It’s been over a year since I originally installed and configured Nagios and NConf 1.2.6 on my Lucid Lynx server. In the meantime, I’ve upgraded the hardware and moved to Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, mostly to keep up with the current releases. Not a whole lot has changed for what I use this server for, but keeping up with the Nagios releases in the repos has been convenient.

If you’re following along with this guide but starting fresh with Nagios and Nconf, you’ll probably want to take a look at my previous guide and the NConf installation documentation to get some background information. I’ll try to provide some notes for those of you doing a fresh install, but since I’m just upgrading, I can’t make any promises.

Backups!

Log into your server and make them backups!

sudo cp -rp /var/www/nconf /var/www/nconf.bak
mysqldump -u root -p nconf > ~/nconf_sql.bak

I also backed up my Nagios configs

sudo cp -rp /etc/nagios3 /etc/nagios3.bak

Download and Unpack

Wget or otherwise download the latest version on Nconf. Wget has that issue with following SourceForge links so you may need to rename the file.

Unpack the files and then copy them to where you installed NConf before, or do it all in one step:

sudo tar xzvf nconf-1.3.0-0.tgz -C /var/www

Then fix the permissions for the NConf folder, setting them back to your apache user:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nconf

Upgrade

Browse to http://<yourserver>/nconf/UPDATE.php

Follow the prompts to proceed with the interactive update. NConf’s documentation on the update process has screenshots that I won’t repost here.

After the upgrade, you’ll need to remove some files and folders. Browse to your NConf folder and nuke them. I also had to remove the call_ajax.php file, which wasn’t in the original documentation.

cd /var/www/nconf
sudo rm -rf INSTALL/ UPDATE/ INSTALL.php UPDATE.php call_ajax.php

There’s been a few changes/additions to the NConf conf file, so open up config/nconf.php and add the following lines:

define('CHECK_UPDATE', 1);
define("DEBUG_GENERATE", 3); # [1=ERROR|2=WARN|3=INFO|4=DEBUG|5=TRACE]
define('CHECK_STATIC_SYNTAX', 1);

Also, set the ALLOW_DEPLOYMENT variable to 1 to enable deploying configs directly from NConf and comment out the other CONF_DEPLOY_ variables, as they aren’t used anymore.

define('ALLOW_DEPLOYMENT', 1);
#define('CONF_DEPLOY_URL', "https://webserver.mydomain.com/incoming_config.php");
#define('CONF_DEPLOY_USER', "deployUser");
#define('CONF_DEPLOY_PWD', "deployPass");

At this point, you should be able to log into NConf 1.3.0 and look around.

Migrating Deployment

With NConf 1.2.6, I used the ADD-ONS/deploy_local.sh script and a cron job to deploy configuration changes to Nagios. In 1.3.0, they’ve integrated this a little better into the core of the application, but it required some adjustment in my setup.

Start off by coping the deployment.ini sample configuration file to the config folder:

sudo cp /var/www/nconf/config.orig/deployment.ini /var/www/nconf/config/deployment.ini

Open up the config/deployment.ini file, uncomment the LOCAL deployment section except for the [copy nagios.cfg] section and change the target_file variables to reference the nagios3 folder where Ubuntu places the config files.

Also, add the reload command (sudo /etc/init.d/nagios3 reload) at the bottom of the [copy global config] section. When you’re done the file will look similar to the following:

;; LOCAL deployment ;;

[extract config]
type = local
source_file = "/var/www/nconf/output/NagiosConfig.tgz"
target_file = "/tmp/"
action = extract

[copy collector config]
type = local
source_file = "/tmp/Default_collector/"
;target_file = "/etc/nagios/Default_collector/"
target_file = "/etc/nagios3/Default_collector/"
action = copy

[copy global config]
type = local
source_file = "/tmp/global/"
;target_file = "/etc/nagios/global/"
target_file = "/etc/nagios3/global/"
action = copy
; *** add the line below
reload_command = "sudo /etc/init.d/nagios3 reload"

; *** keep this section and the rest of the file commented out
;[copy nagios.cfg]
;type = local
;source_file = "/tmp/static_cfg/nagios.cfg"
;target_file = "/etc/nagios/nagios.cfg"
;action = copy
;reload_command = "sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/nagios reload"

This process replaces the deploy_local.sh script, but we’ll need to allow the web user to issue the Nagios reload. To do that, we need to modify the sudoers file:

sudo visudo

Then add the following lines:

# Allow www-data (apache) user to reload nagios
www-data ALL=NOPASSWD: /etc/init.d/nagios3 reload

Save and quit.

