Question on templates

[notverynick]

Hi Guys,

So this is a question, not a problem regarding templates and there proper use.

As it stands I'm happily creating hosts in CCM (2011RLatest) after having seen a few created with the wizard. I come from a background of Nagios Core so am quite content to mess around in CCM, it's better than VI and I've so far managed to create my host and checks with very little effort.

I've created Hosts which sit in host groups i.e. windows servers and then DNS servers, DHCP Servers, Exchange 2010, Exchange 2003, BES etc. Then I've created services i.e. a BlackBerry Service check and tied them to the host group. My aim is to enable adding a windows server to the windows-server group (this would give CPU/MEM/C drive checks) then add it to say DHCP whuch gives a DHCP check.

However this method isn't using templates and so I'm sure I'm not doing it 'by the book' I'm keen to understand how I can properly create templates for hosts and services such that I can add a Host and then apply the appropriate templates and assign it to the correct groups for it then to get all the correct checks, essentially in one go. I have this functionality as it is but my C drive check for instance is attached to a bunch of servers as a service that relates to them all, as opposed to each server having it's own individually assigned service.

As an example I have a server and I want to assign the contact for a particular service to a member of my team. I want ServerX C Drive check to be monitored by Bob. As I've set things up at present all C drive warnings go to Bob or I can set him for the host itself and he gets warnings for all the other services too.

I'd like to be able to easily set my hosts up with all services populating immediately and also have the ability to assign different contatcs to each service on a host by host basis.

Hope that's somewhat clear!!

Thanks

Nick

[mguthrie]

Something you might look into would be the service->hostgroup relationships. If you assign a service to a hostgroup, it will automatically assign to all hosts in that hostgroup. Leave the contact and contactgroup empty for that service definition so that it inherits from the host. That way when you create a new host, you simply add your contact, add the host to the hostgroup, and then the host will automatically have whatever checks are assigned to that hostgroup.

[notverynick]

Thanks very much, that's pretty much where I'm at so I must be on the right track.