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Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:13 pm
by toleolu
I'vew been reading the documentation on NSClient++ from the NSClient.org site, and if I thought I was confused before I started reading it, I'm really jacked up now.

All I was trying to find out was during the install of the client on a Windows computer, if you accept the sample config file, should it work?

I installed the nsclient++ on my windows 7 computer as a test, and it never would connect. I'm on an internal network, no firewalls, no ports blocked, and windows firewall is disabled by group policy. I didn't specify a password in either the client when I installed it, or when I ran the Monitoring wizard from CCM.

I had no problem installing the client on 2003 server, repeated the same steps on my windows 7 laptop, but it's not working here. Strange??

Thanks

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:26 pm
by slansing
Their documentation can be a bit confusing thats why we generally end up solving these issues here. Though no need to worry we are working on a alternative to this third party agent that is usable right now and has a wizard to integrate as well:

http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Ad ... PA/details

Now.. back to NSClient++.. I would recommend using version 3.9.x as we have in our documentation since you only need to work in one config file as opposed to starting with a basic file, and having to expand it through the windows CLI to even get basic argument passing to work. That being said, what is the error you are receiving? Did you add the XI server's IP to the globally allowed_hosts list in the NSC.ini file and restart the nsclient service?

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:35 pm
by toleolu
Yes I put the allowed host IP address in when I ran the installer. That might be the issue since I downloaded the 4.1 msi file and ran that installer, that's where it prompted me about using the sample config file. I never did find an NSC.ini, just NSClient.ini.

Don't recall the exact error I got, as I recall it said something about connection refused on the services. The monitoring wizard found my laptop, it let me add the host, just couldn't connect to the services. I deleted for Nagios, let me try it again using your instructions and I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:44 pm
by slansing
Sounds good keep us apprised. And let us know the exact error the nagios service's are giving you. And what what services checks.

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:22 pm
by toleolu
Ok the NCPA agent worked.

I was playing around with this on my laptop so I could get ready to roll this out on 3 new Exchange Servers we just went live on. Will the NCPA agent work on Exchange?

I was working under the assumption that adding a host involved installing the client then running an appropriate monitoring wizard. If that's the correct proceedure, do I install NCPA on the exchange servers, run the NCPA monitoring wizard to discover them, then run the exchange monitoring wizard to add the exchange specific services, or do I just run the exchange monitoring wizard after install NCPA?

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 5:04 pm
by abrist
I believe the exchange server wizard assumes nsclient :( We will be updating the wizards to support NCPA soon enough. The exchange agent more or less just checked whether specific services are running, which should be fairly easy to replicate with ncpa.

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 5:13 pm
by toleolu
Well at least I go it working with NCPA so it's not a port or permissions issue since all that's the same. I'll keep playing with the NSClient++. I got it working on a couple of windows servers, should be able to get it working on my laptop.

mahalo

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:56 am
by slansing
One word of caution don't try running NCPA and NSClient++ services on the same port at the same time, this could cause issues.

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:19 pm
by toleolu
I thought that might be a problem so I uninstalled NCPA first.

Still having issues with NSClient++.

I thought I had installed it successfully on one of our WIndows servers as a test, but it turns out Nagios XI is picking up the old NSAgent on that server. I turned off the NSClient++ service and everything is still reporting fine on both the old Nagios and the new Nagios XI, even thought both Nagios servers are on their own static IP's. The same holds true for most of the servers we have, even though Nagios XI is on a different IP, the services are reporting. I thought I read somewhere that if you don't specify an allowed server IP on the agent, it will report to any server, is that what's going on here?

I'll keep playing with the NSClient++ I'm obviously missing something when I'm installing that. The NCPA works, if I do an auto discovery with no agent installed, that works, so I must be missing something with NSClient++.

Question, is there anything I need to watch for when installing Nagios agents on VM Ware hosts??

Mahalo

Re: Going blind reading NSClient++ Documentation

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:55 pm
by slansing
Can you send us your nsclient.ini file? Also, you should not need to worry about installing agents on VM's, that wont cause a problem itself.