Custom Groups are collections of host group or service group objects at the user interface level and provide a more streamlined navigation and logical organization of monitors. They allow an administrator to group by, for example business functions, locations, or infrastructure setup and make these monitored segments more accessible.

This can be very useful if you have a certain batch of servers attached to an array of servers, and from a system manager perspective an administrator does not have to worry about problems on certain segments.

Creating Groups

With in the Custom Groups feature, you can create host groups and service groups which can be used to add to custom groups. If you already have the host groups and service groups you need, skip to the next section Creating Custom Groups.

Adding a Host Group

  1. As an Administrator, select Configuration > Custom Groups.
  2. Select the Host Groups tab.
  3. Click the orange + icon, which opens the new host group dialog.
  4. Fill in a Name (must be unique), an Alias, and Description for the new host group.
  5. For Group Membership, enter a host name or a partial host name:
    • Check the boxes next to the hosts to be added to the host group
    • Selecting Add All will add all of the filtered hosts to the Selected Hosts, each can then be unchecked to remove from selected
    • Selecting Clear will clear the list of filtered hosts 
  6. After hosts have been selected, click Add to create the new host group.

Adding a Service Group

  1. As an Administrator, select Configuration > Custom Groups.
  2. Select the Service Groups tab.
  3. Click the orange + icon, which opens the new service group dialog.
  4. Fill in a Name (must be unique) and Description for the new service group.
  5. Under Select Services, search and select services and hosts:
    • Enter a specific service name or a partial service name, optionally select one service
    • Associated hosts will be populated based on the selected service(s)
    • Use the Search by hosts entry to filter host for the selected service
    • Select from the filtered list, or click add all to select all services and hosts based on filtered criteria
    • Clicking the orange All button will remove the filter for host and list all hosts based on the selected services
    • Selections are marked in grey and each can be eliminated clicking the corresponding X
    • Selecting Clear Existing will undo the current selections
    • Selecting Clear Selection will clear the current filters
  6. Click Create to add selections to the new service group.

Configuring a Custom Group

Host groups created using Configuration > Nagios Monitoring > Hosts > Host Groups are also available to add to Custom Group. These will be automatically listed under Available Groups.

Adding Custom Groups

  1. As an Administrator, select Configuration > Custom Groups.
  2. Click on the CG+ icon to add a custom group.
  3. Fill in a Name (must be unique) and Description for the new custom group.
  4. Click the box next to each available group to be added as a custom group member.
    • Use the search bar to search for group names
    • Click the box next to each selected group to remove it as a group member
  5. Click Add.

    creating a custom group

Editing Custom Groups

A custom group can be edited by right clicking the title and selecting Edit, Delete or Other, each described below:

  • Edit: Remove or add group members
  • Delete: Group or Group and make children root nodes
    • Group: Removes a custom group and all of its members
    • Group and make children root nodes: Removes the custom group and makes any associated children become root nodes
  • Other: Detach and make root: Detach the custom group and move it with any children to the root level

    editing a custom group

Use case: Technology Segments

Custom Groups

In this example we focus on technology segments using Linux and Windows servers. We've created two top level custom groups, East Region and West Region. To do this, we created custom groups within custom groups.

Within the East Region custom group we have defined two additional custom groups, LinuxServers and WindowsServers, and have added configured host groups within each (e.g., RedHatServers, Windows2008Servers). The Host Groups and Service Groups options are used to create host groups and service groups to be used as custom group members. Nagios Monitoring configured host groups and service groups can also be members of custom groups.

use case custom group

Status

Custom Groups are integrated into the Status application. At the top of the status screen a path sequence is displayed to the last selected object. In this example, the path sequence starts with the custom group East Region, and the subsequent custom group LinuxServersEast, and then the host group SLESServersEast along with a detail information and actions panel on the right.

use case custom group in status summary

Bubble Up Status

The current monitor status (e.g., Critical, Warning) gets bubbled-up to the top from members within the custom group.

Access Control

Custom Groups are available to all users independent of their membership. Roles can be configured with assigned host groups, service groups, and custom groups to control access. View restrictions by role for host groups and service groups will be honored by a custom group. And a host group or service group can be a member of multiple custom groups.

Related Resources