{"id":22523,"date":"2013-01-23T09:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T09:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.open-e.com\/?p=22523"},"modified":"2025-07-07T11:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:16:50","slug":"how-to-monitor-your-open-e-dss-v7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open-e.com\/blog\/how-to-monitor-your-open-e-dss-v7\/","title":{"rendered":"How to monitor your Open-E DSS V7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tSystem monitoring is an important part of daily administrative tasks. Following our recent webinars<\/a>, showing the ways we can monitor our Open-E DSS V7, we decided to prepare a how-to instruction for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

This article is outdated as the functionality has been improved. In order to get the updated information, go to the article: Monitoring Open-E DSS V7 and Open-E JovianDSS with Check_MK<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We will show you how to configure the necessary tools, update your Open-E DSS V7<\/a> and finally, access and use the monitoring interface.<\/p>\n

What is Nagios, OMD and check_mk? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before we jump into a configuration process, you may need a quick introduction to the tools we will mention in this post.<\/p>\n

Nagios<\/strong> is one of the most popular open-source monitoring software applications. It offers monitoring and alerting for servers, switches, applications and services.<\/p>\n

OMD <\/strong>(Open Monitoring Distribution) bundles Nagios together with many important add-ons and can easily be installed on every major Linux distribution. Using it, we can avoid compiling and integrating Nagios add-ons manually.<\/p>\n

Check_mk<\/strong> is a status GUI written in Python which supports user definable views and is able to display the status of several sites in one combined view. A very intuitive design and an easy operation are one of the strongest points of this tool.<\/p>\n

The following instruction was made in Ubuntu. However, a similar configuration can be made in other Linux distributions.<\/p>\n

