Nagios Support Forum

I'm trying to figure out how to monitor some routers (Ubuntu) that are on our management network. We have a test network that is separate from our management network. The network I'm trying to get onto starts with the 10.10.0.x. I'm monitoring the switch and two servers but would like to include the 4 physical routers we have. Is this posssible? If so could someone suggest which wizard to use (or plugin). Thanks a lot.

Just to clarify before giving suggestions,

nagios is presently on the production network
you wish to monitor the test network or at least portions of it
the nagios machine can access the management network from its present location
these routers you wish to monitor are running ubuntu

Correct me if I am wrong on any of the above. Otherwise, what would you like to monitor on them? NRDP agents or check_via_ssh would probably be a good option for a lot of things. Monitoring network interfaces shouldn't be too bad either way.

sreinhardt wrote:Just to clarify before giving suggestions,

nagios is presently on the production network
you wish to monitor the test network or at least portions of it
the nagios machine can access the management network from its present location
these routers you wish to monitor are running ubuntu

Correct me if I am wrong on any of the above. Otherwise, what would you like to monitor on them? NRDP agents or check_via_ssh would probably be a good option for a lot of things. Monitoring network interfaces shouldn't be too bad either way.

Yes I think you got it. But then I'm not entirely sure....remember I'm the web developer forced into Network Admin role. But I think that Nagios is on the same management network as the servers are. So the routers are just on a different network, which is 10.x.x.x whereas the management network is 10.10.0.x. Hope that helps. Thanks a lot.

Well my honest suggestion would be to start by making sure you can ping all of the various routers you wish to check. Once you are sure that everything communicates, you can begin setting up checks. If you cannot reach everything, pick one that you can, and that it can see the others, and use nrdp checks with it acting as a central hub.

Ah, I don't think it was ever explained that you were in that kinda position.. its tough man!

sreinhardt wrote:Well my honest suggestion would be to start by making sure you can ping all of the various routers you wish to check. Once you are sure that everything communicates, you can begin setting up checks. If you cannot reach everything, pick one that you can, and that it can see the others, and use nrdp checks with it acting as a central hub.

Ah, I don't think it was ever explained that you were in that kinda position.. its tough man!

I must be getting a little better at this stuff because that's exactly what I did. I really don't think I can dive into the test network without actually having the monitoring effecting the network. I'm already monitoring both servers, a windows desktop, the switch and pinging all 4 physical routers. Is it possible to monitor all the VLANS? I haven't read that far yet if there is a way. Thanks to all you guys for being patient with my 6+ page posts...

If you can ping the vlan ips, you can most definitely monitor them. You may want to look into snmp if you need more than up/down status on those ips.

We will make an admin out of yet

It's certainly possible, is there an already created plugin for ubuntu routers is the better question.. What are you using software wise and how are you networking them to consider them a router? IPtables and forwarding rules, or some other software? It really depends on how you are currently setup, a better description would probably go a long ways. Also you would be surprised by how little effect nagios has on a network. I highly doubt it would make too much of an issue for you.

sreinhardt wrote:It's certainly possible, is there an already created plugin for ubuntu routers is the better question.. What are you using software wise and how are you networking them to consider them a router? IPtables and forwarding rules, or some other software? It really depends on how you are currently setup, a better description would probably go a long ways. Also you would be surprised by how little effect nagios has on a network. I highly doubt it would make too much of an issue for you.

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server edition on the physical boxes. And then using IP forwarding, then ip tables and net filtering for the rules. Unfortunately I didn't set this part up so I'm still familiarizing myself with it. So a better description is not really in my realm of abilities at this point.

Actually that was very helpful. So ideally you are looking to monitor what? Individual port traffic, and VLANs for each port, anything else?

sreinhardt wrote:Actually that was very helpful. So ideally you are looking to monitor what? Individual port traffic, and VLANs for each port, anything else?

Possibly more but for now. Just the physical routers (already pinging them) and the VLANS. Can I just use the generic wizard and ping those too? Essentially I just need to know if they are squawking. At some point I will want throughput on just about everything. Sorry I don't know many technical terms yet.