In a previous post I mentioned how easy it is to increase functionality in Nagios.
Today I was asked to set up SMS alerts in Nagios, as well as the existing email alerts. I am by no means the first person to write about this, but this post is intended to be a start-to-finish guide, covering all aspects.
Choosing a provider
The first step is choosing a provider which has a decent API for sending SMS messages. I chose AQL, as I have used them in the past. They allow you to send SMS messages via a web interface, HTTP GET, HTTP POST, or email.
In that way, perhaps the easiest way to get SMS alerts is to get Nagios to email its alerts to the AQL SMS gateway. But I wanted to do it “properly”.
So I signed up for an account with AQL and bought a small number of SMS credits for the account. It’s also possible to have a contract for heavy usage, but I can always upgrade to that if I need to.
Defining a new method of alerting in Nagios
In the file /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg there is a section where notification commands are defined. I added a couple more definitions for SMS alerts for hosts and services. My SMS script would have a calling syntax like /path/to/script phone_number message.
So I added a couple of definitions like this, obviously using a real mobile phone number:
define command{
command_name alert-service-by-sms
command_line /usr/local/nagios/libexec/alert-by-sms 01234567890 "Nagios Service $NOTIFICATIONTYPE$ Alert: $HOSTALIAS$/$SERVICEDESC$ is $SERVICESTATE$"
}
define command{
command_name alert-host-by-sms
command_line /usr/local/nagios/libexec/alert-by-sms 01234567890 "Nagios Host $NOTIFICATIONTYPE$ Alert: $HOSTALIAS$ is $HOSTSTATE$"
}
The script
Now all remains is to write the script that will do the legwork. If you decide to go with AQL as your provider, you need to install their Perl module from CPAN. Use a command like this:
cpan SMS::AQL
And then make a Perl script like this. You can save it anywhere you like; I chose to put it with the other Nagios executables in /usr/local/nagios/libexec just to keep it with the rest. Adjust the username and password to match your AQL credentials, and set the sender parameter to be either a UK mobile number (so the recipient can reply to the message) or simply a text string which appears as a name to the recipient, and does not allow them to reply.
#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;
use SMS::AQL;
my $to = $ARGV[0];
my $msg = $ARGV[1];
$to =~ s/[^0-9]//gi;
my $sms = new SMS::AQL({
username => 'fred',
password => 'bloggs',
options => {
sender => 'Nagios',
},
});
my ($ok, $error) = $sms->send_sms($to, $msg);
if (!$ok) {
print "Failed to send the message, error: $errorn";
} else {
print "Success!n";
}
It is, of course, wise to test that your script works by calling it from the command line. Once you’re happy it works, it’s time to tell Nagios to start sending alerts.
Enabling SMS alerts
This time, we need to edit /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg. Modify your contact entry to add the lines in bold. This assumes you have only one user with a mobile phone – remember their mobile number is hard-coded into the command definition!
If you have more than one user and you set alert-service-by-sms or alert-host-by-sms for both, you will get two text messages sent to the same phone number for each Nagios alert. As I only have one user it’s not a problem for me, but in the future I will probably post a more elegant solution where each user can get an individual text message.
define contact{
contact_name jonathan
use generic-contact
alias Jonathan
email alerts@example.com
service_notification_commands alert-service-by-sms
host_notification_commands alert-host-by-sms
}
And that should be everything! Now you have to test it, either by breaking a host or service, or setting up a bogus one that will definitely fail.
Jonathan Gazeley 
You can do single sms to multiple contacts by adding a ‘pager’ variable to the contact and replacing the number with ‘$CONTACTPAGER$’, like this:
define contact{
…
pager 447xxxxxxxxx ;
}
command_line /usr/local/bin/aql $CONTACTPAGER$ “Service: $SERVICEDESC$ | Host: $HOSTNAME$ | State: $SERVICESTATE$ | Date: $LONGDATETIME$”
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@Andrew
Thanks Andrew, I thought there might be a quick way of doing this.
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An another solution exist : TeamTILT for Nagios.
A great advantage is the heartbeat functionnality ! If your server or your mail service is down, the TeamTILT platform notify you by SMS…
An another advantage is the number of media types : SMS, Voice call, iPhone push, email, fax, …
Just have a look here : http://www.alarmtilt.com/en/manage-your-nagios-alerts-with-teamtilt.html
😉
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The best way to do it by using 3rd party alerting tool called as http://AlertWoo.com
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@ Jonathan ,
I didn’t understand your commands defination in commands.cfg .