Installing and configuring OMD<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We start with the installation and configuration of OMD packages. Please follow the steps below:<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    1. From root level*, update and upgrade your distribution\u2019s package index using the following commands:\n
      apt-get update<\/pre>\n
      apt-get upgrade<\/pre>\n
      In addition you can upgrade your distribution\u2019s kernel:<\/p>\n
      apt-get dist-upgrade<\/pre>\n
      *You may need to use “sudo su \u2013” command, as Ubuntu do not login root by default.<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. In order to install the OMD package, go to OMD website<\/a> and navigate to Downloads <\/strong>section.<\/li>\n
    3. Go to package repositories<\/a> and choose the relevant version of the repository (in our case it will be \u201cUbuntu Precise 12.04\u201d).<\/li>\n
    4. Install the relevant GPG key in Ubuntu.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n
      gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys F8C1CA08A57B9ED7<\/pre>\n
      gpg --armor --export F8C1CA08A57B9ED7 | apt-key add -<\/pre>\n
        \n
          \n
        1. Next, we enable the stable release repository (in our case, it is the one dedicated to Ubuntu Precise 12.04):<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n
          echo 'deb http:\/\/labs.consol.de\/OMD\/ubuntu precise main' \n>> \/etc\/apt\/sources.list<\/pre>\n
            \n
          1. Following the installation, we run apt-get update to refresh our distribution repository:\n
            apt-get update<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
          2. We then install the OMD:<\/li>\n
          3. \n
            apt-get install omd-0.56<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            Following the installation of OMD repository, we go to our Open-E DSS V7 server to perform an additional configuration and install a small update.<\/p>\n
            Applying the small update to Open-E DSS V7<\/h3>\n
            Click here<\/a>, to find out how to obtain small updates. Please note, it is always best to confirm with our technical support, before installing any updates to your system.<\/div>\n
            To install the necessary update, we need to log in to our Open-E DSS V7 GUI and do the following:<\/p>\n
              \n
                \n
              1. From the Maintenance <\/strong>tab, select System update<\/strong> and navigate to System software update<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
              2. Click Choose File <\/strong>to pick the small update upd_70139-DSS-V7.upd<\/a>, then click on upload and apply<\/strong>.\"systemYou will then need to manually restart the system.<\/li>\n
              3. Go to Maintenance <\/strong>tab, Shutdown<\/strong>, find System Restart <\/strong>and click on Restart <\/strong>button in order to reboot the server.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n
                After the installation, the small update will be visible in the menu (it can be removed by clicking on the trash bin).<\/p>\n
                \"small<\/p>\n
                Enabling API in Open-E DSS V7<\/h3>\n
                  \n
                1. Go to Setup <\/strong>tab and Administrator settings<\/strong>, then navigate to CLI\/API Configuration<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
                2. Tick the box to Use CLI\/API<\/strong>, then specify port – 22223<\/strong> and password.
                  \n\"cli<\/li>\n
                3. In order to use the CLI\/API functionality without password, you need to generate ssh key. You can do it by expanding show advanced<\/strong> menu and clicking on the generate and download<\/strong> button.\"cli<\/li>\n
                4. Save the file in the relevant location (in this example, we will call it \u201cdss60.key\u201d).
                  \nTo be able to use the ssh key in our Linux distribution, we may create a NAS share and then mount it in Ubuntu.<\/p>\n
                5. After creating a NAS share, enable SMB with “Guest” access and NFS access (with default settings) for that share, so you will be able to use it under Ubuntu.<\/li>\n
                6. Connect to the created share (via IP address of your storage server e.g. Run -> \\\\192.168.232.60) and copy the ssh key to the \u201cTest\u201d share.<\/li>\n
                7. In Ubuntu, create directory \/mnt\/test:\n
                  mkdir \/mnt\/test<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                8. Mount our Open-E DSS V7 share to that location:\n
                  mount \u2013t nfs 192.168.232.60:\/test \/mnt\/test<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                9. Now, you can copy the file to the OMD folder (\/opt\/omd) \u2013 created during installation. You can use midnight commander to copy the file.<\/li>\n
                10. The next step is the creation of a new site (ours will be called \u201cdssmonitor\u201d)\n
                  omd create dssmonitor<\/pre>\n
                  What you get is:<\/p>\n
                    \n
                  • \u2022 a site directory with preconfigured configuration files<\/li>\n
                  • \u2022 a new user “dssmonitor” and a new group “dssmonitor” (identical with the name of your site). The new user is also a member of the group omd, which is created during installation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                  • Then, we start the omd on our newly created site:\n
                    omd start<\/pre>\n
                    We are now ready to perform an additional configuration of OMD.<\/li>\n
                  • We edit the file \u201c\/opt\/omd\/sites\/dssmonitor\/etc\/check_mk\/main.mk\u201d (we can use mcedit command for that purpose):\n
                    mcedit \/opt\/omd\/sites\/dssmonitor\/etc\/check_mk\/main.mk<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                  • In the relevant space, we insert the host\u2019s IP and type of the protocol used:\n
                    all_hosts = [\u2018192.168.232.60|ssh\u2019]<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                  • Next, we append the following entries, to define commands that will be used to connect to API (see convention below):\n
                    datasource_programs = [ (\u201cssh \u2013p<\/strong> default port number<\/em> \u2013 i <\/strong> \nssh key's location path<\/em> \u2013l<\/strong> username for API  + host IP + command \nthat will be run over API to DSS<\/em>, <\/strong>[\u2018<\/strong>protocol used<\/em>\u2019] ,<\/strong> \nin which section our monitoring statuses will be shown<\/em>), ]<\/strong><\/pre>\n
                    In our case, it will be:<\/p>\n
                    datasource_programs = [ (\u201cssh \u2013p 22223 \u2013i \/omd\/dss60.key \u2013l \napi 192.168.232.60 check_mk_agent\u201d, [\u2018ssh\u2019], ALL_HOSTS ), ]<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                  • Save changes to file.<\/li>\n
                  • The important part is to ensure the correct ownership (our OMD user) and access permission (read and execute for owner only) of our ssh key.<\/li>\n
                  • To change the owner of our ssh key file, we use the following command:\n
                    chown dssmonitor \/omd\/dss60.key<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                  • To change access permission, so only the owner has read and execute rights, we use:\n
                    chmod 500 \/cmd\/dss.key<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                  • Then, we log to OMD as dssmonitor using \u201csu\u201d command:\n
                    su dssmonitor<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                  • To test the configuration, we can run “api” command:\n
                    ssh \u2013p 22223 \u2013i \/omd\/dss60.key \u2013l api 192.168.232.60 check_mk_agent<\/pre>\n
                    When prompted to continue connecting type yes<\/strong>.
                    \nThe output will be returned in the terminal, which will later be interpreted in check_mk tool.<\/li>\n
                  • We need to run two more commands:
                    \nFirst will do the following: retrieve data from our Open-E DSS V7, find all available services, and list them:<\/p>\n
                    check_mk -I<\/pre>\n
                    The second, will reload the OMD configuration and validate that it is working properly:<\/p>\n
                    check_mk -O<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                    Monitoring the Open-E DSS V7<\/h3>\n
                      \n
                    1. In order to check the status of our Open-E DSS V7 in OMD, go to your internet browser and navigate to the following address: your Ubuntu IP*\/name of your site<\/em> – in our case it will be:\n
                      192.168.232.58\/dssmonitor<\/pre>\n
                      *you can check the IP of your Ubuntu using the ifconfig <\/strong>command<\/li>\n
                    2. When prompted for a username and password \u2013 the default credentials are:\n
                      Username: omdadmin<\/pre>\n
                      Password: omd<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
                    3. We will then be able to choose one of the available GUIs. In our example we will go for \u201cCheck_MK Multisite\u201d <\/strong><\/li>\n
                    4. When in GUI, from available views, choose Hosts -> All hosts<\/strong>, and select the relevant host (see below).\"host<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      You will then see the statuses of all available services (that are being monitored by the tool):<\/p>\n
                      \"monitor<\/p>\n
                      You will also have access to detailed statistics (including graphs) about each service:<\/p>\n
                      \"detailed<\/p>\n
                      The services that you can monitor with the tool include:<\/p>\n
                        \n
                      • CPU load<\/li>\n
                      • CPU utilization<\/li>\n
                      • Disk IO Summary<\/li>\n
                      • NI information<\/li>\n
                      • Memory utilization<\/li>\n
                      • TCP connections<\/li>\n
                      • Uptime<\/li>\n
                      • NAS Volume space taken<\/li>\n
                      • and many more…<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                        Check out the videos below and watch our engineers performing the same configuration (English and German version).<\/p>\n