Michael Medin's presentation on NSClient++. The presentation was given during the Nagios World Conference North America held Sept 27-29th, 2011 in Saint Paul, MN. For more information on the conference (including photos and videos), visit: http://go.nagios.com/nwcna

1. NSClient++: Whats New? 5 years of vaporware Presentation © Michael Medin

2. These slides represent the work and opinions of the author and do not constitute official positions of any organization sponsoring the author’s work This material has not been peer reviewed and is presented here as-is with the permission of the author. The author assumes no liability for any content or opinion expressed in this presentation and or use of content herein. Disclaimer! It is not their fault! It is not my fault! It is your fault!

3. Developer (not manager) Not working with Nagios Accidentally ended up in our NOC Hated BB so we migrated to Nagios 2003: The birth of NSClient++ NSClient sucked (Broke Exchange) NRPE_NT was to much work 2004: The open source of NSClient++ “just for fun” 2007: The rebirth of NSClient++ Got a lot of emails and hits on the webpage 2011: The Present 0.3.9 out last may 0.4.0 out as alfa My Background

4. Windows Monitoring and NSClient++ Quick Introduction What’s new in 0.3.9 Disk/File/* Scheduled Tasks Aliases Crash Handling What’s new in 0.4.0 New core Unix support New settings subsystem New protocol Python Scripting The end of NSClient++! Q/A Agenda

5. Windows Monitoring and NSClient++ Quick Introduction

6. What is NSClient? A (pretty old) program pNSClient A (pretty limited) protocol check_nt A (pretty incorrect) concept ”Windows monitoring” What is it not? NSClient++! NSClient++ was written as a replacement for pNSClient But it has evolved much since then NSClient: Terminology

7. NSClient++ Freedom! Custom scripts Decentralized or centralized Active or Passive Can monitor “anything” (including your application) Can perform “tasks” (fix your problems) Other options: SNMP Generally complex to use and limited on “standard” hardware pNSClient/NRPE_NT/OpMonAgent/* Old, outdated and usually limited functionality “Agentless” WMI Limited functionality Enforces centralized and active monitoring But... I am biased, so might not want to take my word for it... Why should you use NSClient++

8. Several Protocols

9. Internals: C++ Around 75.000 lines of code Actively developed (unfortunately only by me) Modularized design (use what you need) Runs on: Windows: NT4, w2k, XP, w2k3, Vista, w2k8, X64, X86 … Unix: Linux/Debian (probably many/most others as well) Current Version: 0.3.9 with 0.4.0 in beta Most features require NRPE or NSCA (or NSCP) Documentation online (WIKI) http://nsclient.org About NSClient++

10. Not supported by a commercial entity Donations welcome Sponsoring available (contact me for details) Used by a lot of people (I think) Impossible to estimate any figures Please, Help out! Add documentation Report problems Come with ideas, thoughts, etc… About NSClient++ (cont.)

11. Thank you!

12. About NSClient++ Using NSClient++

13. NSClient++ is a command line program! nsclient++ -start (net start nsclientpp) nsclient++ -stop (net stop nsclientpp) nsclient++ -test Configuration: notepad nsc.ini Testing: Local (nsclient++ -test) From CLI (check_nrpe ...) From Nagios (add command) Works with “anything” Including many non Nagios based systems Using NSClient++ (0.3.9) nsclient++ -test Is your friend!

14. New command line syntax! nscp --service --start nscp --service –-stop nscp --help Testing nscp --test Configuration: nscp --settings-help nscp --settings --migrate-to ini nscp --settings --set … … Run scripts: nscp --client --module PythonScript --command execute-and-load-python --script test.py --install Using NSClient++ (0.4.0) nscp --test Is your friend!

