Nagios XI Room for Improvement

HM
Assistant Director at unpa

For some, it may be difficult to deploy. The process could be simplified. 

We'd like to see more integration capabilities. 

There's a bit of complexity in the product in general. It could be simplified overall. 

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DP
Senior DevOps Engineer Individual Contributor at EML Payments Ltd

I would like them to have better public cloud discovery. 

I would like to be able to extend it to all of our data centers, whether they are in the cloud or not. It would be helpful if I could connect everywhere.

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FakhruddinLokhandwala - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at NTT

Nagios XI doesn't provide scripting. For example, if we have built up multiple IPX tunnels from a base location to a data center location and want to monitor or trigger an alert if the tunnel goes down, Nagios XI does not automatically send alerts notifying us that the tunnel is down. This is a feature we want, and in the past, Nagios completed scripting for us, but it didn't work out well.


In addition, Nagios XI doesn't have a feature where we can push the configuration from the server to all our devices. For example, if there are 500 devices in our network and we need to write down a simple command like a show clock or want to write the configuration, we cannot execute this command on all of our devices. We have already raised this issue with Nagios, and they told us they would speak with the BU team to see if this can be applied in the next release. If they do, it will come with an additional license.

Another feature we want is the IP SLA Tracking in Cisco. For example, if our ISP connection is traversing through an L2 point, which is a layer two point, we don't have IP-to-IP communication to track those interfaces. So if we need to implement something end-to-end and the interface goes down, we should get alerts for that. And if the interface goes down, there should be specific behaviour so that our traffic can switch over from the LAN or the WAN. That is not in the current Nagios deployment, but they have advised they are working on it.

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IT Infrastructure Monitoring
March 2024
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HM
Assistant Director at unpa

I would like to see Nagios integrate the team mail with the SMS gateway so we can send text alerts. It's difficult to use. To activate this option, you have to activate something from another script then use a shell script to integrate via another gateway SMS. Also, it would be great if it were integrated with another solution to generate logs, like PCM, AlienVault, or Splunk. We want alerts integrated with a system to generate logs. AlienVault and Splunk could enable this option. It is really difficult to integrate Nagios XI with another system to generate logs and alert our management of failures in security infrastructure.

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Sumanth Arshanapally - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analyst at HCL Technologies

Nagios XI can improve network and hardware monitoring, these parameters should be simplified to allow usage for monitoring. Additionally, if there was automatic reporting it would be helpful. 

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MC
NMS Team Leader at KORE Telematics Inc.

The pricing has recently risen. I know they've changed what is covered under the license, however, it doesn't change the way we use it and adds nothing to our experience, and yet we now have to pay more.

An optional delivery from their end in order to greatly produce some sort of a HA, high availability solution, would be ideal. At present, if I have a solution and Nagios is instanced in a particular data center and another Nagios solution in another data center, when you buy the license, you can eventually have different types of licenses. One will be a stand-by and the other will be a disaster recovery solution. What's missing from the Nagios side is the idea of having some sort of synchronization between the two instances. 

If I have a stand-by solution and I need ticketing as an active solution, I need to do many things manually. For example, I need to manually do ticketing on the backup and restore it on the other. It would be a good idea for some sort of mechanism, like a sort of clustering, which can help a lot for people out there who need something in an active-standby solution. I'm not sure this will be available out there even on other solutions, like Zabbix, for example, That said, I don't think they're really digging into this kind of scenario.

When you start deploying thousands of monitors, especially in a big company, for example, you have to take care, as that you cannot keep on pushing into one solution. It can become inefficient. They say it's specifically that when you skip an X amount of monitors, Nagios starts behaving differently. 

I really don't like the idea of the certification provided by them. As a company and as a team lead, I have other people who were interested in doing some certifications, coming from the management. However, they did not provide any sort of training, which gives you the independence to do an exam. It's like they just provide a simple document for you to read and then just to apply in the exam, just to be Nagios certified. On top of that, that kind of document is very old. I asked them if they had anything up-to-date. They told me that's what they have even though it's clear it's very old quality for the current engine that Nagios is currently built on. There were quite a number of upgrades - at least five. At the same time, Zabbix certification offers you training beforehand and then you can opt for either a certification or an exam.

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MN
DevOps consultant at Africa4Data

The product does not have SAP monitoring. When I was using the solution, it did not have a dashboard. We had to manually connect to the database, collect information and create the visuals.

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SR
Distributed Systems Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The product uses the backend as Perl and could be modified to a more lightweight solution like what's being offered by other vendors.

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DL
Director - Consultor Senior Unix/Linux - Freelance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

If you want the best security: Log Server is better. If you need in-depth networking, I recommend Network Analyzer. If you want any other implementation of Nagios, the best is Nagios Fusion.

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PB
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

An area for improvement would be that when we need any modifications for the configurations, we need to delete the host and configure through CPM. It would be great if they could add a feature so that the existing host can be modified through XI. In the next release, I'd like them to add an option to modify the results when configuring through results.

