Overview

This page outlines Quick Start steps to monitor GDMA, VMware, Cacti and the steps to set up notifications using NoMa. For common questions please see Quick Start FAQs. Please refer to the Bookshelf in its entirety for detailed product documentation. If you need help contact GroundWork Support.

GDMA

Groundwork Distributed Monitoring Agent (GDMA), is a lightweight agent that is installed on the server to be monitored. Once installed, the GDMA agent talks to the GroundWork server to get its configuration and sends results of service checks back to the GroundWork server on a scheduled basis.

GDMA installation

1. Connect to the GroundWork servers' agents directory:

   http://<groundworkserver>/agents/

2. Select to download the installer that matches the OS for the server and relocate the installer to the target machine.
3. Run the installer, accepting the defaults (chmod +x may be necessary for Linux)
4. To ensure the server has made its connection, you can check the apache access log on the GroundWork server and should see a log entry with the server's fully qualified domain name and IP address:

   /usr/local/groundwork/apache2/logs/access_log

5. All hosts added by GDMA will automatically be added to the Auto-Registration hostgroup, (Configuration > Hosts, and select the Auto-Registration group).
6. Just like the addition of any other Nagios host, you will need to run a Configuration > Control > Commit operation to allow the monitoring engine to recognize the host.
7. After committing, select Build externals to write out any configuration file changes for the GDMA agents so that they can grab the file next time they check in with the GroundWork server.

Cloud Hub

GroundWork Cloud Hub, a data collector agent specialized in gathering metrics from a variety of virtual environments and integrating them seamlessly into the GroundWork Monitor Enterprise system.

Enable a Cloud Hub connection

1. Log in to GroundWork Monitor as a GroundWork Administrator (e.g., admin/admin).
2. Select GroundWork Administration > GroundWork Cloud Hub.
3. Click +Add corresponding to the VMware connector icon.
4. Enter the connection information, select SAVE, select TEST CONNECTION, you should see Testing connection at the top of the page.
   • If unsuccessful, double check the values and test again, if you need assistance please contact demo support.
   • If successful, click Next and set thresholds and monitoring values you would like to adjust.
5. Click Save, and click Home.
6. Click Start corresponding to the VMware connector just added.

Cacti

While network equipment can be monitored using active checking from the GroundWork Configuration tool, you can also add devices into Cacti.

Enable Cacti feeder

1. By default, the Cacti Feeder is not enabled, to enable establish a terminal or ssh session to the GroundWork server.
2. As sudo or root user, edit the cacti_feeder.conf file and change the feeder enabled to yes:

   vi /usr/local/groundwork/config/cacti_feeder.conf

   feeder_enabled = yes

3. Save the file, the Cacti Feeder service will automatically begin to run.

Add devices

1. Log in to GroundWork Monitor as a GroundWork Administrator (e.g., admin/admin).
2. Select Advanced > Network Graphing.
3. Select Devices from the left navigation.
4. Click Add from the top right and enter the following for an SNMP enabled host:
   • Description
   • Hostname (or IP Address)
   • Host Template (Cisco Router will work for most switches and routers)
   • SNMP Version (e.g., Version 2)
   • SNMP Community (e.g., public)
5. Click Create. If successful, the SNMP device information should show at the top left.

Create graphs

1. To create graphs, click the link Create graphs for this host:
   • Select what you would like to graph, (e.g., Linux - Memory Usage).
   • Click Create from the bottom right. Once you have created the graphs, it will take approximately 20 minutes for the graphs to populate.
2. To view the graphs, click the Graphs tab and the list view (top right icon with four horizontal lines), and select a graph title.
3. To get the device to show in the Status view, add a threshold to the device by selecting the console tab, and Thresholds from the left navigation, select Add from the top right and choose the following:
   • Host
   • Graph
   • Data Source

Notifications (NoMa)

Once you have all of your devices monitored, you will want to configure notifications. Various components make up a notification rule used to send out alert notifications. You'll create a contact group, a notification rule, associated NoMa commands, and enable notifications.

Create a contact group

Contact groups are definitions of one or more contacts and can be used to send alert or recovery notifications to a group of contacts. Contacts are individual definitions indicating who should get notified and how and when they should get notified in the event of a problem on your network. We start by creating a contact.

1. Go to Configuration > NoMa, select the Contacts tab.
2. Click the Create button.
3. Enter information for a contact, for example:
   • Full Name (e.g., Jack Smith)
   • Username (e.g., jsmith)
   • Timezone (select your timezone)
   • Email (enter your email, you may need to configure your mail relay to accept mail from the system)
4. Click the Create button.
5. Select the Contactgroups tab.
6. Click the Create button.
7. Enter information for a contact group, for example;
   • Name (short) (demoadmins)
   • Name (long) (Demo Administrators)
   • Timezone (same as selected above)
   • Members (select your contact username)
8. Click the Create button.

Create a Notification Rule

A notification rule contains various directives including contacts and contact groups defining who is to receive notifications, what monitored hosts and services should be included or excluded in the notifying, where and when notifications should be sent, and which event states to notify upon.

1. Select the Notifications tab.
2. Select the Create button.
3. Enter information for the notification rule, for example:
4. Name (demorule)
5. Groups (Demo Administrators)
6. Method (E-Mail)
7. Click the Create button.
8. On the next screen, for demonstration purposes let's turn off notifications for the default rule by clicking the corresponding check mark (turns grey). The new rule should already be enabled (green).

Associate NoMa Commands

A script is provided for inclusion with Nagios as the notification command (host-notify-by-noma, service-notify-by-noma) that will be triggered for every host or service you desire to be controlled via NoMa. You will need to associate the NoMa commands with a contact, that contact with a contact group, and that contact group with every object that will be using NoMa to alert, along with the appropriate notify conditions and time periods. You should receive notifications from your GDMA, Cloud Hub, and or Cacti previous configuration.

1. Go to Configuration > Contacts > Contacts > Modify, and select the contact to modify, (e.g., nagiosadmin).
2. For the directive Host notification commands, uncheck the Inherit box and select host-notify-by-noma.
3. For the directive Serivce notification commands, uncheck the Inherit box and select service-notify-by-noma.
4. Scroll down and set/verify nagiosadmin as the contact group.
5. Click Save.
6. You will need to associate the NoMa commands with a contact, that contact with a contact group, and that contact group with every object that will be using NoMa to alert, along with the appropriate notify conditions and time periods. You will need to verify the contact group that is associated with the NoMa command is select for the hosts your are monitoring and wish to receive notifications.

Enable Notifications

Once notifications are enabled they can be received based on the methods defined.

1. Verify NoMa notification rule is enabled:
   • Go to Configuration > NoMa, enable a rule by clicking the check to turn green. For demonstration purposes, let's turn off notifications for the default rule by clicking the corresponding check mark (turns grey).
2. Set Nagios notifications to enable:
   • Go to Configuration > Control, expand Nagios main configuration, select Notification.
   • Check the box for Enable notifications, then click Save and Next >> 3 times, and Save and Done.
   • From the left side navigation select Commit and follow the process to commit the configuration change.

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