6

I'm looking to install a server monitoring application on my web server (CentOS, LAMP setup). After some reading, it seems that Nagios is the most popular solution, but it was forked to Icinga a year or so ago. Which should I use? Is Nagios still actively developed? Are Nagios plugins compatible with Icinga? Is configuration still a nightmare in Icinga? (this seemed to be the major complaint against Nagios). If you've used both, what are the pros/cons of each?

Alex Grin
  • 241
  • 3
  • 4
  • 10
  • 1
    I think you're going to find that most people here use and prefer Nagios. If you are considering Icinga, you're the only person who can truly answer as to whether or not it serves your needs. – Warner Aug 06 '10 at 19:42

2 Answers2

7

I would recommend taking a look at Icinga. It's a very active spark of nagios with regular updates. On top of that, it's 100% compatible with nagios-plugins.

The advantage of Icinga is that the make one API available to talk with, instead of a bunch of them. In Nagios you can get info from the Core, Cache, NDOMod, NDO2DB, the MySQL DB, Command line,...

Icinga also has a beautiful and easy-to-use web interface. You can also use NConf with it, which is awesome. Here is a video explaining the differences: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLqhXvGTazI

(It's from Icinga, so it might be a bit biassed)

Bart De Vos
  • 17,911
  • 6
  • 63
  • 82
1

I use nagios exclusively, and I find configuration to be a piece of cake. I simple create a directory for each "type" of device being monitored, and then a new file for each device. By doing it that way, it's REALLY easy to manage. Plus, I love the ease in writing new plugins... And yes, as far as Nagios goes, it is still in active development (As far as I can tell, they are releasing new versions)...

ircmaxell
  • 1,201
  • 8
  • 20
  • 1
    Also, check out NCONF. Makes it a breeze to manage. http://www.nconf.org/dokuwiki/doku.php – Tyler K Aug 06 '10 at 20:24
  • "...I love the ease in writing new plugins": Icinga has exactly the same plugin handling. Nagios plugins work on icinga. – guettli Mar 21 '12 at 10:33