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NMIS provides a number of different methods for managing your nodes, both GUI-based and commandline-oriented. This document describes the commandline tools present in versions 8.5.4 and newer.
Bulk Import and Export
For importing lots of nodes in one go from a CSV file, NMIS has been providing admin/import_nodes.pl
for a long time. There is also a sibling admin/export_nodes.pl
tool, and both are documented on the Bulk Import page. The main benefit of these tools is utmost simplicity, but at the cost of some flexibility: import_nodes
does not make all common node properties controllable or accessible.
Node administration with node_admin.pl
Version 8.5.4G brings in a new, more fine-grained and capable tool: admin/node_admin.pl. It's scriptable and pipelineable, and can perform all node-related operations: creation, updating, renaming, exporting and deletion of nodes.
Basic Operation
Run the tool with no options or -? or -h and it'll display a simple help page:
Import nodes to NMIS9 from NMIS8
To import nodes from NMIS8 to NMIS9 copy /path/to/nmis8/conf/Nodes.nmis to /tmp/ on NMIS9 installation then:
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/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl act=import_bulk nodes="/tmp/Nodes.nmis" |
Caveats: you can not import a node to a server if there is already a node existing with that name, you should rename the node before importing.
Bulk Import and Export
For importing lots of nodes in one go from a CSV file, NMIS has been providing admin/import_nodes.pl
for a long time. There is also a sibling admin/export_nodes.pl
tool, and both are documented on the Bulk Import page. The main benefit of these tools is utmost simplicity, but at the cost of some flexibility: import_nodes
does not make all common node properties controllable or accessible.
Node administration with node_admin.pl
Version 8.5.4G brings in a new, more fine-grained and capable tool: admin/node_admin.pl. It's scriptable and pipelineable, and can perform all node-related operations: creation, updating, renaming, exporting and deletion of nodes.
Basic Operation
Run the tool with no options or -? or -h and it'll display a simple help page:
Code Block |
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./admin/node_admin.pl -h
Usage: |
Code Block |
./admin/node_admin.pl -h Usage: node_admin.pl act=[action to take] [extras...] node_admin.pl act=list node_admin.pl act={create|export|update|delete} node=nodeX node_admin.pl act=mktemplate [placeholder=1/0[action to take] [extras...] node_admin.pl act=rename old=nodeX new=nodeY mktemplate: prints blank template for node creation, optionally with __REPLACE_XX__ placeholder create: requires file=NewNodeDef.json export: exports to file=someFile.json (or STDOUT if no file given) update: updates existing node fromlist node_admin.pl act={create|export|update|delete} node=nodeX node_admin.pl act=mktemplate [placeholder=1/0] node_admin.pl act=rename old=nodeX new=nodeY mktemplate: prints blank template for node creation, optionally with __REPLACE_XX__ placeholder create: requires file=NewNodeDef.json export: exports to file=someFile.json (or STDIN STDOUT if no file given) deleteupdate: onlyupdates deletesexisting if node from file=someFile.json (or STDIN) delete: only deletes if confirm=yes (in uppercase) is given extras: deletedata=<true,false> which makes delete also delete all RRD files for the node. default is false. extras: conf=<configname> to use different configuration extras: debug={1..9,verbose} sets debugging verbosity extras: info=1 sets general verbosity |
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You can also use file=-
to indicate that STDOUT should be used for export or STDIN be used for update/creation. The act=update
operation doesn't create new nodes, and it replaces the whole set of node configuration settings with your new configuration input. So, if a property is not set, it will disappear. For change only one property, the operation "set" is more accurate.
Creation of Nodes
The creation of nodes requires you to use a template (shown below) instead of using a command line argument; this is because NMIS requires numerous node properties to be set up correctly making it easy to miss some when operating via command line arguments. Node creation is triggered by the argument act=create
, which behaves mostly like act=update
, except that it doesn't touch existing nodes. To help you with starting a node configuration document from scratch (or in a scripted fashion), there is another command, act=mktemplate
, which prints a blank but documented template which you can save and fill in. If you add placeholder=1
to the command line, then node_admin
fills the template with easily matchable replacement placeholders, like so:
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Code Block |
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./node_admin.pl act=delete node=ripnode confirm=YES deletedata=1
Successfully deleted ripnode |
Node Properties
NMIS uses a subset of the node properties of the commercial Opmantek tools. node_admin.pl act=mktemplate
includes a very brief listing of the most essential ones from NMIS' perspective, and the Common Node Properties wiki page describes most of the important ones in greater detail.
NMIS9 Enhancements
The node admin tool in NMIS9 brings some enhancements.
- The node_admin tool now supports more complete snapshotting of nodes (with
act=dump
), which optionally includes the node's RRD files, events and other historic records.
