Ubuntu Manpage: nsca-ng.cfg - NSCA-ng server configuration file

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.

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.

AUTHOR