monitoringnagios
I can define a hostgroup in Nagios to include hosts X, Y, Z. Can I set a hostgroup to include all the hosts from another group as well? So any host in hostgroup B would be included in hostgroup A? And any service that runs for group A would also include all the hosts in group B?
In theory one could do this by just copy and pasting a few lines, but is there a 'cleaner' way?
Use the host_name directive in the service definition with an exclamation before the name of the host. For example:
define service{
service_description CPU Stats
servicegroups sysres
use generic
hostgroup_name linux
host_name !server1
check_command check_iostat
}
I think the answer to your question is not definitive, but will reveal itself over time as you develop a deeper understanding of how Nagios works. Services are generally tied directly to the host they run on, but as you are discovering, that is just a convention. A convention that works and provides some shortcuts, mind you, but a convention, nonetheless.
Also know that that you can define any check as the host check. It does not need to be ping. Perhaps check_http is better for your use.
define host{
use generic-host,host-pnp ; Name of host template to use
host_name www.microsoft.com
alias www.microsoft.com
address www.microsoft.com
check_command check_http
.
.
.
}
Given what you've said, I would create a dummy service with a bunch of you third party services tied to it for now and adjust it as you see fit.
To address your 3rd question, if you go the route of a host per service, you could use a host or service group to group them for display.
Best Answer
You can nest hostgroups but not in the way you're describing. See this writeup:
Nagios 4 and hostgroup inheritance