you chosen date range you will here set the start date To date.
To date
If you chosen date range you will here set the end date.
Frequency
How often the exception is repeated. Valid values are positive integers greater than one. E.g:
Date range "2012-01-01 - 2012-12-31 / 5" means every fifth day of 2012.
Day range "1 monday march - 3 sunday may / 3" means every third day between the first monday and the third sunday every month.
Date range "2012-06-01 / 14" means every 14th day from first of june 2012. Note that this exception has no end.
Hours
Which time to include for this exception. You can define multiple times by separating them with comma. Example:
00:00-01:00,03:00-06:00
The table below describes exception by Day:
Directive/option
Description
Interval
Choose Single day or a Day range
Weekday
Choose the weekday that is supposed to be used in this Exception.
From weekday
If you chosen Day range you will here set the start day.
To weekday
If you chosen Day range you will here set the end day.
Frequency
How often the exception is repeated. Valid values are positive integers greater than one. E.g:
Date range "2012-01-01 - 2012-12-31 / 5" means every fifth day of 2012.
Day range "1 monday march - 3 sunday may / 3" means every third day between the first monday and the third sunday every month.
Date range "2012-06-01 / 14" means every 14th day from first of june 2012. Note that this exception has no end.
Hours
Which time to include for this exception. You can define multiple times by separating them with comma.
Example: 00:00-01:00,03:00-06:00
Commands
A command is exactly what it sounds like. It can use macros and arguments. Mostly they are used with services but they can actually be used as
service or host check command
notification command
event handler
obsession.
Directives
A command has got only two directives
command_name
command_line
 
Directive
Description
command_name
This is the id of the command and also the name shown in Configure.
command_line
is the actual command line used by the services, notifications, event handlers and obsession.
 
Plugins
Plugins are compiled executable or scripts that can be run from a command line to check the status of a host or service.
There are many plugins included in the op5 Monitor software. A list of the plugins can be found in the list-of-plugins at the support section at www.op5.com.
If you are looking for a plugin not found in op5 Monitor by default there are a bunch of other places to look
contact op5 for a specific development
www.op5.org
exchange.nagios.org
You can use any plugin written for Nagios but you might need to modify them a bit before they work in the op5 Monitor environment.
Plugin search
To search the plugins that are shipped with op5 Monitor or added afterwards to to Plugin Search on the main configuration page
From this page you may
See the support levels of the plugins and see descriptions of the plugins.
The support levels are descriped in Support levels on page 107.