environment for Nagios and learning curve

[D0UG]

I am looking for Network Monitoring tool to monitor a simple network of 6 Windows computers and 7 printers networked together and to the Internet. Is this a good environment for Nagios? How long does it generally take to learn it enough to use it? I cannot afford formal training classes.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[abrist]

As a primarily windows network, you will most likely want to use nsclient or wmi for monitoring the windows boxes, and snmp for the printers. There will some learning pains as you become accustomed to nagios core, nsclient, and snmp checks. Nagios only runs on linux systems, so you can either provision a new box, or set up a virtual machine on one of the windows boxes.

You do not need formal training, just time and google-fu. Do you have any experience with linux, snmp, and firewalls?

[D0UG]

Running a virtual session is not an option. I have a customer who loses Internet access occasionally. The ISP says there is not problem on their end. I am trying to determine if the problem is with the simple GigE switch, or wireless router, or the modem provided by the ISP. While Nagios is certainly a great product, I believe it probably requires more effort than I have to put into it.

I don't have any real Linux experience. I used a Unix workstation and even taught a Unix course for AT&T back in the 80's but then I moved into a Planner role and lost touch with it.
I understand this is a Nagios forum but do you have any other suggestions?

[sreinhardt]

You are correct that nagios core does require some effort. Especially for issues concerning switch monitoring and such, I would point you toward Nagios XI. For your environment, you would be able to at least begin diagnosing your network issues for free with our default wizards and monitoring your entire network would be a very small cost compared to other options. With XI the interaction with the underlying Linux system is also minimized as much as possible. Might I ask why provisioning a virtual machine is not an option? Virtual box or vmware player on a workstation or other server would provide a more than sufficient solution for free and we do provide a virtual machine that can be downloaded to again minimize interaction with the underlying OS.

[D0UG]

I am reluctant to run a virtual machine here because there is no computer in this retail store environment that does not have a user signed on using it. These computers (Windows 7) are restarted for Windows updates and turned off or go to sleep at night. It just seems to me that running a Linux image would be a problem there. What do you think?

PS: The switch is a simple unmanaged 8-port Ethernet switch (~$40).

[sreinhardt]

Ah, so you have no unused systems, and they are all shutdown at night. You are correct that this does not provide an optimal environment. Would I also be correct in assuming that you do not have any older systems laying in back? Linux does not require much in the way of resources, but I would never suggest running your monitoring solution on an end-users pc, regardless if this is nagios or something else.

[D0UG]

I do have several old desktops and laptops that I could install there for a while to try to determine the cause. Now that I think about it, a laptop would probably be best since it would stay running for a while if there was an interruption of AC power. I tried to get them to buy UPS units but they are like most small businesses -- just barely surviving.

Is 1-GB of RAM enough for Linux and Nagios?

[sreinhardt]

Absolutely! I would suggest installing CentOS 6.4 and then run our Nagios XI install from there. You won't be able to run thousands of checks, but for a small office this should be perfectly fine!

[slansing]

As sreinhardt said you should be fine, here is a small spreadsheet outlining hardware requirements "which are more recommendations for optimal performance"

http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagi ... ements.pdf