Finally, remove the entry in the root crontab entry that launched the old deploy script:

sudo crontab -e

And remove the line reading:

* * * * * /var/www/nconf/ADD-ONS/deploy_local.sh

Deployment Testing and Cleanup

Let’s make sure the new deployment procedure works. Back in the NConf GUI, click Generate Nagios config. You should hopefully see something like:

[INFO]  Starting generate_config script
[INFO]  Generating global config files
[INFO]  Generating config for Nagios-collector 'Default Nagios'
[INFO]  Ended generate_config script

If the config files generate successfully, you’ll see a button aptly labeled ‘Deploy’.

Click Deploy, and with any luck you’ll be presented with three OK messages in NConf  and your Nagios Event Log should show a SIGHUP message.

Relax, and enjoy some JQuerified NConf 1.3.0 goodness! Gold star!

I did notice that the original deployment method left a bunch of old config tgz bundles, so if you’re feeling like cleaning those up, just remove the whole lot:

sudo rm /var/www/nconf/output/NagiosConfig.tgz.*

Troubleshooting Notes

• The biggest problems I had were just remembering to reference nagios3 rather than nagios for paths and commands.  Make sure you reference the correct locations. This caused me all sorts of weird grief with the sudoers file, and I didn’t catch it until later.
• While NConf will run without the additional variables in config/nconf.php, it’ll log warnings until you add them.
• I had to remove an extra file (call_ajax.php) before NConf would run. The file has been replaced with call_file.php which apparently fixes a security issue. At the time of this writing, removing this file wasn’t in the docs, but it complains until you nuke it.

Fresh Install of Nagios and NConf

From what I can tell, you can follow all the steps in my old guide for installing 1.3.0 up until you get to Configuring NConf to Deploy Nagios Configurations Automatically. At that point, follow the Migrating Deployment instructions from this guide.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you do a fresh install. I’d be curious to know how it works for you.

More Information

• Installation Guide
• Upgrade Guide
• Deployment

Applying Rain-X to your windshield during the fall and winter months will make scraping snow and ice much easier!

Rain-X, for the uninformed, is the mystery window treatment that makes water bead up on the windshield, and will virtually slide up and off the windshield when driving 35+ mph. Apply it during the afternoon during a dry fall or winter day, preferably after cleaning the windshield. Be sure to treat the rear window, your side windows (at least the front ones) and don’t forget the side mirrors.

If you’d like to really see what a difference it makes, don’t treat the back side windows. Then just wait for a frosty morning.

On a related note, buy yourself a Fantastic Ice Scraper. $2 for a great scraper with a brass blade. If you want more info, see the Cool Tools review. Buy them as stocking stuffers for your family!

I ended up deleting the mobile style and reimporting it from scratch (see Installing the vBulletin Mobile Style from their manual) but the grid menu button didn’t seem to work. The grid menu is where they’ve put notifications, messages, what’s new, etc. in the mobile style. In particular, I had some users ask where the What’s New feature was in the mobile style, and that’s finally been added, so it was important to get the grid menu working.

Here’s what I found.

Set the Default Mobile Style for Modern Browsers to your Mobile style

Under Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings, make sure to set the Default Mobile Style for Modern Browsers to your Mobile style. I went ahead and set as the default for Old Mobile Browsers as well, since I don’t know what the difference is.

And voila!

That is all.

