This is especially important if you have an extensive environment or large team where different users and groups manage specific segments. You may wish to have everything from read-only viewers to full access superadmins accessing the Nagios user interfaces (UIs), with varying degrees in-between.

In this article we’ll take a look at the multi-tenancy options available in each Nagios solution.

Nagios XI Multi-tenancy

XI provides the most robust multi-tenancy capabilities of the entire Nagios suite. What each user you create can see and do in the user interface is deeply customizable. By default, the visibility and object control granted to regular users will be limited to those hosts and services they are a Contact on, but you can also check a box in the Security Settings section to allow them to see all hosts and services. You also decide which Users have access to the REST API, auto-deployment, and the Core Config Manager, and can click a single box to make any User read-only.

To create and edit Users in Nagios XI, navigate to Admin > Manage Users.

Nagios XI Dashboards

Dashboards in XI can be deployed to other users easily in the Dashboards > Deploy Dashboards menu. You can even either let the users you deploy to update their copy of the Dashboard as they see fit or choose to keep it synced with changes you make.

Nagios Core

Nagios Core is the open source monitoring engine used by Nagios XI. Although all configuration is done from the Linux command line, it does provide a basic web display which shows status information and a includes a few options for interacting with the monitoring engine. Object visibility in the Core interface can be limited based on what hosts and services users are contacts on, as can their ability to send commands to the Core daemon.

Nagios Fusion Multi-tenancy

In Nagios Fusion, users you create can either be a User or an Administrator. If you check the Administrator box in General Settings for a user, they will be able to see and access the Admin menu and all of its functions:

Fusion also provides the ability to determine which of the fused servers you’re collecting data from each user should be able to see in the Server User Mapping section of their user settings. In the case of fused Nagios XI servers, you can also map your Fusion users to XI users so that within the Fusion UI, and when they click through to the XI UIs, the objects they can see will be tied to their XI user.

Your favorite Dashboards in Fusion can also be deployed to other users just like in Nagios XI.

To manage Fusion users, navigate to Admin Admin > Manage Users.

Nagios Log Server Multi-tenancy

In Nagios Log Server, you have the ability to control both which log sources users can see data from, and which menus and functions they can access. Admin level users can modify and delete across all components and settings, while User level users are limited to editing only their account and personal dashboards, unless other User Permissions are granted using the checkboxes in the Admin > User Management > Create/Edit User menu, in the Permissions tab.

You can also restrict visibility of source log data to Host Lists (groups of sources you create), or individual sources, as well as determining whether API access is available.

On the Dashboards front, each Dashboard users create can be saved as a personal Dashboard visible only to them, or as a Global Dashboard visible to all Log Server users.

Finally, query-based Log Server alerts can be easily integrated with Nagios XI for additional control of user visibility.

Nagios Network Analyzer Multi-tenancy

In Network Analyzer, all users have full visibility of the entirety of Source data, but you determine whether they are a full access Admin, or a regular User which hides the configuration options and limits what they can edit. You also determine whether each regular user has API access:

You can also integrate Network Analyzer alerts with Nagios XI if you’re using both solutions, and limit access in the XI UI to only certain source alerts to control visibility.

Navigate to the Administration > User Management menu to create and edit Network Analyzer users.

Resources

• Understanding User Rights in Nagios XI

• Authentication and Authorization in the Nagios Core CGIs

• Managing Nagios Fusion Users

• Managing Nagios Log Server Users

• Managing Network Analyzer Users

If you’d like to take any or all of the Nagios tools for a spin, you can find free trial download links here:

Nagios Solutions

Also feel free to contact us at sales@nagios.com if there are any questions we can assist you with, or if you’d like a custom Demo or Quickstart remote session to help you explore Nagios further.

How the User Management Dashlet works

The User Management Dashlet utilizes the Nagios XI API, specifically interacting with the system tree, to retrieve and manage user information. The API endpoint designed for user data includes several details about each user, such as their user ID, username, full name, email address, and account status (enabled/disabled). However, for the dashlet’s intended functionality, only the username and user ID are required, as these are the primary identifiers necessary for adding or removing users.

Upon initialization, the Dashlet queries the API to fetch a list of all users within the Nagios XI instance. This list is then displayed on the administrator’s dashboard, where the user IDs and usernames are shown in an easily navigable format. With this data in hand, the administrator can efficiently perform actions such as adding new users or removing existing ones directly from the dashboard interface, without needing to navigate through multiple pages or API endpoints.

The user management process is seamless, allowing for immediate updates to the user list in real-time, with all changes being reflected instantly across the Nagios XI environment. The integration with the API ensures that the Dashlet always displays up-to-date information, providing administrators with a reliable and efficient tool to maintain user access.

The other features of this Dashlet allow an administrator to add or delete users in the Nagios XI instance. The buttons won’t do anything immediately, aside from revealing a modal where you can input or select information.

Let’s start with the “Add Users” modal. This modal requests the necessary details for creating a user, including their username, full name, email, and a simple password. The password is considered simple because the new user will be prompted to change it upon logging in. Once all information is entered, pressing the button will send the request to the API, officially adding the user to Nagios XI. The newly created user will have basic privileges. This means their API access will be very limited compared to the administrator account, which is only able to view objects. If you want to make a user an administrator, you will have to change permissions in Admin>Manage Users.

The final feature of this dashlet allows you to delete users. It does this fairly simply, it uses a dropdown that collects users in the same way as our earlier list. This means that the list will update when either of the dashlet functions is run. Simply choose a user from the dropdown and click delete, it will ask you to confirm just to make sure you didn’t select the wrong user, but after you confirm, the user will be deleted.

To try the User Management Dashlet, download it here. If you’d like to read more about the Nagios XI API, please read this article: https://library.nagios.com/training/using-the-nagios-xi-api/.

This document is intended for use by Nagios Administrators that need to configure DUO on Nagios XI.

Using DUO 2FA with Nagios XI – 2024 & 2026

Using DUO with XI 2026

Using DUO 2FA with Nagios XI – v5 (Legacy)

Using DUO with XI 5

This document is intended for use by Nagios Administrators who want to allow users to authenticate with their AD/LDAP credentials when logging into Nagios Fusion.

Fusion 4.x

Authenticating and Importing Users with AD and LDAP

Fusion 2024

Authenticating-and-Importing-Users-in-Fusion-2024.pdf

This document is intended for use by Nagios Administrators and Users who wish to understand how user accounts work in Nagios Fusion.

Managing-Fusion-Users.pdf

Managing-Fusion-Users-in-Fusion-2024.pdf

This guide is directed towards Nagios XI administrators interested in changing the default passwords for the local root account, MySQL accounts, and Postgres accounts for a secure Nagios monitoring server.

 Changing Default Passwords in Nagios XI – 2024 & 2026

Changing Default Passwords in XI 2026

Changing Default Passwords in Nagios XI – v5 (Legacy)

Changing-Default-Passwords-in-Nagios-XI.pdf

This document is intended for use by Nagios Log Server Administrators who need to create or modify users.

Managing-Users-In-Nagios-Log-Server.pdf