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it_user1088403 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT, Projects and Organization at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For enterprise users, the product would be better if it came with dedicated plugins. It has an online store for plugins and additional features, but most of the plugins we have are mostly open source. These open source plugins do not have a lot of documentation. We have to try to figure out how to use them on our own. They have good documentation for their own products and because of that, we have details to easily use their product as they have a guide. There is no documentation on the plugin site. They need more documentation for the plugins.

Besides that, there's nothing more that I would add as the product covers my current needs. Maybe I would like a lower price. That is maybe a problem they could fix.

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HM
Assistant Director at unpa

This solution would be improved with the inclusion of additional services. Monitoring streaming services is an example of something that is not currently supported, so in order to handle this, I would have to write a script. Scripts like this should be included in the next version of the solution.

I would like to see support for notification via SMS. 

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GW
Business Development Specialist at Popular Holdings Limited

It can be quite difficult to know which drivers and agents to use when setting up.

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MN
IT CIO at Kimfay

I think that the process of installing this solution can be improved because it is quite hectic.

The interface could be more user-friendly.

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DL
Analyst at Cablevisión Fibertel
  • Developing a tool for KPIs and KQIs
  • WebUI should be improved (visual aspect) and should incorporate non-relational databases.
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AS
IT-OSS Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees

1. Reporting items needs more improvement and need to be more flexible based on customer needs

2. Clustering feature need to be implemented for large environment. Some solutions introduced in official website such as Mod-Gearman and Nagios Fusion but the first one implemented by third party and second one is not include management control and just a central view from several instances. I think Nagios should implement an official solution for clustering for enterprise and large scales that should be included database solution as well. 

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DP
NOC Manager/Network Administrator at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

When you monitor a lot of things it creates a lot of events and logs. I would like a much easier GUI so that I can delete events and logs, which will free up a lot of space. I would also like a better GUI for dashboard viewing.

A better interface would allow this solution to be used as a single point of monitoring.

When the database is in need of repair, perhaps due to corruption caused by an improper shutdown, then it should happen automatically, rather than having to run a command.

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AP
System and Network Administrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The Configuration Wizard needs improvement, because not all vendors are present.

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it_user718452 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Innovator and Entrepreneur at a tech services company

The product could be optimized to improve the administrative user experience via the Nagios Core Configuration (NCC) GUI module.

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it_user224253 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at TLCWEB S.R.L.

I think that the community needs to concentrate development to get a standard GUI (Adagios is a side project) and gives the user a better notification system. For my system, I've developed the notifications because it basically just sends you an email.

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it_user349047 - PeerSpot reviewer
Web Operations Engineer at a renewables & environment company with 501-1,000 employees

Scaling Nagios to cover multiple regions or data-centers is challenging. It requires another tool which I never incorporated. Due to this gap I used a dedicated Nagios servers within each specific operation.

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it_user3870 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager of Engineering with 1,001-5,000 employees
The Installation can get very difficult depending on what Linux flavour you are using. The open source version does not provide a configuration web interface. Some scripting knowledge is required in order to make changes to configuration files. Nagios is my favourite open source monitoring system. I just love it! It took me a while to properly configure Nagios to monitor our internal systems. Once we realised its potential we decided to setup remote polling on client systems, to have a central location for monitoring. (Using Centreon)As it is open source we were able to customise everything, from check commands, modifying the web interfaces, integrating into CMDBs such as iTop. When comparing Nagios to other monitoring systems it stands out by far. View full review »
it_user185556 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

They need to develop a better integration with a common ticketing system will be great. Once I built a complete integration with OTRS:ITSM and Nagios using the Samba LDAP database as the registry for user and machines in the software. It was a complex setup, but functional and could probably work in an Active Directory environment as well, but a fully-functional bidirectional bridge engine will be great. Nagios Enterprise has Nagios Incident Manager software but sometimes you need to work on preexisting systems with strong customizations.

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it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Nagios provides most of the features by default, however to add more services to it, it requires additional plugins which require little effort on administrative end. So far, clustering and failover of Nagios is not available-- development is still working on it.Highly recommended tool for monitoring services.!!

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EJ
IP/MPLS Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

The way Nagios displays information isn't easy for a new user to understand. It's not intuitive enough. You need to read some tutorials or be trained to understand what it's displaying. Also, I think it needs more features to improve network visibility because there are some things you can't detect.

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AS
IT-OSS Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees

We often need to develop custom plugins to get Nagios to work the way we want it to work because the features we need are not always available in Nagios. Some products such as Zabbix have a software monitoring system built-in, such as the Prometheus monitoring system. It can use the features to monitor cloud systems. This would be a useful feature to include in Nagios XI. Nagios has some plugins to monitor clouding systems, but this feature on Zabbix is so handy and so user-friendly. I think it can be added to the Nagios monitoring system.

