Nagios: System and Network Monitoring [Paperback]

Wolfgang Barth (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1593271794 | ISBN-13: 978-1593271794 | Publication Date: November 4, 2008 | Edition: Second Edition

Good system administrators recognize problems long before anyone asks, "Hey, is the Internet down?" Nagios, an open source system and network monitoring tool, has emerged as the most popular solution for sys admins in organizations of all sizes. It's robust but also complex, and Nagios: System and Network Monitoring, 2nd Edition, updated to address Nagios 3.0, will help you take full advantage of this program.

Nagios, which runs on Linux and most *nix variants, can be configured to continuously monitor network services such as SMTP, POP3, HTTP, NNTP, SSH, and FTP. It can also supervise host resources (processor load, disk and memory usage, running processes, log files, and so on) and environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity. This book is your guide to getting the most out of this versatile and powerful monitoring tool.

Inside Nagios, you'll learn how to:

• Install and configure the Nagios core, all standard plugins, and selected third-party plugins
• Configure the notification system to alert you of ongoing problems-and to alarm others in case of a serious crisis
• Program event handlers to take automatic action when trouble occurs
• Write Perl plugins to customize Nagios for your unique needs
• Quickly understand your Nagios data using graphing and visualization tools
• Monitor Windows servers, SAP systems, and Oracle databases

The book also includes a chapter that highlights the differences between Nagios versions 2 and 3 and gives practical migration and compatibility tips. Nagios: System and Network Monitoring, 2nd Edition is a great starting point for configuring and using Nagios in your own environment.

About the Author

Wolfgang Barth has written several books for professional network administrators, including Firewall (Suse Press), Network Analysis (Suse Press), and Backup Solutions with Linux (Open Source Press). He is a professional system administrator with considerable experience using Nagios.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent book . . . well written from front to back." -- Free Software Magazine, July 2006

"Wolfgang Barth has written an excellent book." -- Nagios.org --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

**Covers Nagios 2.0**

"WOW! This books is incredibly detailed and Wolfgang has done an excellent job. I don't think I could have gone into that much detail if I wrote a book mysel. Kudos!" —Ethan Galstad, Nagios main developer

Good system administrators know about problems long before anyone asks, "Hey, is the Internet down?" Nagios, an open source system and network monitoring tool, has emerged as a popular and affordable choice for sys admins in organizations of all sizes. It’s robust but also complex. Nagios: System and Network Monitoring, written for Nagios 2.0, but backwards compatible with earlier versions, will help you take full advantage of this program’s ability to keep systems running.

Nagios, which runs on Linux and most *nix variants, can be configured to continuously monitor network services (SMTP,POP3, HTTP, NNTP, PING, and so on), host resources (processor load, disk and memory usage, running processes, log files, and so on), and environmental factors (such as temperature). This book is your guide to getting the most out of this versatile and powerful administration tool.

Inside Nagios: System and Network Monitoring, you’ll learn how to:
• Install and configure the Nagios core, all standard Nagios plug-ins, and selected third-party plug-ins
• Write your own plug-ins to customize Nagios for your unique environment
• Configure problem escalation so the appropriate people are notified when issues move beyond your control, and suppress alerts during scheduled maintenance periods
• Program event handlers to take action when trouble occurs
• Monitor Windows servers

Written by a seasoned author of books on advanced networking topics, Nagios: System and Network Monitoring is a great starting point for configuring and using Nagios in your own environment. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; Second Edition edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593271794
• ISBN-13: 978-1593271794
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best for Nagios admins who want specific details on plug-ins, September 4, 2006

By 

Richard Bejtlich "TaoSecurity" (Metro Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nagios: System and Network Monitoring (Paperback)

I recently received review copies of Pro Nagios 2.0 (PN2) by James Turnbull and Nagios: System and Network Monitoring (NSANM) by Wolfgang Barth. I read PN2 first, then NSANM. Both are excellent books, but I expect potential readers want to know which is best for them. The following is a radical simplification, and I could honestly recommend readers buy either (or both) books. If you are completely new to Nagios and want a very well-organized introduction, I recommend PN2. If you are somewhat familiar with Nagios and want detailed descriptions of a wide variety of Nagios plug-ins, I recommend NSANM.

NSANM strengths lie in the depth of coverage of certain elements when compared to PN2. PN2 devotes 7 pages to host checks, while NSANM's Ch 7 offers 21 pages. PN2 supplies 8 pages on service checks, but NSANM's Ch 6 gives 46 pages. This level of detail can be very useful. For example, NSANM's explanation of check_squid also shows to to configure Sguid to allow access to its cache manager.

NSANM shares more information on certain background protocols like SNMP. PN2's SNMP section is about 7 pages, whereas NSANM's Ch 11 is 36 pages. NSANM demonstrates more aspects of Nagios' Web interface and the CGI programs generating pages. I thought author Wolfgang Barth made very effective use of diagrams, like the network topology explanation in Ch 4, the service checks in Ch 5, and notification in Ch 12.

NSANM includes some material not mentioned in PN2, like using Nagios with Cygwin. Sometimes the books are very complementary, as shown by PN2's discussion of NSClient++ and NSANM's overview of NSClient and NC_Net.

NSANM is lacking coverage of security, redundancy, and failover, however. PN2 does address these critical issues. Beware the some of the "chapters" in NSANM are very short -- like Ch 8 (2 pages!) and Ch 19 (barely 6 pages). I think short sections like those should have been integrated into longer chapters or moved into the appendices.

Overall, NSANM is a very good book. I believe new Nagios readers should read PN2, and strongly consider NSANM as a complementary reference volume.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nagios book to end all Nagios books, July 29, 2009

By 

Michael T. Saldivar (Hyde Park, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nagios: System and Network Monitoring (Paperback)

Every question I've had has been explained in this book. I followed the online documentation to do a new 3.x install on Ubuntu, and everything I've wanted to do since then has been explained simply, with examples, in the book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Nagios 2nd Edition, November 18, 2011

By 

Mark Florence - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nagios: System and Network Monitoring (Paperback)

I was recomended to purchase this book by a Nagios expert. It is just what I was looking for to learn the product and to have as a refernce guide.