Why is NagVis so out of version with NagiosXI

[gpi]

Hi,

I would like some of the features found in the latest stable of NagVis on my NagiosXi, but it seems that the integration of NagVis with NagiosXI has not been updated in years...

Any reason for this behaviour??? can we update our NagVis manually and still get support by the NagiosXI that we have purchased?

Thanks,
Carlos.

[lmiltchev]

NagVis hasn't been updated in XI for a while because it is not a "priority" project. We are indeed planning on upgrading the version of NagVis that ships with XI. Unfortunately, I don't have an ETA on this. I know that NagVis won't be upgraded in the upcoming XI 5, but it is possible that it will be upgraded in the next major release.
You can try upgrading it yourself, however if issues arise because of it, we cannot guarantee that we can help you. We will definitely try, the the NagVis "portion" of XI won't be officially supported.

[gpi]

Thanks,

But I personally find it a shame, since for many customers where I have implemented Nagios, NagVis is a critical part of the nagios infrastructure, as first you setup all your alarms in nagios, and then start adding maps with the physical and logical infrastructure, which helps to diagnose incidents.

Also I implement Balanced ScoreCards in Nagvis, which is something that Management always asks for, is there any other way to implement BSC in NagiosXI without using NagVis????

[jdalrymple]

I am looking at a sample of balanced score cards (still not exactly sure of the purpose, but that's unimportant) and I don't see any reason that can't be handled with the existing version of NagVis.

What features are in the updated versions of NagVis that you need to see in NagiosXI for it to be useful in your environment. If it sounds valuable enough to the development team it could potentially put a bit of a priority on updating that component.

As an addition to what lmiltchev said - NagVis and other add on components developed by 3rd parties are more difficult for us to implement upgrades for because we can't be certain that upgrading the component won't require special reconfigurations for that specific component. It's much easier for us to work through the components developed in house because we can guarantee a smooth upgrade/transition.

[gpi]

Hi jdalrymple,

The features that have been added to the latest versions of NagVis are not "critical", but they are "much needed", one is the ability to escalate the map automatically (parameter FIT=YES) to the display window, therefore very useful to display a map from on a Tablet, Phone, or a monitoring operations TV, without having to do different size versions of the same map (as it is the actual workaround).

Also, the state bar at the top is fixed on the actual version, and it has now been changed to a floating bar which scrolls down with the window (very useful when editing a big map).

Apart from this 2 features which are mostly needed for BYOD devices, it also brings the opportunity to implement customized gadgets programmed in PHP in nagvis (so we can build intelligent controls: like a graphical dynamic cluster-aware monitor), apart from the usual speed improvements and fixes with a continued developed product.

-We need the balanced scorecards because in Spain it is very common to give a central reporting point of the infrastructure to the IT Managers, and the most visually impacting way to implement this in nagios is via NagVis:
-To have a graphical central control, with tip of the iceberg structure, where you can drill down on further maps from the top view (logical) down to the physical layer of an infrastructure.

I think you could also sell better NagiosXI, by boosting the newer capabilites of NagVis, but this is just an opinion ;o)

[tmcdonald]

At the end of the day it is up to the devs what NagVis version we use. A lot of it comes down to compatibility, but I'll be sure to send this to them and push a conversation.