OP5 Monitor ["OP5 Monitor"]

Manage hosts and services

Overview

The procedures below explain how to add, update, and configure monitoring objects, including:

  • Hosts and host groups.
  • Services and service groups.

The order in which you create hosts or services and their groups is not important; you can add a host to a pre-existing host group, or create a new host group, then add a host to it, for example. You can also add a host to multiple groups.

Note: Configuration changes are not final until you click Save to save your changes to the OP5 Monitor database. For more information, see Saving configuration changes and viewing the changelog in Introduction to configuration.

Caution: Configuring OP5 Monitor objects using the user interface is the only supported method of updating object configurations in OP5 Monitor. ITRS does not support modifying object configuration files directly. OP5 Monitor uses Livestatus to parse the configuration files. Any manual configurations to the standard configuration files can cause conflicts with Livestatus data and API calls. Advanced users can, however, create custom configuration files. For more details, see Create a custom configuration file in Create custom configuration files.

For background information on hosts, services, host groups, and service groups, see Monitoring objects in Key concepts of OP5 Monitor. For other information on how to configure hosts and services and their groups for monitoring in OP5 Monitor, see Introduction to monitoring hosts, services, and groups.

Using Autodiscovery to find hosts on your network

Autodiscovery is a component of OP5 Monitor for searching your network to discover possible hosts for monitoring, using one of the three discovery methods described below.

Seed node method

The seed node method involves searching for neighbours of a specified IP address, repeating the process recursively, querying all neighbours for their neighbours until no more neighbours can be found. The result is a network of linked hosts.

The seed node method uses the LLDP and ARP protocol through the SNMP protocol to query discovered hosts about their neighbours.

IP range method

The IP range method sends ICMP echo requests to each IP address in a specified range, creating a list of the hosts that reply to the request.

You can specify the range using either CIDR-style addressing, for example, 192.168.10.0/24, or octet range addressing, for example, 192.168.10.0-255, 192.168.10-20.0-255 or 192.168.10,11,12.0-255.

When you create an IP range discovery job, you can choose to enable device identification to retrieve additional host information using the SNMP protocol. Enabling this option can result in the discovery of other hosts inside the specified range.

IP list method

The IP list method works the same as the IP range method, but works through a list of IP addresses instead.

As with the IP range method, when you create an IP list discovery job, you can choose to enable device identification to use SNMP to retrieve additional hosts for the IP list.

Using management packs with the Host Wizard

Management packs provide a way to add new hosts which are pre-configured with a set of services in the Host Wizard. You can specify the Host Wizard input fields as custom variables. For more details, see Configure a management pack.

Add new hosts

Although you can add hosts manually, OP5 Monitor includes several tools to help you add one or multiple hosts quickly:

  • Autodiscovery
  • The Host Wizard
  • Network scan

The following procedures explain different ways to add new hosts to OP5 Monitor. Before you can use your new hosts for monitoring, you need to configure them as explained in procedure Configure a host.

Before you begin

You must first ensure your host is installed and set up with a suitable monitoring agent and any other components you need. For more information, see Additional server and software setup.

Add hosts with Autodiscovery

To start using Autodiscovery for discovering hosts, you first need to create discovery jobs to run on your network.

Advanced Autodiscovery configuration options

Autodiscovery is based on a service called Magellan. Advanced OP5 Monitor users can update the following configuration options in configuration file /opt/magellan/magellan.conf:

  • Enable ARP table lookup for seed node discoveries, by setting the no_arp configuration option to True.
  • Enable reverse DNS lookup for hostnames, by setting the no_dns option to True.
  • Change the Magellan port number, by changing the port value; if you change the port number you must also change the port in the HTTP API configuration, or Autodiscovery will no longer be able to communicate with Magellan.

Note: OP5 MonitorAutodiscovery cannot discover hosts across multiple nodes in a distributed environment.

Create a new discovery job

  1. Click Manage > Autodiscovery.
  2. Click the Run a discovery tab. OP5 Monitor lists the current discovery jobs.
  3. Click Create new job.
  4. Specify the Job name and Description.
  5. Specify the Method, then the following additional information:
    • For seed node methods, enter the IP address where Autodiscovery needs to start searching for neighbouring IP addresses.
    • For IP range methods, enter the IP range or subnet.
    • For IP list methods, enter the list of IP addresses, separated by newline or space characters.
  6. Enter the SNMP details. For IP range and IP list methods, check the Use device identification (SNMP) option first, if you want Autodiscovery to use SNMP for device identification.
  7. If you want the job to run on a schedule, set the following options in Scheduling:
    • Day — set the job to run every day, or on a specific day of the week.
    • Hour — set the hour in which the job will run on the specified day.

