Hi all,
I don’t want to copy the discussion from Data Type "Dictionary" to allow for nested variables · Issue #337 · Icinga/icingaweb2-module-director · GitHub, but it is relevant to my post.
We are planning a new Icinga Cluster and wanted to give the Director a POC again. The main idea was, that the “Icinga Admins” configure all the commands, services etc (either on DSL or director). Hosts will be added/deleted automatically via the director, and the Devs can adjust thresholds, add new checks to their hosts etc. without in deep knowledge of how Icinga is working. They just shall have to edit their host objects via director. I played around a little bit with the master branch of the director, but I didn’t make to “translate” this DSL Snip:
apply Service "tcp: " for ( tcp => config in host.vars.tcp ) {
import "generic-service"
check_command = "tcp"
vars += config
assign where host.vars.tcp
}
object Host "abc" {
[...]
vars.tcp["123"] = {
tcp_address = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
tcp_port = "123"
}
vars.tcp["567"] = {
tcp_address = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
tcp_port = "567"
}
}
On the one side, @tgelf described his opinion about dictionaries in this comment Data Type "Dictionary" to allow for nested variables · Issue #337 · Icinga/icingaweb2-module-director · GitHub.
On the other side, this kind of snip is officially documented here Monitoring Basics - Icinga 2
Based on my DSL Snip, it would be nice, if sb. could tell me, how to do it “right” in the director.
Another point I was struggling with, are the checks based on SSH. The lambda function of the -C Paramater in the “by_ssh” command is not present in the director, it is just empty.
I tried to rebuilt the command and inserted the lambda function. That worked, but the director does not like to add “{ }” to service variables. so things like giving parameters in the ssh arguments seems to be impossible. E.g.:
apply Service "load" {
import "by_ssh"
vars.by_ssh_command = "/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_load"
vars.by_ssh_arguments = {
"-w" = {
value = "$load_wload1$,$load_wload5$,$load_wload15$"
description = "Exit with WARNING status if load average exceeds WLOADn"
}
"-c" = {
value = "$load_cload1$,$load_cload5$,$load_cload15$"
description = "Exit with CRITICAL status if load average exceed CLOADn; the load average format is the same used by 'uptime' and 'w'"
}
"-r" = {
set_if = "$load_percpu$"
description = "Divide the load averages by the number of CPUs (when possible)"
}
}
assign where host.vars.os == "linux"
}
is unrepresentable.
I have tested the director every now and then in recent years, because I am highly interested in “automate as much as possible and delegate everything else”. I have used the DSL for over 5 years now and every time I take a look at the director, I see a huge gap between it and the DSL and I am not able to use the stuff I learned over the time.
I don’t want to start a new basic discussion about DSL and Director. But I think, the differences between DSL and Director are too big. Shouldn’t I be able to use the director without any problems, when I configured Icinga via DSL for so many years and know, how Icinga is working? Shouldn’t there be some kind of documentation, which describe in detail, where the differences between the DSL and the Director are? Shouldn’t I be able to identify, what kind of configuration fit my needs best without spending hours of time to investigate it by myself?
After I was not able to “translate” my two examples into the director, after I have searched solutions in Github, the Docs and this forum, I stopped testing it and discarded the thought of using it. And to be honest, I am very sad about it. But when it seems to be so complicated or impossible to get these two examples running, how will it end with more complicated stuff like
states = get_object(User, user).vars.mail_service_states || [ OK, Warning, Critical, Unknown ]
types = get_object(User, user).vars.mail_service_types || [ DowntimeStart, DowntimeEnd, DowntimeRemoved, Custom, Acknowledgement, Problem, Recovery, FlappingStart, FlappingEnd ]
?
If anyone already did the transformation from DSL to the Director, I really would like to exchange with him/her.
Cheers,
Marcus
