Config changes not taking effect

[weloki]

I had set a warning threshold for total processes to be 250, but then decided to increase it to 350 once I saw what was a typical number for certain boxes. I edited the config files and restarted nagios but nothing has changed in the web interface and I keep getting notification emails about boxes moving back and forth from Warning states to OK states as it crosses the old threshold of 250. I don't understand why the new config isn't taking - is it possible that the old configs are stuck in the database backend?

[jsmurphy]

Nagios doesn't actually read from the database it only writes to it, the database is for plugins to use and Nagios will always use the flat files. If you are using a config manager then occasionally the config manager will fail to update files properly so the file that nagios is reading hasn't been updated... if you are using NagiosQL then take a look at the file for that service in /usr/local/nagios/etc/services/. Alternatively, ensure that the total proc size isn't set statically in the NRPE config file, I think we've all done that once .

I think one of these two is most likely your problem.

[weloki]

It turns out the total proc size threshold was set statically in the NRPE server config file on the hosts being monitored. Editing that to match what was set on the Nagios server fixed the issue.
Thank you for the reply and hopefully this will help someone in the future.