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Avoiding Nagios commands.cfg

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Nagios comes with a set of pre-installed check commands. They are installed at /usr/libexec/nagios or /usr/local/nagios/libexec (anyway, the $USER1$ is expanded to the right place)

In that folder you can find several check_whatever commands, most of them are binary files, some are shell or perl scripts.
If there is not a suitable check program to a special service in your site you can write one and drop it in that folder. After that just add a definition to it, just like above.

I want to call a command directly from a Nagios service file, instead of passing arguments clumsily to commands.cfg. For example I want do this:

define service {
    service_description           footest
    check_command                 $USER1$/check_http example.com -u   http://example.com/index.html
    use generic-service
    host_name                     example
}

But I get a:

Error: Service check command '/usr/share/nagios/libexec/check_http example.com -u http://example.com/index.html' specified in service 'footest' for host 'example' not defined anywhere!

hendry

If you absolutely insist on doing this, which is a really, really terrible idea, this snippet should work:

define command {
    command_name check_by_arbitrary_path
    check_command /bin/sh -c "$ARG1$"
}

define service {
    use remote-service
    host_name example
    service_description This is a bad idea, seriously
    check_command check_by_arbitrary_path!$USER1$/check_http example.com -u http://example.com/index.html
}

Seriously, though, please don’t.

BMDan

Nagios best practice is to split your check into a command and check, a check_command is defined as a command like

define command {
    command_name footest
    command_line $USER1$/footest -a some-fixed-option -b $ARG1$ -c $ARG2$
}

before it should be used in a service check.

TheFiddlerWins

I have had success with a check_any command definition in commands.cfg

define command {
  command_name check_any
  command_line $USER1$/check_$ARG1$
}

Which I use in a definition like:

define service {
  service_description  Forest is not on fire
  check_command        check_any!forest --on-fire=false
  use                  generic-service
  host_name            example
}

fredden

You need to break it into two parts, the first the check_command and the second the check itself.

Create the template to check a URL:

define command {
     command_name          check_http_url
     command_line          $USER1$/check_http -I'$HOSTADDRESS$' -u '$ARG1$' 
     }

Use the template to check a specific URL (www.example.com in this case):

define service {
    host_name              example
    service_description    Check www.example.com URL
    check_command          check_http_url!www.example.com
    use                    generic-service
    }

TheFiddlerWins

Avoiding Nagios commands.cfg
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