nagios cookbook

May 20, 2026 · View on GitHub

Installs and configures a Nagios Core server using Chef Infra custom resources. Chef nodes can be discovered with search, and Nagios object files can be rendered from resources or data bags.

Maintainers

This cookbook is maintained by the Sous Chefs. The Sous Chefs are a community of Chef cookbook maintainers working together to maintain important cookbooks. To learn more, visit sous-chefs.org or join the Chef Community Slack in #sous-chefs.

Requirements

Chef

Chef Infra Client 15.3 or later is required.

This cookbook relies on Chef search for automatic user and node discovery, so those features require Chef Infra Server. Chef Solo users can still use the object resources directly, but should not enable search-backed default or data bag configuration.

Platforms

AlmaLinux 8+
CentOS Stream 9+
Debian 12+
Fedora
Oracle Linux 8+
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8+
Rocky Linux 8+
Ubuntu 22.04+

See LIMITATIONS.md for platform and package-source notes.

Cookbooks

apache2
build-essential
nginx
php
yum-epel
zap

Usage

Add nagios_server to a wrapper cookbook recipe:

nagios_server 'default' do
  server_auth_method 'htauth'
end

The server resource installs Nagios, configures Apache by default, searches for admin users in the users data bag with the sysadmin group, renders Nagios configuration files, and enables the Nagios service.

To use NGINX instead of Apache:

nagios_server 'default' do
  web_server 'nginx'
  stop_apache true
end

To install from source:

nagios_server 'default' do
  install_method 'source'
  source_version '4.4.6'
  source_checksum 'ab0d5a52caf01e6f4dcd84252c4eb5df5a24f90bb7f951f03875eef54f5ab0f4'
end

To use a custom Nagios main configuration template:

nagios_server 'default' do
  nagios_config_template_cookbook 'my_monitoring'
  nagios_config_template_file 'nagios.cfg.erb'
end

To create Nagios objects directly:

nagios_host 'web01' do
  options(
    'address' => '192.0.2.10',
    'use' => 'server'
  )
end

nagios_service 'http-web01' do
  options(
    'host_name' => 'web01',
    'service_description' => 'HTTP',
    'check_command' => 'check_http'
  )
end

The previous nagios::default, nagios::server_package, nagios::server_source, nagios::apache, nagios::nginx, and nagios::pagerduty recipes have been removed. See migration.md for the recipe-to-resource mapping.

Resources

Data Bags

The server resource searches the users data bag for users in the configured admin group. A minimal item looks like:

{
  "id": "alice",
  "groups": ["sysadmin"],
  "nagios": {
    "email": "alice@example.com",
    "pager": "alice-sms@example.com"
  }
}

Additional object data bags can be loaded by nagios_data_bag_config or by enabling load_databag_config on nagios_server. The default bag names are exposed as nagios_server properties.

PagerDuty contacts can be declared with nagios_pagerduty:

nagios_pagerduty 'default' do
  key 'pagerduty-service-key'
end

Multiple PagerDuty contacts can also be loaded from the nagios_pagerduty data bag.

Monitoring Role

The system running the Nagios server should have a role matching the value used by NRPE clients, typically monitoring.

name 'monitoring'
description 'Monitoring server'
run_list 'recipe[my_monitoring::nagios]'

Apply the nrpe cookbook to monitored nodes so NRPE checks are available to Nagios.

Notifications

Set the config property to enable Nagios notifications:

nagios_server 'default' do
  config(
    'enable_notifications' => 1
  )
end

Email notifications require a local mail program and MTA so /usr/bin/mail or /bin/mail is available.

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.

Backers

Thank you to all our backers!