Introduction to monitoring with Pandora FMS

Pandora Flexible Monitoring Solution (FMS) is all-purpose monitoring software program, which suggests it might probably management community tools, servers (Linux and Windows), digital environments, functions, databases, and much more. It can do each distant monitoring and monitoring based mostly on brokers put in on the servers. You can get collected knowledge in experiences and graphs and lift alerts if one thing goes improper.

Pandora FMS is obtainable in two variations: the open source community edition is geared toward personal customers and organizations of any dimension and is totally practical and completely free, whereas the enterprise version is designed to facilitate the work of corporations, because it has help providers and particular options for big environments. Both variations are up to date each month and accessible immediately from the console.

Installing Pandora FMS

Getting began

Linux is the Pandora FMS’s most popular working system, but it surely additionally works completely below Windows. CentOS 7 is the really helpful distribution, and there are set up packages in Debian/Ubuntu and SUSE Linux. If you are feeling courageous, you possibly can set up it from supply on different distros or FreeBSD or Solaris, however skilled help is accessible solely in Linux.

For a small check, you will have a server with not less than 4GB of RAM and about 20GB of free disk house. With this setting, you possibly can monitor 200 to 300 servers simply. Pandora FMS has alternative ways to scale, and it might probably monitor a number of thousand servers in a single occasion. By combining a number of cases, purchasers with even 100,000 units could be monitored.

ISO set up

The best solution to set up Pandora FMS is to make use of the ISO picture, which incorporates a CentOS 7 model with all of the dependencies. The following steps will get Pandora FMS prepared to make use of in simply 5 minutes.

1. Download the ISO from Pandora FMS’s web site.
2. Burn it onto a DVD or USB stick, or boot it out of your digital infrastructure supervisor (e.g., VMware, Xen, VirtualBox).
3. Boot the picture and proceed to the guided setup (an ordinary CentOS setup course of). Set a novel password for the foundation consumer.
4. Identify the IP deal with of your new system.
5. Access the Pandora FMS console, utilizing the IP deal with of the system the place you put in Pandora FMS. Open an online browser and enter http://<pandora_ip_address>/pandora_console and log in as admin utilizing the default password pandora.

Congratulations, you are in! You can skip the opposite set up strategies and jump ahead to start out monitoring one thing actual.

Docker set up

1. First, launch Pandora FMS with this command:

   curl -sSL http://pandorafms.org/getpandora | sh

   You may also run Pandora FMS as a container by executing:

   docker run --rm -ti -p 80:80 -p 443:443 
     --name pandorafms pandorafms/pandorafms:newest

2. Once Pandora FMS is working, open your browser and enter 
   http://<ip deal with>/pandora_console. Log in as admin with the default password pandora.

The Docker container is at hub.docker.com/r/pandorafms/pandorafms.

Yum set up

You can set up Pandora FMS for Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS 7 in simply 5 steps.

1. Activate CentOS Updates, CentOS Extras, and EPEL in your repository’s library.
2. Add the official Pandora FMS repo to your system:

   [artica_pandorafms]
   identify=CentOS7 - PandoraFMS official repo
   baseurl=http://firefly.artica.es/centos7
   gpgcheck=zero
   enabled=1

3. Install the packages from the repo and clear up all dependencies:

   yum set up pandorafms_console pandorafms_server mariadb-server

4. Reload providers if that you must set up Apache or MySQL/MariaDB:

   service httpd reload (or equal)
   service mysqld reload (or equal)

5. Open your browser and enter http://<ip deal with>/pandora_console. Proceed with the setup course of. After accepting the license and doing a couple of pre-checks, it is best to see one thing like this:

This display is just wanted if you set up utilizing the RPM, DEB, or supply code (Git, tarball, and so on.). This step of the console configuration makes use of MySQL credentials (which that you must know) to create a database and a username and password for Pandora FMS console and server. You must arrange the server password manually (yep! Vim or Nano?) by modifying the /and so on/pandora/pandora_server.conf file (comply with the instructions in the documentation).

Restart the Pandora FMS server, and the whole lot ought to be prepared.

Other methods to put in Pandora FMS

If none of those set up strategies work along with your setup, different choices embrace a Git checkout, tarball with sources, DEB bundle (with the .deb on-line repo), and SUSE RPM. You can study extra about these set up strategies within the installing wiki.

Grabbing the code is fairly simple with Git:

git clone https://github.com/pandorafms/pandorafms.git

Monitoring with Pandora FMS

When you log into the console, you will note a welcome display.

Monitoring one thing related to the community

Let’s start with the most straightforward factor to do: ping to a number. First, create an agent by deciding on Resources then Manage Agents from the menu.

Click on Create on the backside of the web page, and fill the fundamental data (do not go loopy, simply add your IP deal with and identify).

Go to the Modules tab and create a community module.

Use the Module element (which comes from an inside library pre-defined in Pandora FMS) to decide on the ping by deciding on Network Management and coming into Host Alive.

Click on Save and return to the “view” interface by clicking the “eye” icon on the fitting.

Congratulations! Your ping is working (you understand it as a result of it is inexperienced).

This is the handbook means; you can too use the wizard to seize a whole Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) machine to indicate interfaces, or you should utilize a bulk operation to repeat a configuration from one machine to a different, or you should utilize the command-line interface (CLI) API to do configurations mechanically. Review the online wiki, with over 1200 articles of documentation, to study extra.

The following reveals an previous Sonicwall NSA 250M Firewall monitored with the SNMP wizard. It reveals knowledge on standing interfaces, energetic connections, CPU utilization, energetic VPN, and much more.

Remote monitoring helps SNMP v.1, 2, and three; Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI); distant SSH calls; SNMP lure capturing; and NetFlow monitoring.

Monitoring a server with an agent

Installing a Linux agent in Red Hat/CentOS is easy. Enter:

yum set up pandorafms_agent_unix

Edit /and so on/pandora/pandora_agent.conf and arrange the IP deal with of your Pandora FMS server:

server_ip   <x.x.x.x>

Restart the agent and wait a couple of seconds for the console to indicate the information.

In the principle agent view, you possibly can see occasions, knowledge, and historical past; outline the edge for standing change; and arrange alerts to warn you when one thing is improper. Months value of knowledge is accessible for graphs, experiences, and service-level settlement (SLA) compliance.

Installing a Windows agent is even simpler as a result of the installer helps automation for unattended setups. Start by downloading the agent and doing a little traditional routines. At some level, it would ask you on your server IP and the identify for the agent, however that is all.

Windows brokers help grabbing service standing and processes, executing native instructions to get data, getting Windows occasions, native WMI calls, acquiring efficiency counters immediately from the system, and offering much more data than the fundamental CPU/RAM/disk stuff. It makes use of the identical configuration file because the Linux model (pandora_agent.conf), which you’ll be able to edit with a textual content editor like Notepad. Editing may be very simple; it is best to have the ability to add your personal checks in lower than a minute.

Creating graphs, experiences, and SLA checks

Pandora FMS has plenty of choices for graphs and experiences, together with on SLA compliance, in each the open supply and enterprise variations.

Pandora FMS’s Visual Map function lets you create a map of knowledge that mixes standing, knowledge, graphs, icons, and extra. You can edit it utilizing a web-based editor. Pandora FMS is 100% operable from the console; no desktop utility or Java is required, nor do that you must execute instructions from the console.

Here are three examples.

If you want to study extra about Pandora FMS, go to the website or ask questions within the forum.