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MG
DevOps Analyst at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees

Improve the documentation, examples, and best practices, therefore users can understand how to do things. Luckily, I had someone teach me the ropes, but to newcomers without someone to train them, it would be very difficult to learn.

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it_user356763 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant Ingénieur de production informatique at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The important separation between Interface and Core to maintain historical plugins and methods generate complexity that makes Nagios unusable for repeat work. You must choose a way to manage your configuration, by interface or by files in Core, and never change your rules. If you choose files, you lose the dashboard advantage instead of importing them manually, and, for the moment, there are no APIs for managing hosts/services are present. If you choose Interface, you must configure hosts/services manually, and again there are no APIs for managing hosts/services are present.

Nagios Core has a big advantage in that has been lost in Nagios XI. Another way you could manage is by having three different databases

  1. Postgres for Nagios XI's hosts/services définitions
  2. MySQL with ndo2db for metrology
  3. Rrd for the Nagios Core

This is not easy to maintain and High Availability becomes complex. The simplest way is by VMware HA modifications preconfigured by Nagios.

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HM
Assistant Director at unpa

Improve the time to resolve incidents.

Improve the KPIs for availability.

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DK
Linux Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Technical support is an area that needs improvement. It is not available 24/7.

Having some additional features added would be beneficial.

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it_user738369 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nagios XI can improve its GUI for users with a new look. Otherwise, we could develop it on our own. This is the reason I think most users don't prefer it, but technically it is a very strong tool.

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HD
Nagios Technical Expert at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

The reporting part should be made simpler. While we can obtain all the reports we need, we always have to create work-arounds to get them.

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it_user123504 - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder / Executive Director / Chief Technical Officer at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees

It would be nice if the initial setup did not require as much tweaking and configuration and could just work out of the box.

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it_user137748 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Test Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees

While the UI is functional, I have always thought there was room for improvement here. It is at times assumptive for the not so technical, rather than informative.

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it_user266244 - PeerSpot reviewer
NOC Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

There's no convenient way to manage notes as the only way is to manage them through the database.

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KK
Lead Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The product's stability could be even better.

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it_user194046 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a hospitality company

It's more what I personally don't like, rather than what areas need improvement. For example, the PNP4Nagios plugin not working easily with XI is an issue for me, because some open source monitoring plugins do not work out of the box. But in the end, you learn to live with it.

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it_user353805 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

It would be nice to have a better, or alternative, dashboard, à la Thruk, to see business process groupings, rather than just host and services. Tis might give a better visual representation of how the company is performing, and the availability of mission critical services etc.

A better multi-tenant environment would be ideal where certain users have limited visibility instead of just limited functionality.

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it_user189960 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager of Engineering at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Nagios needs to improve their incident manager. Currently, it isn't good for ITIL in my opinion. The Reactor is good to go, but XI needs to improve its reporting functionality.

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it_user248838 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems / DevOps Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees

I feel that the maturity and user interface needs to be improved. I think this is handled through its integration with OpsView.

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it_user134268 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager of Infrastructure at a university with 10,001+ employees

The web interface is perfectly fit for purpose but isn't up there with the best modern admin panels. There is scope for improvement to make it more dynamic and responsive.

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SR
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

I would like to see more customization in the network map because it is a bit tricky to use it.

First, when you click on one of the devices on the map, it shows you information about the equipment. Sometimes, there is information that I do not want to show. I would instead like to choose what is shown.

Next, I would like to have the ability to show only a subset of equipment on the network map. When you view it, all of the equipment that you have is there, every time. Sometimes, I would like to choose just a group of devices to view.

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it_user1104738 - PeerSpot reviewer
R&D Support & Monitoring, IT Production at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

There's room for improvement in the visibility, and in the ability to extract information. Stuff like this should be more simple. Going over the data and the information is complicated at the moment. The management of the commands is also a little complicated.

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AS
Account Manager, Cybersecurity at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

As it is open-source, it is not user-friendly. Open-source software is usually not user-friendly.

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it_user227448 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage System Integration R&D Engineer with 501-1,000 employees

Business services monitoring is still really basic. With the growth of IT environments, IT monitoring needs to be attached to the services organizations provide to customers. Also, it needs external automation tools may be helpful and there's no web API before Nagios 4.

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it_user205323 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Cybersecurity Technology, Cybersecurity Technology Services at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It's in need of more standard plug-ins.

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it_user436257 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at Blue Telecom Consulting

Backup mechanisms and some kind of templating system for dashboards are needed.

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it_user168444 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Infrastructure at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

3D datacenter view of the infrastructure to have more specific control of the environment and concept of 360 solution to monitoring is now emerging.

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Buyer's Guide
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
March 2024
Find out what your peers are saying about Nagios, Zabbix, SolarWinds and others in IT Infrastructure Monitoring. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.