When importing a thusly dumped node withact=import
it is now possible to have all identifiers localised to the current system (withlocalise_ids=true
); this causes the imported node to be 'adopted' by and become active on the current NMIS system immediately.
This mechanism allows a node to be moved completely between NMIS systems, without losing any of the node's history.
Backup, Migrate or just play with a Node
Simple node export and import are described above, however, with NMIS9 you can backup a node and perform node migrations using the node_admin.pl tool, the functions to do this are dump and restore.
Dump (or Backup) a Node
=delete node=ripnode confirm=YES deletedata=1
Successfully deleted ripnode |
Node Properties
NMIS uses a subset of the node properties of the commercial Opmantek tools. node_admin.pl act=mktemplate
includes a very brief listing of the most essential ones from NMIS' perspective, and the Common Node Properties wiki page describes most of the important ones in greater detail.
NMIS9 Enhancements
The node admin tool in NMIS9 brings some enhancements.
NMIS9 example of json format for a node
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# "/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl" act=export node=localhost
{
"activated" : {
"NMIS" : 1,
"opConfig" : 1,
"opEvents" : 1
},
"addresses" : [
{
"address" : "127.0.0.1"
}
],
"aliases" : [],
"configuration" : {
"active" : 1,
"authkey" : "",
"authpassword" : "",
"authprotocol" : "md5",
"businessService" : "",
"calls" : 0,
"cbqos" : "none",
"collect" : 1,
"community" : "nmisGig8",
"context" : "",
"customer" : "Opmantek",
"depend" : [
"N/A"
],
"display_name" : "",
"group" : "NMIS9",
"host" : "127.0.0.1",
"host_backup" : "",
"location" : "Amsterdam",
"max_msg_size" : 1472,
"max_repetitions" : 0,
"model" : "automatic",
"netType" : "lan",
"node_context_name" : "",
"node_context_url" : "",
"notes" : "",
"ping" : 1,
"polling_policy" : "default",
"port" : 161,
"privkey" : "",
"privpassword" : "",
"privprotocol" : "des",
"remote_connection_name" : "",
"remote_connection_url" : "",
"roleType" : "distribution",
"serviceStatus" : "Development",
"services" : [
"SNMP_Daemon",
"http_server",
"port22",
"port25",
"port80",
"opmantek.pl",
"mongo_daemon",
"omkd check",
"opchartsd",
"opconfigd",
"opeventsd",
"nmis cgi",
"nmis9d",
"check_disk_write"
],
"threshold" : 1,
"timezone" : 0,
"username" : "",
"version" : "snmpv2c",
"webserver" : 1,
"wmipassword" : "",
"wmiusername" : ""
},
"lastupdate" : 1592715346,
"name" : "localhost",
"overrides" : {}
} |
Backup, Migrate or just play with a Node
Simple node export and import are described above, however, with NMIS9 you can backup a node and perform node migrations using the node_admin.pl tool, the functions to do this are dump and restore.
Dump (or Backup) a Node
Using the node_admin.pl tool you can dump a node including all database records and RRD files into a ZIP file.
Code Block |
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/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl node=NODENAME act=dump everything=1 file=/tmp/NODENAME-dump.zip |
This file would represent a backup of that node at this time. The file can then be used on another server to restore or could be used to restore the node on the same server.
Restoring a Node
To restore a node to the same poller you would not need to localise_ids option, if you wanted to copy/migrate the node to another server you would need to localise the ids so that the poller thinks it the node belongs to itUsing the node_admin.pl tool you can dump a node including all database records and RRD files into a ZIP file.
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/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl node=NODENAME act=dump everything=1restore file=/tmp/NODENAME-dump.zip |
This file would represent a backup of that node at this time. The file can then be used on another server to restore or could be used to restore the node on the same server.
Restoring a Node
dump.zip localise_ids=1 |
Caveats: you can not restore a node to a server if there is already a node existing with that name, you should rename the node before dumping. This would include if the server was acting as a master and receiving the node from a remote poller.
Copy a Node
To make a duplicate node and start polling it, export the node, edit the json and import it, e.gTo restore a node to the same poller you would not need to localise_ids option, if you wanted to copy/migrate the node to another server you would need to localise the ids so that the poller thinks it the node belongs to it.
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/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl act=export node=restoreNODENAME file=NODENAME-dump.zip localise_ids=1.json |
Edit NODENAME.json, change the display_name and name in the file and then import it
Code Block |
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/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl act=import file=NODENAME.json |
The node will be created with the name used in the name fieldCaveats: you can not restore a node to a server if there is already a node existing with that name, you should rename the node before dumping. This would include if the server was acting as a master and receiving the node from a remote poller.
NMIS9 Basic Operation
Run the tool with no options or -? or -h and it'll display a simple help page:
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