nagios_exporter

A Prometheus exporter currently supporting:

• Nagios XI
• Nagios Core 4
• Nagios Core 3
• CheckMK

It includes metrics on the current state and configuration of Nagios. This includes the number of hosts, services, and information about their monitoring setup. For example, this exporter will output the number of flapping hosts, passive checks, or hosts in downtime.

Practical use cases for this exporter may include:

• A Nagios overview - see broad status of hosts and services
• Visualize changes in host status after making adjustments to Nagios checks
• Detect an uptick in unknown check results after converting many active checks to passive

This exporter does not output Nagios check results as Prometheus metrics; it is designed to export metrics of the Nagios monitoring server itself for meta-monitoring.

Table of Contents

• nagios_exporter
  • Table of Contents
  • Installation
    • Debian/RPM package
    • Docker
    • Binary
    • Source
  • Configuration
    • Configuration File
    • CLI
    • Nagios Core 3/4 support
  • Metrics
  • Grafana
  • Troubleshooting
    • NagiosXI
    • Nagios Core 3/4, CheckMK
  • Resources Used
  • Contributing
  • Releasing
  • Contributors ✨

Installation

Debian/RPM package

Substitute {{ version }} for your desired release.

wget https://github.com/linode-obs/nagios_exporter/releases/download/v{{ version }}/prometheus-nagios-exporter_{{ version }}_linux_amd64.{deb,rpm}
{dpkg,rpm} -i prometheus-nagios-exporter_{{ version }}_linux_amd64.{deb,rpm}

Docker

Populate config.toml with your APIKey = NagiosXIAPIKey

sudo docker run \
-v ./config.toml:/etc/prometheus-nagios-exporter/config.toml \
ghcr.io/linode-obs/nagios_exporter \
--nagios.scrape-uri http://localhost

Binary

wget https://github.com/linode-obs/nagios_exporter/releases/download/v{{ version }}/nagios_exporter_{{ version }}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
tar xvf nagios_exporter_{{ version }}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
./nagios_exporter/prometheus-nagios-exporter

Source

wget https://github.com/linode-obs/nagios_exporter/archive/refs/tags/v{{ version }}.tar.gz
tar xvf nagios_exporter-{{ version }}.tar.gz
cd ./nagios_exporter-{{ version }}
go build nagios_exporter.go
./nagios_exporter.go

Configuration

Create a simple config.toml in /etc/prometheus-nagios-exporter with your Nagios API key:

# prometheus-nagios-exporter configuration

APIKey = ""

Configuration File

In TOML format.

Environment Variable	Description	Default	Required
APIKey	The NagiosXI API key if exporting NagiosXI api-specific metrics		❌

CLI

To see all available configuration flags:

./prometheus-nagios-exporter -h

CLI Flag	Description	Default	Required
---config.path	Configuration file path, only for API key	/etc/prometheus-nagios-exporter/config.toml	❌
--log.level	Minimum log level like "debug" or "info"	info	❌
--nagios.check-updates	Enable optional nagios_update_available_info metric	false	❌
--nagios.config_path	Nagios configuration path for use with nagiostats binary	/usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg	❌
--nagios.scrape-uri	Nagios application address to scrape	http://localhost	❌
--nagios.ssl-verify	SSL certificate validation	false	❌
--nagios.stats_binary	Path of nagiostats binary and configuration (e.g /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagiostats)		❌
--nagios.timeout	Timeout for querying Nagios API in seconds (on big installations I recommend ~60)	5	❌
--web.listen-address	Address to listen on for telemetry (scrape port)	9927	❌
--web.telemetry-path	Path under which to expose metrics	/metrics	❌

Nagios Core 3/4 support

This exporter also supports Nagios Core 3/4 and CheckMK, albeit with a subset of metrics and reliance on the nagiosstats binary. There is no RESTful API for either monitoring platform, so the exporter must be run directly on the Nagios host and have access to execute nagiostats.

