Linux System Admins Blog

This guide will help you setup Nagios user to have limited access to host and service checks. It is helpful when you want to allow your customers or clients to view and receive alerts on their servers and services, like for dedicated servers.

Procedure:

Contacts: Create new contact definitions for your client.
define contact{
contact_name customer1
alias Customer One Admin
service_notification_period 24x7
host_notification_period 24x7
service_notification_options c,r
host_notification_options d,r
service_notification_commands notify-service-by-email
host_notification_commands notify-host-by-email
email customer1@domain.tld
}

Groups: Create contact groups or you can add the new contact for you existing group, depending on the checks that you want to allow.
define contactgroup {
contactgroup_name Dedicated-Server1-Admins
alias Admins for Server 1
members customer1,hostingadmins
}

Hosts / Services: Use the new Contact Group with customers email and your main admin. Note that i used the existing Host Groups but you create new HostGroups if you want.
define host {
use generic-host
host_name Server1
alias Server1
address 10.0.0.2 // private or public ip
hostgroups DedicateServers
check_command check-host-alive
contact_groups Dedicated-Server1-Admins
check_period 24x7
max_check_attempts 10
notification_interval 480
notification_period 24x7
notification_options d,r
notifications_enabled 1
}
define service {
use generic-service
host_name Server1
service_description HTTP
is_volatile 0
check_period 24x7
max_check_attempts 3
normal_check_interval 5
retry_check_interval 3
contact_groups Dedicated-Server1-Admins
notification_interval 480
notification_period 24x7
notification_options w,u,c,r
check_command check_http
notifications_enabled 1
}

In my case, I created a new group and add our admin contacts and customers, then update the contact groups for hosts and services. You can also create a new definitions for hosts, contacts, groups, and services with different names for the clients if you don’t want to edit your existing definitions.

Htaccess: Lastly, you need to add htaccess user to your htpasswd file (htpasswd.users). Username should match the name on your Contact. In this sample it is customer1. [Update] If you’ve implemented “Digest Authentication” you need to update your digest file instead of the htpasswd.

Don’t forget to restart you Nagios.

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