NRPE - Turn Off XINETD Logging On Success

Overview

This KB article explains how to configure XINETD to stop the logging of successful NRPE connections.

Every time the Nagios XI or Nagios Core server connects to the NRPE client, the following is logged in /var/log/messages (or equivalent):

Mar  7 17:22:33 centos21 xinetd[3326]: START: nrpe pid=3537 from=10.25.5.1
Mar  7 17:22:33 centos21 xinetd[3326]: EXIT: nrpe status=0 pid=3537 duration=0(sec)

This can be disabled by defining the log parameters for successful connections via XINETD. This document only applies to NRPE that is run via XINETD as this logging is a function of XINETD.

This KB article is oriented at RHEL / CentOS however the XINETD configuration applies to any operating system (OS) using XINETD for NRPE.

Configure XINETD

Establish a terminal session to your NRPE client as the root user.

Execute the following command to open the file in vi:

vi /etc/xinetd.d/nrpe

When using the vi editor, to make changes press i on the keyboard first to enter insert mode. Press Esc to exit insert mode.

Add the following line to the configuration:

log_on_success  =

Here is an example configuration with that line added:

# default: on
# description: NRPE (Nagios Remote Plugin Executor)
service nrpe
{
        flags           = REUSE
        socket_type     = stream
        port            = 5666
        wait            = no
        user            = nagios
        group           = nagios
        server          = /usr/local/nagios/bin/nrpe
        server_args     = -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/nrpe.cfg --inetd
        log_on_failure  += USERID
        log_on_success  =
        disable         = no
        only_from       = 127.0.0.1 10.25.5.1
}

When you have finished, save the changes in vi by typing:

:wq

and press Enter.

You need to restart the service using one of the commands below:

RHEL/CentOS 5.x/6.x

service xinetd restart

RHEL/CentOS 7.x

systemctl restart xinetd.service

After making these changes, you will no longer see the START and EXIT messages in the in /var/log/messages file for successful NRPE connections via XINETD.

Final Thoughts

For any support related questions please visit the Nagios Support Forums at:

http://support.nagios.com/forum/