    Note: If you do not set the hour, then the job will not be scheduled and will only run manually.

  8. Check the Run job after creation checkbox to run the job straight away.
  9. Click Create.

Edit exclusion list

To exclude a host from appearing in the discovery results, add the details to the exclusion list:

  1. Click Manage > Autodiscovery.
  2. Click the Run a discovery tab.
  3. Click Edit exclusion list.
  4. In Edit exclusion list, click Add new address.
    • Under Network addresses, add the host IP address or a range of IP addresses to exclude.
    • Under Comment, you can optionally include a note.
    • Click Done to save the host information.
  5. When you are done, click Save.

To remove a host from the exclusion list, do the following:

  1. Click Edit exclusion list.
  2. Tick the network addresses of the hosts you want to remove.
  3. Click Remove.
  4. When you are done, click Save.

Run a discovery job

  1. Click Manage > Autodiscovery.
  2. Click the Run a discovery tab.
  3. Click the job name to open it and click Run, or click Run in the Actions column.

View the discovery results

  1. Click Manage > Autodiscovery.
  2. Click the View discoveries tab.
  3. Click View results in the Actions column. Autodiscovery displays a list of the IP addresses discovered, with additional details, where available:
    • System name — either a host name Autodiscovery found using reverse DNS lookup or the SNMP object sysName for seed node discoveries, or if you enabled device identification.
    • System description — SNMP object sysDesc for Seed node discoveries or if you enabled device identification.
    • (Seed node discoveries only) Parents and Children — neighbouring hosts, based on the LLDP and ARP information available through SNMP. These are the hosts directly connected to the discovered host.
    • Host template — host template assigned to the discovered host.
    • Host group — host group assigned to the discovered host.
  4. If you want to assign a host template or host group to any of the discovered hosts, do the following:
    1. Select the hosts you would like to edit, then click Edit selected rows above the list.
    2. Tick whether you would like to update the Host template or Host group for the selected hosts, then select from the available options on the drop-down.
    3. Click Save.
  5. If you want to exclude a discovered host from future discovery jobs, click ... > Add to exclusion list for that host.

Import discovered hosts into OP5 Monitor

  1. From the page you opened in View the discovery results, click Import. OP5 Monitor displays a list of all the hosts to be imported.
  2. Uncheck any hosts you do not want to import. Note that if Autodiscovery discovered the hosts using the Seed node method, unchecking hosts also automatically unchecks its related hosts. You can override this default behaviour by checking the Free device selection option.
  3. Confirm import by clicking Send to configuration. Progress is tracked by a progress bar. If import is successful, you can continue to the OP5 Monitor configuration page to save the changes.

Manage Autodiscovery notifications

When an Autodiscovery job detects hosts that have not been monitored before, it displays a banner near the top of the OP5 Monitor page:

Autodiscovery notification banner

To see unmonitored hosts from the Autodiscovery job, click the banner. This directs you to the View discoveries tab of the job that discovered the unmonitored hosts:

Autodiscovery unmonitored hosts listed in View discoveries

The unmonitored hosts are marked in the following ways:

  • They are automatically ticked on the list.

  • They have a ! symbol under the New column.

From the View discoveries tab, you can import, edit, and perform any action on these unmonitored hosts as you would when you view the discovery results from any Autodiscovery job.

Recent job notification

Autodiscovery notifications only show the applicable results of the most recent execution of a scheduled job. When a scheduled job completes, it deletes the previous scheduled execution of that job.

This behaviour does not apply to jobs you have run manually.

Banner dismissal

The notification banner gets dismissed and disappears when you do any of the following actions:

  • Perform any action on any unmonitored host reported by the Autodiscovery notification. The banner will disappear even if you act on only one of many unmonitored hosts.

  • Click Dismiss results from the View discoveries tab.

Stop a running discovery job

  1. Click Manage > Autodiscovery.
  2. Click the View discoveries tab.
  3. Click the drop-down list in the Actions column and select Stop discovery.

Delete a discovery job or result

Deleting a discovery job deletes the job configuration, not any discoveries created by running the job.

  1. Click Manage > Autodiscovery.
  2. Delete a job or result as follows:
    • To delete a discovery job, click the Run a discovery tab, then click the job name to open it and click Delete, or click the drop-down list in the Actions column and select Delete job.
    • To delete a discovery result, click the View discoveries tab, then click the discovery results name to open it and click Delete, or click the drop-down list in the Actions column and select Delete discovery.

