CONTENTS

--Overview
--Usage
--Config file
--Exclusions


OVERVIEW

Spawncamper is a set of Python scripts to automate the discovery of new hosts
for Nagios monitoring, and to add those hosts to the Nagios configuration files.
It utilizes DNS zone transfers (AXFR) to pull data from a local DNS server,
and uses this information to determine if a given host already exists in the
Nagios configuration, adding it to a spawncamper.cfg file if not, and e-mails
relevant adminitrators to alert them to the discovery of a new host to add.

Spawncamper can be configured to use CIDR subnets or a specified IP range to
determine whether or not a host found in a given DNS zone should be monitored.
Inidividual hosts can also be added to an exclusion list, so that they will
not be monitored, and will not be added to the spawncamper.cfg file.

Integrates DNS functionality from Stefan Schmidt's morepowerdns library, which 
is licensed under LGPL.


USAGE

usage: spawncamper.py [-h] -z ZONE -n NAMESERVER [-c SUBNET] [-s STARTIP]
                      [-e ENDIP] [-d HOSTDIRECTORY] [-t TEMPLATEFILE]
                      [-m EMAIL] [--configfile CONFIGFILE]

Automatically adds hosts to Nagios configurations, using AXFR zone transfers
from a specified DNS server

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -z ZONE, --zone ZONE  DNS zone to query (e.g. internal.company.com)
  -n NAMESERVER, --nameserver NAMESERVER
                        Nameserver against which to perform query
  -c SUBNET, --subnet SUBNET
                        CIDR subnet in which monitored hosts reside. Cannot be
                        used in conjunction with -s and -e.
  -s STARTIP, --startip STARTIP
                        Must be used with -e. Defines the start point of an IP
                        range in which monitored hosts reside. Cannot be used
                        in conjunction with -c.
  -e ENDIP, --endip ENDIP
                        Must be used with -s. Defines the end point of an IP
                        range in which monitored hosts reside. Cannot be used
                        in conjunction with -c.
  -d HOSTDIRECTORY, --hostdirectory HOSTDIRECTORY
                        Nagios host configuration directory. nag_auto_add will
                        not add new hosts if they already exist in a file
                        within this directory. Default:
                        /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects
  -t TEMPLATEFILE, --templatefile TEMPLATEFILE
                        Nagios template file name. Default: templates.cfg.
  -m EMAIL, --email EMAIL
                        Send e-mails to this address when new hosts are
                        discovered.
  --configfile CONFIGFILE
                        Specify alternate config file. Default:
                        spawncamper.conf


CONFIG FILE

Spawncamper.conf stores settings for e-mail functionality. It stores a password 
in plaintext, so it is advisable to use a dedicated service e-mail account, and 
to restrict access to the Spawncamper directory to only those users you wish to 
know this password. Alternatively, you may decline to use e-mail functionality, 
or choose to use your own e-mail application.


EXCLUSIONS

Hosts which you desire to exclude from Spawncamper's discovery can be listed, 
in plain text, in the exclusions file, one host per line. Spawncamper will 
skip these files when discovering new hosts.