But did you know you can use URLs as the background for your maps? In this article, we’ll explore a cool use case for this capability by overlaying a National Weather Service radar map with active object status icons in Nagios XI in a few simple steps.

1. Creating a Map

First, create a fresh Regular map. If you’re new to NagVis, you can find basic instructions here:

Full instructions can be found in this guide:

No need to add anything to it yet. First we’ll get the background loaded.

2. Config File Setup

To use a URL as the background of a map, establish a terminal session with your Nagios XI server, and open the map’s.cfg file with a text editor. In this example, we’ll use vi.

First, move to the maps directory:

cd /usr/local/nagvis/etc/maps/

cd /usr/local/nagvis/etc/maps/

Next, open the .cfg file of the target map, replacing mapname in this command with the actual map filename:

vi mapname.cfg

vi mapname.cfg

In the global section add this line, replacing URL with the URL to use as the background. Note that the square brackets are required; your URL will go between them.

map_image=[URL]

map_image=[URL]

That section should look something like the following after you edit it (you can use the URL shown here to use an NWS radar map, or add the URL of your choice) :

define global {
object_id=0
map_image=[https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/CONUS-LARGE_loop.gif]
grid_show=0
}

define global {
object_id=0
map_image=[https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/CONUS-LARGE_loop.gif]
grid_show=0
}

Save your changes to the file to finalize this step.

3. Add Your Icons

Now you can head back to your map in Nagios XI and start adding icons and lines, for a final result similar to this:

Tips

• The zoombar function is a handy feature to enable on large backgrounds such as a country-wide radar map. To enable it, go to Edit Map > Map Options > Appearance tab, check the zoombar box and choose Yes in the dropdown, then click Save. You’ll now see a zoombar on the upper left of your map which you can use to zoom in and out of your map.

• You may see a map_image setting error as shown in the screenshot below when using a URL, but this can be disregarded.

Try It Out

If you haven’t tried out Nagios XI yet, you can learn more about its robust monitoring, alerting, graphing, and reporting capabilities and find the fully functional free trial version here:

Happy mapping!

Also included are details on creating and managing users and Roles.

Understanding User Rights and Roles in Nagios XI 2026R2

Declarative Wizards are a brand-new Nagios XI Configuration Wizard format that is designed to streamline the process of creating wizards. The Declarative Wizard format is primarily composed of a JSON file that contains metadata, steps, hosts & services, plugins, and requirements to build a form that can be used to configure hosts and services in Nagios XI. Unlike the traditional Configuration Wizards, form items are not built directly as HTML, but instead by selecting an input type, which will get converted into a preset form item at runtime.

The Wizard Builder provides a step-by-step wizard which enables you to create custom Declarative Wizards right in the 2026R2+ user interface.

Resources

This document describes how to use the Wizard Builder page to create and manage custom Declarative Wizards in Nagios XI 2026R2+:

• Using the Wizard Builder in Nagios XI 2026R2+

This document describes the structure of the Declarative Wizard configuration wizard format and
how it differs from traditional Configuration Wizards.

• Understanding the Declarative Wizard Format in Nagios XI 2026R2+

You can find full details in the following guide:

• Monitoring Akamai Cloud Instances with Nagios XI

You can find full details in the following documentation:

• Monitoring Proxmox VE with Nagios XI

You can find full details in the following documentation:

• Using the Nutanix CE Wizard in Nagios XI

You can learn more in the following documentation:

• Monitoring XCP-ng with Nagios XI 2026

This article provides an overview of key event types which can be used to generate notifications, along with links to related documentation.

Host and Service Event Types

Nagios XI can send you notifications on the following occurrences and state changes:

Host Settings

• Host Acknowledgement – this indicates that a user has acknowledged the current problem with the host, which will either suppress further notifications until the object changes state, or until the object recovers if “Sticky Acknowledgement” is chosen.
• Host Recovery – the host has returned to an OK state from a problem state.
• Host Down – the host is not responding.
• Host Unreachable – the host cannot be reached, because an intermediary parent host which must be routed through to check it is down.
• Host Flapping – this indicates that the state of the host object has fluctuated significantly over the last 21 checks run by Nagios. You can find additional details on the related logic here.
• Host Downtime – the host has been placed in administrative downtime by a user, suppressing notifications.

Service Settings

• Service Acknowledgement – this indicates that a user has acknowledged the current problem with the service, which will either suppress further notifications until the object changes state, or until the object recovers if “Sticky Acknowledgement” is chosen.
• Service Recovery – the service has recovered back to an OK state.
• Service Warning – the service has exceeded your Warning threshold.
• Service Unknown – this typically indicates an issue with the check plugin being used to check the status.
• Service Critical – the service has exceeded your Critical alert thresholds.
• Service Flapping – this indicates that the state of the service object has fluctuated significantly over the last 21 checks run by Nagios. You can find additional details here.
• Service Downtime – the service has been placed in administrative downtime by a user, suppressing notifications.

Documentation

You can learn more about setting up notifications here:

• Configuring Email and Text Notifications in Nagios XI

Full details on managing and configuring Nagios XI can be found in the Admin Guide:

• Nagios XI Admin Guide

The updated Network Switch/Router Wizard in Nagios XI 2026R1.4+ uses a new
plugin and greatly reduces the number of walks performed on the target machine, improving
information stability and response time. The new plugin is written in C, significantly improving
performance. This Wizard also creates throughput checks compatible with Nagios Mod–Gearman.

You can refer to the documentation for full details on using the Wizard:

Monitoring Switches and Routers With Nagios XI 2026

• Using the OpenShift Wizard in Nagios XI 2026R1.2+