Configuring Windows hosts with Nagios 3.5 - Part 2

OK , now one part is done of the process and what we have to do now is installing the windows host.It can be done through the following steps.

1. Install NSClient++ on the remote windows server
2. Modify the NSClient++ Service
3. Modify the NSC.ini
4. Start the NSClient++ Service

1. Install NSClient++ on the remote windows server

Download NSCP version you prefer (I have used NSClient++ 0.3.1) from http://www.nsclient.org/nscp/downloads  NSClient++ is an open source windows service that allows performance metrics to be gathered by Nagios for windows services. Go through the installation steps to get the installation completed.


In the setup include all the plugins you want to be installed and select default location for the install.

2. Modify the NSClient++ Service

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Double click on the “NSClientpp (Nagios) 0.3.1.14 2008-03-12 w32″ service and select the check-box that says “Allow service to interact with desktop” as shown below.

3. Modify the NSC.ini

(1) Modify NSC.ini and uncomment *.dll: Edit the C:\Program Files\NSClient++\NSC.ini file and uncomment everything under [modules] except RemoteConfiguration.dll and CheckWMI.dll

[modules]
;# NSCLIENT++ MODULES
;# A list with DLLs to load at startup.
;  You will need to enable some of these for NSClient++ to work.
; ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
; *                                                               *
; * N O T I C E ! ! ! - Y O U   H A V E   T O   E D I T   T H I S *
; *                                                               *
; ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
FileLogger.dll
CheckSystem.dll
CheckDisk.dll
NSClientListener.dll
NRPEListener.dll
SysTray.dll
CheckEventLog.dll
CheckHelpers.dll
;CheckWMI.dll
;
; RemoteConfiguration IS AN EXTREM EARLY IDEA SO DONT USE FOR PRODUCTION ENVIROMNEMTS!
;RemoteConfiguration.dll
; NSCA Agent is a new beta module use with care!
NSCAAgent.dll
; LUA script module used to write your own "check deamon" (sort of) early beta.
LUAScript.dll
; Script to check external scripts and/or internal aliases, early beta.
CheckExternalScripts.dll
; Check other hosts through NRPE extreme beta and probably a bit dangerous! 
NRPEClient.dll

(2) Modify NSC.ini and uncomment allowed_hosts. Edit the C:\Program Files\NSClient++\NSC.ini file and Uncomment allowed_host under settings and add the ip-address of the nagios-server.

;# ALLOWED HOST ADDRESSES
;  This is a comma-delimited list of IP address of hosts that are allowed to talk to the all daemons.
;  If leave this blank anyone can access the deamon remotly (NSClient still requires a valid password).
;  The syntax is host or ip/mask so 192.168.0.0/24 will allow anyone on that subnet access
allowed_hosts=192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0

Note: allowed_host is located under [Settings], [NSClient] and [NRPE] section. Make sure to change allowed_host under [Settings] for this purpose.

(3) Modify NSC.ini and uncomment port. Edit the C:\Program Files\NSClient++\NSC.ini file and uncomment the port# under [NSClient] section

;# NSCLIENT PORT NUMBER
;  This is the port the NSClientListener.dll will listen to.
port=12489

(4) Modify NSC.ini and specify password. You can also specify a password the nagios server needs to use to remotely access the NSClient++ agent.

[Settings]
;# OBFUSCATED PASSWORD
;  This is the same as the password option but here you can store the password in an obfuscated manner.
;  *NOTICE* obfuscation is *NOT* the same as encryption, someone with access to this file can still figure out the
;  password. Its just a bit harder to do it at first glance.
;obfuscated_password=Jw0KAUUdXlAAUwASDAAB
;
;# PASSWORD
;  This is the password (-s) that is required to access NSClient remotely. If you leave this blank everyone will be able to access the daemon remotly.
password=My2Secure$Password

4. Start the NSClient++ Service

Start the NSClient++ service either from the Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Services -> Select “NSClientpp (Nagios) 0.3.1.14 2008-03-12 w32″ and click on start (or) Click on “Start -> All Programs -> NSClient++ -> Start NSClient++ (Win32) . Please note that this will start the NSClient++ as a windows service.

Later if you modify anything in the NSC.ini file, you should restart the “NSClientpp (Nagios) 0.3.1.14 2008-03-12 w32″ from the windows service.


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The following are the places which helped a lot to gain information on these and I owe a great THANK YOU to their original authors.

REFERENCE : 

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/07/how-to-monitor-remote-windows-machine-using-nagios-on-linux/

http://nagiosplugins.org/man/check_nt

http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/monitoring-windows.htm