Nagios / Icinga Performance Data Graphing with PNP4Nagios

This article describes how to modify Nagios/Icinga configuration files, create templates, use the Nagios Perfdata C Daemon (NPCD) and modify Apache files to run PNP4nagios, a data presentation package that uses the RRDTool graphing package. 

PNP4Nagios packages

Begin by installing the required packages:

# aptitude install pnp4nagios icinga­-web-­pnp

Modify the /etc/icinga/icinga.cfg file

RRDtool uses performance data generated by pnp4nagios to build graphs. The lines required are in the icinga.cfg file, but commented out. You may either edit the existing commented lines or append the following to the end:

# performance data
process_performance_data=1

service_perfdata_file_template=DATATYPE::SERVICEPERFDATA\tTIMET::$TIMET$\tHOSTNAME::$HOSTNAME$\tSERVICEDESC::$SERVICEDESC$\tSERVICEPERFDATA::$SERVICEPERFDATA$\tSERVICECHECKCOMMAND::$SERVICECHECKCOMMAND$\tHOSTSTATE::$HOSTSTATE$\tHOSTSTATETYPE::$HOSTSTATETYPE$\tSERVICESTATE::$SERVICESTATE$\tSERVICESTATETYPE::$SERVICESTATETYPE$

host_perfdata_file_template=DATATYPE::HOSTPERFDATA\tTIMET::$TIMET$\tHOSTNAME::$HOSTNAME$\tHOSTPERFDATA::$HOSTPERFDATA$\tHOSTCHECKCOMMAND::$HOSTCHECKCOMMAND$\tHOSTSTATE::$HOSTSTATE$\tHOSTSTATETYPE::$HOSTSTATETYPE$

service_perfdata_file_mode=a
host_perfdata_file_mode=a

service_perfdata_file_processing_interval=30
host_perfdata_file_processing_interval=30

service_perfdata_file=/var/spool/pnp4nagios/nagios/service-perfdata
host_perfdata_file=/var/spool/pnp4nagios/nagios/host-perfdata

service_perfdata_file_processing_command=pnp-bulknpcd-service
host_perfdata_file_processing_command=pnp-bulknpcd-host

Add PNP4Nagios Commands and Host and Service Templates

If you are using the standard installation and preparing configuration files yourself, the commands will be located in /etc/icinga/commands.cfg. However, if you preparing your own configuration files (either manually or using tools such as NConf), add the following commands:

# pnp4nagios
define command{
        command_name    pnp-bulknpcd-service
        command_line    /bin/mv /var/spool/pnp4nagios/nagios/service-perfdata /var/spool/pnp4nagios/npcd/service-perfdata.$TIMET$
}

define command{
        command_name    pnp-bulknpcd-host
        command_line    /bin/mv /var/spool/pnp4nagios/nagios/host-perfdata /var/spool/pnp4nagios/npcd/host-perfdata.$TIMET$
}

The following Host Template defines and action URL that will be used for any hosts to which the template is applied:

define host {
        name       pnp-hst
        register   0
        action_url /pnp4nagios/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$' class='tips' rel='/pnp4nagios/popup?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=_HOST_
}

The following Service Template defines and action URL that will be used for any services to which the template is applied:

define service {
        name       pnp-svc
        register   0
        action_url /pnp4nagios/graph?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$' class='tips' rel='/pnp4nagios/popup?host=$HOSTNAME$&srv=$SERVICEDESC$
}

Then add the templates with the "use" statement in the host and service definitions for which you want graphs:

define host{
        name                            generic-host
        use                             pnp-hst

define service{
        name                            generic-service
        use                             pnp-svc

Enable the Nagios-Perfdata-C-Daemon

The Nagios-Perfadata-C-Daemon provides bulk mode processing. If you process performance data using only commands in the nagios.cfg or icinga.cfg file -- Synchronous Mode Processing -- there is a heavy load on the server. Each time a service check executed, it calls process_perfdata.pl. Bulk mode processing temporarily saves performance data to a file and uses NPCD to process it all at once.

Enabling NPCD requires only modifying the /etc/default/npcd file and setting "Run=yes."

Copy Web Server Files

Copy the Web Server Files and Clear the Icinga-Web Cache
Finally, integrate PNP4Nagios with the web applications by copying two files

# cp /usr/share/doc/pnp4nagios/examples/ssi/status-header.ssi /usr/share/icinga/htdocs/ssi/status-header.ssi
# chmod 644 /usr/share/icinga/htdocs/ssi/status-header.ssi

Any time you change configurations in Icinga-Web, clear the configuration cache with:

/usr/local/icinga­web/bin/clearcache.sh

The video below demonstrates PNP4Nagios integrated with Icinga and Icinga-Web.

Most of this information comes from the Icinga Wiki entry for PNP4Nagios on Icinga.