Dear j2 Global Communications/Protus/MyFax:

Please remind your company to care about their software and the people that use it. In particular, you need to provide support for the installation of your products. Telling someone you won’t support your own product until it’s installed is ridiculous and asinine.

What Went Wrong: Installing Print-to-Fax Assistant

A few days I attempted to install the MyFax Print-to-Fax Assistant on a fresh-out-of-the-box Dell workstation running Windows 7  Professional 32-bit SP1. Nothing out of the ordinary installed on this system. It’s joined to a domain and I’m running the install as myself, a user with administrative rights on the local machine.

I accept the EULA and all the defaults to get the install on its merry way, and I receive the following error:

Mydll_NT: Error in function: dAddPortMonitor, Error code: 126.

After that, the install failed and the MSI rolled back.

I tried a reboot and a few other normal troubleshooting tactics, and it all ended with the same error. I’ve got the Print-to-Fax driver installed on a Win 7 64-bit and another Win 7 32-bit install, as well as an XP box, so I know the thing works. Even tried downloading the installer again and comparison the checksum. Everything checked out, but it wouldn’t install. It’s not a particularly helpful error message, and there’s no information on any sort of manual installation process.

To the Googles! Less than 150 results come back on a search for this particular error. Mostly from Black Ice Online Support, which leads me to suspect that they provided the lower level drivers that MyFax uses. Searching for this particular error specific to MyFax returns nothing.

How Not To Help: MyFax Support

MyFax Knowledgebase

Nothing there of any relevance. In fact, it looks like the latest I can find on any subject was last modified almost a year ago in June of 2010. (Update: by the time I got around to finishing this article, I now see one new knowledgebase post from July 2011.)

Online Chat Support

So, it’s time to contact support. First, I try the online chat. Here’s where it gets interesting.

I’m told that:

• The Print-to-Fax driver is not compatible with Windows 7 (contrary to information on the MyFax site even showing 64-bit Win 7 compatibility)
• The Print-to-Fax driver is one of the oldest plug-ins they have
• That Blackberry, iPhone, and Android apps are out or in the making

None of which helps in the slightest to resolve my situation.

It’s also suggested that I turn off my firewall (which it is), and then I’m given a couple of Google hits on the error, neither of which reference MyFax in any way.

Finally, I’m told that it’s not a MyFax error, and it’s the computer that’s giving me this error. Oh really? So the fact that I get this error when installing the MyFax product means nothing? How about uninstalling it and then reinstalling (except I NEVER GOT IT TO INSTALL IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!)? Blerg. Kthxbye.

Phone Support

Let’s see if a phone call nets anything more helpful. What follows is a highly paraphrased conversation.

I’m told by the Tier 1 tech that it’s a driver issue, and that I need to install the driver so that the Print-to-Fax assistant will work. And to try Google. Can I speak to a supervisor? Sure, he says, and puts me on hold.

Me: “Hello Mr. Supervisor? I can’t install your program!”

Supervisor: “Well, Mr. Customer, the ‘dAddPortMonitor’ error is a very common error. You need to install the Mydll_NT.dll in order to get our program to work.”

(Common? ‘dAddPortMonitor’ returns less than 300 hits on a search engine. ‘Mydll_NT.dll’ returns about 600)
Me: “I can’t download Mydll_NT.dll, because it came with your software. I can’t install your software.”

Supervisor: “Oh, you can just go to Microsoft.com or Google and search for it and download it.”

Me: “Yeah, no, I can’t.”

Supervisor: “Well we cannot support the Print-to-Fax assistant until it’s installed at which point we can check settings remotely from our systems?”

Me: “So you’re telling me you sell a product that you don’t support? If I can’t get your product installed, I can’t use your product. What about those Blackberry, iPhone, and Android apps? You’re telling me if I can’t get them installed, that’s my own problem?”

Supervisor: “Basically, yes.”