15. NSClient++What’s new 0.3.9 Overview

16. Major simplification to the disk/file checker CheckFile (removed) CheckFile2 Deprecated CheckFiles (replaces above) Volume support (for real this time) Aliases NSCA/NRPE enhancements Scheduled task checks Crash Handling A bunch of new commands Bug fixes and many more things… 0.3.9 What's new: Overview

17. We have recruited a new member to the team! A girl actually… …Still a bit wet behind the ears… New team member!

18. Evelina was born 2010-07-21

19. NSClient++What’s new 0.3.9 CheckFile(1,2,s,…)

20. The good: Powerfull interface! Simple to use! out-of-the-box solution! (on which you can expand) The bad: Nothing! Really, I mean it! …and then… yesterday… …in the bar… …all hopes shattered… …aparently it is still to complicated…  Overview

21. Same as was introduced for eventlog last year Based on SQL WHERE clauses generated > -2d AND severity = 'error‘ size > 5k size > 5k OR size < 1k size > 5k AND written > -2d (size > 5k OR size < 1k ) AND written > -2d … The new Filters

22. Filter keywords

23. Filter operators

24. Filter Functions

25. Command Options

26. CheckDriveSize… CheckAll=volumes … Other new features Added a new option to ignore drives which are not readable (like office 2010 q: drive) ignore-unreadable Added magic modifiers (from check_mk) magic=0.7 Volume support (for real this time)

27. NSClient++What’s new 0.3.9 Scheduled Tasks

28. Works the ”same” as CheckEventLog ”filter=exit_code ne 0” Two modules: CheckTaskSched.dll Works on Windows NT4 and beyond But cannot check ”new” tasks (from Vista and beyond) CheckTaskSched2.dll Works on Windows Vista and beyond Has fewer filter keywords Scheduled Tasks

29. Filter keywords

30. CheckTaskSched "filter=exit_code ne 0" "syntax=%title%: %exit_code%" warn=>0 WARNING:test.job(1) CheckTaskSched "filter=status = 'running' AND most_recent_run_time < -30m" "syntax=%title% (%most_recent_run_time%)“ warn=>0 WARNING:test.job(2011-02-10 23:14:35) Sample Commands

31. NSClient++What’s new 0.3.9 Aliases

32. System alias_cpu CPU Load past 5 minutes, 80/90% bounds alias_cpu_ex CPU Load past 5 minutes, custom bounds alias_mem Memory utilization (all) 80/90% bounds. alias_mem_ex Memory utilization (all), custom bounds alias_up System uptime Out of the box aliases

33. Disk/Drive alias_disk All fixed drives alias_disk_loose All fixed drives, ignore any problematic drives alias_volumes All volumes alias_volumes_loose All volumes, ignore any problematic drives alias_file_size Check the size of a given file (filename, size) alias_file_age Check the age of a given file Out of the box aliases (continued)

34. Eventlog alias_event_log Check for errors in the event log Schedules Tasks alias_sched_all No scheduled jobs have failed alias_sched_long No task has been running for longer then a given time. alias_sched_task Check if a given task succeeded Misc alias_updates Check that updates are applied Out of the box aliases (continued)

35. Processes alias_service All services in “sensible state” alias_service_ex All services in “sensible state” (exclude various services) alias_process A process must be running alias_process_stopped A process must not be running alias_process_count A process must not have more then X instances alias_process_hung A process must not be hung Out of the box aliases (continued)

36. NSClient++What’s new 0.3.9 Crash Handling

37. Using Google break pad same as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc Three options (not mutually exclusive) Send crash dumps to crash.nsclient.org Server can be changed if you want to have an internal server or proxy server. Store crash dumps for analysis Will also be checked with check_nscp Restart service Crash Handling

38. [crash] restart=1 service_name=nsclientpp submit=0 url=http://crash.nsclient.org/submit archive=1 #folder=<appfolder>/dumps Configuring Crash Handling

39. NSClient++What’s new 0.3.9 Miscellaneous Fixes

40. NSCA Fixed problems with sending ”many” results back NRPE Added support for large payloads Checks Added ”check_nscp” to check health of NSClient++ Added new check for running other checks ”with a timeout” Added new negate check (to negate the result of another check) All filters (read CheckEventLog et al) Many fixes and additions (regular expressions) Process checks Added support for checking if processes has ”hung” Performance data Added it to many places where it was intermittently missing before Other stuff (The highlights)

41. Roadmap Whats to come?

42. Roadmap (rough)

43. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 Overview

44. Brand new core based upon libraries Things should *work* not just “work” More modular and extensible Unix support Both as a client and server New settings subsystem Registry, improved ini support, http, etc New protocol NSCP (HTTP(s), MQ, Native) Distributed monitoring Many new things in this area (including MQ) Python scripting Primary goal (for me) is to create “unit-test” Updated installer Wix 3.5, more customizable What’s new 0.4.0

