Nagios Support Forum

My users are using a one-time downtime, the preferred method is an as needed downtime set.

I believe that downtime is considered an external command. Check your nagios.cfg for the following line and add/change if it is wrong/missing: Restart nagios afterwards: Let me know if the second line is included in future events.

just a one-off scheduled downtime

vhoover wrote:just a one-off scheduled downtime

Did you do what abrist suggested?

Sorry I read the wrong response earlier, I had "log_external_commands" set to 0 but I just changed it, what will this do?

This is noted under 'log_external_commands' in this documentation:

http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/configmain.html

OK, I appologize but I fail to see how this will help me accomplish my goal.

abrist wrote:I believe that downtime is considered an external command. Check your nagios.cfg for the following line and add/change if it is wrong/missing:

Code: Select all

log_external_commands=1

Restart nagios afterwards:

Code: Select all

service nagios restart

Let me know if the second line is included in future events.

abrist told you to change that setting and then check the logs to see if the second line is present:

abrist wrote:It should. For example, I ran a test of downtime with a comment. The event log shows:

Scheduled Downtime Start2014-02-13 10:11:36HOST DOWNTIME ALERT: localhost;STARTED; Host has entered a period of scheduled downtime
External Command2014-02-13 10:11:36EXTERNAL COMMAND: SCHEDULE_HOST_DOWNTIME;localhost;1392315063;1392322263;1;0;7200;Nagios Administrator;This is my comment

Changing that setting by itself is not the solution, but it will help us get to a solution. We wouldn't waste your or our time by asking you to do something that fails to help you accomplish your goal.

So it does work:
[1394659811] EXTERNAL COMMAND: SCHEDULE_HOST_DOWNTIME;ServerA;1394659802;1394667002;1;0;7200;nagiosadmin;This is a test
[1394659811] HOST DOWNTIME ALERT: ServerA;STARTED; Host has entered a period of scheduled downtime
[1394659811] HOST NOTIFICATION: nagiosadmin;ServerA;DOWNTIMESTART (UP);notify-host-by-email;OK - 172.25.124.83: rta 0.928ms, lost 0%

So it looks like you can see downtime in the Event Log now, be sure to read the Nagios Object definitions to fully understand configuration options before altering them as some changes may lead to problems:

http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/ ... tions.html

It looked like the Event Log was going to be suitable correct?