Me: “Okay, we’re getting nowhere. If you have any play at all with anyone in management, customer support, marketing, or product development, tell them that SOMETHING IS MAJORLY WRONG HERE. *click*”

Finally, a Workaround

I really shouldn’t have to do this, and MyFax support has given me nothing to go on, but I keep troubleshooting the issue. Running msiexec.exe with verbose logging options enabled, I discover that the TARGETDIR variable is ignoring the default path and is dumping all the files in the root folder. Changing the path doesn’t help, creating the path ahead of time doesn’t help, nor does copying the extracted files to the path in the middle of the install. Same error.

For kicks, I try a silent install:

msiexec /i myfaxassistantsetup.msi /q

It works. Why? No idea. Do I really care at this point? Not really. I run a test fax through, and it works. Reboot, and it still works.

What’s Still Wrong

So I got the Print-to-Fax Assistant to install. Yay. However, I don’t think I’d be writing all this if the whole support experience wasn’t so terribly, utterly, horribly, bad.

On one hand, MyFax and the whole internet faxing universe is really just an attempt to hold onto an antiquated technology that really should have been replaced by something better years ago, but amazingly, faxing still exists and Osama Bin Laden doesn’t. But that’s beside the point.

Here’s the thing: I pay for your software. Other people pay for your software too.

Granted, it’s not a lot of money every month, but it’s not like I’m mooching off free software. You’ve got a support page with numerous ways to contact you. But to tell me you won’t support me until I get the program installed…that’s just wrong. That’s like Dell telling me they can’t help me troubleshoot a brand new system that won’t boot up until I can get it turned on.

The installation process is a critical part of the distribution of software. If your program can’t be installed, then people can’t use it, and then it’s worthless. Zero stars rating. Refund.

The least you could have done was taken a note of the issue, given me a ticket number, and then ignore me. At least then I would’ve thought (initially) that somebody cared.

What Can Be Done

Start by fixing your Print-to-Fax Assistant installer.

Windows 7 has been out for two years. Make your software compatible. Simple as that. I downloaded the 64-bit version the other day, and got the same error message on my own desktop, and fixed it by running it through a silent install as above. But that’s a poor workaround. I’ve now had this error on at least four separate machines, so it can’t be just a fluke.

Next, figure yourself out as a company.

With all your buyouts, I count at least five distinct faxing services you offer. I’m not going to bother to list them here, and frankly I don’t care about your other products, because I don’t use them. If you want, consolidate all these similar products into one and then focus on making that product better.

Finally, beef up your support.

Support is your first line when customers are having problems. If they can’t resolve simple issues because they’re uninformed of the solutions, then provide training. Make it better.

Maybe you don’t care

j2 Global Communications, it’s entirely possible that MyFax doesn’t matter to you. Somehow your stocks are still are still up and you’ve apparently got money in your pockets with reported growth over a number of years, but the product I care about seems to be dying a slow and painful death. Since buying Protus in December 2010, you cut 100 employees from the Ottowa office and presumably dumped that workload on other locations. On on the MyFax and related websites, I see the following:

• 1 new knowledgebase article in the last year
• The last post on the MyFax Blog is from 7 months ago (January 2011) and as far as I can tell, all the actual content contributors on the blog are no longer with Protus or j2
• A black hole of tweets between Dec 2010 and June 2011
• Twittermonials on the main page of MyFax.com shows the last favorited tweet to be 200+ days old
• Last released dates for the iPhone and Blackberry apps are both over a year old, and both with less than 50% ratings. There’s no Android app at all, and no acknowledgement publicly that they’re even working on an app for this platform.
• The MyFax What’s New page shows a Fall 2010 Update, and nothing newer.

I could be wrong. Maybe you do want to make MyFax better. Maybe you do want to provide customers with a good experience in the bizarre world that merges the zombie-that-will-not-die that is faxing with this internet world that has Google+ and TouchPad fire sales.

People liked MyFax. Unsurprisingly to me, people liked MyFax better than eFax. This should mean something to you when deciding where to devote your time and attention.

If you do care, then show it.

Sincerely,

Jason Navarrete

Have you already tried using a slipstreamed SP3 disk?

