Home > Performance Graphs

First, let’s look at the regular Performance Graphs. Here you can easily view graphs of the individual services on a single host, the ping checks on all of the hosts in a hostgroup, or all of the services in a servicegroup. At the top of the menu, you’ll see the Time Period and object selection settings.

To the right of each graph, you’ll see a hamburger menu you can click to choose an export option, and buttons to view the raw data, or view the object status, notifications, and history.

Exploring the Graph Explorer

This powerful tool can be found at Home > Graphs > Graph Explorer.

• Top Alerts, Host Health, Service Health

The options begin humbly in the first three tabs with a simple bar chart showing Top Alerts, a Host Health pie chart, and a Service Health pie chart. Of important note is the Dashify icon, which you’ll notice throughout the XI interface. Simply click it to add whichever visualization you see above to a Dashboard:

• Scalable Performance Graph

This simple tool provides a way to quickly create a graph for a single service, for a set period of time.

• Time Stacked Performance Graphs

Time Stacked graphs have tremendous value, providing you with an easy way to stack resource usage of a service over chunks of time on a single graph. This enables you to quickly spot certain times of the day or week that usage tends to be high, as well as anomalies to investigate further.

• Multistacked Performance Graphs

Multistacked graphing is one of the most powerful graphing features in Nagios XI, enabling you to combine any and as many services as you’d like onto a single graph for quick comparison and insight into the performance of many objects at once. One example of its use would be to visualize memory usage on several hosts in one place. Also note the Graph Options dropdown at the bottom of the graph options, which enables you to choose between area stacked (as shown below), area, line, and spline Line Type:

Metrics

Metrics is an excellent tool and is often overlooked. It provides a way to visualize current and historical performance filtered by categories, including Disk Usage, CPU Usage, Memory Usage, Load, and Swap.

Though not a graph, the Gauges tab is worth a mention, providing compact bar dashlets representing the percent usage of services, including colored lines representing their warning and critical thresholds:

Capacity Planning

Capacity planning is an Enterprise Edition favorite that enables you to project future usage based on the historical performance data collected by Nagios XI. Using this tool, you’ll be able to get ahead of resource overload by allocating additional storage and power to your machines before they need it.

Network Analyzer Traffic Analysis Tab

If you’re using Nagios Network Analyzer alongside XI for flow analysis, you’ll also notice an extra tab in your Host Detail pages labelled Network Traffic Analysis that will help you visualize what IPs the host is communicating with in a sharp-looking chord diagram.

Monitoring Engine Event Queue

This handy graph, found at Home >Monitoring Process > Process Info, provides insight into how busy the Nagios Core engine is currently, and over the upcoming 5 minutes.

To learn more about monitoring your monitoring servers, take a look at this article:

Monitor of Monitors: Easily Monitoring Nagios Servers

The Law of Averages

By default, Nagios XI will store your performance data in a Round Robyn Database for four years. The most recent data has the most granularity, while older data is averaged. This function significantly reduces the storage required to house your historical performance data. The general schedule as data ages is:

• 0 to 48 hours: 1-minute increments

• 48 hours to 10 days: 5-minute average

• 11 to 90 days: 30-minute average

• 92 days to 4 years: 6-hour average

If you’d like to dig further into the RRD file averaging function, this Knowledgebase article is a great resource:

Nagios XI: Performance Data Averaging

To learn more about using and managing graphs in Nagios XI, you can review this document:

Generating Graphs with Nagios XI 2024

And, if you aren’t using Nagios XI yet and would like to try out all of the features, you can find the free, fully functional trial here:

Nagios XI Free Trial Downloads

Nagios XI is a powerful monitoring solution that provides extensive reporting capabilities. With the right reports, businesses can gain valuable insights into their IT infrastructure’s performance, availability, and trends. This article explores how to generate and share performance reports using Nagios XI.

Understanding Nagios XI Reporting Features

Nagios XI offers a variety of reporting tools that allow users to track and analyze system performance. These include:

• Availability Reports – Track system uptime and downtime.
• Capacity Planning Reports – Identify future resource needs.
• Executive Summary Reports – Provide high-level overviews of system health.
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) Reports – Ensure compliance with business agreements.
• Alert Reports – Analyze historical alert trends.

How to Generate Performance Reports in Nagios XI

Generating reports in Nagios XI is a straightforward process. Simply follow these steps to create a performance report:

Step 1: Access the Reporting Module

1. Log in to your Nagios XI dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Reports tab.
3. Select the type of report you wish to generate.

Step 2: Configure Report Parameters

1. Choose the hosts or services you want to include.
2. Set the time period (e.g., last 24 hours, last 7 days, custom range).
3. Apply filters to refine the data.

Step 3: Generate the Report

1. Click the Run Report button.
2. Review the generated report to ensure it contains the necessary data.

How to Share Performance Reports

Once the report is generated, it can be shared with relevant stakeholders in multiple ways.

Exporting Reports

Nagios XI allows users to export reports in various formats:

• PDF – Ideal for sharing in formal reports or presentations.
• CSV – Useful for further data analysis in spreadsheet applications.
• PNG/JPG – Suitable for embedding in documents or emails.

Automating Report Delivery

Nagios XI enables automated report scheduling and delivery:

1. Navigate to the Scheduled Reports section.
2. Select the report to automate.
3. Configure the delivery frequency (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).
4. Enter recipient email addresses.
5. Click Save Schedule to activate automated delivery.

Best Practices for Effective Reporting

To maximize the impact of Nagios XI reports, consider the following best practices:

• Use visual elements – Charts and graphs make data more digestible.
• Schedule reports strategically – Ensure reports are sent at optimal times for decision-making.
• Customize reports for different audiences – Technical teams may require more granular data, while executives may prefer high-level summaries.
• Regularly review reports – Stay proactive by analyzing trends and addressing potential issues before they escalate.

Additional Resources

To enhance your use of Nagios XI, here are some helpful resources:

Nagios XI Resourcess Page — The ultimate hub for Nagios XI product-specific resources, guides, and best practices.

Nagios XI Admin Guide – Explore full guides on how to use Nagios XI.

Nagios Support Forum – Ask questions to the Nagios community for help and advice.

Nagios YouTube Channel – Learn through step-by-step video tutorials how to use Nagios Monitoring Solutions.

Nagios Webinars – Discover live webinar demonstrations and Q&A sessions led by experts.

Conclusion

Nagios XI’s robust reporting capabilities empower businesses to monitor IT performance effectively and make data-driven decisions. By generating, customizing, and sharing reports efficiently, organizations can enhance operational efficiency and maintain system reliability. Start leveraging Nagios XI reporting today to gain deeper insights into your IT environment.

Happy monitoring!