Create Individual Services for Hosts in Host Groups

[asmgiadmin]

I'd like to create services for each host for ease of management. This way, end users can simply and easily manage which service checks are assigned to which hosts.

Do any tools exist that will sort through my host groups to create service checks with commands I've already defined?

[lmiltchev]

When service is added to a hostgroup, it gets applied to each host (member) of this hostgroup. Later on, when you add new members to the hostgroup, the service gets applied to them automatically. Is this what you are trying to accomplish?

[abrist]

I don't know of any tool to add new, individual checks for each host in bulk. Hosts can belong to more than one hostgroup, so you could extend your hostgroup usage to include new hostgroups of like/related services and add/remove hosts to groups when you need different services. You could use templates as well.

[asmgiadmin]

The problem with templates and adding services to host groups is it becomes difficult to understand setup through the UI. If services are added to host group, they appear in service detail, but do not appear in services under config manager.

This becomes confusing for end users to comprehend and results in digging through many different config files.

Please let me know if I'm mistaken, but if the above is true then individual services are a must for large scale implementations.

Auto-Discovery works great for this, but only on initial discover and does not offer option to assign service checks to hosts. It would be great if there were a wizard to create individual services for hosts in a host group.

[scottwilkerson]

An additional method for replicating services and creating a new config in the CCM per service is to use the Bulk Host Cloning and Import Wizard

You can setup one machine the way you like and then run this wizard to replicate the services to many others...

[asmgiadmin]

Thanks, Scott but that doesn't seem to help in rolling out new services or making large scale changes to existing hosts.

The main issue I'm having is understanding how to roll out large scale service check deployments, without using templates. Can bulk host cloning work for existing hosts?

For example, Unix team lead wants to start checking swap on all 100 existing servers in host-group. How can the needs of team lead be met, by creating service check for each host, without assigning service check to host-group?

Also, is there a way that my custom services may be added to each host on auto-discovery wizard?

I'm failing to understand why auto-discovery creates individual service checks as I would like, but does not offer the option to use my pre-built service checks. I only see an option to apply hosts to service-group, which again does not help in my scenario since I can only add hosts services to service groups while host services are exactly what I'm trying to create.

I'd like to build out the environment where hosts and service configs are contained in the following respectively:

/usr/local/nagios/etc/hosts/hostname.cfg
/usr/local/nagios/etc/services/hostname.cfg

Since XI is creating config files, I'd like to utilize to keep things as organized as possible. Templates just don't communicate enough information to the end user through the UI.

[slansing]

On the point of the Bulk Host Cloning and Import Wizard:

The main issue I'm having is understanding how to roll out large scale service check deployments, without using templates. Can bulk host cloning work for existing hosts?

Yes, you would select one of your current hosts, then select the service checks you would like to replicate, and then designate the new Host address to clone them to from the Address field in the configuration box.

[asmgiadmin]

Moving back into the discussion about applying service checks to host groups, if this method is used, how can user easily find out which service checks exist for host group?

For example, alerts are going mad and uninformed user is assigned to troubleshoot. Logically, user would click the host group to find which service checks exist. In XI, this option isn't available.

Is there an easy way to understand which service checks are assigned to each host group, without clicking through each service to see which host group it is assigned to?

[abrist]

The "hostgroup grid" will group hosts by hostgroup but also list each host's services. You should be able to get a good overview of the hostgroup from this view (and hints to what service checks get inherited).

The best method is to use servicegroups for separating out and organizing services. Use servicegroups with templates and attach them to hostgroups. This way you can see all the services attached to a hostgroup by pulling up the servicegroup for the template for the hostgroup. In the servicegroup management window in the CCM, you can see all the services added to the group.

[asmgiadmin]

What is criteria for services to appear when creating new service group? Only services created with host appear.

I was working with logic of:

create default linux service checks
create service group
add service checks to service group

why don't my newly created services appear to add in new service group?

Also - I've assigned newly created service checks to service group from service config, but when checking services from service group config, they do not appear.