Inventory management component

[tmcdonald]

This might be better classified as less of a "feature" request and more of a "product" request. Regardless of what we call it, what would you guys expect to see? For the time-being let's assume it would be a component. So far we have:

• Searchable by name, variables, other attributes
• Ability to keep notes per machine (separate from the object notes?)
• snmpwalk discovery of machine information

What else should be on the list?

[snapon_admin]

To clarify with the notes thing, when you say object notes I assume you're referring to the notes section under the Misc Settings tab of CCM right? If that's the case, then yeah what I'd like to see is for that to be something that I can allow certain users access to modify. Our operations people aren't Nagios admins so they can't edit that section. Instead, we've had to install a separate component that adds a "Notes" tab to all hosts and services. Problem is, those notes are not the same as the notes in CCM. If I had to put together a list of things I'd like to see in rgards to inventory management and notes it'd be this:

• Notes tab on hosts/services that reflects the notes in CCM under misc settings
• Separate tab on hosts/services for "instructions" for 24/7 operations teams to correctly handle issues. Should be able to be included in emails, and should be able to include html links. If possible should also be able to be edited by users, possibly with changes only taking effect if approved by an admin.
• Searchable by name, variables, etc. probably like how you can search the users section under "Admin" using %%
• Inventory tab on hosts that provides information on the host via snmpwalk (serial number, model number, os version, etc.) This should also have the ability to add data in manually like warranty info and such. Information like that wouldn't be obtainable via snmpwalk in most, if not all cases.

The first 2 could probably be combined into one tab now that I think about it. There could just be a "notes" section under the instructions tab or something.

[WillemDH]

Hey,

Personally I think making 'more' tabs is not the solution. With all te components creating tabs, imho it only slows down tha Nagios XI gui. (see this ticket http://support.nagios.com/forum/viewtop ... ilit=+slow (of which I did not receive any reaction yet from Nagios email support by the way)
I think maybe it would be better if it was done like the perfdata component Troy Lea wrote. This way it would accessible with the tools menu. As it wouldn't be so hard to add data (make an event chain to add a free variable, add it to quick actions, etc)

Personally I think we don't need snmpwalk to gather information, as with Reactor everyone can choose himself which data to add. I prefer using Powershell to really gather all usefull info. If someone prefers snmpwalk or something else, he just needs to write the appropriate event chain to gather this info and put it in a free variable.

What is the most important thing is a way to search for free variables values. The rest we should be able to do ourselves.

Grtz

Willem

[tmcdonald]

I can certainly do the feature request for this, but since it would be a pretty significant component I want to keep this open for comment, get some discussion and other views going.

[snapon_admin]

The reason we wanted it on a tab when you click on a host is so that we could easily see warranty info, serial number, etc. for each host just by clicking on that tab, but you make a good point. If it were in the tools section I would be completely ok with that, and it would actually be preferred the more that I think about it. As long as you can still search for the host and get all the info you'd need it would work well. As for reactor vs snmpwalk, the only reason I suggested snmpwalk is because much of the info needed can be obtained that way. There would still need to be the ability to add in custom fields of course, but a lot of the info could be collected via snmp automatically. We don't have reactor so using that wouldn't really be an option for us. I'm not dead set on snmp being the method to gather this info, it's just the only way I know it can be done off the top of my head, being a network admin and all. I do think you're on the right track with it being a tool like Troy's perf data tool, specially since the perf data tool is currently the only tool we have installed. That section is woefully underutilized for us.

[WillemDH]

Hey Snapon,

The way information is gathered, is really less important then the ability to search for it imho. At this time it is not possible to search for free variables. It is however possible to add free variables by just scripting it or adding it with CCM. The method used to add the data can be choosen by each customer like he wishes. It would be ok for me to make another tab, but Nagios will have to make sure this has no impact on the loading of the service / host details as at this time I think all the extra tabs slow down loading.
The Tools section is indeed a seriously under-used section and I think it would be ideally for using it to handle inventory searching / querying.
By the way I can advise you to try out Nagios Reactor. it's free and enables you to automate tasks integrated with Nagios XI, it's like the actions component on speed.

Grtz

Willem

[Box293]

but since it would be a pretty significant component I want to keep this open for comment, get some discussion and other views going

This is a feature I've thought about for a while so here are some of those thoughts. I'm gonna refer to the component as the IMC.

Firstly, the IMC should have data stored in it that is separate from the Normal XI database.

Inventory management also sort of falls into the category of asset tracking.

Asset tracking and reporting on assets is something that you may want to keep doing long after the asset exists. So there needs to be a way that the objects in the IMC cannot be easily deleted. Preferably a hide/archive option.

So lets say we add the IMC to an existing Nagios XI system. The IMC has an empty database. It should query all the hosts in Nagios to populate it's database. Now there should be an option to link a Nagios Host to a IMC Host Object. When an object in Nagios is deleted, it should not be deleted from IMC, IMC will detect that it no longer exists.

Inventory Management and Asset Tracking is about different sorts of information. Lets use Operating System version as an example.

So in IMC you create an Operating System Version field.

Nagios already has an Operating System service for a lot of hosts.

So IMC should be able to link an existing Nagios Service to a field. This way IMC will retrieve from the last service check the Service Output and populate the field.

There are also instances where the Linux service checks might be named differently to the Windows service checks. So there should be some mechanism to say for this group of hosts link xxx service object to this field and for this other group link yyy service object.

There could also be a way to manually override this field value for a specific host and manually enter data.

The general reason for my example I provided is that Nagios monitors different objects. It's hard to build a product that goes out and collects data and becomes a one solution that fits all. Some people like SNMP, others NSClient++, nrpe, nsca etc etc.

There's also data that needs to be manually entered like purchase date, warrantly expiry day.

Needs to be an API to perform reports, also possibly to be able to accept data from an event handler perhaps.


Tools menu sound like a great place to manage/configure/report.

A tab per host/service that can report and be updated would be beneficial.

Perhaps a dashlet that could give summary details as well.


Thats just some of the ideas I've had about such a product.


My last comment is that this should be an add-on to Nagios XI which costs $x. Customers who want the add-on will be willing to pay for it and it ensures it gets developed as a separate product. It doesn't have to be only for XI, it could be added to core as well and still be a paid product.

[questrad]

Hey,

Personally I think making 'more' tabs is not the solution. With all te components creating tabs, imho it only slows down tha Nagios XI gui. (see this ticket http://support.nagios.com/forum/viewtop ... ilit=+slow (of which I did not receive any reaction yet from Nagios email support by the way)

WillemDH, tmcdonald said:

Going to lock this up since we have the ticket. I have already replied to it so we will continue there.

Do you have any update? Was it there personal ticket or?
Our XI server is also going to be slow and slow.

Thanks

[cmerchant]

Going to lock this up since we have the ticket. I have already replied to it so we will continue there.

questrad, Your post added to this thread is in reference to another thread that has already been closed. Willem has already requested this thread could be closed, so We'll go ahead and close this thread. You can open another thread with your specific question or request. Thank you.