I'll be the first to admit that my documentation is not the best in the world. In order to help you better understand how NetSaint works I've provided some notes here. This isn't very extensive yet, but will be improved in later versions once everything stabilizes a bit more and I have time to catch up.
Click here to read up on how the use of time periods affects service checks, service notifications, and host notifications. This document also describes potential problems you may run into when using time periods. If you are using time periods that don't cover a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week span, you need to read this!
Determining Status and Reachability of Network Hosts
Click here to read up on how NetSaint determines the status and reachability of networked hosts in the process of its monitoring. This document also describes what "parent" hosts are (as defined in host definitions), and how they affect the way in which host reachability is determined.
I've included some basic logic diagrams that attempt to show the basics of how NetSaint does its monitoring. A lot of detail has been left out and things aren't always as clean cut as they would appear from the diagrams, but this should at least give you an idea...
Diagram | Description |
Top level logic | This is a view of the top level logic used in NetSaint. All functionality stems from this, so look at it first. |
Service problem reaction logic | Outlines what steps are taken when a service with a non-OK state is encountered. |
Service recovery reaction logic | Outlines what steps are taken when a service recovers from a non-OK state. |
Service notification logic | Outlines how contacts are notified about service problems and recoveries. |
Service event handler logic | Outlines how service event handlers are run. |
Route check logic | Outlines how the status and reachability of remote hosts is determined. |
Host notification logic | Outlines how contacts are notified about host problems and recoveries. |
Host state handler logic | A top level outline of how different host states are handled. |
Host event handler logic | Outlines how host event handlers are run. |
If you're confused as to exactly how host, host groups, contact, contact groups, etc. all relate to each other, check out these diagrams. They also help to explain which contacts get notified in the event of a problem with a given service or host. I've only given two examples below, but there are an unlimited number of ways you could configure your setup. Hopefully this provides a little help.
Diagram | Description |
Simple Configuration | This is a relatively simple configuration, making the relationships easy to understand. |
Complex Configuration | This is a more complex setup, which demonstrates how NetSaint handles notifications for more complex relationships between the hosts, host groups, contacts, etc. |