Monitoring Petals ESB with Nagios

Introduction

Nagios is a complete infrastructure monitoring solution.

Get more details about Nagios.

The integration of Petals ESB and Nagios is based on getting information about the JVM. This is done using SNMP probes.

Following examples are based on a Petals ESB topology composed of two nodes on the same host.

Nagios screenshots extract samples

Contributors
No contributors found for: authors on selected page(s)

Installation

Nagios installation

The Nagios integration was experienced on a Linux distribution "Ubuntu Quantal Quetzal (12.10)", using the Sun/Oracle JVM v1.6.0.43

Nagios 3 is available through the default Ubuntu repository. So, just install the package "nagios3" using the standard way.

Enabling the SNMP agents of the Petals ESB JVMs

As the monitoring tools can use SNMP probes to get information from the JVM running Petals ESB, we need to enable the SNMP agent of the JVM of each Petals ESB node. On each Petals node, in the environment configuration file, uncomment the system properties relative to the SNMP agent:

# Uncomment following lines to enable SNMP agent of the JVM
PETALS_JAVA_OPTS="$PETALS_JAVA_OPTS -Dcom.sun.management.snmp.port=16161"
PETALS_JAVA_OPTS="$PETALS_JAVA_OPTS -Dcom.sun.management.snmp.interface=0.0.0.0"
PETALS_JAVA_OPTS="$PETALS_JAVA_OPTS -Dcom.sun.management.snmp.acl.file=/etc/petals-esb/default-snmp.acl"

Adjust your SNMP port, interface and ACL.

Caution, if Petals ESB runs with a user different from root, you need to use a port upper than 1024. To use a port lower than 1024 with a Petals ESB launches with a standard user, refers to the utility privbind (available in standard Ubuntu repository).
To use the same port on the same machine for several java processes, refers to snmpd used as proxy.
Caution, the ACL file should be accessible (read and write: 'chmod 600 xxx') only by the user running the JVM process.
If you use OpenJDK as Java virtual machine, you can't enable the SNMP agent. It is missing because of a non-free implementation. Move to the JVM provided by Oracle.

Nagios configuration

Core configuration

All the following configurations are grouped in the attached file to put in your directory /etc/nagios3/conf.d/petals-esb.cfg.

Petals ESB administrators

Define your Petals ESB administrator as following. For each administrator, don't forget to add it to the contact group:

define contact {
        contact_name                    cde
        alias                           Christophe DENEUX
        host_notification_period        24x7
        service_notification_period     24x7
        host_notification_options       d,u,r
        service_notification_options    w,u,c,r
        host_notification_commands      notify-host-by-email
        service_notification_commands   notify-service-by-email
        email                           christophe.deneux@linagora.com
}

define contactgroup {
        contactgroup_name       petals-esb
        alias                   Petals ESB Administrators
        members                 cde
}

JVM host template

A best practice to monitor Java application is to create a template 'JVM host':

define host{
        use                             generic-host
        name                            jvm-host    ; The name of this host template
        notifications_enabled           1           ; Host notifications are enabled
        event_handler_enabled           1           ; Host event handler is enabled
        flap_detection_enabled          1           ; Flap detection is enabled
        failure_prediction_enabled      1           ; Failure prediction is enabled
        process_perf_data               1           ; Process performance data
        retain_status_information       1           ; Retain status information across program restarts
        retain_nonstatus_information    1           ; Retain non-status information across program restarts
        check_command                   check-host-alive
        max_check_attempts              10
        notification_interval           0
        notification_period             24x7
        notification_options            d,u,r
        contact_groups                  admins
        register                        0           ; DONT REGISTER THIS DEFINITION - ITS NOT A REAL HOST, JUST A TEMPLATE!
# Specific attributes
        _snmpport                       161         ; Listening port of the JVM SNMP agent
        }

Nagios commands definition to interact with a SNMP agent

We recommand to define specific Nagios command to interact with the Java virtual machine MIB.

Interresting commands will be:

  • jvm_heapused: to get the real heap memory used by the Petals ESB node,
  • jvm_heapmaxused: to get the current allocated (commited) heap size. This value should be check against the heap max size at the JVM level to generate alarms.
# 'jvm_heapused' command definition
define command{
    command_name    jvm_heapused
    command_line    /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_snmp -H '$HOSTADDRESS$' -p '$_HOSTSNMPPORT$' -C '$ARG1$' -P '$ARG2$' -o 1.3.6.1.4.1.42.2.145.3.163.1.1.2.11.0 -w :'$ARG3$' -c :'$ARG4$' -l load
    }

# 'jvm_heapmaxused' command definition
define command{
    command_name    jvm_heapmaxused
    command_line    /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_snmp -H '$HOSTADDRESS$' -p '$_HOSTSNMPPORT$' -C '$ARG1$' -P '$ARG2$' -o 1.3.6.1.4.1.42.2.145.3.163.1.1.2.12.0 -w :'$ARG3$' -c :'$ARG4$' -l load
    }

Petals ESB host template

A best practice to monitor Petals ESB nodes is to create a template 'Petals ESB host' that inherits from the 'JVM host':

define host{
        use                             jvm-host
        name                            petals-esb-host    ; The name of this host template
        register                        0                  ; DONT REGISTER THIS DEFINITION - ITS NOT A REAL HOST, JUST A TEMPLATE!
        contact_groups                  petals-esb

# Specific attributes
        _snmpport                       16161              ; Listening port of the JVM SNMP agent. Redefined because Petals is not started by 'root'
        _jmxport                        7700               ; Listening port of the Petals JMX agent
        _jmxuser                        petals             ; JMX credentials: username
        _jmxpassword                    petals             ; JMX credentials: password
        }

