Automatically Migrating Nagios Core to Nagios XI

Introduction

As of Nagios XI 5.8, users now have the ability to automatically migrate their Nagios Core data to Nagios XI. Although Nagios Core provides capable monitoring features, Nagios XI provides many more easy-to-use features that allow you to get a full and robust picture of your monitorable systems. Some of these extended features are:

• Web-Based Configuration that provide advanced configuration features
• Monitoring Wizards that make it easy to monitor new devices, applications, and services
• Customizable Dashboards that allow for per-user customization
• Integrated Performance Graphs that provide trending and capacity planning information
• Advanced Reports that provide data insight and exporting capabilities
• Data Visualizations that enable powerful analysis of patterns and problems
• More information about Nagios XI

Prerequisites

• Python must be installed on any Nagios Core systems you wish to migrate. Install python if necessary.
  Example:
  dnf install python3
• If migrating Nagios Core from an EL-8 system to Nagios XI hosted on EL-7, a python file called ‘python’ must exist in /usr/bin/ on the Nagios Core system. One method of accomplishing this is to copy the EL-8 version of python (python3, python2, etc…).
  Example:
  ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

Core Migration

After installing or upgrading your Nagios XI instance, you can automatically migrate your Nagios Core instance after entering some authentication information about your Nagios Core server.

To automatically migrate your core instance:

1. Navigate to Admin > Migrate Server.

   

Expand the Advanced Settings section and enter the following information:
• Server Address - The IP address or Hostname of your Nagios Core instance.
• Username - The username to access the Nagios Core instance. NOTE: This username must either be root or have the ability to sudo into root.
• Password - The password of the root user or the user able to sudo into root.
• Overwrite Configs - Choose whether to overwrite duplicate objects with Nagios Core objects.
• Nagios Config File - If the nagios.cfg file is not in the default location on your Nagios Core server (generally /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg), then enter the location of the config file.
2. Click the Migrate button.
3. If the core migration fails, the error that occurred will be displayed.
4. If the core migration is successful, you will see the success screen with all green checkmarks. You can also click on the 'critical host/services' link to see any migrated hosts or services that are in a critical status. 

   

Important Notes

• The current version of the Nagios Core migration automation feature will move PLUGINS and OBJECT CONFIGS only. We will be adding more features/functionality as we build out future versions. Currently, performance data is not migrated.
• Migration replaces some of the nagios.cfg directives, but not all. Specifically, it changes (uses Core's value for) all of the directives in the "#UNMODIFIED" section of XI's .cfg that aren't file/directory paths.
• A successful migration always finishes by applying configuration and creating a configuration snapshot. Therefore, the migration can always be reverted by restoring the old configuration snapshot.
• Migration will only overwrite existing configuration if you have checked the "Overwrite duplicates..." in the GUI interface. Otherwise, the migration will import any object configurations that do not currently exist in the CCM.

• Plugin import may not work properly under the following conditions:

  • If the plugin has dependencies, the import process does not automatically install those dependencies.
  • If the plugin is compiled on a different distribution/using nonstandard dependencies, it will need to be re-compiled on the current system.
  • If the plugin was written for a distribution with different default scripting environments (for shell, python, perl, etc), the other scripting environment may need to be installed, or the plugin may need to be changed to work with the new scripting environment.

Troubleshooting

If you run into an error or circumstance that is not clearly defined or the migration process seems to be stuck, please see the following logs and files for potential issues:

Directory: /usr/local/nagiosxi/scripts/migrate/jobs/<random#idofjob>

Files to review:

<random#idofjob>.yml
ansible.cfg
errors.txt
hosts
output.json

If reviewing the information in these files does not provide an answer to your issue, please include these migration files, as well as a system profile, in your correspondence with Nagios Support. Example:

tar -czf /tmp/migrationlogs.tgz /usr/local/nagiosxi/scripts/migrate/jobs/<random#idofjob>

More Information

Manually Migrating from Nagios Core