Dashing with Icinga 2

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Support
3. License
4. Requirements
5. Installation
6. Configuration
7. Run
8. Authors
9. Troubleshooting
10. Development

Introduction

Dashing is a Sinatra based framework that lets you build beautiful dashboards.

You can put your important infrastructure stats and metrics on your office dashboard. Data can be pulled with custom jobs or pushed via REST API. You can re-arrange widgets via drag&drop. Possible integrations include Icinga, Grafana, ticket systems such as RT or OTRS, sensors, weather, schedules, etc. -- literally anything which can be presented as counter or list.

Icinga 2 Dashboard

The Icinga 2 dashboard is built on top of Dashing and uses the Icinga 2 API to visualize what's going on with your monitoring. It combines several popular widgets and provides development instructions for your own implementation. The dashboard also allows to embed the Icinga Web 2 host and service problem lists as Iframe.

Support

This is a demo playground with jobs, widgets and dashboards. You can use and modify them for your own needs. You can also send PRs with custom widgets and propose their use in the dashboard.

In terms of implementation specific questions, please read the development docs first.

License

• The code for jobs, dashboards and libraries is licensed under the MIT license.
• Dashing is licensed under the MIT license.
• Chartjs is licensed under the MIT license.

Requirements

• Ruby, Gems and Bundler
• Dashing or Smashing Ruby Gem
• Icinga 2 (v2.11+) and the REST API

Supported browsers and clients:

• Linux, Unix, *Pi
• Chrome, Firefox, Safari
• "new" Edge [v79 and above]

Windows with IE and old Edge (without Chromium) is not supported since SSE (Server Sent Events) are not implemented.

Installation

Docker

The Docker image is located at dbodky/dashing-icinga2. You can also build your own Docker image from the provided Dockerfile. Modify it when needed. When pulling the image from DockerHub, the correct image architecture should get pulled automatically.

The environment variables from this project can be used to configure the container.

Example on macOS with Docker for Mac:

docker run -it -p 5666:5665 -p 8005:8005 -e ICINGA2_API_HOST='docker.for.mac.localhost' -e ICINGA2_API_PORT=5665 -e ICINGA2_API_USERNAME='root' -e ICINGA2_API_PASSWORD='icinga' dbodky/dashing-icinga2

Note that the Docker container exposes port 8005 by default. Modifying this requires you to build your own image.

Source

Either clone this repository from GitHub or download the tarball.

Git clone:

cd /usr/share
git clone https://github.com/mocdaniel/dashing-icinga2.git
cd dashing-icinga2

Tarball download:

cd /usr/share
wget https://github.com/mocdaniel/dashing-icinga2/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
mv dashing-icinga2-master dashing-icinga2
cd dashing-icinga2

Linux

RedHat/CentOS 7 (requires EPEL repository):

yum makecache
yum -y install epel-release
yum -y install rubygems rubygem-bundler ruby-devel openssl gcc-c++ make nodejs

Note: The development tools and header files are required for building the eventmachine gem.

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get update
apt-get -y install ruby bundler nodejs

Proceed with the bundler gem installation.

gem install bundler

In case the installation takes quite long and you do not need any documentation, add the --no-document flags.

Proceed with bundling for all systems (CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian etc.)

Note

In case you want to use smashing instead of dashing, set the environment variable like this:

export DASHING_PROVIDER=smashing

Install the dependencies using Bundler. Do not run this as root.

cd /usr/share/dashing-icinga2
bundle

Note In case bundle complains about missing write access to /usr/share/dashing-icinga2/Gemfile.lock, add write permissions accordingly

Proceed to the configuration section.

