using contacts causing double email alert

[hata_ph]

milisa,

Adding contacts and contact_groups null to my top level generic-service-template do allow mix contacts/contact_groups in my services notification with only 1 single email alert.
Thanks for your help and I am appreciate all who help me get this far.
I might want to re-read the nagios-3.5.1 documentation about this issue...

Code: Select all

# generic service template definition
define service{
        name                            generic-service-template ; The 'name' of this service template
        active_checks_enabled           1       ; Active service checks are enabled
        passive_checks_enabled          1       ; Passive service checks are enabled/accepted
        parallelize_check               1       ; Active service checks should be parallelized (disabling this can lead to major performance problems)
        obsess_over_service             1       ; We should obsess over this service (if necessary)
        check_freshness                 0       ; Default is to NOT check service 'freshness'
        notifications_enabled           0       ; Service notifications are enabled
        event_handler_enabled           1       ; Service event handler is enabled
        flap_detection_enabled          1       ; Flap detection is enabled
        failure_prediction_enabled      1       ; Failure prediction is enabled
        process_perf_data               1       ; Process performance data
        retain_status_information       1       ; Retain status information across program restarts
        retain_nonstatus_information    1       ; Retain non-status information across program restarts
		notification_interval           720		; Only send notifications on status change by default.
		is_volatile                     0
		check_period                    24x7
		normal_check_interval           5
		retry_check_interval            1
		max_check_attempts              6
		notification_period             24x7
		notification_options            w,u,c,r
        contacts null
        contact_groups null
        register                        0       ; DONT REGISTER THIS DEFINITION - ITS NOT A REAL SERVICE, JUST A TEMPLATE!
        }

[millisa]

Sure thing, glad it's starting to make sense.

The biggest risk you run by doing a setup with the nulls in your base service template is if you forget to put a contact or contact group on a service or somewhere in the chain for a service: You could end up with an important service that doesn't send a notification when you need it to (though I'd expect the config check will warn that a service has no contacts in that situation).

Consider not using contacts in your service definitions and moving to a purely contact groups based setup in the service and host definitions and templates; it'll make this issue simpler for you in the long run. (You'd still have contacts, but they'd exist just for inclusion in the contact groups).

[hata_ph]

milisa,

You are correct. Using contact_groups will reduce the chances of miss out important alert as you point out.
I was just confuse why service contact inherit connection from host contact as I see no mention of this connection in the official documentation.

http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/nagi ... tions.html

The reason to use contacts instead of contact_groups is by using contacts only I no need to define additional contact_groups in my setup.

EDIT:

Confirm the root cause if due to object inheritance. It seem like service contacts/contact_groups will inherite from host if not set properly.

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

[tmcdonald]

It seem like service contacts/contact_groups will inherite from host if not set properly.

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

This is correct. If a service has no contact_group, notification interval, or notification_period then it will be inherited from the host.

[hata_ph]

It seem like service contacts/contact_groups will inherite from host if not set properly.

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

This is correct. If a service has no contact_group, notification interval, or notification_period then it will be inherited from the host.

contact_groups only or for both contacts and contact_groups?

[lmiltchev]

contact_groups only. It is explained in the documentation.
http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/ ... tance.html

[hata_ph]

thanks all for the help

[tmcdonald]

I'll go ahead and finally close this thread. If you need anything in the future, feel free to open another!