Required Service Parameters

Nagios requires values for the following service parameters:

• host_name: The host on which this service is running.
• service_description: The name of the service on the monitored host.
• check_command: Nagios command to use to check the service. In our example, Nagios plugin provides check_http command for us to check the HTTP service.
• max_check_attempts: The number of times Nagios will retry to check a service before sending a notification about the service being in a state other than OK. In our example, Nagios will try three times before sending out a notification.
• normal_check_interval: The number of time units to wait between regular checks of the service. In our example, every three minutes the service will be checked.
• retry_check_interval: The number of time units to wait before scheduling a re-check of the service. When a service is in a non-OK state, and max_check_attempts has not been reached, Nagios will wait for the time period specified here before retrying the check. In our example, this is set to one minute.
• check_period: Time period during which the checks are enabled, 24x7 for our example.
• notification_interval: The number of time units to wait before re-notifying a contact about the service being non OK. Setting this to a value of 0, as in our example, would cause Nagios to send only one notification about the service being non OK.
• notification_period: The time period during which notifications will occur.
• notification_options: Send notifications when the service is in warning, unknown, critical, or recovery state.
• contact_groups: The name of the contact group to whom notifications will be sent.