NrpeMonitor

The NrpeMonitor lets you test plugins and checks running on the Nagios Remote Plugin Executor (NRPE) framework.

Meridian and Nagios have several conceptional differences. In Meridian, a service can only be available or not available and the response time for the service is measured. Nagios, on the other hand, combines service availability, performance data collection, and thresholding in one check command. For this reason, a Nagios check command can have more states than OK and CRITICAL. Using the NrpeMonitor marks all check command results other than OK as DOWN. The full output of the check command output message is passed into the service down event in Meridian.

NRPE configuration on the server is required and the check command has to be configured; for example, command[check_apt]=/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_apt

Meridian runs every NRPE check in a Java thread without fork() a process, and is more resource friendly. Nevertheless, it is possible to run NRPE plugins that combine a lot of external programs like sed, awk, or cut. Be aware that each command forks additional processes.

Monitor facts

Class Name

org.opennms.netmgt.poller.monitors.NrpeMonitor

Configuration and use

Table 1. Monitor-specific parameters for the NrpeMonitor
Parameter	Description	Default
Required
command	The {check_name} of the command configured as `command[{check_name}]="/path/to/plugin/check-script`	empty
Optional
retry	Number of retries before the service is marked as down.	0
port	Port to access NRPE on the remote server.	5666
padding	Padding for sending the command to the NRPE agent.	2
usessl	Enable encryption of network communication. NRPE uses SSL with anonymous DH and the following cipher suite: TLS_DH_anon_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA	true

This monitor implements the Common Configuration Parameters.

Example: Using check_apt with NRPE

This example shows how to configure the NrpeMonitor running the check_apt command on a configured NRPE.

Configuration of the NRPE check command on the agent in 'nrpe.cfg'

command[check_apt]=/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_apt

Configuration to test the NRPE plugin with the NrpeMonitor

<service name="NRPE-Check-APT" interval="300000" user-defined="false" status="on">
  <parameter key="retry" value="3" />
  <parameter key="timeout" value="3000" />
  <parameter key="port" value="5666" />
  <parameter key="command" value="check_apt" />
  <parameter key="padding" value="2" />
</service>

<monitor service="NRPE-Check-APT" class-name="org.opennms.netmgt.poller.monitors.NrpeMonitor" />