Re: [Nagios-devel] service definitions

[Greg P. <gre...@do...>]

Matt McKinnon wrote:
> 
> i'm curious why service definitions require contact groups.  for example:
> 
> define service{
>         use                             basic-service
>         host                            *
>         service_description             SERVICE
>         check_command                   check-host-alive
>         }
> 
> let's assume the "basic-service" definition i use has all required
> directives except "contact_groups".
> 
> if a SERVICE goes down on a host, shouldn't nagios see that:
> 
> . that host is part of a host group
> . that host group has a contact group
> . that contact group has a contact
> . that contact should receive mail if SERVICE on that host goes down
> 
> if i have 20 contracts, each with a different contract email address, my
> global service check that should save me time isn't so cool anymore.  am i
> missing something here?
> 
> -matt


I think the missing part here is you are assuming the same person/group
is responsible for all the services being watched on a host.

To use Jim's example of an oracle database...
The DBAs would care about oracle being up and running(oracle service
check) and the sysadmin for that box probably only cares if disk space
is running out(disk space check), not whether oracle is running or
not(not directly his problem).

So DBAs would probably get both oracle & disk space notifications and
sysadmins would only get disk space notifications.

With the logic you suggested above, one couldn't seperate out
notifications to different groups for each service on a host.  All
notifications would just go the host contact.

In your case, a "generic" service template will save you some effort but
each host with a unique contact will need its own service defined.

Something like
define service{
	name	blah
	<common service statements, e.g. notification_options, etc>
	register	0
	}

define service{
	use	blah ; suck in the template
	host	host1.foobar.com
	contact_group	someone-who-cares
	}

yes, no, maybe?

greg