It is also recommended to pass the path of the Nagios configuration

Typical location and usage of the binary:

• Nagios Core 3/4:
  • --nagios.stats_binary: /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagiostats
  • --nagios.config_path: /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg
• CheckMK:
  • --nagios.stats_binary: /omd/sites/<your-site>/bin/nagiostats
  • --nagios.config_path: /omd/sites/<your-site>/tmp/nagios/nagios.cfg

Example usage:

./nagios_exporter --nagios.stats_binary "/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagiostats" --nagios.config_path "/usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg"

Note that this flag nullifies all others. It cannot be used in conjunction with the Nagios XI API.

Metrics

Click to expand metrics

Metric Name	Description	Type
nagios_build_info	Nagios exporter build information	gauge
nagios_host_checks_execution	Host check execution	histogram
nagios_host_checks_latency	Host check latency	histogram
nagios_host_checks_minutes	Host checks over time	histogram
nagios_host_checks_performance_seconds	Host checks performance	gauge
nagios_hosts_acknowledges_total	Amount of host problems acknowledged	gauge
nagios_hosts_checked_total	Amount of hosts checked	gauge
nagios_hosts_downtime_total	Amount of hosts in downtime	gauge
nagios_hosts_status_total	Amount of hosts in different states	gauge
nagios_hosts_total	Amount of hosts present in configuration	gauge
nagios_service_checks_execution	Service check execution	histogram
nagios_service_checks_latency	Service check latency	histogram
nagios_service_checks_minutes	Service checks over time	histogram
nagios_service_checks_performance_seconds	Service checks performance	gauge
nagios_services_acknowledges_total	Amount of service problems acknowledged	gauge
nagios_services_checked_total	Amount of services checked	gauge
nagios_services_downtime_total	Amount of services in downtime	gauge
nagios_services_status_total	Amount of services in different states	gauge
nagios_services_total	Amount of services present in configuration	gauge
nagios_up	Whether Nagios can be reached	gauge
nagios_update_available_info	NagiosXI update is available (optional metric!)	gauge
nagios_users_privileges_total	Amount of admin or regular users	gauge
nagios_users_status_total	Amount of disabled or enabled users	gauge
nagios_users_total	Amount of users present on the system	gauge
nagios_version_info	Nagios version information	gauge

nagios_update_available_info is optional because the user may not want their Nagios server scraping the external version webpage every scrape_interval.

Grafana

Import the dashboard template (instructions).

Troubleshooting

Ensure nagios_up returns 1.

NagiosXI

Please check your API key and Nagios reachability:

curl -GET "http://<nagios_url>/nagiosxi/api/v1/objects/host?apikey=<apikey>&pretty=1"

Nagios Core 3/4, CheckMK

Ensure the user running the Nagios Exporter can execute nagiostats fully:

sudo su <prometheus-user> -s /bin/bash -c "/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagiostats -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg"

Resources Used

• haproxy_expoter
• 15 Steps to Write an Application Prometheus Exporter in GO
• curl-to-go
• mirth_exporter
• golang-json-api-client
• jsonutils
• goreleaser
• nfpm

Contributing

To build and run the Debian package, install go-releaser and run:

goreleaser release --clean --snapshot
# currently I develop on a VM running NagiosXI, but a container would be cool too
scp dist/prometheus-nagios-exporter_1.2.2-next_linux_386.deb root@<nagiosXI-VM-ip>:/root/
dpkg -i prometheus-nagios-exporter_1.2.2-next_linux_amd64.deb
# examine metrics
ssh root@<nagiosXI-VM-ip>
curl -s localhost:9927/metrics | grep "^nagios"

Install pre-commit hooks:

pre-commit install

Releasing

Follow goreleaser's quick start instructions.

# make changes, merge into main
export GITHUB_TOKEN="YOUR_GH_TOKEN"
git tag -a v<semver> -m "Release summary"
git push origin v<semver>
# login to ghcr too
# https://docs.github.com/en/packages/working-with-a-github-packages-registry/working-with-the-container-registry#authenticating-with-a-personal-access-token-classic
echo $CR_PAT | docker login ghcr.io -u $USERNAME --password-stdin

goreleaser release

Contributors ✨

TJ Hoplock 💻 🧑‍🏫

This project follows the all-contributors specification.