HP XC System Software Administration Guide Version 3.2

8.5 Nan Notification Aggregator and Delimiter
The HP XC System Software incorporates the Nan notification aggregator and delimiter for the
Nagios paging system. Nan is an open source supplement to the Nagios application.
Nagios is capable of sending quantities of messages especially when the system is starting up,
shutting down, or experiencing a failure. The Nan front-end utility overcomes the problem of
multiple messages by collecting, batching, and reformatting these messages so that they are sent
in a controlled manner. You can configure how multiple concatenated notifications are sorted
so that the most important notifications appear at the top.
The Nan utility consists of the following:
• A daemon, nand
This daemon is started on the Nagios master node.
• A client, nanc
The nanc client is configured as the Nagios e-mail command.
• The nand daemon /opt/hptc/nagios/etc/nand.conf configuration file.
• The nanc client /opt/hptc/nagios/etc/nanc.conf configuration file.
When the nand daemon receives a notification from Nagios, it starts a timer. If the notification
is a PROBLEM or RECOVERY, the default time is 300 seconds; if the notification is an
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, the default time is 600 seconds. Subsequent Nagios notifications are queued
in the /opt/hptc/nagios/var/nanqueue directory until the specified time elapses. Then
the nand daemon sends a condensed message based on the following criteria:
• The delivery method: pager, e-mail, and so on
If the delivery method is a pager, the number of messages influences the format of the
condensed message.
• The corresponding destination address: the pager telephone number or the e-mail address
• The notification type: PROBLEM, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, or RECOVERY
The default values specified in the nand.conf and nanc.conf configuration files are appropriate
for most HP XC systems; however, you can change these values to suit your installation. Follow
these steps when updating either or both of these configuration files.
1. Log in as the superuser on the Nagios master node.
2. Edit the nanc.conf or nand.conf file.
3. Use the service command to stop the nagios daemon:
# pdsh -a "service nagios stop"
4. Use the service command to restart the nagios daemon:
# pdsh -a "service nagios start"
8.6 Nagios Report Generator Utility
The HP XC System Software includes the Nagios report generator utility, nrg. This utility is a
command-line interface that you can use to obtain usage information and to diagnose the state
of the Nagios engine.
This utility can generate a list of the status of the Nagios hosts and Nagios services, a compact
display of the status of the HP XC system, and an analysis of the system state.
The nrg utility uses the Nagios status.log file to help you determine the solution for a Nagios
problem. Example 8-1 shows the two-column analysis. The left column identifies the Nagios host
and the right column describes the warning or error and possible actions for its solution.
126 Monitoring the System with Nagios