How To Install NConf To Manage Nagios Core

By
anismaj

About NConf

NConf is a PHP based web-tool for configuring the Nagios monitoring software. It differs from similar tools by offering enterprise-class features like templates, service to hostgroup assignment, dependencies and the ability to configure a large-scale, distributed Nagios server topology.

If you still didn’t install Nagios Core , check the following articles.

This guide will help you get started with NConf. It begins with an overview of NConf & Nagios, how to install NConf and shows you how to setup.

Features

The main NConf features include:

  • effortlessly maintain a distributed Nagios topology
  • user-friendly web-GUI based on jQuery
  • host & service templates
  • service to hostgroup assignment
  • host- & service-dependencies, auto-generated service dependencies
  • graphical parent/child relationship viewer
  • multiple authentication modes (LDAP, AD, SQL, local)
  • deployment mechanism supports multiple protocols (SCP, rsync, HTTPs, local)
  • Nagios config import
  • CSV file import / export
  • Perl database API
  • data schema customizable and extendable via the GUI
  • runs on Linux / Apache / PHP / MySQL

Requirements

  • Apache webserver
  • PHP 5.x or higher, php-mysql, php-ldap (only if using LDAP auth)
  • MySQL 5.0.2 or higher (with InnoDB!)
  • Perl 5.6 or higher, perl-DBI, perl-DBD-MySQL
  • Nagios 3.x or Icinga 0.8x (binary required to run syntax checks)

To install those requirements under centos you can use this command:

yum install mysql-server perl-DBI perl-DBD-MySQL php-mysql sudo -y

php.ini settings:

  • short_open_tag = On
  • register_globals = Off
  • magic_quotes_gpc = Off

Compatibility:

NConf has been tested on Red Hat, Fedora and CentOS Linux.
It has not been tested on Windows or any UNIX, nor with SELinux.

Let’s start.

NConf Installation

First step to do is to download the NConf archive from this link. Upload it onto a webserver of your choice.

Upload the uncompressed archive to your server and uncompress it there using this command



tar





-zxvf nconf-VERSION.tgz
The second step is to move the content of nconf folder to your webserver dierctory and make sure the following directories are writable to your webserver user.


mv nconf-VERSION/* <span class="crayon-o">/</span><span class="crayon-v">usr</span><span class="crayon-o">/</span><span class="crayon-v">local</span><span class="crayon-o">/</span><span class="crayon-v">nagios</span><span class="crayon-o">/</span><span class="crayon-v">share</span><span class="crayon-o">/</span><span class="crayon-v">nconf</span>

Give permission to the webserver user on nconf folder

chmod  775 /usr/local/nagios/share/nconf/bin/*

Database and MySQL user creation for NConf

You start the setup of NConf by setting up the mysql user and database.

You need to have the password of the MySQL root user.

Log into MySQL:

mysql -u root -p

After successful authenticated, you need to create the database for the Typo3 Website.

CREATE DATABASE nconf;

The database Name is typo. You will need this information later.

Now, you should create the database administrator.

CREATE USER nconfadmin@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'nconfpassword';

Next, you need to give this user  permissions to administer the database you created.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON typo.* TO nconfadmin@localhost;

You need to flush the privilege information to disk to activate the new MySQL user:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

NConf Web Installation

After finished the database creation , you need to restart your webserver using this command.

service httpd restart
Now, you can open openDCIM in your browser to proceed with the installation. If you have set up a DNS entry for a domain name to point to your web server’s IP, you will go to something similar to https://nagios.example.com/nagios/nconf/INSTALL.php. Otherwise, you can visit https://IP_of_web_server/nagios/nconf/INSTALL.php.
First step is pre-install check. The pre-install check will try to detect some requirements. If all checks are OK, you may safely proceed with the installation. If one or more checks fail, you may still proceed to install NConf, but it might not work properly.
nconf-1
Second step asks you for the MySQL information. Enter the required information like hostname, database name, username and password. Make sure you have created a new database and have given sufficent privileges to the user you’re connecting with.
nconf-2
Then you need to put the NConf directory.
nconf-4
Next step is to activate basic authentication for NConf. More sophisticated authentication methods are available, but these must be configured manually after completing the installation.
nconf-5
After the installation is complete, remove the following files and directories:
  • INSTALL
  • INSTALL.php
  • UPDATE
  • UPDATE.php

nconf-6

Else you will get this error.

nconf-7

The final step is to log under Nconf using your logins inforamtions.

nconf-8

That’s all for this artilce. For more information about using Nconf please visit http://www.nconf.org.

Thanks.