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Nagios API

nagios-api - presents a REST-like JSON interface to Nagios.

Description

This program provides a simple REST-like interface to Nagios. Run this on your Nagios host and then sit back and enjoy a much easier, more straightforward way to accomplish things with Nagios. You can use the bundled nagios-cli, but you may find it easier to write your own system for interfacing with the API.

Synopsis

nagios-api [OPTIONS]

Dependencies

Dependencies include:

These should be available via pip/easy_install.

Usage

Usage is pretty easy:

nagios-api -p 8080 -c /var/lib/nagios3/rw/nagios.cmd\
-s /var/cache/nagios3/status.dat -l /var/log/nagios3/nagios.log

You must at least provide the status file options. If you don't provide the other options, then we will disable that functionality and error to clients who request it.

Using the API

The server speaks JSON. You can either GET data from it or POST data to it and take an action. It's pretty straightforward, here's an idea of what you can do from the command line:

curl http://localhost:8080/state

That calls the state method and returns the JSON result.

curl -d '{"host": "web01", "duration": 600}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://localhost:8080/schedule_downtime

This POSTs the given JSON object to the schedule_downtime method. You will note that all objects returned follow a predictable format:

{"content": <object>, "result": <bool>}

The result field is always true or false, allowing you to determine at a glance if the command succeeded. The content field may be any valid JavaScript object: an int, string, null, bool, hash, list, etc etc. What is returned depends on the method being called.

Using nagios-cli

Once your API server is up and running you can access it through the included nagios-cli script. The script now has some decent built-in help so you should be able to get all you need:

nagios-cli -h

The original raw JSON mode is still supported by passing the --raw option.

Options

Below are the options taken on the CLI.

-p, --port=PORT

Listen on port 'PORT' for HTTP requests.

-b, --bind=ADDR

Bind to ADDR for HTTP requests (defaults to all interfaces).

-c, --command-file=FILE

Use 'FILE' to write commands to Nagios. This is where external commands are sent. If your Nagios installation does not allow external commands, do not set this option.

-d, --config-directory=PATH

The directory in which Nagios will look for object files and import hosts into its internal database for monitoring.

-s, --status-file=FILE

Set 'FILE' to the status file where Nagios stores its status information. This is where we learn about the state of the world and is the only required parameter.

-l, --log-file=FILE

Point 'FILE' to the location of Nagios's log file if you want to allow people to subscribe to it.

-o, --allow-origin=ORIGIN

Modern web browsers implement the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing specification from W3C. This spec allows you to host your JavaScript/HTML on one host and have it access an endpoint on a different service. This requires setting a header on the endpoint, which this option allows you to do.

You can simply set this header to ``` and not worry about it if you want to allow all access. For more information see the CORS specification.

-q, --quiet

If present, we will only print warning/critical messages. Useful if you are running this in the background.

API

This program currently supports only a subset of the Nagios API. More is being added as it is needed. If you need something that isn't here, please consider submitting a patch!

This section is organized into methods and sorted alphabetically. Each method is specified as a URL and may include an integer component on the path. Most data is passed as JSON objects in the body of a POST.

acknowledge_problem

This method allows you to acknowledge a given problem on a host or service.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string",
  "comment": "string",
  "sticky": true,
  "notify": true,
  "persistent: true,
  "expire": 0,
  "author": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to act on.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, act on this service.

comment = STRING [required]

This is required and should contain some sort of message that explains why this alert is being acknowledged.

sticky = BOOL [optional]

default TRUE. When true, this acknowledgement stays until the host enters an OK state. If false, the acknowledgement clears on ANY state change.

notify = BOOL [optional]

default TRUE. Whether or not to send a notification that this problem has been acknowledged.

persistent = BOOL [optional]

default FALSE. If this is enabled, the comment given will stay on the host or service. By default, when an acknowledgement expires, the comment associated with it is deleted.

expire = INTEGER [optional]

default 0. If set, it will (given icinga >= 1.6) expire the acknowledgement at the given timestamp. Seconds since the UNIX epoch. Defaults to 0 (off).

author = STRING [optional]

The name of the author. This is useful in UIs if you want to disambiguate who is doing what.

add_comment

For a given host and/or service, add a comment. This is free-form text that can include whatever you want and is visible in the Nagios UI and API output.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string",
  "comment": "string",
  "persistent: true,
  "author": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to act on.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, act on this service.

comment = STRING [required]

This is required and should contain the text of the comment you want to add to this host or service.

persistent = BOOL [optional]

Optional, default FALSE. If this is enabled, the comment given will stay on the host or service until deleted manually. By default, they only stay until Nagios is restarted.

author = STRING [optional]

The name of the author. This is useful in UIs if you want to disambiguate who is doing what.

cancel_downtime

Very simply, this immediately lifts a downtime that is currently in effect on a host or service. If you know the downtime_id, you can specify that as a URL argument like this:

curl -d "{}" http://localhost:8080/cancel_downtime/15

That would cancel the downtime with downtime_id of 15. Most of the time you will probably not have this information and so we allow you to cancel by host/service as well.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string",
  "services_too": true
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to cancel downtime from. This must be specified if you are not using the downtime_id directly.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, cancel any downtimes on this service.

services_too = BOOL [optional]

If true and you have not specified a service in specific, then we will cancel all downtimes on this host and all of the services it has.

disable_notifications

This disables alert notifications on a host or service. (As an operational note, you might want to schedule downtime instead. Disabling notifications has a habit of leaving things off and people forgetting about it.)

