Nagios Core roadmap query

[MalcolmPreen]

Actual question at the end... but attempting to describe the scenario so that the picture is (hopefully) clearer.

Last year, a number of my systems running nagios had a problem with choked worker processes.
[all systems running Centos 6]

I found a match in http://tracker.nagios.org/view.php?id=642 and as detailed in the comments, the fix provided appears to have solved my problem.

In order to test this I was using a maintenance version of nagios, identifying itself as Nagios Core 4.1.0rc3

This was fine... except that every so often, the monitoring would stop.... and looking at the nagios controller process it appeared to be clocking up CPU time... and therefore I assumed it was looping somewhere.

Given that this was a maintenance version, I didn't report the problem.

Stopping and restarting nagios solved the problem.... until the next time.

Unfortunately, the "next time" was becoming more and more frequent.

Having reported that the fix appeared to work.... I had asked if the fix was included in 4.1.1... which it isn't... it is scheduled to be part of 4.1.2

Given that, the "hang" was becoming more frequent, and I had a "work around" for the choking problem (increase the number of workers), I opted to upgrade to 4.1.1

Unfortunately, I'm now up to 100s of worker processes.... which is taking a considerable number of resources.

Ideally, what I want is 4.1.2... which I note is no longer in beta....

I have downloaded, and built 4.1.2-Pre1 - and upgraded a couple of "less critical" servers... It seems good at present.... although of course, "less critical" also means "lower load" !!

So.... what I would like to know is....
- when is the official release of 4.1.2 expected ? (estimates greatly appreciated...)

Basically, I want to know, so that I can decide whether to wait for 4.1.2 ... or if I should be brave and roll 4.1.2-Pre1 out to some heavier loaded hosts.

Please advise, Malcolm

[hsmith]

So.... what I would like to know is....
- when is the official release of 4.1.2 expected ? (estimates greatly appreciated...)

I can't give you an exact date, because one has not been established yet. We want to make sure it's ready before an official release. A couple of months sounds pretty realistic to me.

Basically, I want to know, so that I can decide whether to wait for 4.1.2 ... or if I should be brave and roll 4.1.2-Pre1 out to some heavier loaded hosts.

I can't really make that decision for you, but you'll be waiting at least a few weeks for the newest version. We can't really provide the same level of support for a beta/prerelease as we do for 4.1.1 as well.

I hope I've cleared this up for you a bit.

[MalcolmPreen]

Thanks.... the guideline is fine... and lets me make a decision with regards to the status of the various hosts.

My plan at present is to put it on the "non-critical" ones and provided it is stable.... then I have the option to gradually roll it out to the other systems.... if they become heavily loaded with the number of worker processes.

Hopefully I won't find any problems.... but I've got copies of 4.1.1 so reverting back shouldn't be a major issue if it is required.

When a date is available for the Official Release, will it be announced in advance (ie coming in two weeks?).... or will it "just" get released ?
[again, not a panic... I'm just interested.... and having gone through almost all of the 4.0 upgrades, believe me I do appreciate the general stability of 4.1 !!]

Thanks, Malcolm

[hsmith]

Core may be different, since it is open source, but with our enterprise products we generally do internal testing and then release. I think the best thing to do in your case is just keep an eye on the GitHub page. I wouldn't expect any sort of announcement until the actual release is here.

[eloyd]

Here's what i'd do:

Take /usr/local/nagios and archive it to /usr/local/nagios.4.1.1
Then make /usr/local/nagios.4.1.2
Then symlink /usr/local/nagios to /usr/local/nagios.4.1.2
Then build your new 4.1.2 install.

Run it for a while. See if you like it. If you don't, you can easily go back to 4.1.1 by stopping it all and changing the /usr/local/nagios symlink.

[MalcolmPreen]

More or less that is exactly what I've done... "in case of emergency"... fingers crossed I won't need it!!

Thanks, Malcolm

[hsmith]

Thanks Eric.

Let us know if there is anything else we can help you with, OP.