Add hosts with the Host Wizard

Running the Host Wizard needs specific user rights. For more details, see Group rights required per OP5 Monitor function in Manage users, contacts, and permissions.

As well as hosts, you can add management packs. For more information, see Management packs.

  1. Click Manage > Host Wizard.
  2. In the Introduction window, click Next. You can disable this introduction so it does not display the next time you run the Wizard, by checking the Skip this introduction in the future checkbox.
  3. Scroll down to the host or hosts you want to add, clicking the Select button under each one, then specify the required details for the host type, such as IP address, port, credentials, and keys. You can also select management packs. Click Next.
  4. Enter the host name you want the host to appear with in OP5 Monitor and the IP address or hostname which identifies the host on your network.
  5. If you selected a host with only one device type and you want to add other hosts with the same device type, click Add Host and specify the host details, as many times as required. Click Next.
  6. Click Save configuration and view added hosts. OP5 Monitor displays your new hosts in a list view.

Add a host from the configuration page

There are several ways you can add a new host from the configuration page. Some of the most common ways are listed below.

Add a new host manually

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Hosts.
  3. From the Add this host? drop-down list, select Yes.
  4. Complete the host configuration details. For guidance, see Configure a host.

Tip: If you are in an existing host configuration, you can add a new host by clicking Add new host in the Related items menu.

Add new hosts with a network scan

You can use the Network scan function to scan for all new hosts in an IP address range, then choose whether to add any new hosts found.

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Hosts.
  3. Click Network scan.
  4. Specify the IP range. Each of the four numbers in the address can be a range or single number, and you can specify a comma-separated list of addresses, for example, 10.1,2.0,4-10.1-50).
  5. Click Scan ranges. If the network scan returns any new hosts for the range, OP5 Monitor loads the host configuration fields for each new host, prefilled with the host name and IP address details.
  6. Complete the other host configuration details for each host in turn. For guidance, see Configure a host.

Create one or more clones of an existing host

  1. Open the host configuration page for an existing host, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Click the Clone tab to clone a host.
  3. Enter the number of copies of the host to make.
  4. Select the services to include.
  5. Click Clone.
  6. Enter the host name, alias, and address details for each new host.
  7. Click Create host clones. OP5 Monitor displays a success message with links to the new host configurations, including the host name, alias, and address details you specified.
  8. Click each link in turn and complete the host configuration details, as specified in Configure a host.

Note: When you clone a host to multiple new hosts, the change log incorrectly lists the same host for each new host. This issue does not affect the configuration save itself.

Create a copy of an existing host

  1. Open the host configuration page for an existing host, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Click the Copy tab to copy a host. OP5 Monitor creates a new host record with the same address.
  3. Complete the other host configuration details. For guidance, see Configure a host.

Configure a host or service group

The procedures below explain how to create, update and delete service groups. You can also use the standard configuration shortcuts to perform other operations on them. For more information, see Configuration shortcuts in Introduction to configuration.

The following principles apply to groups:

  • A host or service can be grouped with any number of other hosts or services.
  • A host or service group can be nested in another host or service group.
  • If a host group service and a host service have the same name, although both services are visible in the configuration, the host service takes precedence. If the host service is deleted, the host group service becomes active instead.

Inheritance

When you add an individual host or a host group to an existing host group, the new host or group of hosts inherit all service checks defined for the existing host group, but the existing host group does not inherit the service checks on the new host or hosts. For example, if you add a Windows host group as a member of a SQL Server host group, the Windows hosts inherit the SQL Server service checks, but the SQL Server hosts do not inherit the Windows service checks.

Management packs

You can create management packs to connect a group of services to a host group, with custom variables specified. Before you create a management pack, you must create the host group and add the services for the management pack. For more information, see Management packs.

Create a host group

This procedure describes how to create a host group manually. You can also create new host group configurations by copying or propagating existing host group definitions.

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Host groups.
  3. Enter the host group name and alias.
  4. In members, select the hosts to add to your host group.
  5. In hostgroup_members, select the host groups whose members you want to add to your host group.
  6. Add the other details, as required:
    • In notes, a description of the host group
    • In action_url, a URL for the optional Perform extra host actions link in the host view Actions column for all hosts in the group
  7. Click Submit.

Add services to a host group

  1. If you are not in the host group configuration page, open the host group configuration by clicking Manage > Configure and selecting Host groups, then searching for or selecting the host group in the Hostgroup to edit field.
  2. Click the Services for hostgroup link in the Related items menu.
  3. You can now perform one of the following:

Create a service group

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Service groups.
  3. Enter the service group name and alias.
  4. In members, select the services to add to your host group.
  5. In servicegroup_members, select service host groups whose members you want to add to your service group.
  6. Add the other details, as required:
    • In notes, a description of the service group
    • In action_url, a URL for an optional Perform extra service actions link in the service view Actions column for all services in the group
  7. Click Submit.

