Agent based monitoring user creation

[ranjitw]

Hi All,

We are planning to monitor windows servers using NSClient++ and Linux servers using NRPE .

After installing NSClient++ on windows machine do I also need to create a user on the windows machine with administrator privilege ?

How will the Nagios XI server get the information from the windows server where NSClient++ is installed.

Regads,
Ranjit W

[lmiltchev]

After installing NSClient++ on windows machine do I also need to create a user on the windows machine with administrator privilege ?

No, you don't.

How will the Nagios XI server get the information from the windows server where NSClient++ is installed.

You will need to configure the "NSclient++" agent on the Windows machine. Review our documentation on the topic here:

https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ios-XI.pdf

You can also browse the NSClient++ documentation here:

http://www.nsclient.org/documentation/

After you are done with configuring NSClient++, from the Nagios XI web UI you can simply run the "Windows Server" or "Windows Desktop" monitoring wizards.

[ranjitw]

HI ,

I have installed NSClient++ on the windows server and able to monitor it using Nagios XI but wanted to understand how Nagios XI is able to run commands on the windows machine able to get the information from server ?

Is it getting the information from the assigned port ?

If its not using any user account how is it able to execute a command and get information ? Please help me in understanding these points .

Regards,
Ranjit W

[karthek]

As per my understanding this is how it works:

Nsclient will have the same rights on the machine as the user with which it is installed.

ex: 1) if it is installed with admin account then the nsclient will be able to perform/execute all the commands/scripts on the win machine and throw back the results to xi.
2) If it was installed with other user, the permissions might be limited.

[lmiltchev]

It doesn't really matter how you install NSClient++ - logged in as administrator or another user. The service runs as a local system account. Two main tcp ports are in use: 12489 (for check_nt) and 5666 (for check_nrpe).

[karthek]

It doesn't really matter how you install NSClient++ - logged in as administrator or another user. The service runs as a local system account. Two main tcp ports are in use: 12489 (for check_nt) and 5666 (for check_nrpe).

This means the agent will have full system rights on the machine and will have the ability to perform any task on the system. Right?

[tmcdonald]

In theory, running as SYSTEM does grant a rather high amount of access to the agent, yes. But it only has the permissions to do so, it has not necessarily been designed to do so. It should only be running the plugins you have installed, and running them when called by Nagios.

[ranjitw]

Hi tmcdonald ,

Thanks for your response. Please confirm if my understanding is correct ?

Nagios XI uses tcp ports : 12489 (for check_nt) and 5666 (for check_nrpe) to communicate to the server and run the commands on the machine using local system user to get the needed information.

Regards,
Ranjit W

[jdalrymple]

All of those points are correct!

[ranjitw]

Thank you . Final confirmation In any of agent based monitoring do we need to create user on the server ?

Regards,
Ranjit W