Simple CMDB import using Icinga Director

Jul 11, 2016 · 5 min read · icinga-director icinga2 ·

In my last article I focussed on Icinga 2 and the new configuration utility Icinga Director. I mentioned that Icinga Director can be used to link Icinga to pre-existing Configuration Management Database (CMDB) systems to simplify data import. In this article we will create a little "dummy CMDB" with MySQL …
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Install Icinga2, Icinga Web 2 and Icinga Director under EL7

Jul 6, 2016 · 6 min read · icinga-director icinga2 ·

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Icinga2 is a very powerful monitoring system that can be used optionally with the new user interface Icinga Web 2. In comparison with Icinga 1.x, those tools have been developed completely from scratch - they have nothing in common with the legacy software stack.

This year, a configuration utility named Icinga Director …

Integrate source code patches into RPM packages

Jun 30, 2016 · 3 min read ·

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Rcently I packaged the software scponly for Enterprise Linux using rpmbuild and stumbled upon an error message:

 1$ cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
 2$ rpmbuild -ba scponly.spec
 3checking for libgiertz...
 4...
 5/usr/bin/install -c -o 0 -g 0 scponly /home/cstan/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/scponly-4.8-1.el7.centos.x86_64/usr/bin/scponly …

Short tip: sudo and vi(m)

Jun 28, 2016 · 1 min read · kurztipp ·

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System administrators know requirements like this - a dedicated server needs to be deployed for a new application. In order to enable owners to maintain their application they need permissions to modify relevant configuration files. In this scenario, sudo rules are often configured in a way to enable file modifications …
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Spoiled for choice: new HDDs for my NAS

Jun 26, 2016 · 7 min read · nas ·

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2016 seems to be the year of big hardware renewals for me - after completely overhauling my virtual infrastructure, I also needed new hard drives for my NAS after nearly 4 years.

NAS, DAS, what?

For many years, I have been using D.I.Y. NAS servers for collecting my data and media library on a single host. After I was …

Short tip: Enterprise Linux 7 and annoying prompts in GNU Screen titles

Jun 24, 2016 · 1 min read · kurztipp ·

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If you want to combine multiple terminal sessions on one window, multiplexers such as tmux or GNU Screen are useful tools. I have been using screen for 10 years with the following configuration:

 1$ cat ~/.screenrc
 2# F7+F8 for tab switching
 3bindkey -k k7 prev
 4bindkey -k k8 next
 5
 6# disable welcome
 7 …

Monitoring OMD sites with check_omd

Jun 7, 2016 · 2 min read · icinga nagios omd ·

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Using OMD it is possible to setup a working monitoring for checking infrastructure setups just within minutes.

But - what monitored OMD-relevant processes? Usually, a OMD site consists of multiple pre-configured services such as:

Icinga or Nagios
Apache web server
Cron service
rrdcached (for RRD graphs)
npcd ( …

Monitor systemd units with Nagios/Icinga

Jun 6, 2016 · 1 min read · icinga nagios ·

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Recently I stumbled upon an interesting blog post about monitoring systemd units with Nagios or Icinga.

But in my opinion the post's screenshot is misleading. I looks like the linked Python scripts automatically discovers and configures systemd units within Nagios/Icinga - which is not the case. The script named …

Create SELinux module for NRPE and check_fail2ban

May 28, 2016 · 5 min read · selinux ·

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If you need to protect a Linux host against unauthorized access, fail2ban is a very handy service. The application scans log files of various services, automatically detects failed logins and blocks attacker's IP addresses. Especially on public hosts, it is essential to implement a protection like this on prominent …
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Short tip: OMD and Python error 'TypeError: 'frozenset' object is not callable'

May 27, 2016 · 1 min read · omd kurztipp ·

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When configuring and testing a Python Icinga plugin within an OMD site, I stumbled upon the following error recently:

1TypeError: 'frozenset' object is not callable

After some tests on other systems, I found out, that the Python library hashlib shipped with OMD seems to be faulty. Copying the system-wide …