Defining your Petals ESB hosts

For each Petals ESB node of your Petals ESB topology, create an instance of the template 'petals-esb-host':

define host{
        use                     petals-esb-host            ; Name of host template to use
        host_name               petals-esb-node-1
        alias                   Petals ESB Node 1
        address                 127.0.0.1
# Specific attributes: Uncomment to specify a value different from the default one
#        _snmpport                       16161          ; Listening port of the JVM SNMP agent
#        _jmxport                        7700           ; Listening port of the Petals JMX agent
#        _jmxuser                        petals         ; JMX credentials: username
#        _jmxpassword                    petals         ; JMX credentials: password
        }

define host{
        use                     petals-esb-host            ; Name of host template to use
        host_name               petals-esb-node-2
        alias                   Petals ESB Node 2
        address                 192.168.1.25
# Specific attributes: Uncomment to specify a value different from the default one
#        _snmpport                       16161          ; Listening port of the JVM SNMP agent
#        _jmxport                        7700           ; Listening port of the Petals JMX agent
#        _jmxuser                        petals         ; JMX credentials: username
#        _jmxpassword                    petals         ; JMX credentials: password
        }

Defining your Petals ESB topology as a Petals ESB host group

The Petals ESB topology can be considered as a Nagios host group composed of your Petals ESB nodes:

define hostgroup {
        hostgroup_name  petals-esb
        alias           The ESB
        members         petals-esb-node-1, petals-esb-node-2
        }

Petals ESB host services

We group all Petals ESB host services:

define servicegroup{
        servicegroup_name       petals-services
        alias                   Petals ESB Services
}

A best practice to monitor Petals ESB nodes is to create a template of services to associate to each Petals ESB nodes:

# Define a service to check the disk space of the partitions
# Warning if < 20% free, critical if < 10% free space on partition.
# Adapt the last parameter of "check_disk" to check only the
# partitions where dynamic data (as log files, repository) are
# written by petals (/var/lib/petals-esb, /var/log/petals-esb).
# Probably two services will be required with different thresholds.
define service{
        use                             generic-service
        hostgroup_name                  petals-esb
        service_description             Disk Space
        check_command                   check_disk!20%!10%!/var
        servicegroups                   petals-services
        contact_groups                  petals-esb
}


# Define a service to check the load on the local machine.
define service{
        use                             generic-service
        hostgroup_name                  petals-esb
        service_description             Current Load
        check_command                   check_load!5.0!4.0!3.0!10.0!6.0!4.0
        servicegroups                   petals-services
        contact_groups                  petals-esb
}

# Define a service to check the heap memory used by Petals ESB node.
# Warning if > 85% configured max heap size, critical if  95% configured
# max heap size.
# Note: The value returned by the SNMP Get is a byte value. So, for
# a max heap size of 1Go:
#     85% => 912680550 bytes,
# and 95% => 1020054733 bytes
define service{
        use                             generic-service
        hostgroup_name                  petals-esb
        service_description             Current heap memory
        check_command                   jvm_heapused!public!2c!912680550!1020054732
        servicegroups                   petals-services
        contact_groups                  petals-esb
}

# Define a service to check the max (commited) heap memory used by Petals ESB node.
# Warning if > Warning if > 85% configured max heap size, critical if  95% configured
# max heap size.
# Note: The value returned by the SNMP Get is a byte value. So, for
# a max heap size of 1Go:
#     85% => 912680550 bytes,
# and 95% => 1020054733 bytes
define service{
        use                             generic-service
        hostgroup_name                  petals-esb
        service_description             Current commited heap memory size
        check_command                   jvm_heapmaxused!public!2c!912680550!1020054732
        servicegroups                   petals-services
        contact_groups                  petals-esb
}

Petals BC SOAP configuration

Active checks

To add services associated to the BC SOAP, you can add a service based on the here that check the current number of allocated threads of the HTTP thread pool:

########################################################
#### Dedicated commands to monitor a Petals BC SOAP ####
########################################################
define command{
	command_name	petals_bcsoap_httpthreadpool_currentallocatedthreads
	command_line	/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_petals_bcsoap -h '$HOSTADDRESS$' -n '$_HOSTJMXPORT$' -u '$_HOSTJMXUSER$' -p '$_HOSTJMXPASSWORD$' --http-thread-pool-current-allocated-threads -i '$ARG1$' -w '$ARG2$' -c '$ARG3$'
}

# Define a service to check the HTTP Thread pool of the Petals BC SOAP against the current
# allocated thread number.
# According to default value: Warining if > 40, critical if > 45.
define service{
        use                             generic-service
        hostgroup_name                  petals-esb
        service_description             petals-esb-bcsoap-httpthreadpool-current-allocated
        display_name                    Petals BC SOAP - HTTP Thread Pool - Current allocated thread
        check_command                   petals_bcsoap_httpthreadpool_currentallocatedthreads!petals-bc-soap!40!45
	servicegroups			petals-services
        contact_groups                  petals-esb
}

where check_petals_bcsoap is a nagios plugin wrapping Petals CLI. You can get a such plugin here.

Passive check

The probes available in the Petals internals and components are able to send JMX notifications when they detect a defect. These notifications can be sent to Nagios with a dedicated monitoring command of Petals CLI that receive JMX notifications and write them in the channel of Nagios passive checks.

See Receiving Petals ESB defects in Nagios to get more information.

Restart Nagios

Restart your Nagios service to take into account the configuration:

sudo service nagios3 restart
Enter labels to add to this page:
Please wait 
Looking for a label? Just start typing.