Monitoring Network Printers

This is a quick instructions about how to monitor the network printers in Nagios monitoring system. First important things that you should know is SNMP. Your printer should support the SNMP and also enabled on printer. HP printers that support internal/external JetDirect or other printers that support JetDirect protocol are good for this purpose.

Fisrt, we should install check_hpjd plugin.  To install this plugin, we should install net-snmp and net-snmp-utils packages.

yum install net-snmp

yum install net-snmp-utils

Next step, edit the main Nagios Configuration file:

vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

and uncomment this line:

#cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/printer.cfg

and then save it. Now edit the printer configuration file and add new host definition for the networked printer that you want to monitor.

vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/printer.cfg

This is the output of this file which is a sample and modify it according to your needs

# HOST DEFINITIONS

# Define a host for the printer we'll be monitoring

# Change the host_name, alias, and address to fit your situation

define host{

        use             generic-printer         ; Inherit default values from a template

        host_name       hplj2605dn              ; The name we're giving to this printer

        alias           HP LaserJet 2605dn      ; A longer name associated with the printer

        address         192.168.1.30            ; IP address of the printer

        hostgroups      network-printers        ; Host groups this printer is associated with

        }

# HOST GROUP DEFINITIONS

# A hostgroup for network printers

define hostgroup{

        hostgroup_name  network-printers        ; The name of the hostgroup

        alias           Network Printers        ; Long name of the group

        }

# SERVICE DEFINITIONS

# Create a service for monitoring the status of the printer

# Change the host_name to match the name of the host you defined above

# If the printer has an SNMP community string other than "public", change the check_command #directive to reflect that

define service{

        use                     generic-service         ; Inherit values from a template

        host_name               hplj2605dn              ; The name of the host the service is associated with

        service_description     Printer Status          ; The service description

        check_command           check_hpjd!-C public    ; The command used to monitor the service

        normal_check_interval   10      ; Check the service every 10 minutes under normal conditions

        retry_check_interval    1       ; Re-check the service every minute until its final/hard state is determined

        }

# Create a service for "pinging" the printer occassionally.  Useful for monitoring RTA, packet loss, etc.

define service{

        use                     generic-service

        host_name               hplj2605dn

        service_description     PING

        check_command           check_ping!3000.0,80%!5000.0,100%

        normal_check_interval   10

        retry_check_interval    1

        }

After editing this file, run the following command to make sure everything is fine, especially for spelling errors:

/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios –v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

It supposes to show 0 and 0 errors if these is no error.

And finally restart the service:

service nagios restart

All the best,

Khosro Taraghi