Does that error say something like:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524,0xC0000034,0×00000000,0×00000000)
Blah blah blah blah fail blah blah CHKDSK /F blah blah failblog.org

Have you already tried all the different modes of SATA/RAID/AHCI/IDE/Legacy nonsense in the BIOS to try to get your hard drive to be detected properly but the darned thing still doesn’t want to install? Already updated your BIOS to the latest and greatest?

Even tried slipstreaming RAID and/or SATA drivers on an install CD or went so far as to dig up a floppy drive to F6 some drivers in place?

Think there’s no answer?

***Try replacing your IDE CD-ROM/DVD-RW drive with a SATA drive.***

Worked for me.

It’s deceptive, I know, but apparently even though the CD starts the Windows install process and loads drivers and everything seems grand, setup takes a big dump later on. I tried all the options above, even tried an IDE hard drive and SATA raid setups in various combinations, but they all ended in a BSoD. Nothing worked until I swapped the IDE CD-ROM with a SATA CD-ROM drive.

At one when I tried to install Windows 7, I got a message stating: A required CD/DVD device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB flash drive, please insert it now. Note. If the windows installation media is in the drive, you can safely remove it for this step.

That really should have clued me into the whole CD/DVD thing, but of course I paid no attention, because I assumed if we got that far in the installation, that it was a hard drive controller issue, not a CD-ROM issue. Ah well.

Moral of the story: Try changing your BIOS settings first. Then try changing your CD-ROM drive.

Trying to use logrotate to rotate your Rails logs on Dreamhost?   You’ll need to roll your own copy of it.  Fortunately, the process isn’t too bad.  Let’s jump right into it.

SSH to your host and run the following commands (read my notes below if you’re not super gusty):

# create a new cron job (crontab -e) or use panel.dreamhost.com and run it daily
0 0 * * * /home/<your_account>/opt/bin/logrotate -f -s /home/<your_account>/opt/lib/logrotate.status /home/<your_account>/opt/etc/logrotate.conf

cd ~
mkdir -p opt/bin
mkdir opt/lib
mkdir opt/etc
mkdir src
cd src
wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/unix/privat/logrotate-3.7.9.tar.gz
wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/linux/misc/popt-1.16.tar.gz
tar xzvf logrotate-3.7.9.tar.gz
tar xzvf popt-1.16.tar.gz
cd popt-1.16
./configure --prefix=/home/<your_account>/opt/
make
make install
cd ../logrotate-3.7.9
# the first make will fail on the final compile (with 'cannot find -lpopt' message)
# some include problem, but this works so i'm not inclined to care too much
make POPT_DIR=/home/<your_account>/opt/include
# this make should complete
make POPT_DIR=/home/<your_account>/opt/lib
cp logrotate ~/opt/bin/
cd ~/opt/etc
vi logrotate.conf
# paste in the logrotate.conf file

/home/<your_account>/<your_website>/shared/log/*.log {
  daily
  missingok
  rotate 7
  compress
  delaycompress
  notifempty
  copytruncate
}

# create a new cron job (crontab -e) or use panel.dreamhost.com and run it daily
0 0 * * * /home/<your_account>/opt/bin/logrotate -f -s /home/<your_account>/opt/lib/logrotate.status /home/<your_account>/opt/etc/logrotate.conf

cd ~
mkdir -p opt/bin
mkdir opt/lib
mkdir opt/etc
mkdir src
cd src
wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/unix/privat/logrotate-3.7.9.tar.gz
wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/linux/misc/popt-1.16.tar.gz
tar xzvf logrotate-3.7.9.tar.gz
tar xzvf popt-1.16.tar.gz
cd popt-1.16
./configure --prefix=/home/<your_account>/opt/
make
make install
cd ../logrotate-3.7.9
# the first make will fail on the final compile (with 'cannot find -lpopt' message)
# some include problem, but this works so i'm not inclined to care too much
make POPT_DIR=/home/<your_account>/opt/include
# this make should complete
make POPT_DIR=/home/<your_account>/opt/lib
cp logrotate ~/opt/bin/
cd ~/opt/etc
vi logrotate.conf
# paste in the logrotate.conf file

