README.Slackware
================

This file contains some basic instructions to get nagios installed and 
running on your computer.

0) Before running the SlackBuild Script
---------------------------------------

0.1) Create nagios group & user

Before even running the SlackBuild script, create the necessary 'nagios'
user and group. The SlackBuild script will remind you if these do not exist.

The suggested UID and GID is 213, but you can change this as needed:

  # groupadd -g 213 nagios
  # useradd -u 213 -d /var/nagios -s /bin/bash -g nagios nagios

0.2) Add 'apache' to 'nagios' group

For several nagios scripts to run without problems, you need to add the 
'apache' user to the 'nagios' group, so that it can write to the 
/var/nagios/rw directory:

  # usermod -G nagios apache

0.3) Select DOCROOT

The standard SlackBuild script puts the nagios files in /var/www/htdocs
This is fine for a stock Slackware installation, but if your 'DOCROOT' 
lives in another directory, you can specify it when starting the SlackBuild 
script like this:

# DOCROOT=/your/docroot/dir ./nagios.SlackBuild

1) Post-installation
--------------------

After building & installing the nagios package, there are some additional 
steps to take.

1.1) Check /etc/nagios/nagios.cfg & /etc/nagios/cgi.cfg

These are the basic configuration files for the nagios server. Do read the
documentation to understand what all the different settings mean.

1.2) Edit /etc/httpd/extra/nagios.conf

To be able to view the documentation, edit this file.
After the "<Directory "/var/www/htdocs/nagios">" line, change:

	Options None

to read:

	Options FollowSymLinks

1.3) Edit /etc/httpd/httpd.conf

Now you need to add the extra/nagios.conf file as an included file. To
accomplish this, after the "DocumentRoot /srv/httpd/htdocs" line, add:

	Include /etc/httpd/extra/nagios.conf

1.4) Create access file

The /etc/httpd/extra/nagios.conf file defines /etc/nagios/htpasswd.users
as the file with the authorized users.
To create this file with a standard user called 'nagiosadmin', type:

  # htpasswd -c /etc/nagios/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

then type the password you choose twice.

To add other users, delete users, etc., check the man page for htpasswd:

  # man htpasswd

1.5) Restart httpd

  # /etc/rc.d/rc.httpd restart

1.6) Put startup command in /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

	# Start nagios:
	if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios ]; then
	        echo "Starting nagios..."
	        /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios start
	fi

1.7) Put shutdown command in /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown:

	# Stop nagios:
	if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios ]; then
	        echo "Stopping nagios..."
	        /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios stop
	fi

1.8) Make /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios executable:

  # chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios

1.9) Start nagios:

  # /etc/rc.d/rc.nagios start

2) Adding hosts, routers, switches, etc.
----------------------------------------

Lot of documentation is included in this package and should be read to fully
understand how to add hosts, routers, switches, etc.

To add functionality, build & install the nagios-plugins on your server.

To monitor external Linux hosts, install the nrpe package on them, together
with the nagios-plugins.

To monitor Windows hosts, install NSClient++ on them.

Do check the http://wiki.nagios.org pages for some useful information.

3) Growing log files
--------------------

If you are monitoring several items, your log files can grow considerably.
Nagios keeps a history of all logs in /var/nagios/archives/.
After a few months this can be quite a bit of information, so consider
creating some kind of clean-up or compacting script (Left as an exercise to
the reader :) )