6.1. Icinga Classic UI: Information On The Modules

6.1. Icinga Classic UI: Information On The Modules
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Introduction of the Icinga Classic UI

The various Classic UI modules (CGIs) distributed with Icinga core are described here, along with the authorization requirements for accessing and using each module. By default the Classic UI requires that you have authenticated to the web server and are authorized to view any information you are requesting. More information on configuring authorization can be found here.

The Classic UI may be controlled using several parameters. More information can be found here.

Index

Status module

Status map module

Tactical overview module

Network outages module

Configuration module

Command module

Extended information module

Availability reporting module

Alert histogram module

Alert summary module

Changes in the Classic module

Status module

File Name:

status.cgi

Description:

This is the most important Classic UI module included with Icinga. It allows you to view the current status of all hosts and services that are being monitored. The status module can produce two main types of output - a status overview of all host groups (or a particular host group) and a detailed view of all services (or those associated with a particular host).

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view all hosts and services for which you are a contact.

Status Map module

File Name:

statusmap.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module creates a map of all hosts that you have defined on your network. The CGI uses Thomas Boutell's gd library (version 1.6.3 or higher) to create a PNG image of your network layout. The coordinates used when drawing each host (along with the optional pretty icons) are taken from host definitions. If you'd prefer to let the module automatically generate drawing coordinates for you, use the default_statusmap_layout directive to specify a layout algorithm that should be used.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view all hosts.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view hosts for which you are a contact.

	Note
	Users who are not authorized to view specific hosts will see unknown nodes in those positions. I realize that they really shouldn't see anything there, but it doesn't make sense to even generate the map if you can't see all the host dependencies...

Tactical Overview module

File Name:

tac.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module is designed to server as a "birds-eye view" of all network monitoring activity. It allows you to quickly see network outages, host status, and service status. It distinguishes between problems that have been "handled" in some way (i.e. been acknowledged, had notifications disabled, etc.) and those which have not been handled, and thus need attention. Very useful if you've got a lot of hosts/services you're monitoring and you need to keep a single screen up to alert you of problems.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view all hosts and services for which you are a contact.

Network Outages module

File Name:

outages.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module will produce a listing of "problem" hosts on your network that are causing network outages. This can be particularly useful if you have a large network and want to quickly identify the source of the problem. Hosts are sorted based on the severity of the outage they are causing.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view all hosts.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view hosts for which you are a contact.

Configuration module

File Name:

config.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module allows you to view objects (i.e. hosts, host groups, contacts, contact groups, time periods, services, etc.) that you have defined in your object configuration file(s).

Authorization Requirements:

You must be authorized for configuration information in order to any kind of configuration information.

Command module

File Name:

cmd.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module allows you to send commands to the Icinga process. Although this module has several arguments, you would be better to leave them alone. Most will change between different revisions of Icinga. Use the extended information module as a starting point for issuing commands.

Authorization Requirements:

You must be authorized for system commands in order to issue commands that affect the Icinga process (restarts, shutdowns, mode changes, etc.).
If you are authorized for all host commands you can issue commands for all hosts and services.
If you are authorized for all service commands you can issue commands for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can issue commands for all hosts and services for which you are a contact.

	Note
	If you have chosen not to use authentication with the modules, this module will not allow anyone to issue commands to Icinga. This is done for your own protection. We would suggest removing this module altogether if you decide not to use authentication with the modules.

Extended Information module

File Name:

extinfo.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module allows you to view Icinga process information, host and service state statistics, host and service comments, and more. It also serves as a launching point for sending commands to Icinga via the command module. Although this module has several arguments, you would be better to leave them alone - they are likely to change between different releases of Icinga. You can access this module by clicking on the 'Network Health' and 'Process Information' links on the side navigation bar, or by clicking on a host or service link in the output of the status module.

Authorization Requirements:

You must be authorized for system information in order to view Icinga process information.
If you are authorized for all hosts you can view extended information for all hosts and services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view extended information for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view extended information for all hosts and services for which you are a contact.

Event Log module

File Name:

showlog.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module will display the log file. If you have log rotation enabled, you can browse notifications present in archived log files by using the navigational links near the top of the page.

