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4909 Views 14 Replies Latest reply: Sep 6, 2011 2:04 AM by Magnum RSS
Magnum Rank: White Belt
Magnum
23 posts since
Dec 1, 2010
Currently Being Moderated

Jul 19, 2011 3:15 AM

Distributed setup

Hi all,

I have 2 questions on how to best do a distributed setup.

 

We build several customer networks, where we need to monitor devices (usually switches).

The networks are usually private and we have some device/gw to access them. This could be a firewall or a (very) limited server.

For the sake of this example I will let all networks be the same (say 192.168.10.0/24).

 

What is best practice for setups like these?

- Do we install a distributed zenoss collector on the limited servers (they are very limited!)?

- Do we do some fancy mappings in the firewall?

 

We are moving from Nagios to Zenoss and today these setups are built with a Nagios agent on the limited servers. Installing a Zenoss collector on the existing setups is not really an option. We can live with the Ping monitoring of Nagios - SNMP isn't required.

 

How do we integrate them into Zenoss?

- Can Zenoss receive information from the Nagios agents?

 

 

/Marcus

Tags: nagios, collector
  • jmp242 ZenossMaster
    jmp242
    4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. Jul 19, 2011 7:58 AM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    I don't know enough about how a Nagios agent works, but my guess is it would at the least require some fun with command datasources. The distributed Zenoss instances are pretty much the same as the central installed Zenoss server, just in a "slave" mode. So a very limited server wouldn't work.

     

    I think you'd need some coding here, or to drop a full *nix server with open ports back to the Zenoss central server. . .

     

    --

    James Pulver

    Information Technology Area Supervisor

    LEPP Computer Group

    Cornell University

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. Jul 20, 2011 7:46 AM (in response to jmp242)
    Re: Distributed setup

    So for future setups I need a full blown Zenoss capable server running a collector. Is there an issue with having the same private subnet on all networks?

  • jmp242 ZenossMaster
    jmp242
    4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Jul 20, 2011 8:17 AM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Zenoss has required unique IPs in Core - there was a feature in 3 I think that changed that, but to be honest, I don't recall if it was an enterprise only feature or not. Maybe another forum member can comment.

     

    --

    James Pulver

    Information Technology Area Supervisor

    LEPP Computer Group

    Cornell University

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. Jul 22, 2011 4:15 AM (in response to jmp242)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Anyone got an answer for that?

    Can I have the same private IPs in multiple subnets (using a distributed collector setup)?

  • TitoOrtega Rank: White Belt
    TitoOrtega
    50 posts since
    Jul 14, 2011
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Jul 22, 2011 9:33 AM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    No you cannot do this with Core.

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    6. Jul 25, 2011 4:54 AM (in response to TitoOrtega)
    Re: Distributed setup

    So...is the only the only solution to this is to use NAT, with a public IP for every private one?

  • Rank: Brown Belt
    Nick Yeates
    260 posts since
    Mar 30, 2009
    Currently Being Moderated
    7. Jul 25, 2011 10:35 AM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Even with remote collectors, the devices will still have same IPs. We have solved this in the Enterprise product with our Multirealm ip ZenPack, though it goes generally unsolved in Core.

     

    You could, as a workaround, create dummy devices and do everything via command-based (ssh) monitoring. You can create a datasource that runs a command to ssh over to the remote machine, and run something there. The data that SSH commands spit out, can then be parsed with either a) the delivered nagios parser (aka delivered in zenoss core) or b) you can write a custom parser. This would not allow general stats to be enabled - you would need to create your own datasource for anything you wanted to monitor on it.

     

    I dont quite understand your NAT comment.... if you can somehow get each IP to be different in zenoss's eyes, that will work.

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    8. Jul 27, 2011 5:06 AM (in response to Nick Yeates)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Hi Nick,

    I will give the Nagios parser a go. Is there a guide somewhere on how to do that?

    I havn't been able to find one.

     

    My comment on NAT was about wasting public IPs using NAT to the devices we need to monitor on the customers private network.

  • Rank: Brown Belt
    Nick Yeates
    260 posts since
    Mar 30, 2009
    Currently Being Moderated
    9. Jul 27, 2011 3:23 PM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Take a look around the Extended Monitoring guide, and also the dev guide. They are pretty in depth and I believe have some info on command/ssh monitoring. You might have to hunt and peck a lil - paruse the tables of contents and then delve in. Ive not seen one specific guide on how to make your own command datasource and parse it with a nagios parser, though maybe someone else has?

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    10. Jul 28, 2011 7:44 AM (in response to Nick Yeates)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Thanks for the advice. I had a look and this was more work then I had hoped for.

    But I think I have found a completly different and more elegant solution for this - will test it our lab soon.

  • Rank: Brown Belt
    Nick Yeates
    260 posts since
    Mar 30, 2009
    Currently Being Moderated
    11. Aug 11, 2011 3:39 PM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    What were your findings?

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    12. Sep 5, 2011 5:41 AM (in response to Nick Yeates)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Hi Nick,

    I havn't had the time to test it, but I think it will work.

    We use Juniper SRXs for all our customers. They can act as a syslog server, so all devices on the LAN can forward theri syslog to them, who in turn foreward their syslog to zenoss (under their own IP).

    They also come with several probe, including ping probes. The results of these probes can trigger SNMP traps to Zenoss. So, They ping the LAN and send a trap when something is down.

     

    I'll update when I've tested it.

  • guyverix ZenossMaster
    guyverix
    846 posts since
    Jul 10, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    13. Sep 5, 2011 10:38 PM (in response to Magnum)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Why not cheat?  Use a point to point VPN tunnel between your collectors and your core instance.  You could use a unique IP schema then.

  • Magnum Rank: White Belt
    Magnum
    23 posts since
    Dec 1, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    14. Sep 6, 2011 2:04 AM (in response to guyverix)
    Re: Distributed setup

    Apart from the security issues of interconnecting all our customers networks - which can be delt with. We don't get a say in the IP plan of these LANs.

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