Nagios: System and Network Monitoring (Paperback)

~ Wolfgang Barth (Author)
Key Phrases: external command file, terminal services, passive tests, Nagios Web, Graphic Display of Performance Data, Testing Local Resources (more...)

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

Product Description

Nagios: System and Network Monitoring shows how to configure and use Nagios, an open source system and network monitoring tool. Nagios makes it possible to continuously monitor network services (SMTP, POP3, HTTP, NNTP, PING, etc.), host resources (processor load, disk and memory usage, running processes, log files, etc.), and environmental factors (such as temperature). When Nagios detects a problem, it communicates the information to the sys admin via email, pager, SMS, or other user-defined method; current status information, historical logs, and reports can also be accessed via a web browser. Nagios System and Network Monitoring covers the Nagios core, all standard Nagios plug-ins and selected third-party plug-ins, and shows readers how to write their own plug-ins. The book covers Nagios 2.0 and is backwards compatible with earlier versions.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593270704
• ISBN-13: 978-1593270704
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #426,456 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 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.com" (Metro Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 1 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 (Castro Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very details, May 11, 2009

By	Phung Thanh Dat (Paris) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

I read the first edition of this book, it's good with explanations about the installation of Nagios, the plugins, the relation (parents, host/service dependence), active & passive monitoring, remote host monitor, and so much more. This book and Pro Nagios 2.0 (which is very good for beginner) are two must-have books for network & system monitoring.