Multiple email servers with Nagios XI

[ssouthern]

We have a secondary Internet connection specifically to access our network in the event of a failure of the primary connection. The secondary connection is just DSL, however it has a static IP address.

If the primary connection fails, we would like Nagios to send email alerts out via this secondary connection through a GMail account we have set up for this purpose.

We are already monitoring the primary connection status.

Is it possible to configure a 2nd email server in Nagios XI specifically for certain alerts? Right now we're leaning towards configuring a mail daemon on the Nagios server, but if there's an easier way to do it within Nagios, we'd prefer that.

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

[abrist]

Is it possible to configure a 2nd email server in Nagios XI specifically for certain alerts?

Depending on how your email is setup, this could be handled on the network level. Nagios XI sends mail in two ways: sendmail and the php mailer. Both will use what ever network connection is available - they are agnostic concerning how they get to the outside world. So as long as your failover scenario accounts for a different route to the internet/mail server, you should be ok. Now if you use an internal mail relay, this can become a bit more complex . . . .

[BanditBBS]

Just throwing this out there as well.....You could use a Multitech iSMS network attached modem and use it to send out your SMS alerts, so it wouldn't rely on email or internet connection. Support for that is built into XI so it is pretty darn easy to get setup.

[slansing]

Good points, I was going to mention the same thing about email handling on the XI server, it will send out as long as you have a valid, routed connection to your email clients/addresses. And Multitech iSMS modems are a great way to get out of band notifications regardless of internal networking restrictions on your XI server.

[ssouthern]

I really like the Multitech solution... I'm looking at the SF100-G from http://www.multitech.com/en_US/PRODUCTS ... ModemiSMS/

Can someone confirm that this one works with Nagios?

[lmiltchev]

It should work. Here's our documentation on how to set it up if you haven't found it already:

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

[BanditBBS]

My comments regarding the one port modem:

1.) yes it should work, I have the 4 port.
2.) You may want to consider the 4 port one for various reasons. it isn't much more expensive either.

Reasons to consider 4 port:
1.) If your environment is large, you may want to use 2 sims to speed up the sending of the sms
2.) You could use a sim from multiple providers if you want redundancy built into it that way as well.

I have 2 of the 4 port ones and only have one sim in each, but eventually I will add a second.

[lmiltchev]

Great points, BanditBBS... as always!

[ssouthern]

Another question here on this... the iSMS products only appear to work on older GSM networks. Our carrier doesn't support them.

Is there another MultiTech product that works with Nagios' MultiTech iSMS integration component but works on newer cell networks such as HSPA? Does anyone here know if MultiTech's modems have the SMS API exposed and can be used for that?

Thanks!

[sreinhardt]

They do appear to provide a couple solutions with newer spectrums, how well it will work with the current component, I cannot say.

http://www.cdwg.com/shop/products/MULTI ... 13233.aspx
It also appears that they do offer various apis, the hspa one specifically: https://www.multitech.com/en_US/DOCUMEN ... 00483B.pdf