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to act on.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, act on this service.

delete_comment

Deletes comments from a host or service. Can be used to delete all comments or just a particular comment.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string",
  "comment_id": 1234
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to act on.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, act on this service.

comment_id = INTEGER [required]

The ID of the comment you wish to delete. You may set this to -1 to delete all comments on the given host or service.

enable_notifications

This enables alert notifications on a host or service.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to act on.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, act on this service.

log

Simply returns the most recent 1000 items in the Nagios event log. These are currently unparsed. There is a plan to parse this in the future and return event objects.

status

Simply returns a JSON that contains nagios status objects.

restart_nagios

Restarts the nagios service.

update_host

This method will create/update a nagios configuration file that contains devices.

{
  "file_name": "string",
  "text": "string"
}

Fields

file_name = STRING [required]

File name for the configuration.

text = STRING [required]

Content of the configuration file.

objects

Returns a dict with the key being hostnames and the values being a list of services defined for that host. Use this method to get the contents of the world -- i.e., all hosts and services.

remove_acknowledgement

This method cancels an acknowledgement on a host or service.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to act on.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, act on this service.

schedule_check

This API lets you schedule a check for a host or service. This also allows you to force a check.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string",
  "check_time": 1234,
  "forced: true,
  "output": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

The host to schedule a check for. Required.

service = STRING [optional]

If present, we'll schedule a check on this service at the given time.

all_services = BOOL [optional]

If present, we'll schedule a check on again all services at the given time.

check_time = INTEGER [optional]

Optional, defaults to now. You can specify what time you want the check to be run at.

forced = BOOL [optional]

Optional, defaults to FALSE. When true, then you force Nagios to run the check at the given time. By default, Nagios will only run the check if it meets the standard eligibility criteria.

output = STRING [required]

The plugin output to be displayed in the UI and stored. This is a single line of text, normally returned by checkers.

schedule_downtime

This general purpose method is used for creating fixed length downtimes. This method can be used on hosts and services. You are allowed to specify the author and comment to go with the downtime, too. The JSON parameters are:

{
  "host": "string",
  "duration": 1234,
  "service": "string",
  "services_too": true,
  "author": "string",
  "comment": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

Which host to schedule a downtime for. This must be specified.

duration = INTEGER [required]

How many seconds this downtime will last for. They begin immediately and continue for duration seconds before ending.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, we will schedule a downtime for this service on the above host. If not specified, then the downtime will be scheduled for the host itself.

services_too = BOOL [optional]

If true and you have not specified a service in specific, then we will schedule a downtime for the host and all of the services on that host. Potentially many downtimes are scheduled.

author = STRING [optional]

The name of the author. This is useful in UIs if you want to disambiguate who is doing what.

comment = STRING [optional]

As above, useful in the UI.

The result of this method is a text string that indicates whether or not the downtimes have been scheduled or if a different error occurred. We do not have the ability to get the downtime_id that is generated, unfortunately, as that would require waiting for Nagios to regenerate the status file.

schedule_hostgroup_downtime

This method is used for creating fixed length downtimes on all the hosts belonging to a hostgroup. You are allowed to specify the author and comment to go with the downtime, too. The JSON parameters are:

{
  "hostgroup": "string",
  "duration": 1234,
  "services_too": true,
  "author": "string",
  "comment": "string"
}

Fields

hostgroup = STRING [required]

Which hostgroup to schedule a downtime for. This must be specified.

duration = INTEGER [required]

How many seconds this downtime will last for. They begin immediately and continue for duration seconds before ending.

services_too = BOOL [optional]

If true, then we will schedule a downtime for all the hosts in the hostgroup and all of the services on those hosts. Potentially many downtimes are scheduled.

author = STRING [optional]

The name of the author. This is useful in UIs if you want to disambiguate who is doing what.

comment = STRING [optional]

As above, useful in the UI.

The result of this method is a text string that indicates whether or not the downtimes have been scheduled or if a different error occurred. We do not have the ability to get the downtime_id that is generated, unfortunately, as that would require waiting for Nagios to regenerate the status file.

state

This method takes no parameters. It returns a large JSON object containing all of the active state from Nagios. Included are all hosts, services, downtimes, comments, and other things that may be in the global state object.

submit_result

If you are using passive service checks or you just want to submit a result for a check, you can use this method to submit your result to Nagios.

{
  "host": "string",
  "service": "string",
  "status": 1234,
  "output": "string"
}

Fields

host = STRING [required]

The host to submit a result for. This is required.

service = STRING [optional]

If specified, we will submit a result for this service on the above host. If not specified, then the result will be submitted for the host itself.

status = INTEGER [required]

The status code to set this host/service check to. If you are updating a host's status: 0 = OK, 1 = DOWN, 2 = UNREACHABLE. For service checks, 0 = OK, 1 = WARNING, 2 = CRITICAL, 3 = UNKNOWN.

output = STRING [required]

The plugin output to be displayed in the UI and stored. This is a single line of text, normally returned by checkers.

The response indicates if we successfully wrote the command to the log.

Docker

A Docker container is available for convenience. It needs to be run on the same server as the nagios installation.

First determine the location of the status.dat, nagios.log, and nagios.cmd files. Map these files into the Docker container. The container can be started using the following command:

docker run -v /var/lib/nagios3/rw/nagios.cmd:/opt/nagios.cmd \
-v /var/cache/nagios3/status.dat:/opt/status.dat \
-v /var/log/nagios3/nagios.log:/opt/nagios.log \
-p 2337:8080 inventid/nagios-python-api

In the above case, the API will be exposed on port 2337.

Author

Written by Mark Smith mark@qq.is while under the employ of Bump Technologies, Inc.

Copying

See the LICENSE file for licensing information.