/home/<your_account>/<your_website>/shared/log/*.log {
  daily
  missingok
  rotate 7
  compress
  delaycompress
  notifempty
  copytruncate
}

# create a new cron job (crontab -e) or use panel.dreamhost.com and run it daily
0 0 * * * /home/<your_account>/opt/bin/logrotate -f -s /home/<your_account>/opt/lib/logrotate.status /home/<your_account>/opt/etc/logrotate.conf

cd ~
mkdir -p opt/bin
mkdir opt/lib
mkdir opt/etc
mkdir src
cd src
wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/unix/privat/logrotate-3.7.9.tar.gz
wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/linux/misc/popt-1.16.tar.gz
tar xzvf logrotate-3.7.9.tar.gz
tar xzvf popt-1.16.tar.gz
cd popt-1.16
./configure --prefix=/home/<your_account>/opt/
make
make install
cd ../logrotate-3.7.9
# the first make will fail on the final compile (with 'cannot find -lpopt' message)
# some include problem, but this works so i'm not inclined to care too much
make POPT_DIR=/home/<your_account>/opt/include
# this make should complete
make POPT_DIR=/home/<your_account>/opt/lib
cp logrotate ~/opt/bin/
cd ~/opt/etc
vi logrotate.conf
# paste in the logrotate.conf file

/home/<your_account>/<your_website>/shared/log/*.log {
  daily
  missingok
  rotate 7
  compress
  delaycompress
  notifempty
  copytruncate
}

A couple of quick notes here:

The most substantial difference from jgeiger’s post is the compiling of the popt library, so that in turn, logrotate would compile.  I really don’t know what’s messed up when you try to link to popt (which leads to the compile failing the first time around), but the workaround seems to work just fine.  If someone happens to know what magic flags are necessary to get the compile to work smoothly the first time, please fork the notes and let me know.

Joe’s Own Editor was the default editor when I tried to edit my crontab, and it makes my brain hurt.  Edit your .bash_profile and add export EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim" to use vim instead. Logout and back in for the change to take effect.

(disclaimer: Don’t break your stuff. Or Dreamhost’s stuff.)

Have you been wondering about how to get Nagios and NConf setup on your Ubuntu server?  Well, I took some notes the last time around, and here they are, for anyone that may find them useful.  Here we go!

(disclaimer: don’t screw up your system.)

Prerequisites

If you didn’t check the box to configure your box as a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server when you first setup your box, do that first with:

sudo apt-get install apache2
sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

If you want phpMyAdmin (for web-based MySQL administration):

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Installing Nagios

Install Nagios with

sudo apt-get install nagios3

It should install all the necessary dependencies. Follow the prompts to get it configured and test it out by browsing to http://<yourserver>/nagios3

If you would like to monitor Windows servers using NSClient++ (which I am doing), also install the NRPE plugin with

sudo apt-get install nagios-nrpe-plugin

I felt like I ought to backup the config files before I started messing with them, so I backed them up with

sudo cp -r /etc/nagios3 /etc/nagios3.backup

Installing NConf

NConf provides a web-based frontend for configuring Nagios.  There’s no package in the Ubuntu repositories for it, but you can download it pretty easily.  Version 1.2.6 was the latest as of the time of this writing, so make sure you’re getting the latest version.  (Note: it looks like the link below gets cut off, so here’s a link to the NConf download page where you can grab the latest source)

wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/nconf/files/nconf/1.2.6-0/nconf-1.2.6-0.tgz/download

sudo tar xzvf nconf-1.2.6-0.tgz -C /var/www

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nconf

Then browse to http://<yourserver>/nconf and follow the prompts to finish initial configuration of NConf.

When you get to the database configuration page, enter nconf for the username and the database name, and use the generated password you should have made a note of earlier. For most everything else, accept the defaults, but change the NAGIOS_BIN variable to /usr/sbin/nagios3 to reference the right location.

