[Nagiosplug-help] How to get NSCA running? Any HOWTO's out there?

[Hastings, Spencer]

I'm running into issues trying to get NSCA up and running. I looked through
the archives and saw a few posts that deal with what looks to me like the
same issue, but no response that actually makes things click.

I'm trying to run a utility, any utility, in this case though I am using
check_disk on another node and send back the results via NSCA. (I'm using
this over NRPE or check_by_ssh because eventually I will need applications
to submit their results back to the master-server if they encounter an
error. So I thought testing a simple Nagios plugin and sending back the
results would be fine to test it).

So this is a passive check test.

I read the notes, compiled the mcrypt libraries, and then compiled the NSCA
plugin. I set the passwords and encryption level, configured NSCA to run a a
daemon. Made the nsca_send client, populated it, etc. No issues.

I turned on check_external_commands in the nagios.cfg file.. no issue there
either.

So I run this on my remote host by manual execution and format it and pipe
it into NSCA.. 
My line basically looks like this : 

testserver1 check_remote_disk 1 DISK CRITICAL - free space: /usr 93 MB
(5%);| /usr=1636MB;1209;1555;0;1728

cat bob|./send_nsca -H xx.xx.xx.xx -p 5667 -c send_nsca.cfg
And its accepted after my formatting.. : 1 data packet(s) sent to host
successfully.

It appears in my $NAGIOS/rw/nagios.cmd dir : [1108561917]
PROCESS_HOST_CHECK_RESULT;testserver1 check_remote_disk;1;DISK CRITICAL -
free space: /usr 93 MB (5%);| /usr=1636MB;1209;1555;0;1728

In the Nagios log file on the master server I get : 

[1108559934] Warning: Unrecognized external command ->
PROCESS_HOST_CHECK_RESULT;testserver1 check_remote_disk;1;DISK CRITICAL -
free space: /usr 93 MB (5%);| /usr=1636MB;1209;1555;0;1728

I define a passive service template in services.cfg.

define service{
        name                            generic-service-passive ; The 'name'
of this service template
        active_checks_enabled           0       ; Active service checks are
enabled
        passive_checks_enabled          1       ; Passive service checks are
enabled/accepted
        parallelize_check               1       ; Active service checks
should be parallelized 
        obsess_over_service             1       ; We should obsess over this
service (if necessary)
        check_freshness                 0       ; Default is to NOT check
service 'freshness'
        notifications_enabled           1       ; Service notifications are
enabled
        event_handler_enabled           1       ; Service event handler is
enabled
        flap_detection_enabled          1       ; Flap detection is enabled
        process_perf_data               1       ; Process performance data
        retain_status_information       1       ; Retain status information
across program restarts
        retain_nonstatus_information    1       ; Retain non-status
information across program restarts
        register                        0       ; TEMPLATE, DO NOT REGISTER!
        }

I define utility2 as a valid machine with this template..  but I'm having
some difficulty figuring out "how" to define this. (assuming the template I
have above is even right)

define service{
        use    generic-service-passive

        host_name   testserver1
        service_description  check_remote_disk
        is_volatile   0
        check_period   24x7
        max_check_attempts  3
        normal_check_interval  5
        retry_check_interval  1
        contact_groups   aixadmin
        notification_interval  120
        notification_period  24x7
        notification_options  w,u,c,r
        check_command   check_disk  <--- what should this be?
        }

[1108561237] Warning: Unrecognized external command ->
PROCESS_HOST_CHECK_RESULT;utility2 check_remote_disk;1;DISK CRITICAL - free
space: /usr 93 MB (5%);| /usr=1636MB;1209;1555;0;1728

I'm not sure what all I need to do here.

I've tried multiple ways to define the service including putting it into
checkcommands.cfg and then redoing the entry : 
define service{
        use    generic-service-passive

        host_name   utility2
        service_description  check_remote_disk
        is_volatile   0
        check_period   24x7
        max_check_attempts  3
        normal_check_interval  5
        retry_check_interval  1
        contact_groups   aixadmin
        notification_interval  120
        notification_period  24x7
        notification_options  w,u,c,r
        check_command   check_remote_disk
        }

I've tried adding the check_remote_disk command to the checkcommands.cfg
file as well...

# 'check_remote_disk' command definition
define command{
        command_name    check_remote_disk
        command_line    $USER$/check_disk -w $ARG1$ -c $ARG2$ -p $ARG3$
        }

I'm kind of puzzled as to how I make the nagios server process what is in
that external commands file.. I know that its making it there and its
getting inserted. The documentation says you have to define a service with
it.. but it doesn't say very much on "how" to do that. I tried looking for
some howto's on this subject, but none of them seem to address this. I tried
to drop the whole "check_command" stanza but Nagios didn't like that at all.
(I'm not sure why I would need to have it though since I already passed it
the return code for critical... and all it needs to do is put it into
nagios. In fact if I code this into an application, it is definately not
going to have the "agent" on the master server to even corrolate with, so I
shouldn't need anything in checkcommands.cfg.. by my thinking).

... on another note...
The send_nsca command lists 2 ways of sending checks : 

	Service Checks:
	
<host_name>[tab]<svc_description>[tab]<return_code>[tab]<plugin_output>[newl
ine]

	Host Checks:
	<host_name>[tab]<return_code>[tab]<plugin_output>[newline]

I'm not sure what the difference is... 

Any help/wisdom/howto info you could drop upon me would be much appreciated!


-Spencer



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