One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of +Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few +days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system +Nagios. The previous release had automatic configuration of trend +analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step +further.
+ +When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically +configured as a Munin and Nagios server. In addition, it is +configured to be a server for the +SiteSummary +system I have written for use in Debian Edu. The SiteSummary +system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I +work. In short, the system provide a centralised collector of +information about the computers on the network, and a client on each +computer submitting information to this collector. This allow for +automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine, +which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the +packages got etc. This also allow us to automatically generate Munin +and Nagios configuration.
+ +All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the +munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin +client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show +up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.
+ +All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are +automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network +services detected). In addition, all computers (also laptops) with +the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way +sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software +raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on +the machine.
+ +The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu +based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation +with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time +keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.
+ +The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running +is to set the password used to get access via HTTP. The system +administrator need to run "htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users +nagiosadmin" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for +it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages. After that, +everything is taken care of.
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