Hi all - I'm having a hard time understanding the "First Notification Delay" setting.
Using traditional Check Interval, Retry, and Max Attempt settings (5,1,5)... Would setting the First Notification Delay to 10 result in the same email delay as it would setting Max Check Attempts to 10?
I assume the only difference is really that using the First Notification Delay setting will have the check report as a Hard state without alerting out yet - while Max Attempts would leave it Soft until it alerts?
Thanks!
Max Check Attempts vs First Notification Delay?
Re: Max Check Attempts vs First Notification Delay?
yo_marc,
I believe your understanding in your last sentence is correct. The only meaningful difference is whether the check is in a hard or soft state. The notification would come through at the same time interval assuming the math works out that way.
This forum post from a while back goes into a bit of detail regarding notification delay: viewtopic.php?t=27110
From the Core documentation for posterity's sake:
max_check_attempts: This directive is used to define the number of times that Nagios will retry the host check command if it returns any state other than an OK state. Setting this value to 1 will cause Nagios to generate an alert without retrying the host check. Note: If you do not want to check the status of the host, you must still set this to a minimum value of 1. To bypass the host check, just leave the check_command option blank.
first_notification_delay: This directive is used to define the number of "time units" to wait before sending out the first problem notification when this host enters a non-UP state. Unless you've changed the interval_length directive from the default value of 60, this number will mean minutes. If you set this value to 0, Nagios will start sending out notifications immediately. If this directive is used notifications will be sent out after the next check is performed following the first_notification_delay time. If you set this value to 0, Nagios will start sending out notifications immediately.
Best Regards,
Cory Norell
I believe your understanding in your last sentence is correct. The only meaningful difference is whether the check is in a hard or soft state. The notification would come through at the same time interval assuming the math works out that way.
This forum post from a while back goes into a bit of detail regarding notification delay: viewtopic.php?t=27110
From the Core documentation for posterity's sake:
max_check_attempts: This directive is used to define the number of times that Nagios will retry the host check command if it returns any state other than an OK state. Setting this value to 1 will cause Nagios to generate an alert without retrying the host check. Note: If you do not want to check the status of the host, you must still set this to a minimum value of 1. To bypass the host check, just leave the check_command option blank.
first_notification_delay: This directive is used to define the number of "time units" to wait before sending out the first problem notification when this host enters a non-UP state. Unless you've changed the interval_length directive from the default value of 60, this number will mean minutes. If you set this value to 0, Nagios will start sending out notifications immediately. If this directive is used notifications will be sent out after the next check is performed following the first_notification_delay time. If you set this value to 0, Nagios will start sending out notifications immediately.
Best Regards,
Cory Norell
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