Finally, remove the folders and files referenced at the end of the installation process:

sudo rm -r /var/www/nconf/INSTALL
sudo rm /var/www/nconf/INSTALL.php
sudo rm -r /var/www/nconf/UPDATE
sudo rm /var/www/nconf/UPDATE.php

At this point, you should be able to login to NConf, although it won’t be doing anything of importance.

Configuring Nagios to use NConf

We’ll need to make some changes to one of the Nagios configuration files, so (using sudo) open up /etc/nagios3/nagios.cfg in your favorite editor and delete or comment out all the lines that begin with cfg_dir= or cfg_file= and add the following lines:

cfg_dir=/etc/nagios3/global
cfg_dir=/etc/nagios3/Default_collector

Back at the terminal, run the following command to create a folder for NConf to dump the configuration files it generates.

sudo mkdir /etc/nagios3/import

Configuring NConf to Deploy Nagios Configurations Automatically

Almost there. Using sudo, open up /var/www/nconf/ADD-ONS/deploy_local.sh and make the following changes to paths:

OUTPUT_DIR="/var/www/nconf/output/"
NAGIOS_DIR="/etc/nagios3/"
...
/etc/init.d/nagios3 reload

This script will deploy the generated configuration package and then reload the running instance of Nagios, but it’s easiest to use just installed in the root crontab.

sudo crontab -e

and adding the line

* * * * * /var/www/nconf/ADD-ONS/deploy_local.sh

Final Steps

After saving and closing the root crontab, log back into NConf and take a look around.  You’ll see some sample definitions and some predefined services for the localhost computer.  You may want to delete the check_local_mrtgtraf and check_local_procs services, as the first one doesn’t work without additional configuration and the second one is a sample definition, but you can make those changes at your leisure.

Once you’re ready, click Generate Nagios config, and if all goes well, you’ll see something like the following:

[ Initializing NConf perl-API (library version 0.2, written by A. Gargiulo) ]
[ Copyright (c) 2006-2009 Sunrise Communications AG, Zurich, Switzerland    ]

[INFO]  Starting generate_config script
[INFO]  Generating global config files
[INFO]  Generating config for Nagios-collector 'Default Nagios'
[INFO]  Ended generate_config script

Running syntax check:

	  Default_collector:	 Total Warnings: 0  Total Errors: 0
Changes updated successfully.

Now log back into Nagios and click on Service Detail.  Within a minute or two, you should see the hosts and services change to reference the configuration as generated from NConf.

If that works, then huzzah!

Start making your configuration changes in NConf and enjoy not having the manipulate those Nagios conf files by hand anymore!

Troubleshooting, Tips and Caveats

Try running the deploy_local.sh script by hand (with sudo) if it doesn’t appear that Nagios is getting the configurations from NConf. You may be able to glean some information from the output of that script.

New hosts not showing up in Nagios after being created in NConf? Make sure you’ve selected Default Nagios under “monitored by” when defining the host, or that host won’t get assigned properly.

This setup process effectively disables all the command definitions provided by the package install of Nagios, which are stored under /etc/nagios-plugins/config.  I looked through them and compared them to the ones provided by default with NConf, and I was fine with what NConf provided.  NConf provides a mechanism to import command definitions if you really find that you need them.

I have no idea how this setup will hold up under an upgrade of the Nagios package.  We’ll see when the time comes, and if I remember, I’ll update these notes.

If you have any trouble with the steps provided above, please comment and I’ll do what I can to assist.

More Information

Take a look at the following documentation from NConf:

• Quick-start guide
• Installation guide
• Configuration deployment

These are a few of the resulting shots, taken at my local agricultural museum.

View the full set on flickr.

If you’ve never played, check out the Wikipedia article on Mafia to get some background information, or this Wikihow article on how to play.

The following is one of the many variants of Mafia, which happens to use everybody’s favorite Star Wars characters instead of the mafia or werewolves.  It was introduced to me by Peter and David Lindstrom, and the information here is more or less verbatim as I got it from them.  I’m posting it as a reference to myself and anyone else who might be interested to play this version of Mafia.