Unix and macOS

Note

In case you want to use smashing instead of dashing, set the environment variable like this:

export DASHING_PROVIDER=smashing

On macOS OpenSSL was deprecated, therefore you'll need to fix the eventmachine gem:

brew install openssl
bundle config build.eventmachine --with-cppflags=-I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include
bundle install --path binpaths

Note: Dashing is running inside thin server which by default uses epoll from within the eventmachine library. This is not available on Unix based systems, you can safely ignore this warning:

warning: epoll is not supported on this platform

Proceed to the configuration section.

Configuration

Icinga 2 API

The Icinga 2 API requires either basic authentication or client certificates.

Add a new ApiUser object to your Icinga 2 configuration. Choose the path depending on your setup type. Keep in mind that synced ApiUser objects expose the login information to other Icinga 2 instances.

vim /etc/icinga2/conf.d/api-users.conf

vim /etc/icinga2/zones.d/global-templates/api-users.conf

object ApiUser "dashing" {
  password = "icinga2ondashingr0xx"
  permissions = [ "status/query", "objects/query/*" ]
}

Set the ApiUser permissions according to your needs. By default the Icinga 2 job fetches data from the /v1/status and /v1/objects API endpoints, but does not require write permissions. If you're extending the API queries on your own, keep in mind to add proper permissions.

In case you want to use client certificates, set the client_cn attribute accordingly.

Dashing Configuration

Configuration File

Copy the example configuration from config/icinga2.json into config/icinga2.local.json and adjust the settings for the Icinga 2 API credentials in the icinga2 section.

The icingaweb2 section allows you to specify the Icinga Web 2 URL for the iframe widgets. This is read on startup once.

cp config/icinga2.json config/icinga2.local.json

vim config/icinga2.local.json

{
  "icinga2": {
    "api": {
      "host": "localhost",
      "port": 5665,
      "user": "dashing",
      "password": "icinga2ondashingr0xx"
    }
  },
  "icingaweb2": {
    "url": "http://localhost/icingaweb2"
  },
  "dashboard": {
    "show_only_hard_state_problems": false,
    "timezone": "UTC"
  }
}

The show_only_hard_state_problems option ignores NOT-OK states until they reach a hard NOT-OK state (off by default). The timezone option controls the clock widget's timezone.

If you prefer to use client certificates, set the pki_path attribute. The Icinga 2 job expects the certificate file names based on the local FQDN e.g. pki/icinga2-master1.localdomain.crt. You can override this behaviour by specifying the node_name configuration option explicitly.

{
  "icinga2": {
    "api": {
      "host": "localhost",
      "port": 5665,
      "user": "dashing",
      "pki_path": "pki/",
      "node_name": "icinga2-master1.localdomain"
    }
  },
  "icingaweb2": {
    "url": "http://localhost/icingaweb2"
  },
  "dashboard": {
    "show_only_hard_state_problems": false,
    "timezone": "UTC"
  }
}

Note:

If both methods are configured, the Icinga 2 job prefers client certificates.

Environment Variables

If you prefer to configure the Icinga 2 settings in environment variables, you can do so as well. This helps with containers or local development tests.

Note

Environment variables always override local configuration.

Example:

ICINGA2_API_HOST=localhost ICINGA2_API_PORT=5665 ICINGA2_API_USERNAME=root ICINGA2_API_PASSWORD=icinga dashing start -p 8005

Run

Systemd Service

Install the provided Systemd service file from tools/systemd. It assumes that the working directory is /usr/share/dashing-icinga2 and the Dashing gem is installed to /usr/local/bin/dashing. Adopt these paths for your own needs.

Note

In order to use smashing instead of dashing, modify tools/systemd/dashing-icinga2.service to run the smashing binary.

Redhat/CentOS

cp tools/systemd/dashing-icinga2.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start dashing-icinga2.service
systemctl status dashing-icinga2.service

Debian

cp tools/systemd/dashing-icinga2.service /lib/systemd/system/
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start dashing-icinga2.service
systemctl status dashing-icinga2.service

Script

You can start dashing as daemon by using this script:

./restart-dashing

Additional options are available through ./restart-dashing -h.