Update a host group or service group

To update a host or service group:

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Host groups or Service groups.
  3. Enter the host or service group name in the Search field or select it from the drop-down list and click Go.
  4. Update the required fields. For more information, see Create a host group or Create a service group.
  5. Click Submit.

Delete a host or service group

To delete a host group or service group from the configuration page:

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Host groups or Service groups.
  3. Enter the host or service group name in the Search field or select it from the drop-down list and click Go.
  4. Click the Delete tab. OP5 Monitor redirects you to a page where it lists all objects affected by the delete.
  5. Confirm deletion.

To delete a host or service group from the group detail page:

  1. From the group detail page, click Options > Configuration > Delete. For guidance, see Group detail page in Monitor host groups and service groups.
  2. (Services only) Check Remove hostgroup services if you want to remove the service from all services in the host group.
  3. Click Submit
  4. Click Show changes in Nacoma.
  5. Click Save my changes to confirm deletion.

Configure a host or service

OP5 Monitor hosts and services are highly configurable. Some examples of the configuration you can perform on hosts and services are as follows:

  • Add hosts to host groups.
  • Add services to hosts and service groups.
  • Configure notifications.
  • Configure parent and child relationships.
  • Configure how and when checks are run.

Configuration entry points

OP5 Monitor includes many entry points for configuring hosts or services. Some of the most common are listed in the table below.

To update ... Use the ...
New host configurations
  • Menu option Manage > Configure, followed by clicking Hosts.
  • Add new hosts link in the Related items menu.
Existing host configurations
New service configurations
  • Services for host link in the Related items menu of a host configuration.
  • Service scanning options of a host configuration. For more information, see Add services to a host.
Existing service configurations

Before you begin

Before you configure a new host or service, you must create the host using one of the procedures in Add new hosts. Depending on your host or service, you may also need to:

Configure a host

In the host configuration page, mandatory fields are designated by an asterisk (*).

  1. Open the host configuration page using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Select the template. Depending on the template you select, some of the following values are pre-filled for you.
  3. Enter the host name and address details:
    • host_name — ID of the host, without any spaces
    • alias — a descriptive name for the host
    • address — IP address or host name. Note that using a host name makes monitoring this host dependent on having a working DNS.
  4. Update the other host fields, as required. For more information, see Host options in Manage templates and time periods.
  5. Add services to the host. For more information, see Add services to a host.
  6. If this is an existing host configuration, you can perform some additional tasks. For more information, see Additional host and service configuration.
  7. Click Finish.

Add services to a host

There are several ways you can add new services, either by specifying them manually or using automated scans. The most common ways are list below.

To manually add services to a new host configuration:

  1. Check the required services in the Service Checks section. If you check Add WMI, enter the user name and password.
  2. Click Add Services.
  3. Add a service settings template and Custom variable, if required.
  4. Select the services to add from the list.
  5. Click Finish.

To manually add new services to an existing host configuration:

  1. Click the Services for host entry in the Related items menu.
  2. Select the template. Depending on the template you select, some of the following values are pre-filled for you.
  3. Enter the service description.
  4. Update the other service fields, as required. For more information, see Service options in Manage templates and time periods.
  5. Click Submit.

To clone services from an existing host configuration to other hosts or host groups:

  1. Click the Clone service(s) link in the Related items menu.
  2. Select the services to clone.
  3. Select the hosts and host groups to which to clone the services.
  4. Click Clone.

To scan for services on an existing or new Unix host configuration:

  1. Click Scan host for network services in the Related items menu.
  2. Add a service settings template and Custom variable, if required.
  3. Select the services to add from the list.
  4. Click Finish.

To scan for services on a new Unix host configuration:

  1. Check the Autodetect Services checkbox in the host configuration.
  2. Click Add services.
  3. Add a service settings template and Custom variable, if required.
  4. Select the services to add from the list.
  5. Click Finish.

To scan for SNMP interfaces on an existing or new Unix host configuration:

  1. Click Scan host for SNMP interfaces in the Related items menu.
  2. Specify the SNMP details.
  3. Select the hosts to scan.
  4. Click Scan hosts.
  5. Select the services to add.
  6. Click the host link to return to the previous page and click Add selected services.

