Configuration Confusion, When to use What?

[toshu518 (Saurabh Malhotra)]

I have configured checmk raw version to monitor my linux ubuntu hosts, docker containers running on these host as well as logs from these linux hosts, but i have a confusion.

1. I just copied the mk_docker.py on my monitored host and it works successfully, i haven’t copied docker.cfg file on the host, everything working fine.

2. I copied mk_logwatch.py in plugins directory on monitored host but it doesn’t work until i copied logwatch.cfg also.

So now i am confused why mk_docker.py is working successfully even i haven’t copied docker.cfg, and why logwatch only works when i copied lowatch.cfg file on the host. I see lots of tutorial many users create rules, so again confused when to create rules. Just need to know when to use .cfg and when not. Thanks in advance.

[r.sander (Robert Sander)]

The Docker agent plugin is able to automatically connect to the Docker daemon and pull the information with default settings. It needs a config file only if you want it to do something different.

The logwatch agent plugin needs to be told what lines from which logfiles it needs to fetch. Otherwise it does nothing.

[toshu518 (Saurabh Malhotra)]

Very thankful to you, now it’s clear.