Navigate to http://localhost:8005

Foreground

You can run Dashing in foreground for tests and debugging too:

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
dashing start -p 8005

Or with environment variables:

ICINGA2_API_HOST=localhost ICINGA2_API_PORT=5665 ICINGA2_API_USERNAME=root ICINGA2_API_PASSWORD=icinga dashing start -p 8005

Replace the calls above to dashing with smashing if you are using this Gem instead.

Logrotate

You can install the provided logrotate script to rotate the Dashing log in /usr/share/dashing-icinga2/log.

cp tools/logrotate/dashing-icinga2 /etc/logrotate.d

Authors

Original author:

• dnsmichi

Maintainer as of May 2020:

• mocdaniel

Thanks to all contributors! :)

• flourish86 for the UX design and CSS tips.
• marconett for the colorized and sorted problem list widget.
• tutabeier for environment variables inspiration instead of a local configuration file.
• mcktr for helping out with unhandled problems.
• tachtler for the Systemd service and logrotate additions.
• fugstrolch for the Icinga Web 2 iframe integration.
• tobiasvdk for check stats widget and suggestions.
• bodsch for the job rewrite and config file support inspiration, and better error handling.
• spjmurray for styling and 1080p resolution.
• micke2k for proper time formatting.
• lazyfrosch for ideas on Dashing with Icinga.
• roidelapliue for the Icinga 1.x dashing script.

Troubleshooting

Please add these details when you are asking a question on the community channels.

Required Information

• Dashing/Smashing version (gem list --local dashing)
• Ruby version (ruby -V)
• Icinga 2 version (icinga2 --version)
• Version of this project (tarball name, download date, tag name or git show -1)
• Your own modifications to this project, if any

Widgets are not updated

• Open your browser's development console and check for errors.
• Ensure that the job runner does not log any errors.
• Stop the dashing daemon and run it in foreground.

Connection Errors

If the connection to the Icinga 2 API was interrupted, check for possible network issues. The Icinga 2 daemon might have been reloaded at that time.

• Manually test the Icinga 2 API (check https://www.icinga.com/docs for the official documentation)
• Verify that the configuration file contains the correct API details
• Modify the jobs/icinga2.rb and add additional logging (use puts similar to existing examples)
• Run Dashing in foreground

Misc Errors

• Port 8005 is not reachable. Ensure that the firewall rules are setup accordingly.
• Iframe is not working. Try this solution and ensure that the X-Frame-Options variable is not set to DENY.

Development

Fork the repository on GitHub, commit your changes and send a PR please :)

The Icinga 2 dashboard mainly depends on the following files:

• dashboards/icinga2.erb
• jobs/icinga2.rb
• lib/icinga2.rb
• config/icinga2.json

Additional changes are inside the widgets. simplemon and simplelist have been added. meter was modified to update the maximum value at runtime. list was updated to highlight colors and change font sizes.

Configuration

You can use environment variables to quickly set the required configuration settings:

ICINGA2_API_HOST=localhost ICINGA2_API_PORT=5665 ICINGA2_API_USERNAME=root ICINGA2_API_PASSWORD=icinga dashing start -p 8005

Icinga 2 Library

lib/icinga2.rb provides a class icinga which is responsible for reading the configuration file, initializing the api connection and fetching data.

Several public attributes are exposed by this class already. You'll need to instantiate a new object and then call the run method.

Then you are able to access these attributes and public functions such as getHostobjects and getServiceObjects. These two functions can be called by passing

• attrs as an array of attribute strings
• filter as Icinga 2 API filter string
• joins as an array of joined objects and/or attributes

A simple test runner for testing own modifications has been added into test/icinga2.rb. You can find additional examples over there as well.

Note

These code parts may change. Keep this in mind on updates.

Icinga 2 Job

Widgets are updated by calling send_event inside the jobs/icinga2.rb file in the event scheduler.