45. “Monitoring Kits” Monitoring solutions for “standard things” New windows check-subsytem More modern and less arcane (no NT4 support) Remote checking .Net plugin support Possibly internal VBA scripting support Metrics cache and aggregation Lightweight version of CEP “crit=cpu > 80% AND transactions_per_sec < 10” What’s coming 0.4.2

46. Filter-like API (in addition to options) “warn=any drive > 90% OR c: > 80%” Remote updates/upgrades Allow NSCP to upgrade itself “port” of the “standard plugins”? Run your favorite check_xxx from inside NSClient++ Unix plugins? Run CheckCPU on unix machines? Client/web Interface? A nice little program (systray) Let me know what you would like to see! Whatmight be coming?

47. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 Brand new core

48. The flux capacitor

49. This is why it was so long in the making Merging each new version took forever! New internal protocol Removed all internal “limits” (think buffer sizes) Allows many new features Allows much more advanced internal scripts Allows for “non NRPE based checks” A lot of new bugs? This is the scary part (for me) but my testing has show it seems very stable A completely new core

50. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 Unix support

51. Good question… Since no one seems to like to program on Windows I brought NSClient++ to “unix”  Because I can With the new core comes portability So, perhaps the better question was: Why not? Will NOT be supported for some time though Unless someone wants to help out Why?!?!

52. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 New Settings

53. Hierarchical settings subsystem [/settings/NRPE/server] allow arguments=false Instead of [NRPE Server] allow_arguments=false Why did I do this? Because it was fun  Number of options has started to explode Simpler to use the registry (as well as xml?) Settings

54. Since settings have “url:s” old://${exe-path}/nsc.ini ini://${base-path}/nsclient.ini registry://HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/NSClient++ http://my.central.server/config/${hostname}.ini Allows extensions (not via plugins though) Maybe in the future: lua://${base-path}/config.lua python://${base-path}/config.py You can mix and match: ini://${base-path}/nsclient.ini Can “include”: registry://HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/NSClient++ Which in turn includes http://conf.server/${hostname}.conf What’s in it for you?

55. Ability to load the same plugin twice. Normal (default alias is python) [/modules] PytonScript= [/settings/python/scripts] test.py Multiple modules (define two aliases foo and bar) [/modules] foo=PytonScript bar=PythonScript [/settings/foo/scripts] test1.py [/settings/bar/scripts] test2.py Multiple modules and alias

56. It depends… If you are “still” using check_nt: Probably not If you are using NSCA: Maybe not If you want to use all new features Yes How do I change? It is pretty simple… nscp --settings --migrate-to ini (or) nscp --settings --migrate-to registry Do I need to change?

57. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 New protocol

58. Active NRPE

59. Active NSCP

60. Allows more then one command to be sent Used internally for plugins Support both passive and active checks Supports configuration, management, etc… Extensible But will also support: Multiple locales (based on utf) Unlimited payloads (soft configurable) Support real performance data (not strings) New protocol

61. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 Distributed monitoring

62. Submission (evolution)

63. Other scenarios

64. an extension of the passive checks ”Something” can send notification events ”Something” can receive notification events Agents can forward notification events Replaces NSCAListenermodule Supports routing Not a one-to-one mapping. Multiple consumers multiple producers Allows Passive plugins (other then the built-in NSCA) Script and rule based routing Submissions and handlers

65. NSClient++What’s new 0.4.0 Python scripting

66. Built-in python scripting Has full API support Can build ”modules” in python Can access settings Can do “anything” Primarily used by me for unit-testing Requires a working python install Python Scripting

67. The end of NSClient++! Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!

68. 0.4.x (ish) will be the last ”Windows” monitoring agent The idea is to make it more: A platform/client/server for distributed monitoring Regardless of os/system Regardless of Monitoring solutions Don’t worry… It will still work just fine as a ”Windows Monitoring Agent” But in addition to this you will be able to do more. So whats this all about?

69. Questions? Q&A

70. Michael Medin michael@medin.name http://www.linkedin.com/in/mickem Information about NSClient++ http://nsclient.org Facebook: facebook.com/nsclient Slides, and examples http://nsclient.org/nscp/conferances/2011/nwcna/ Thank You!