It has [ command_line /usr/local/nagios/libexec/alert-by-sms ] .Here what is alert-by-sms.
Is it script or command? If script , how should I get it?
Thanks in advance.
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@paddy
The contents of the
alert-by-smsscript is given in the Perl script about halfway down this page – the bit that begins#!/usr/bin/perl -wTLikeLike
If you have your own sms gateway , say , http://eai-k1.ge.org:54556 , in this case , alert-by-sms script won’t work.
[I don’t want to go for AQL sms gateway , I have my own but not able to use it]
Then how should one go for sms-alerts.
Can you pls give your thoughts??
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If you have your own SMS gateway, you’ll need to write your own
alert-by-smsscript in whatever language you like. It just needs to be able to push the right information to the gateway.LikeLike
Hey any idea why i’m getting this error?
Use of uninitialized value $to in substitution (s///) at ./alert-by-sms line 8.
Use of uninitialized value $to in substitution (s///) at /usr/local/share/perl/5.12.4/SMS/AQL.pm line 183.
Failed to send the message, error: Unrecognised response from server: to_num
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It looks like you haven’t specified the “to” number as an argument. You need to use alert-by-sms like this:
./alert-by-sms 01234567890 "Message goes here"LikeLike
Jonathan, perfect it works.
But now i have one other strange Issue.
I cannot sent an SMS to US.
Nagios 113779790 Igor is playing 🙂 02-08-12 02:26:32 Invalid Number
iandev 16123479690 test 02-08-12 02:25:50 Delivered
when i’m sending SMS from the WEB page they are delivered. but when i’m seding from the script somehow the phone number is changed and i get Invalid Number
Any Idea?
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Hi,
FWIW, we’ve recently implemented support for sending Nagios alerts to iPhone/iPad and Android devices using push notifications (in addition to email and SMS).
OpsGenie ( http://www.opsgenie.com ) is offered as a FREE service up to 2 users. How to configure Nagios is described here http://support.opsgenie.com/customer/portal/articles/780193-nagios-integration
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Hi Jonathan
I am trying to get this working in my Centos box with Nagios, I have AQL account with enough credit and I will be really grateful if you can assist me on this please, So far:
I have installed AQL Perl module from CPAN (http://search.cpan.org/~bigpresh/SMS-AQL-1.00/lib/SMS/AQL.pm)
Created a file called /usr/local/nagios/libexec/alert-by-sms.pl with following content
—————————-
#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;
use SMS::AQL;
my $to = $ARGV[0];
my $msg = $ARGV[1];
$to =~ s/[^0-9]//gi;
my $sms = new SMS::AQL({
username => ‘myaqlusername’,
password => ‘myaqlpassword’,
options => {
sender => ‘Nagios’,
},
});
my ($ok, $error) = $sms->send_sms($to, $msg);
if (!$ok) {
print “Failed to send the message, error: $errorn”;
} else {
print “Success!n”;
}
————————————
Now just to test it I ran follwing command from root and following is what I am getting:
[root@core-nix-01 libexec]# ./alert-by-sms.pl 07987654321 “hello test”
-bash: ./alert-by-sms.pl: Permission denied
[root@core-nix-01 libexec]#
Thank you.
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Sounds like you’ve haven’t set the execute permission on your script. You need to run
chmod a+x alert-by-sms.plto set it executable by all users.LikeLike
Thank you Jonathan, it works now with:
./alert-by-sms.pl 079XXXXXXXX “hello test”
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by the way how do i send sms to multiple mobile number; following is what I got:
define contact{
contact_name bicky
use generic-contact
alias bicky
email alerts@bicky.com
service_notification_commands alert-service-by-sms
host_notification_commands alert-host-by-sms
pager 079XXXXXXXX
}
thank you.
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If you want something ready to use (with Nagios plugin included) take a look at this hardware device: SMSEagle (http://www.smseagle.eu).
This is a hardware sms gateway, that you put into your server room, place inside your SIM card and it does sms sending together with Nagios.
Nagios plugin for it is here: http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Addons/Notifications/SMS/SMS-Notifications-via-SMSEagle/details
With that you are independent from 3rd party sms service providers – it works when your Internet connection is down.
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hi! if I use my sms gateway what script must I use???
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