# First steps with Icinga Director

**URL:** <https://community.icinga.com/t/first-steps-with-icinga-director/336>\
**Category:** Icinga Director\
**Tags:** director\
**Created:** [February 8, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/first-steps-with-icinga-director/336 "2019-02-08T14:10:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![dnsmichi](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dnsmichi/32/7721_2.png) [@dnsmichi](https://community.icinga.com/u/dnsmichi)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/first-steps-with-icinga-director/336/2 "2019-02-08T14:30:04Z")

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Hi,

assuming you have read [the docs](https://icinga.com/docs/director/latest/doc/10-How-it-works/) already, I would start simple and learn about the tool and its possibilities. There’s also more infos and webinars linked here: [Director 101](https://community.icinga.com/t/director-101/80)

How I am usually starting with a fresh Director setup:

- Create a host template and add a check\_command
- Create a service template, e.g. `ping-checks`
- Navigate into the CheckCommand sections and define a data field for `ping` imported from the ITL
- Add your own custom data field `server_type` as String
- Create a host object and enable the data field `server_type`, import the pre-defined host template and set `server_type` to `prod`
- Create a service, import from the template, name it `ping4` and set `ping4` as check\_command. Add the previously defined data field as selectable field and add a certain value to it (a threshold).
- Assign the service based on the `server_type` equal to `prod`

Once that works, inspect how config rendering and deployments work. Play around with more data fields, and get to know further capabilities with service sets for example. Define a basic template structure where your hosts and service can be inherited from, and data lists and fields prepared for later usage.

Peek into automation and import sources from external data before going to production.

Once you’ve mastered the simple monitoring tasks, add agents and distributed setups with zones and endpoints to play.

Cheers,  
Michael

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_[View the full topic](https://community.icinga.com/t/first-steps-with-icinga-director/336)._