Provided by: nsca-ng-server_1.6-6_amd64 bug

NAME

       nsca-ng.cfg - NSCA-ng server configuration file

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/nsca-ng.cfg

DESCRIPTION

       The  nsca-ng(8)  process  reads  configuration data from the file specified with -c on the
       command line or from /etc/nsca-ng.cfg.

   File Format
       Zero or more global settings and one  or  more  authorizations  must  be  defined  in  the
       configuration  file (see the Global Settings subsection and the Authorizations subsection,
       respectively).  They may appear in arbitrary order.  An authorization is  specified  using
       the  authorize keyword followed by a (possibly quoted) client identity string and a brace-
       enclosed block of corresponding authorization settings.  However, an authorization setting
       may  also  be  specified as a global setting outside of these authorize sections.  In this
       case, it serves as a global fallback for authorization  sections  that  don't  define  the
       setting in question.

       Global  settings  and  authorization  settings  are  defined by specifying a variable name
       followed by an equals sign (“=”) and a value (or possibly a list of values).   Values  can
       be strings, integers, or floating-point numbers.  Strings have to be enclosed in single or
       double quotes if they contain whitespace characters,  hash  mark  characters,  or  literal
       quotation  marks.   Otherwise, quoting is optional.  To specify a literal single or double
       quote in a string, either escape it by preceding it with a backslash (“\”)  or  quote  the
       string  using  the  other  quote  character.   A literal backslash must be preceded with a
       second backslash if the string is enclosed in double quotes.

       A variable can be set to the value of an environment variable by specifying ${FOO},  where
       FOO  is  the  name  of  the  environment  variable.   The  same  can be done by specifying
       ${FOO:-bar}, except that in this case, the value bar will be assigned when the environment
       variable FOO is not set.

       Any  whitespace surrounding tokens is ignored.  Empty lines and comments are also ignored.
       Comments are introduced with a hash mark character (“#”) and span to the end of the  line.
       If  the last character of a line is a backslash (“\”), the subsequent line is treated as a
       continuation of the current line (and the backslash is otherwise ignored).

       The special directive include("file") tells  nsca-ng(8)  to  treat  the  contents  of  the
       specified  file  as  if  those  contents  had  appeared  at the point where this directive
       appears.  If a directory is specified instead of a file, all files with a  .cfg  or  .conf
       extension  in  this directory and all subdirectories will be included.  Symbolic links are
       followed.

       In the following subsections, the type of each value is denoted after an  equals  sign  in
       angle brackets.

   Global Settings
       The nsca-ng(8) server recognizes the following global variables.

       chroot = <string>
              On  startup, perform a chroot(2) operation to the specified directory.  By default,
              nsca-ng(8) does not call chroot(2).  If this directive is used,  the  command_file,
              pid_file, and temp_directory must be specified relative to this directory.

       command_file = <string>
              Submit  monitoring  commands  to the specified path name.  This should be the named
              pipe (FIFO) that Nagios (or a compatible monitoring solution) checks  for  external
              commands  to  process.   The  default  is /var/nagios/rw/nagios.cmd.  The specified
              value will be overridden if nsca-ng(8) is called with the -C option.

       listen = <string>
              Bind to the specified IP address or host name.  The default setting is  “*”,  which
              tells  nsca-ng(8) to listen on all available interfaces.  A colon (“:”) followed by
              a service name or port number may be appended to override the default  port  (5668)
              used  by  the nsca-ng(8) server.  The specified value will be ignored if nsca-ng(8)
              is called with the -b option, of if it is socket activated by systemd(1).

       log_level = <integer>
              Use the specified log level, which must  be  an  integer  value  between  0  and  5
              inclusive.   A value of 0 tells nsca-ng(8) to generate only fatal error messages, 1
              adds non-fatal error messages, 2 adds warnings,  3  additionally  spits  out  every
              submitted  command  (plus  startup  and shutdown notices), 4 also logs each message
              sent or received at the protocol level, and 5 generates  additional  debug  output.
              The  default  log level is 3.  The specified value will be overridden if nsca-ng(8)
              is called with the -l option.

       max_command_size = <integer>
              Refuse monitoring commands (including check result submissions)  which  are  longer
              than the specified number of bytes.  Setting this variable to 0 tells nsca-ng(8) to
              accept commands of arbitrary length.  The default value is 16384.

       max_queue_size = <integer>
              Don't queue more than  the  specified  number  of  megabytes  worth  of  monitoring
              commands  while  Nagios  isn't running (or not reading the command file).  When the
              amount of available data exceeds this threshold, the queued data  is  thrown  away.
              If  this variable is set to 0, nsca-ng(8) queues an unlimited amount of data (until
              it exits due to running out of  memory).   The  default  value  is  1024  (i.e.,  1
              gigabyte).

       pid_file = <string>
              During  startup, try to create and lock the specified file and write the process ID
              of the nsca-ng(8) daemon into it.  Bail out if another process holds a lock on that
              file.   By  default,  no  such  PID  file  is written.  The specified value will be
              overridden if nsca-ng(8) is called with the -p option.

       temp_directory = <string>
              Write temporary files to the specified directory.  Temporary files are only written
              if  clients  submit  very large commands (which cannot be written to the named pipe
              atomically).  It is recommended to specify a directory which resides  on  a  memory
              file system.  By default, /tmp is used.

       timeout = <floating-point>
              Close  the connection if a client didn't show any activity for the specified number
              of seconds.  If this value is set  to  0.0,  nsca-ng(8)  won't  enforce  connection
              timeouts.  The default setting is 60.0 seconds.

       tls_ciphers = <string>
              Limit  the  acceptable TLS-PSK cipher suites to the specified list of ciphers.  The
              format of the string is described  in  the  ciphers(1)  manual.   By  default,  the
              ciphers in the list PSK-AES256-CBC-SHA:PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA:PSK-3DES-EDE-CBC-SHA:PSK-
              RC4-SHA will be accepted.

       user = <string>
              Switch to the specified user, and to the groups the user belongs to.  This is  done
              early  on  startup:  after  the  configuration  file  has been read, but before the
              listening socket and (possibly) the PID file are created.  By  default,  nsca-ng(8)
              runs with the privileges of the invoking user.

