Nagios System Features

Besides offering a large collection of free plug-ins on sites such as nagiosexchange.org, the standard Nagios boasts many features and functions out of the box- making it one of the most powerful surveillance systems available.

Monitoring host availability

Nagios can monitor the general availability of all network components, generally communicating with network devices via ping commands. Depending on the outcome of one or more checks, the device is assigned a current status – OK, WARNING or CRITICAL.

Monitoring services and applications

Multiple services, such as DNS servers, HTTP servers as well as current memory consumption can be monitored on all configured devices. Client access is simulated for network services, so Nagios checks not only if a response is received, but also how and within what time frames.

Accurate network and dependency mapping

Within a network there are many dependencies. For example, a Web server may only be accessible when the firewall upstream is functioning. Or an exchange server can only send and receive mail if the SMTP server is available. Nagios maps the dependencies and services between different devices 1:1, so you can see the real cause of a problem instead of just the symptoms.

Storage performance and capacity utilization data

Many network problems can be avoided when you can envisage the long-term trends. Something as simple as server failures due to full hard disks can thus be easily prevented. Nagios and NETWAYS extensions extrapolate from historical data to show you long term developments such as the capacity of a hard drive, so you can predict when you will need what.

Distributed monitoring via multiple monitoring servers

Some network areas can be shielded from the rest of your network so that they are monitored by more than one designated sever. With distributed monitoring, agent servers can be assigned and the results from each can be forwarded to the central monitoring system. This can also be applied as load or high availability failover implementations.

Flexible authorization and access restrictions

Nagios’ integrated permissions system allows you to specify access and notifications at the level of server groups, servers or even services. This way only relevant persons will receive relevant alerts about potential problems related to their areas of responsibility.