Authorization Requirements:

You must be authorized for system information in order to view the log file.

Alert History module

File Name:

history.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module is used to display the history of problems with either a particular host or all hosts. The output is basically a subset of the information that is displayed by the log file module. You have the ability to filter the output to display only the specific types of problems you wish to see (i.e. hard and/or soft alerts, various types of service and host alerts, all types of alerts, etc.). If you have log rotation enabled, you can browse history information present in archived log files by using the navigational links near the top of the page.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view history information for all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view history information for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view history information for all services and hosts for which you are a contact.

Notifications module

File Name:

notifications.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module is used to display host and service notifications that have been sent to various contacts. The output is basically a subset of the information that is displayed by the log file module. You have the ability to filter the output to display only the specific types of notifications you wish to see (i.e. service notifications, host notifications, notifications sent to specific contacts, etc). If you have log rotation enabled, you can browse notifications present in archived log files by using the navigational links near the top of the page.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view notifications for all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view notifications for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view notifications for all services and hosts for which you are a contact.

Trends module

File Name:

trends.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module is used to create a graph of host or service states over an arbitrary period of time. In order for this module to be of much use, you should enable log rotation and keep archived logs in the path specified by the log_archive_path directive. The module uses Thomas Boutell's gd library (version 1.6.3 or higher) to create the trends image.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view trends for all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view trends for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view trends for all services and hosts for which you are a contact.

Availability Reporting module

File Name:

avail.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module is used to report on the availability of hosts and services over a user-specified period of time. In order for this module to be of much use, you should enable log rotation and keep archived logs in the path specified by the log_archive_path directive.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view availability data for all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view availability data for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view availability data for all services and hosts for which you are a contact.

Alert Histogram module

File Name:

histogram.cgi

Description:

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view histograms for all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view histograms for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view histograms for all services and hosts for which you are a contact.

Alert Summary module

File Name:

summary.cgi

Description:

This Classic UI module provides some generic reports about host and service alert data, including alert totals, top alert producers, etc.

Authorization Requirements:

If you are authorized for all hosts you can view summary information for all hosts and all services.
If you are authorized for all services you can view summary information for all services.
If you are an authenticated contact you can view summary information for all services and hosts for which you are a contact.

Changes in the Classic UI

These changes appeared over time so they might not be available in your version of Icinga.

The appearance of the "General" section on the left side of the screen has changed once more

General module

File Name:

general.cgi

Clicking on the appropriate flag you are still able to access the documentation in the specified language.

Note

There is no option to change the language of the Classic UI modules. This requires changes in the source code.

Now you can search again for hosts without clicking on several items.
The classical interface refreshes in regular intervals. Sometimes this might be undesirable, i.e. when you are looking at a specific object. In this case you can turn of the automatic refresh clicking on [pause] next to "Updated every 90 seconds" in the upper left of the status frame. Clicking on [continue] restarts the refresh.

Pause module

File Name:

pause.cgi

Continue module

File Name:

continue.cgi
The "Host Detail" and "Service Detail" pages were enhanced to submit commands for more than one object. Now you can select one or more objects using the check boxes next to the objects. Activating the check box next to "Status information" selects all services for that host.

Statusinfo module

File Name:

statusinfo.cgi

Commands module

File Name:

commands.cgi

Clicking on "Select command" shows a drop down list of available commands. After selecting an action you can press "Submit" to submit the command for the selected objects.
"Export to CSV" has been added to several pages.

The cells of the extinfo.cgi table have been given names. Using SSI fragments you can include JavaScript code to access the data of these cells.

Example code has been provided to use data from the cell "comment_data" to create a link (Thanks to Oliver Graf).

common-header.ssi:

<script type='text/javascript'>
function urlify() {
    var comments=document.getElementsByName('comment_data');
    var neu="";
    for (i=0; i<=comments.length; i++) {
        comments[i].innerHTML = comments[i].innerHTML.replace(/\bRT#(\d+)\b/g,"<a href='https://YOUR-SERVER/Ticket/Display.html?id=$1'>RT#$1</a>");
    }
}
window.onload=urlify;
</script>

	Note
	There is no option to change the language of the Classic UI modules. This requires changes in the source code.