Verifying Nagios Configuration Using CLI

Quick note for verfying the Nagios Core configuration using commandline. This is is useful for verifying changes to the configuration before restarting the service.

One thing to keep in mind is to NOT check the conf.dish configuration files. This command needs to be run on the main configuration file. This will change depending the operating system.

OpenBSD may have it in /etc/. FreeBSD may have it in /usr/local/etc/. Other Linux distributions may have it in /etc/.

nagios -v <configuration file path>/nagios.cfg

For example on Linux:

nagios -v /etc/nagios/nagios.cfg

This should output what errors there are with the configuration file. It’s just another thing to think about when you’re changing configuration. Check the syntax and make sure the application thinks it’s sane. It never hurts to double check configuration before restarting it. Comments are a good choice too. Along with well thought out descriptions of services within said configuration file. Clear and concise communication.