Installation instructions

This instructions are meant for a new installation. If you update your old NagVis installation we strongly recommend to make a backup of your NagVis directory and merge the config files manually.

STEP 0: Prepare System

Make sure your system fits the System requirements.

STEP 1: Download NagVis

Get NagVis, the latest release can be found at www.nagvis.org.

STEP 2: Unpack NagVis

tar xvzf nagvis-1.8.x.tar.gz

STEP 3: Move the unpacked NagVis directory

Place the NagVis directory tree somewhere on your system. For most cases /usr/local/nagvis is the best place.

mv nagvis /usr/local/nagvis

You should see the following directory listing:

# ls -l /usr/local/nagvis
etc
LICENCE
README
share
var

DON'T move any files or folders inside the NagVis directory (in fact you can move, but in this case you have to change/add some parameters and values in the main config file - if everything is left untouched it should run "out of the box" without changes in the configuration files)

STEP 4: Configure NagVis

Move to new NagVis directory

cd /usr/local/nagvis

An example main configuration file can be found in etc/nagvis.ini.php-sample. If you like to change some settings, copy this example to etc/nagvis.ini.php.

cp etc/nagvis.ini.php-sample etc/nagvis.ini.php

Now you can edit this file with your favourite text editor - I use vi:

vi etc/nagvis.ini.php

Most lines in the freshly copied nagvis.ini.php are commented out (starting with a semicolon). If you want to set different settings, you can simply uncomment the line and change its value.
For information about the possible values have a look at Main Config Format Description.

STEP 5: Configure webserver

Since NagVis 1.5 it is necessary to configure the webserver to be able to use NagVis. You will find a sample configuration file in etc/apache2-nagvis.conf-sample.
Simply copy the file to the conf.d directory of your webserver. For example this is /etc/apache2/conf.d.

cp etc/apache2-nagvis.conf-sample /etc/apache2/conf.d/apache2-nagvis.conf

Now you need to open that file and edit it to fit your needs. It is important to replace the macros @NAGVIS_WEB@ and @NAGVIS_PATH@.
In this example you need to replace @NAGVIS_WEB@ with /nagvis and @NAGVIS_PATH@ with /usr/local/nagvis/share.

STEP 6: Permissions

This is very important for a neatly working installation.

First check which unix user account is used to run your webserver (in my case it is wwwrun). If you don't know which user the webserver is running then have a look at the webserver configuration. In case of Apache you can do this by the following command:

Ubuntu

grep -e 'USER' /etc/apache2/envvars

SuSE/RedHat/Debian (SLES, OpenSuSE, Fedora)

grep -e '^User' /etc/apache2/*.conf

If your configuration file is located at another path you should correct this in the command above.
Set the permissions to your NagVis directory (in my case the paths are like this):

chown wwwrun:www /usr/local/nagvis -R
chmod 664 /usr/local/nagvis/etc/nagvis.ini.php
chmod 775 /usr/local/nagvis/etc/maps
chmod 664 /usr/local/nagvis/etc/maps/*
chmod 775 /usr/local/nagvis/etc/geomap
chmod 664 /usr/local/nagvis/etc/geomap/*
chmod 775 /usr/local/nagvis/share/userfiles/images/maps
chmod 664 /usr/local/nagvis/share/userfiles/images/maps/*
chmod 775 /usr/local/nagvis/var
chmod 664 /usr/local/nagvis/var/*
chmod 775 /usr/local/nagvis/var/tmpl/cache
chmod 664 /usr/local/nagvis/var/tmpl/cache/*

It's possible to set more restrictive permissions on the files but for most setups the example should be fine. Only change them if you know what you are doing!

STEP 7: Configure the maps

There are two ways configuring NagVis. The first one is the web based configuration using the NagVis frontend (http://<nagiosserver>/<path-to-NagVis>/). Take a look at the header menu for options. To modify existing map objects you need to unlock the object you like to edit.

The second way is to edit the configuration files directly using a text editor of your choice. The map config files are located at etc/maps/. For valid formats and values have a look at Map Config Format Description.

STEP 8: View the maps

You should now be able to view your defined maps in your browser:

 http://<nagiosserver>/<path-to-nagvis>/frontend/nagvis-js/?mod=Map&show=<mapname>

(i.e. http://localhost/nagvis/frontend/nagvis-js/?mod=Map&show=europe).

Have fun and please report bugs!