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Ansible Role linuxfabrik.lfops.monitoring_plugins

This role deploys the Linuxfabik Monitoring Plugins, allowing them to be easily executed by a monitoring system.

Notes:

  • Best practice is to put the affected hosts into downtime or disable them in Icinga before applying this role. This role can do that for you.
  • This role allows you to deploy custom plugins which are placed under {{ inventory_dir }}/host_files/{{ inventory_hostname }}/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins on the Ansible control node.

Installation Methods

Taken from the Linuxfabrik Monitoring Plugins INSTALL document:

Platform Install Implemented by Mandatory Requirements
Linux Binaries from rpm/deb package (default) monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'package' Deploy the Repository for the Monitoring Plugins. This can be done using the linuxfabrik.lfops.repo_monitoring_plugins role. If you use the monitoring_plugins Playbook, this is automatically done for you.

By default, this role installs the latest available package from the repository. It enables version lock / version pinning for the installed package. This prevents automatic updates from causing inconsistencies between the installed plugins and the configuration of the monitoring system (e.g. outdated Icinga Director configuration). Updating plugins should be done in a controlled manner along with updating the monitoring server configuration. See monitoring_plugins__skip_package_versionlock for details.
Linux Binaries from zip Currently not supported by this role
Linux Source Code monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'source' Ensure that Python 3.9+ including associated pip is installed and activated by default. On Debian 12, a virtual environment is mandatory.
Windows Binaries from msi (default) monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'package' Icinga2 Agent is required.
Windows Binaries from zip monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'archive' Since you cannot change files that are currently used by a process in Windows, when running against a Windows host, this role first stops the Icinga2 service, deploys the plugins and starts the service again. Optionally, it sets a downtime for each host. Have a look at the optional role variables below for this.
Windows Source Code Currently not supported by this role

Mandatory Requirements

  • See table above (depends on the use case).

Tags

monitoring_plugins

  • Deploys the monitoring plugins, including the Linuxfabrik Plugin Library and custom plugins.
  • Triggers: none.

monitoring_plugins:custom

  • Only deploys the custom plugins.
  • Triggers: none.

monitoring_plugins:remove

  • Removes the Linuxfabrik Monitoring Plugins.
  • Triggers: none.

Mandatory Role Variables

monitoring_plugins__version

  • Which version of the monitoring plugins should be deployed? Possible options:

    • A specific release, for example 2.2.1. See the Releases.
    • dev: The development version (main branch). Use with care. Only works with monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'source'.

  • Defaults to lfops__monitoring_plugins_version for convenience.

  • Type: String.

Example:

# mandatory
monitoring_plugins__version: '2.2.1'

Optional Role Variables

monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_password

  • The password of the monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_user. This is required to schedule a downtime for Windows hosts.
  • Type: String.
  • Default: unset

monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_url

  • The address of the Icinga2 master API. This is required to schedule a downtime for Windows hosts.
  • Type: String.
  • Default: unset

monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_user

  • The Icinga2 API user. This is required to schedule a downtime for Windows hosts. Therefore, it needs to have the following permissions: permissions = [ "actions/schedule-downtime", "actions/remove-downtime" ]
  • Type: String.
  • Default: unset

monitoring_plugins__icinga2_cn

  • The common name / host name. Will be used to schedule a downtime for Windows hosts.
  • Type: String.
  • Default: '{{ ansible_facts["nodename"] }}'

monitoring_plugins__icinga_user

  • The user running the Monitoring Plugins. The role installs the pip packages from the requirements.yml for this user. Only relevant if monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'source'.
  • Type: String.
  • Default: 'icinga' on RHEL, 'nagios' on Debian

monitoring_plugins__install_method

  • Which variant of the monitoring plugins should be deployed? Possible options:

    • package: Deploy the install package with the compiled checks. This does not require Python on the system.
    • source: Deploy the plugins as source code. This requires Python to be installed. Currently for Linux only.
    • archive: Deploy the compiled binaries from a zip file downloaded from download.linuxfabrik.ch. Currently for Windows only.

  • Type: String.

  • Default: 'package'

monitoring_plugins__skip_package_versionlock

  • By default, the version of the linuxfabrik-monitoring-plugins are locked after installation. Setting this to true skips this step (and never unlocks the version pinning again).
  • Type: Bool.
  • Default: false

Example:

# optional
monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_password: 'linuxfabrik'
monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_url: 'https://192.0.2.3:5665/v1'
monitoring_plugins__icinga2_api_user: 'downtime-api-user'
monitoring_plugins__icinga2_cn: 'windows1.example.com'
monitoring_plugins__icinga_user: 'icinga'
monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'source'
monitoring_plugins__skip_package_versionlock: false

Troubleshooting

If you get No package linuxfabrik-monitoring-plugins-main available. msg: Failed to install some of the specified packages while setting monitoring_plugins__version: 'dev', you simply forgot to also set monitoring_plugins__install_method: 'source'.

License

The Unlicense

Author Information

Linuxfabrik GmbH, Zurich