The widget data is calculated from the Icinga2 object class.

Include the Icinga 2 library:

require './lib/icinga2'

Instantiate a new object called icinga from the Icinga2 class. Add the path to the configuration file.

# initialize data provider
icinga = Icinga2.new('config/icinga2.json') # fixed path

Run the scheduler every five seconds and start it now.

SCHEDULER.every '5s', :first_in => 0 do |job|

Then call the run method to fetch the current data into the icinga object

# run data provider
icinga.run

Now you are able to access the exported object attributes and call available object methods. Please check libs/icinga2.rb for specific options. If you require more attributes and/or methods please send a PR!

Icinga 2 Dashboard

The dashboard is located in the dashboards/icinga2.erb file and mostly consists of an HTML list. It can be used as template where variables are read from the config.ru file but that's for advanced usage.

Example:

vim dashboards/icinga2.erb

<li data-row="1" data-col="1" data-sizex="1" data-sizey="1">
  <div data-id="icinga-host-meter" data-view="Meter" data-title="Host Problems" data-min="0" data-max="100" style="background-color: #0095bf;"></div>
</li>

The following attributes are important:

• data-row and data-col specify the location of the widget on screen.
• data-sizex and data-sizey specify the width and height of a widget by tiles.
• data-view defines the name of the widget to use
• data-id specifies the name of the data source for the used widget (important for send_event later)
• data-title defines the widget's title on top
• data-min and data-max are widget specific in this example. They are referenced inside the Coffee script file inside the widget code.
• style can be used to specify certain CSS to make the widget look more beautiful if not already.
• class=scrollable allows for scrolling of crammed widgets. Works for most widgets but is mostly meant to be used with List and Simplelist.

Dashboard Widgets

The widgets are located inside the widgets directory. Each widget consists of three files:

• widget.html defines the basic layout
• widget.scss specifies required styling
• widget.coffee implements the event handlng for the widget, e.g. OnData when send_event pushes new data.

Meter

This widget is used to display host and service problem counts. The maximum value is updated at runtime too because of API-created objects.

Example:

vim jobs/icinga2.rb

  send_event('icinga-host-meter', {
   value: host_meter,
   max:   host_meter_max,
   moreinfo: "Total hosts: " + host_meter_max.to_s,
   color: 'blue' })

icinga-host-meter is the value of the data-id field in the dashboards/icinga2.erb file.

vim dashboards/icinga2.erb

    <li data-row="1" data-col="2" data-sizex="1" data-sizey="1">
      <div data-id="icinga-host-meter" data-view="Meter" data-title="Host Problems" data-min="0" data-max="100"></div>
    </li>

In order to update the widget you'll need to send a hash which contains the following keys and values:

• value containing the current problem count
• max specifying the current object count
• moreinfo creating a string which is displayed below the meter as legend
• color for specifying the widget's color

List

Used to print the average checks per minute and list service problems by severity.

Example for check statistics:

Create a new array containing a hash for each table row. The label key is required, value is optional.

vim jobs/icinga2.rb

  icinga_stats = [
    {"label" => "Host checks/min", "value" => icinga.host_active_checks_1min},
    {"label" => "Service checks/min", "value" => icinga.service_active_checks_1min},
  ]

Use this array inside the icinga-stats event (data-id in the dashboards/icinga2.erb file) as items attribute. You can add moreinfo which provides an additional legend for this widget. color is optional.

vim jobs/icinga2.rb

  send_event('icinga-stats', {
   title: icinga.version + " (" + icinga.version_revision + ")",
   items: icinga_stats,
   moreinfo: "Avg latency: " + icinga.avg_latency.to_s + "s",
   color: 'blue' })

Simplelist

Print problem counts by state as background color in a simple list.

