Installed and monitoring first object....now what?

I’m pretty new with Nagios, just finished my first installation with the quick start guide. I have 1 switch being monitored, yay!

Now I have a couple of questions…

How do I add more devices? Should I just edit the switch.cfg file and add more hosts by copying and pasting? That seems clunky if I have a network of several hundred devices.

Is the map customizable? Can I add levels and break things down by building/floor/closet etc…? I just want to know if it’s possible so that I know eventually I will get to that part of the documentation.

This is a new install and my first try at Nagios. Can I install MRTG after Nagios or does it have to be before?

Thanks

If you take a look in the nagios.cfg file and find the # OBJECT CONFIGURATION FILE(S) section you’ll see the “cfg_dir” variables that let you specify directories to hold config files. In our case we have a /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers/ directory into which we place the .cfg files for each of our monitored servers.

The Statusmap is fairly versatile, but I ended up rolling my own to suit our environment - depending on how good your C is that might not be an option. You might find NagVis (nagvis.org/) helpful as it offers a lot of customisation options for making your own maps.

AFAIK there’s no reason you can’t install MRTG afterwards.