Nagios is an ALERTING tool, that means for every issue that you configure to alert you for, then there must be a solution that can be done in order to resolve it. When I say ‘an alert is an alert and you want to know about it’, that is one of the main things for a system administrator to consider when implementing Nagios into their organisation. An alert is an alert, and you want to know about it ! I have worked for some large organisations, but can honestly say that I have never had the need or inclination to add that level of configuration and management of it in a live environment. Nagios Host Monitoring – Nagios Systems Monitoring Reviewĭepending on the size of your server suite or organisation structure, Nagios allows you to group hosts or services into groups. This where the multitude of system monitoring tools like Nagios come into play. Whether your team is based in your datacentre, or spread around different offices in your country or even globally, they need to have the tools to spot potential issues, and to be able to react appropriately in order to resolve them in a timely manner. One thing that hasnt changed too much in the last 20+ years, is the function of your system administrators and operations IT team. Your IT infrastructure is only their to help your business achieve its goals. Lets get back to the main topic of this article, but I think it is very important to get things in perspective from a company point of view as opposed to an IT point of view. Have a problem with 1 server now means you do not lose ALL of those elements ive described above, therefore lessening the business impact of any hardware or software problem. Each of these tasks (and many more as well) are distinct roles in the whole business vision, that even in isolation, provide a valuable service for any company. Whether it is to enable better communication internally or externally with email or other messaging services, administering the company payroll and HR system, giving your company its external facing front end website, providing your marketing team with the reporting tools and statistics it needs, to not only analyse, but improve the way it works or identify new directions and opportunities. Long gone are the days of buying a $1million beast of a server that performs all of these tasks, where it works out much more cost effective to buy multiple servers with the hardware and software characteristics best tuned to perform specific elements of a company infrastructure. Whether it is gaining more customers, improving the services it currently provides, looking to expand into new markets, or improving the efficiency of its workforce to meet the corporate challenges that we face. But any company director would tell you that company priorities and direction are an ever evolving set of things. Some people would say the major downside could be that multiple servers mean more ways for business functionality to have a problem (2 servers, twice the chance of an issue compared to 1 server… 10 servers, ten times the chances… etc). This proliferation of physical quantity of servers had some consequences. As IT technology and infrastructure improved we started to see large companies and corporations migrate their core systems from hugely expensive mainframes in order to get the performance they needed for their applications, to much more modestly priced servers, and then on into modular structure, with multiple servers, performing specific tasks, that together provide the business with the functionality it needs to achieve its goals. Having started out in IT 25 years ago from a mainframe background, I have seen how business practices and technology advances have evolved to better meet business needs. My role as a Sysadmin over the years has been mainly as an Integrator of systems. This article attempts to detail how a Sysadmin should use Nagios, the environments it is most suited for, and how you can maximise its benefits. I have used Nagios for various companies I have worked for for over 10 years now, and the main thing I have always had in my mind when implementing it is to ‘USE IT FOR WHAT IT IS INTENDED’. Sure it has its issues, or things it hasnt been upgraded to do (like better notifications especially in a smartphone age), but it has proved to be a reliable application none the less. Nagios System Monitoring application is one of the most popular tools used by Sysadmins around the world. Review of Nagios Systems Monitoring Application
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