Icinga Director is the web-based configuration tool for Icinga2. + Director provides a simple interface for configuring the various parts + of your monitoring environment. Even if you would rather do all of + the configuration from a terminal, I still recommend using Director for + its self-service API which allows new nodes to register with no interaction + required on the node (i.e. via a script).

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Start by logging into your Icinga instance. If you followed the + master installation guide you should have + a tab labeled Icinga Director. Click on that, and you should + see something similar to this:

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Hosts

Let's start by looking at the hosts section. Clicking on the hosts + button from the Director menu will present you with several options. + Click on host templates, and then click add to define our first host + template. Host templates are the building blocks of Icinga, they allow + for your nodes to be structured however you see fit, and then to have + monitoring checks automatically applied to them based on that structure.

I like to structure my host templates by operating system. For example, + I have a template called Linux Server, which is designed + to encompass all of the Linux servers in my environment. I then get more + specific, creating templates based on distro. These templates are children + of the Linux Server template, so they inherit whatever is applied to the + parent, but then can have distro-specific checks applied to themselves.

Start by giving your template a name - I will use Linux Server + here. Groups can be left empty for now, but you may want to + add groups and apply them to templates later. The check command should + be set to hostalive. Expand Icinga Agent and zone settings + and set Icinga2 Agent, Establish connection, + and Accepts config to Yes. Click store to save the template. + Your template should look like this:

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Service templates

Let's turn to services now. Return to the Director menu and select + Services. The services menu is structured similar to hosts, and we will + start with the service templates section. The idea behind service templates + is very similar to host templates. Typically, a service template corresponds + to a single monitoring command.

As an example, we'll create a service template for a monitoring + command that checks the status of a web server. Give the template a + name, set the check command to http, and finally expand Icinga + Agent and zone settings and set Run on agent + to no. We set this to no because we want Icinga to query + the web server externally instead of from the web server itself.

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Service sets

Service sets are simply groups of service templates. They can be + structured however you see fit. Service sets can then be applied to + hosts/host templates to have the checks be automatically applied.

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Add a new service set and give it a name. Then click on the services + tab and add all of the services you want to group into that set. + Here is an example of a service set Linux Standard + that has service checks that should be applied to all Linux servers.

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To bring service sets and host templates together, return to your host + templates, select Linux Server, select the services tab, and then select + add service set and choose your desired set from the dropdown menu.

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Render your config

When you have made all of the changes you need you will need to + render the Director configuration. Return to the Director menu, + select Config Deployment, and then select Render config.

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Self Service API

In this last section we will look at what I think is the best feature + of Director which is the self service API. To enroll a host template + in the self service API, select the host template, select the agent + tab, and select generate self service api key. That's it! + The string of letters and numbers is the API key associated with this + host template. Hosts can be enrolled with this API key and Icinga + will automatically assign the host to this template. With proper + structuring, you can have hosts be completely provisioned without + touching Director. In the next article, we will use this to enroll + a host in Icinga with a shell script.

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