Wizard vs NRPE vs SNMP vs passive checks

[srikanth.kallu]

Hi,

Can some one explain what is Wizard, NRPE, SNMP, passive checks.

I am understanding them as different ways to monitor any servers. Is that right ?

[slansing]

A Wizard is something unique to Nagios XI which Core does not offer. It is a way of easily setting up Host/Service checks through a clear clean cut step by step process without the hastle of manually adding Hosts and services through a terminal.

NRPE is the Nagios Remote Plugin Executor it is one of the primary ways to remotely execute plugins which return check data for your services and hosts.

SNMP is the Simple Network Monitoring Protocol, its is yet another way to obtain data, it uses OID's, and is typically used for network device monitoring among other things.

Passive checks differ from active checks in that Nagios initiates Active checks, whilst Passive checks are initiated or performed by external applications, SNMP traps are passive checks and there is a good description here:

Passive Checks: http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/ ... hecks.html

All of this information and more can be found on our Library, and Exchange sites.

SNMP: http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagi ... g_SNMP.pdf

NRPE: http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/nrpe/NRPE.pdf

Wizards: http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagi ... izards.pdf

[srikanth.kallu]

So if i use wizard i dont have to worry about nrpe and snmp ?

[slansing]

No, the wizards encompass the whole procedure used for setting up Host/Service monitoring.. this includes an intermediary to fetch data, and send it back to Nagios is a friendly readable way. All of the above are the prime ways Admins usually go about doing this.