To scan for services on an existing or new Windows host configuration:

  1. Click Scan host for Windows services in the Related items menu.
  2. Choose between scanning using NSClient++ and over WMI.
  3. If scanning over WMI, enter the user name and password.
  4. Click Scan.
  5. Click the host link to return to the previous page and click Add selected services

Configure a service

  1. Open the service configuration page, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Update the values as required:
    1. Select a template.
    2. Update the service description.
    3. Update the other service fields, as required. For more information, see Service options in Manage templates and time periods.
    4. Click Submit.

Additional host and service configuration

If this is an existing host or service configuration, you have some additional options in tabs:

Configure dependencies

  1. Click the Dependencies tab.
  2. Enter the name of the dependent host or service.
  3. Enter a dependent host or service group name.
  4. Enter the time period of the dependency.
  5. In execution_failure_criteria, specify the states for which OP5 Monitor does not need to check the dependent host or service.
  6. In notification_failure_criteria, specify the states for which OP5 Monitor does not need to send notifications for the dependent host or service.
  7. In inherits_parent, specify whether the dependent host or service inherits other dependencies from the parent.
  8. Click Submit.

Configure escalations

You can configure up to two escalation contacts.

  1. Click the Escalations tab.
  2. Enter the first escalation contact or contact group.
  3. Enter number 1 in first_notification if this contact or group receives the first escalation notification.
  4. Enter number 1 in last_notification if this contact or group receives the last escalation notification.
  5. Select the options for notification. OP5 Monitor continues to send notifications to the usual contacts for any states which you do not select.
  6. Click Submit.
  7. Repeat the steps above for a second escalation contact, using the number 2 for the first_notification and last_notification fields.

Propagate settings

  1. Click the Propagate tab.
  2. Check the settings to propagate.
  3. Click Propagate selected settings.
  4. Select the hosts or host groups to which to propagate the settings.
  5. If you selected any settings in step 3 which have multiple values, such as host group settings, specify the approach to use relative to the target server settings from the Propagation format for multi-value attributes drop-down list. You can choose to Replace the values, Append the values or Subtract the values.
  6. Click Submit.

Update a host or service configuration

To update a host or service from the configuration page:

  1. Open an existing host configuration, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. To update a host, update the required host fields, then click Submit. For more details, see Configure a host.
  3. To update a service:
    1. Click Services for the host in the Related items menu.
    2. In the Service to edit field, search for the service or select it from the drop-down list, then click Go.
    3. Update the service details as required (see Add services to a host).
    4. Click Submit.

Delete a host or service configuration

To delete a host configuration from the configuration page:

  1. Open an existing host configuration, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Click the Delete tab.
  3. Click Delete all affected objects.
  4. Click Save.

To delete a service configuration from the configuration page:

  1. Open an existing host configuration, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Click Services for the host in the Related items menu.
  3. In the Service to edit field, search for the service or select it from the drop-down list, then click Go.
  4. Click the Delete tab.

To delete a host or service configuration from the detail page:

  1. Click Options > Configuration > Delete.
  2. (Services only) Check Remove hostgroup services if you want to remove the service from all services in the host group.
  3. Click Submit
  4. Click Show changes in Nacoma.
  5. Click Save my changes to confirm deletion.

Bulk delete host or service configurations

  1. Open an existing host or service configuration, using one of the Configuration entry points.
  2. Click Bulk delete hosts or Bulk delete services in the Related items menu.

Rename a host or service

When you rename a host or service in the OP5 Monitor user interface, it only renames the object, not the related log files, graphs or report data, so the audit trail is lost. The recommended way of renaming a host is to delete it and create a new one.

  1. Archive the logs manually. For guidance, see Log archive in Manage logging.
  2. Create a new host. For guidance, see Add new hosts.

Management packs

Configure a management pack

After you configure a management pack, it is available to select in the Host Wizard.

  1. Click Manage > Configure.
  2. Click Management packs.
  3. Enter the name for the management pack.
  4. Select the host group to use for the management pack.
  5. Select an icon for displaying the management pack in the Host Wizard.
  6. Enter a description.
  7. Enter one or more custom variables, which will appear as fields in the Host Wizard where users can specify additional information, such as user name, password and SNMP community.
  8. Click Submit.

Manage management packs

This function is for importing, exporting and activating management packs.

  1. From the Related items menu of an existing management pack or host group, click Manage Management packs.
  2. To import a management pack, choose a file in JSON format and click Upload json file.
  3. To activate a management pack, under the management pack specification you want to activate, click Force activate.
  4. To export a Management pack, next to the management pack specification you want to export, click Export. OP5 Monitor downloads the specification in JSON format.