I'd try Zenoss. I wrote a big paper comparing Nagios, OpenNMS and Zenoss ( http://www.skills-1st.co.uk/papers/jane/open_source_mgmt_options.html ) - it's nearly 2 years back now but many of the basics are the same. At that time, I plumped for Zenoss but, to be fair, my main negative on OpenNMS was that it is written in Java - it did pretty-well everything I needed.
On the Zenoss front, my main winges were the quality and reliability of the documentation and the code. Zenoss has done a HUGE amount of work on code reliability since then and the documentation is coming along. It runs Nagios plugins if you need that, and will use SNMP, WMI and ssh as protocols to talk to a device. The community is very active and, although Zenoss also have a commercial offering (Enterprise) as well as the free Core, we still seem to get very good air-time from the developers to help resolve issues and to take input from the community.
If you want further help, please ask!
Cheers, Jane
Jane Curry wrote:
I'd try Zenoss. I wrote a big paper comparing Nagios, OpenNMS and Zenoss ( http://www.skills-1st.co.uk/papers/jane/open_source_mgmt_options.html )
- it's nearly 2 years back now but many of the basics are the same.
At that time, I plumped for Zenoss but, to be fair, my main negative on OpenNMS was that it is written in Java - it did pretty-well everything I needed.
Java programs may have a slow-startup, but why is it a negative for a long-running server program? The required JVM is included in the yum repository so installing isn't an issue and it seems like a big plus if you use the remote monitor feature (works via RMI). Also OpenNMS has had a lot of development in the last couple of years. Maps are in the core code, much more configuration can be done through the web interface, lots of ajax-y stuff to make the interface easier to use, many more devices included for auto-recognition, etc.
Jane Curry wrote:
I'd try Zenoss. I wrote a big paper comparing Nagios, OpenNMS and Zenoss ( http://www.skills-1st.co.uk/papers/jane/open_source_mgmt_options.html )
Thanks for sharing that, Jane. Great paper.
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 07:40:10AM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
Also OpenNMS has had a lot of development in the last couple of years. Maps are in the core code, much more configuration can be done through the web interface ....
All good stuff. But there's a big trade off. Web-based GUIs get coupled with XML. XML, when you need to go into it, is not as human-friendly as the bracketed-text config files of Nagios. That said, the default file arrangment of Nagios isn't brilliant. But Kocjan's book, Learning NAGIOS 3.0 offers a far more coherent installation scheme.
As Jane's paper makes clear, Nagios less the networking tool, and more the extensible way to monitor specific systems and applications. If hand editing configuration files scares you, it's not for you. But anything that's trying to go fully GUI these days goes XML. And if hand editing configuration files seems to you - like to me - the perfect way to precisely control vital system daemons, then XML is a distinct disadvantage.
Whit
As Jane's paper makes clear, Nagios less the networking tool, and more the extensible way to monitor specific systems and applications. If hand editing configuration files scares you, it's not for you. But anything that's trying to go fully GUI these days goes XML. And if hand editing configuration files seems to you - like to me - the perfect way to precisely control vital system daemons, then XML is a distinct disadvantage.
I'm quite happy using nagios and zenoss alongside. While I didn't read the nagios book, creating (bits of) config files is easily scripted and can make a big difference along with the use of host and service groups.
Zenoss is quite trigger-happy and doesn't handle connectivity problems very well. Nagios does a better job here out of the box (i.e. it backs off and tries again), and if zenoss can be tuned to work the same way, it's not obvious. The UI is a really bad design with a steep learning curve IMHO.
Zenoss community support is pretty good, although I have often managed to find a solution myself after digging into it.
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On 6/21/2010 8:57 AM, Whit Blauvelt wrote:
Also OpenNMS has had a lot of development in the last couple of years. Maps are in the core code, much more configuration can be done through the web interface ....
All good stuff. But there's a big trade off. Web-based GUIs get coupled with XML. XML, when you need to go into it, is not as human-friendly as the bracketed-text config files of Nagios.
While I sort-of agree with the sentiment, I think it is a matter of using the right tools. There are XML editors that can help deal with the syntax for you. And OpenNMS is much better now than in previous versions about being able to do most of the common stuff in the GUI.
That said, the default file
arrangment of Nagios isn't brilliant. But Kocjan's book, Learning NAGIOS 3.0 offers a far more coherent installation scheme.
As Jane's paper makes clear, Nagios less the networking tool, and more the extensible way to monitor specific systems and applications. If hand editing configuration files scares you, it's not for you. But anything that's trying to go fully GUI these days goes XML. And if hand editing configuration files seems to you - like to me - the perfect way to precisely control vital system daemons, then XML is a distinct disadvantage.
Even though it is ugly, XML has its advantages - particularly if you want to add your own automated code to check or modify the config. With xml you don't have to write your own parser for human-friendly syntax like most other formats.
On 21/06/2010 10:48, Jane Curry wrote:
On the Zenoss front, my main winges were the quality and reliability of the documentation and the code.
The other problem with Zenos is that its extremely slow, regularly fails to guarantee schedules and needs lots of resources.
I'm a firm believer in the fact that if your management and monitoring stack is more complex than the deployed role all; you are doing it wrong.
- KB
Greetings,
On 6/21/10, Jane Curry jane.curry@skills-1st.co.uk wrote:
If you want further help, please ask!
Havwe you tried Zabbix, the NextGen NMS?
Regards,
Rajagopal
On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 6:53 AM, Rajagopal Swaminathan raju.rajsand@gmail.com wrote:
Greetings,
On 6/21/10, Jane Curry jane.curry@skills-1st.co.uk wrote:
If you want further help, please ask!
Havwe you tried Zabbix, the NextGen NMS?
+1 to Zabbix
LAMP software, agent for all plataforms, script friendly, SNMP, IPMI, all the letters you'll need. And maps; oh and I forgot a little detail... Do you like graphs?? Well, out of the box, working beautiful graphs, and everything is configured through the Web-GUI. Also you can do export/import (XML format) and lots of magic, even in the new version there is an API.
So, I would use Zabbix, it replaced both Nagios+Munin+MRTG in the work where I am right now. I LOVE GRAPHS!; and also if you want, you can have Enterprise support.
Regards, Andres
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Andres Lucena -
Jane Curry -
Karanbir Singh -
Les Mikesell -
lhecking＠users.sourceforge.net -
Rajagopal Swaminathan -
Whit Blauvelt