   Authorizations
       As  mentioned above, an authorization section is introduced with the authorize keyword and
       a client identity field followed by a brace-delimited block of one or  more  authorization
       settings.   A  client  provides  its identity during the connection handshake.  The server
       uses the provided identity string for looking up the authorize section applicable  to  the
       client.   The  corresponding section, if any, defines the authentication and authorization
       settings for the client in question.  If no section explicitly  defined  for  this  client
       identity  is  found,  but  a  section  for  the special client identity "*" (including the
       quotes) is defined, this section is used as a  fallback.   Note  that  no  other  wildcard
       characters  are available, and that the “*” character has no special meaning in the client
       identity field except when specified exactly as described.

       Within the brace-delimited block of an authorization section, values may  be  assigned  to
       the  variables  listed  below.   The  pattern strings assigned to the commands, hosts, and
       services variables are POSIX “extended” regular expressions, but with an implicit  “^”  at
       the beginning and “$” at the end of the patterns.  Multiple patterns can be specified as a
       brace-enclosed, comma-separated list; check results and commands will then be accepted  if
       they  match  any  of  the specified patterns.  Commands and check results will be rejected
       unless these settings authorize the client to submit them.

       commands = <(list of) string(s)>
              Match the specified regular expression(s) against submitted monitoring commands and
              accept  commands  that  match  any  of these expressions.  The patterns are matched
              against the full command string supplied by the  client,  except  for  the  leading
              bracketed timestamp and any whitespace following that timestamp.

       hosts = <(list of) string(s)>
              Match  the specified regular expression(s) against the “host name” field of client-
              supplied PROCESS_HOST_CHECK_RESULT commands and accept such commands if they  match
              any of these expressions.

       password = <string>
              Reject  connections  from  clients  that  don't  use  the specified password.  This
              setting is mandatory.

       services = <(list of) string(s)>
              Match the specified regular expression(s) against the “service  description”  field
              of  client-supplied  PROCESS_SERVICE_CHECK_RESULT commands and accept such commands
              if they match any of these expressions.  If a specified string includes one or more
              at  signs  (“@”),  only  the  part  preceding the last of these at signs is matched
              against the “service description” field.  The part following this at sign  is  used
              as  a  separate  pattern which is matched against the “host name” field of the same
              command.  A service check result is then accepted only if both matches succeed  for
              a given command.

EXAMPLES

       The /etc/nsca-ng.cfg file might look similar to the following example.

              user = "nagios"
              chroot = "/var/nagios" # Other paths are relative to this one!
              command_file = "/rw/nagios.cmd"
              pid_file = "/run/nsca-ng.pid"
              temp_directory = "/dev/shm"
              listen = "monitoring.example.com:5668"
              tls_ciphers = "PSK-AES256-CBC-SHA"
              log_level = 3
              max_command_size = 65536
              max_queue_size = 128
              timeout = 15.0

              #
              # Authenticated "root" clients may submit arbitrary check
              # results and any other monitoring commands (see:
              # <http://nagios.org/developerinfo/externalcommands/>).
              #
              authorize "root" {
                  password = "g3m25sMCUAO4NecZGld1H4xcJ9uDWvhH"
                  commands = ".*"
              }

              #
              # Authenticated "checker" clients may submit arbitrary check
              # results, but no other commands.
              #
              authorize "checker" {
                  password = "ilzNanlE9XjMLdjrMkXnk09XBCTFQrj5"
                  hosts = ".*"
                  services = ".*"
              }

              #
              # Authenticated "web-checker" clients may submit check results
              # for arbitrary services on hosts whose names begin with "www".
              #
              authorize "web-checker" {
                  password = "m2uaIWwiq3AIqN55m3QdjwptkU1Q4Oov"
                  services = ".+@www.*"
              }

              #
              # Authenticated "nsca-checker" clients may talk to the NSCA-ng
              # server, but may not submit anything to Nagios.
              #
              authorize "nsca-checker" {
                  password = "ceOKwxpz14lKXroC4yUjJZbov6VAyKuT"
              }

              #
              # Other authenticated clients may submit check results for the
              # "disk", "swap", and "load" services on arbitrary hosts.
              #
              authorize "*" {
                  password = "awHW5vxr3DcA9EvcUC9T3a90QfEexsWd"
                  services = {
                      "disk",
                      "swap",
                      "load"
                  }
              }

CAVEATS

       Please  set  the  permissions  appropriately  to  make sure that only authorized users can
       access the /etc/nsca-ng.cfg file.

SEE ALSO

       nsca-ng(8), send_nsca(8), send_nsca.cfg(5), regex(7)

       http://www.nagios.org/developerinfo/externalcommands/

AUTHOR

       Holger Weiss <holger@weiss.in-berlin.de>