Possible to change columns in host status display?

[lynrob]

I am new to Nagios and would like to add a "last state change" column to the host status table that is displayed under host detail in the "Home" tab. I have looked around and have been unable to find any information about modifying these displays. Along the same lines, I have added free variables to some of my host definitions and would like to display them in the pop up that occur when one hovers over nodes on the various maps. Can this be done? If not, where are the free variables displayed? I can't find them anywhere except in the host definitions themselves. Thanks!!

[mguthrie]

The "Duration" field in the host/service status tables is the calculated time since the last state change.

I think you might have better luck adding the custom info for hosts in the "note" field, instead of the custom variable field. You generally don't want custom variables displayed in the front end because a lot of times people use those for usernames and passwords or other private data that's used in a check. What kind of extra info are you looking to display on the maps?

[lynrob]

Thanks for your reply. We plan to use Nagios XI to monitor, among other things, our WAN circuits. I have created free variables for Circuit ID, Carrier, Circuit Speed, Local Contact, etc. that I would like to make available to our NOC operators in the event of an outage. As an experiment, I have put some of the free variable info in the notes field as, for example, "$_host_carrier$ $_host_CktID$" but I have not yet figured out where or how it might be displayed in the front end. Where are the pop-up windows that appear when one hovers over map nodes defined? Am I right in assuming that they can be modified or are they fixed? I'm not locked into using free variables and I am open to any method that might let me display node specific details when an alert occurs. Thanks for any advice you might have.

[mguthrie]

Well there's a few different issues here. Do you want to be able to display the custom variables in the status text in the XI interface, or in the alerts? Custom variables in alerts can already be done.
http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagi ... iables.pdf

[lynrob]

I think I made a poor choice of words in my earlier post... What I would like is for the custom data to be visible to NOC operators as they look at service and host problems. I might use the info you gave me to add the data to alert notifications as well but my primary interest is to be able to access it within the XI interface. Thanks!

[mguthrie]

Hmm....I can't think of "smooth" way to do this at the moment. All of the data can be accessed through the backend API for an external tool or custom component, but I don't think we have anything right now that will actually show that data in the interface. We do have an object notes component that lets you add and view hosts for difference hosts and services, and this can be seen by accessing the host details. Would this get you what you need? Or are you looking to see this info in the status tables?

[lynrob]

Thanks. If you are talking about the "notes" tab in the host status details screen then I don't think that will work for us. I need a way for our NOC operators to quickly determine circuit information associated with a given node. I will look into using the API. Thanks for the tip!

[mguthrie]

You bet!