Introduction to NSClient++

NSClient++ is not your "normal" Windows program. It is more like a unix program in many ways. There is no user interface, there is no nifty configuration wizard, there is no simple click-to-get-started and there is not even a "MonitorMySystem?" button.

And this is important, you HAVE to edit text files and run command line program (or you will not get much from NSClient++). If you are already using Nagios (or a similar monitoring tool) this will not be much of a change for you but on the other hand if you are a regular Windows user this might seem rather dubious.

Now don't let this scare you, most people can get NSClient++ up and running with a few clicks and edits and have the 10 odd Windows servers monitored by lunch without even breaking a sweat. So relax, read the guides and you will have this setup in a snap.

Using NSClient++

NSClient++ is developed with Nagios in mind but it is strictly not a nagios agent and it can (and is) used with several other products. Thus this section is divided into server specific guides:

• Nagios

Using NSClient++ regardless of plattform

for now:

If you only wish to test or debug the client you can use the following without installing it first.

NSClient++ /test

When you see this prompt:

Enter command to inject or exit to terminate...

you can paste in examples from the Commands page at CheckCommands. For example, I get this on my system:

C:\Program Files\NSClient++>NSClient++.exe -test
Launching test mode...
d \NSClient++.cpp(375) Loading plugin: CheckDisk...
d \NSClient++.cpp(375) Loading plugin: CheckSystem...
d \CheckSystem.cpp(79) Autodetected W2K>, using TOOLHELP process enumeration.
d \PDHCollector.cpp(83) Autodetected w2k or later, using w2k PDH counters.
d \NSClient++.cpp(375) Loading plugin: NSClient server...
d \PDHCollector.cpp(103) Detected language: English US (0x0409)
l \NSClient++.cpp(123) Using settings from: INI-file
d \Socket.h(538) Bound to: 0.0.0.0:12489
l \NSClient++.cpp(124) Enter command to inject or exit to terminate...
CheckDriveSize ShowAll MinWarnFree=10% MinCritFree=5% Drive=c:\
d \NSClient++.cpp(440) Injecting: CheckDriveSize: ShowAll, MinWarnFree=10%, MinC
ritFree=5%, Drive=c:\
d \NSClient++.cpp(460) Injected Result: OK 'OK: c:\: 12.3G'
d \NSClient++.cpp(461) Injected Performance Result: ''c:\'=38%;10;5; '
OK:OK: c:\: 12.3G|'c:\'=38%;10;5;
exit
d \NSClient++.cpp(349) Unloading plugin: NSClient server...
d \Socket.h(558) Listener is preparing to shutdown...
d \NSClient++.cpp(349) Unloading plugin: CheckSystem...
d \NSClient++.cpp(349) Unloading plugin: CheckDisk...

C:\Program Files\NSClient++>