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.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com