If anyone has any questions about the Star Wars Mafia variant, please post them in the comments and if I can’t provide insight, I’ll get a hold of Peter and David and find out from them. Enjoy!

The Force is the equivalent of the Narrator or Moderator in the standard Mafia game. Depending on the size of the group, the last few characters on the Rebel Alliance side may not be used.

The Rebel Alliance

• Jedi Knight—Once per night the Jedi knight may either question or challenge. To question, point to a person. 10 challenge, make a sign like you are fighting with a light saber, and then point to a person. If the Jedi Knight elects to question, the Force will tell him whether the person he indicated is good or bad. A thumbs up means good. Thumbs down means bad. If the Jedi Knight elects to challenge a character, he will win if the character is bad. The bad character will be dead the next morning. However, if the Jedi Knight challenges a good character, he will die.
• Obi Wan Kenobi—Can talk after he is dead.
• Chewbacca—Once per game Chewbacca may interrupt discussions or a trial and eat anyone he chooses. If he tries to eat Han, Han may reveal his card and say “Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?” Chewy can then choose to eat him or not. Night falls immediately thereafter.
• Thermal Detonator—If the thermal detonator is killed during the day, he kills the person to his left. If he is killed at night. he kills the first Sith to his left.
• Lando Calrisian—Lando may elect to smuggle once per game, during the night. If he elects to smuggle, the Force will exchange the identities of two people during the night. Only those people whose identities have changed will be aware of the switch.
• Princess Leia—If Princess Leia is on trial, she may reveal her card, and say “Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?” Han Must then reveal his card and save her.
• Han Solo—Must save Princess Leia if she asks. If Chewy tries to eat him, he may reveal his card and say “Chewy, you stupid walking carpet.”
• Bounty Hunter (I know, he’s not really a Rebel, but for the sake of the game he’s on this side)—Picks one person during each night to be his death buddy. If the bounty hunter dies during the night, his death buddy also dies.
• Yoda—Raises somebody from the dead once per night.
• Owen & Beru Lars—Die the first night.
• Salacious Crumb—Must vote as Jabba votes.
• Jabba the Hut—Controls Salacious Crumb’s vote
• Jar Jar Binks—Once his identity is revealed by the probe droid, he must speak in a fake Jamaican accent. Once per night he points to someone else. Then they also must speak with an accent.

The Dark Side

• Darth Vader—Conspires with the Emperor to kill one person each night.
• The Emperor—Conspires with Darth Vader to kill one person each night.
• Apprentice—Takes over for the Emperor if the Emperor dies.
• Probe Droid—Reveals one identity per night. Everyone knows what character has been revealed, but only the probe droid knows which person has that identity.
• Storm Trooper—Can never die. He just keeps reappearing. He doesn’t need to be killed for the good side to win.

First Night

• Salacious Crumb and Jabba see each other.
• Darth Vader and the Emperor see each other.
• Darth Vader, the Emperor, and the Probe Droid see each other.
• The Apprentice and the Emperor see each other.

Every Night

• Yoda may bring someone back to life.
• Lando may smuggle (if he has not already done so)
• Jedi Knight may question or challenge
• Bounty Hunter picks his death buddy
• If Jar Jar has been revealed, he picks somebody to speak fake Jamaican
• The Sith kill somebody
• Probe Droid reveals an identity

Googling around returned methods that seemed way too involved for what I was trying to do.  Here’s the three commands I ended up using:

wget http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks/autogen/FDOEM.144.gz
gunzip FDOEM.144.gz
sudo dd if=FDOEM.144 of=/dev/sdb

Be sure to change /dev/sdb to whatever your USB drive shows up as. (Disclaimer: I’m not responsible if you end up nuking your secondary hard drive)

Then unplug the drive and plug it back in.  Unzip your files onto the drive (mine shows up as /media/FREEDOS), eject, and flash away!

You’ll end up with about 1.3 MB of free space on the drive, which should be enough for the majority of things.