NSCA Wrapper

Project Notes

This is a unix shell script to allow you to run any check on a unix based system and submit it as a passive check. It is generic enough that you should never need to write a wrapper to create a passive check again. Just take a plugin, and run it through this script. If you have NSCA working, then that should be all that is required.

It is run using /bin/sh. This currently supports bourne shell, Bash, and ksh. Csh/Tcsh are not supported. Support for more shells may be added if there is demand.
Basic Usage:

./nsca_wrapper -H "Host" -S "Service" -C "./check_whatever -arg1 -arg2 -argN"

Host - the Host name of the Server as it appears in Nagios config
Service - the Service name as it appears in Nagios config
"./check_whatever -arg1 -arg" - the plugin to run with all of it's arguments, all of which must be enclosed in quotes.
Optional Switches

-N NSCA_SERVER_IP -c /path/to/send_nsca.cfg -b /path/to/send_nsca -e -q

-N is necessary to point it to your NSCA/Nagios server
-c is necessary to point it to your send_nsca.cfg.
-b is optional to specify the full path to the send_nsca binary if it is not in the PATH of the user running nsca_wrapper.
-e is optional to return with the exit code of the check_plugin result rather than the result of the sending operation to NSCA.
-q is optional - quiet mode. No plugin or nsca sending output

You can forgo using the optional parameters if you simply edit the 3 variables at the top of the script, seeing as in nearly all cases the Nagios server will remain the same, the path to the send_nsca binary and the send_nsca.cfg will also not usually change. If the optional command line parameters are used then they will take precedence.

NOTE: The "./check_whatever -arg1 -arg2 -argN" is run using the shell which means that you must make sure you don't do anything stupid like putting dangerous shell commands there. This really applies to everything in Nagios but I thought it was worth a mention anyway.

Last and not least: Of course you need a working NSCA Server in the first place which is easy to set up, as well as a send_nsca.cfg to use to connect to the NSCA Server to submit the check result.
Support

For bugs, feature requests or suggestions (including how I can make this documentation more clear) you can contact me at hpsekhon (AT) googlemail.com.