Newb to Nagios(Now What Shall I Do With It???)

Sally ReichBeekeeper

AndDoer of Other Stuff

sally@frommyhive.com

Introduction & Agenda• Who am I?

• A former IT professional• Left the IT world (not really my thing) to work more

with bees and other things, go back to school• I am not a programmer or sys admin or “Unix

geek”

• What is this all about?• How to go from nothing to Nagios• How can I apply this to a beehive?

• Why did you do this?• Funny you should ask…

Why Learn Nagios ?Just one of those things

• Came with Eric Loyd, my SO, to #NagiosCon12• He was presenting that year

• Presenting tomorrow @10:30: Nagios on AWS–Live Install & More!

• Met Ethan at reception, said • ‘Don’t know Nagios, just here to hang-out while Eric is at

conference.’• ‘Everyone here is so excited about it; maybe I should learn?’• Later, met Nagios enthusiasts who asked ‘why are you here?’ and

talk came up on monitoring a beehive

• Did not make it to #NagiosCon13

• Here I am at #NagiosCon14 with thoughts on:• A newb installing Nagios• How a beekeeper might use Nagios

Learning Nagios

• Eric became my sys admin• Got a CentOS VM from him• Started with Instant Nagios Starter by Michael Guthrie• Read it as complete newbie knowing

nothing• 384 highlights and notes• Notes show what could be added for a

total newb

Highlights & Notes Sample

Core

• Followed Guthrie’s book• Somewhat out of date for versions,

locations, etc.• SA had to help in spots

• Went to Nagios Core Quickstart from http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/quickstart.html

• Followed Fedora Quickstart• Had its own ‘learning opportunities’ for a

newb (level of expertise, assumptions about prior software, etc.)

Core

• Followed “Monitoring Publicly Available Services” Quickstart fromhttp://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/monitoring-publicservices.html

• vi editor hard to use• Installed pico instead to edit config

files

• Added a host and HTTP service on that host – YAY!

YAY! My first host and service check!

Easier Way???

• What about XI?

Nagios XI to the Rescue• ./fullinstall and it was installed!• Logged into web interface

• Used configuration wizard• Added host• Added http service (and others)

• Bam! And I’m monitoring here!!!

Nagios XI to the Rescue

• Added notifications• Uh-oh – I wasn’t emailed

notifications??• Oh, default is NOT to notify• Weird – wouldn’t default be to have

notifications enabled?

Some tips for a newb withouta Unix background

- wget often not installed in a base operating system yum install wget

- vi editor kinda hard, use pico yum install pico

- Use a virtual machine if possible and take snapshots after completing major milestones can go back to a previous snapshot if something gets messed up or you want to retry something

- ‘Getting started’ documentation contains info (download locations, version numbers, etc.) current at time of writing always start with latest info from Nagios.com

- Nagios Core comes default with a file called /usr/local/nagios/etc/localhost.cfg that can be used for all additions to the base configuration (for monitoring your hosts and services). Unless you want to, there is no need to add additional configuration files to the main configuration file

- Tired of configuring separate commands, services, hosts, contacts, and escalations for Nagios Core? It's time....INSTALL NAGIOS XI!!! one command installs it and free to use to monitor up to seven hosts, AWESOME for the small shop or hobbyist looking to learn it

- In XI, default notifications are DISABLED for the nagiosadmin go to “Configure,” “My Account Settings,” “Notification Preferences,” to enable

-No "check web server port" XI wizard use “TCP/UDP Port Monitoring Wizard" and select "HTTP" as service to monitor- Have a friend who can act as your SA? Use him/her!

-If you get stuck, ask someone for help! http://support.nagios.com/forum

So Now What?

• So now I have an XI box AND I can monitor up to seven hosts for free!!!

• Ch. 1, 2nd paragraph of says “…you can use it to monitor virtually anything.” So…

• How can I use Nagios to monitor a beehive?• A thought experiment…

Most hobbyist beekeeperskeep bees for the honey

Collecting Nectar

David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org

Collecting Nectar

Suzanne DeJohn, http://www.gardeners.com/backyard-beekeeping/8529,default,pg.html

Storing Nectar

http://gardenplotter.com/rospo/blog/2007/06/bees-setting-up-house.html

Stored Nectar in honeycomb

http://v-fork-to-fork.blogspot.com/

Capped Nectar = HONEY!!!

Capped Nectar = HONEY!!!

Obvious thing to monitor: weight of the hive –how much honey is being stored?

No Swarms!

2 honey supers and 2 brood chambers

What Else?

• Outside the hive:• Temp, humidity, % sunlight, wind speed,

rainfall, pressure, power to fence, etc.

• Inside the hive:• Temp in multiple locations, water in the

bottom, humidity, sound level, continuity on the bottom, light levels, formic acid, etc.

• The hive itself:• Tip sensors, motion sensors, etc.

• Monitor the monitoring devices/sensors

Specifically:

• Nagios could send an alert when:• It’s cold for a long time – insulate hive• It’s hot for a long time – shade hive• There’s a hurricane/tornado/flood coming – batten down hive,

run!• “Climate” in hive is not correct (temp, humidity, etc) – try to fix it• Continuity on bottom board is broken or motion sensor is tripped

– check for mice, skunks, raccoons• There’s condensation on bottom board – ventilate• There’s light in hive – top blew off or was removed, get it back on• If sound is too high – intruders? Or too low – bees died?• Formic acid sensor triggers – ants in hive• Hive weight changes – time to add a honey super? Or bees left?• Fence has no electricity – see if bear got through, fix it• Tip sensors are triggered – ne’er-do-well tipped hive or bear got

at it

There’s More to Possibly Monitor…

Varroa destructor

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanmartin/5048103407/in/photostream/

Varroa destructor

http://www.clickonwales.org/2011/07/a-crisis-amongst-welsh-bees/

http://coronaapicultores.blogspot.com/2013/04/varroa-transmisor-de-patogenos.html

Threshold?

Hmmm….

What might a -ified hivelook like?

eBeeHive

Temp Sensors

Tilt Sensors

Arduino

Light Sensor

Humidity Sensors

Scale

Data Pi

Pi

Sound Sensors

Webcam

Weather Station

Water Sensor Mouse Sensor

Formic Acid Sensors?

The interwebs

Happy beekeeper

eBeeHive Live?• It would be “sweet” to actually put together an

eBeeHive!

• Kickstarter for sensors, scale, Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, peripherals, weatherproofing, outsourcing electrical and other help, etc. ?

• Created a Pinterest board listing possible equipment

Thanks for Listening!

Going from Newb to Nagios was pretty easy, especially if you have a SA to answer Qs! Still A LOT for me to learn…

Nagios XI made things so much easier! Still A LOT for me to learn…

Updating the quickstart guides as if a newbie were reading them might be nice (may not be necessary, but it would be nice)

Advice, Anyone?

If anyone has tips/advice for eBeeHive,please see me during the conference!

Check out:

Trevor McDonald - Support Tech @ Nagios Enterprises

Wednesday 11:30am – 12:20pm “Monitoring the Physical World With

Nagios and Arduino”

There are many things in the physical world you might want to monitor: room temperature, opened doors, motion, etc. While some solutions exist, they are generally either standalone closed-source systems, or they are limited in scope and extensibility. Arduino systems allow you to build your own solution that is customized your needs while maintaining complete control over the hardware and software, all at a fraction of the cost of other solutions. In this talk I will show a few examples of physical environment monitoring, reported passively to Nagios.

Questions? Answers?

Want to know more aboutkeeping honeybees?

?

The EndSally Reich

NAGIOS Beekeeper!!sally@frommyhive.com