Example:

vim jobs/icinga2.rb

  # Combined view of unhandled host problems (only if there are some)
  unhandled_host_problems = []

  if (icinga.host_count_problems_down > 0)
    unhandled_host_problems.push(
      { "color" => icinga.stateToColor(1, true), "value" => icinga.host_count_problems_down },
    )
  end

  send_event('icinga-host-problems', {
    items: unhandled_host_problems,
    moreinfo: "All Problems: " + icinga.host_count_problems_down.to_s
  })

Simplemon

Print problem counts by state and coloring. Also add acknowledged objects and those in downtime.

Example:

vim jobs/icinga2.rb

send_event('icinga-service-critical', {
 value: icinga.service_count_critical.to_s,
 color: 'red' })

icinga-service-critical is the value of data-id field inside the dashboards/icinga2.erb file. In order to update the widget you need to send a value and a color as hash values.

IFrame

You can edit dashboards/icinga2.erb to modify the iframe widget for Icinga Web 2. Keep in mind that you keep the template function <%=getIcingaWeb2Url()%> in order to read the Icinga Web 2 Host and URL from the configuration.

Example URL:

/icingaweb2/monitoring/list/services?service_problem=1&sort=service_severity&dir=desc

Add the fullscreen and compact options for those views.

&showFullscreen&showCompact

Example:

    <!-- Icinga Web 2 iFrame. getIcingaWeb2Url() is defined in config.ru and reads from config/icinga2*.json -->
    <li data-row="3" data-col="1" data-sizex="2" data-sizey="2">
      <div data-id="iframe" data-view="Iframe" data-url="<%=getIcingaWeb2Url()%>/monitoring/list/hosts?host_problem=1&sort=host_severity&showFullscreen&showCompact"></div>
    </li>
    <li data-row="3" data-col="3" data-sizex="2" data-sizey="2">
      <div data-id="iframe" data-view="Iframe" data-url="<%=getIcingaWeb2Url()%>/monitoring/list/services?service_problem=1&sort=service_severity&dir=desc&showFullscreen&showCompact"></div>
    </li>

Chartjs

Original from tywhang.

Clock

Show the time in a specific timezone. Enter the timezone as found in /usr/share/zoneinfo on Linux.

Example:

    <li data-row="1" data-col="1" data-sizex="1" data-sizey="1">
      <div data-view="Clock" data-title="UTC" data-timezone="UTC"></div>
    </li>
    <li data-row="1" data-col="2" data-sizex="1" data-sizey="1">
      <div data-view="Clock" data-title="New York" data-timezone="America/New_York"></div>
    </li>

Docker

docker build . -t dbodky/dashing-icinga2
docker login
docker push dbodky/dashing-icinga2

Test with Docker for Mac:

docker run -it -p 8005:8005 -e ICINGA2_API_HOST='docker.for.mac.localhost' -e ICINGA2_API_PORT=5665 -e ICINGA2_API_USERNAME='root' -e ICINGA2_API_PASSWORD='icinga' dbodky/dashing-icinga2

In order to test things, add bash as the last parameter. This avoids running start.sh and allows to test further.

References

• https://community.icinga.com/t/extend-icinga-dashing-for-your-own-needs/763

• https://community.icinga.com/t/dashing-for-icinga-3-0-0/2523

• https://www.icinga.com/2016/01/28/awesome-dashing-dashboards-with-icinga-2/

• https://www.icinga.com/2016/12/22/merry-xmas-dashing-with-icinga-2-v1-1-0-is-here/

• https://www.icinga.com/2017/07/13/dashing-for-icinga-2-v1-3-0-released/

• https://www.antonissen.net/2017/02/19/monitoring-your-network-with-icinga-2-final-part-6/

• https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/147719-icinga2-dashing

• https://linoxide.com/monitoring-2/setup-monitoring-dashing-icinga2/

• http://brunner-it.de/2016/08/04/icinga2-dashing-installieren/

• https://www.unixe.de/icinga2-dashing/

Feedback

• https://twitter.com/Mikeschova/status/1229415489627181056