Talk by: Nicolas Schneider At the Icinga Camp Berlin 2023 Nicolas shared his knowledge on how to build modules for Icinga Web. This time he will demonstrate what he has build so far, including extended functionalities to impersonate within Icinga Web, enforce team dashboards and many more.

1. Extending IcingaWeb2 with
Modules
powerful, smart and easily created
Nicolas Schneider, Icinga Camp Milan 2023

2. 2
Agenda
1 About me
2 About Rise
3 How?
4 Checkreports
5 Impersonate
6 Teamdashboard
7 Customdashboard
8 PluginDocBuilder
9 Scaffoldbuilder
10 Enhancement of Map
11 Demo
12 Links
© RISE

3. 3
 Nicolas Schneider aka moreamazingnick
 Work in monitoring since 2021
 Studied Medical Computer Science (B.Sc.)
 AmazingNick was already in use on GitHub
About me
© RISE

4. 4
Research Industrial Systems Engineering (RISE)
at a quick glance
Key figures
• Created as a spin-off of the TU Vienna in 1988
• Active in architecture, safety engineering &
software development
• Specialists in IT infrastructure Design and IT integration
• Top experts in IT architecture, IT strategy, IT security,
usability, transportation IT, banking systems, system
performance, health information systems, e-ID, gov tech,
digitalization strategies, IIoT
Locations
• Company headquarter in Austria (Vienna & Schwechat)
• Offices in several countries
RISE Konnektor
© RISE
www.rise-world.com

5. How is IcingaWeb2 extensible?

6. 6
 Modules with own functionality
 Inherit from existing classes or “reuse” the code
 Change behavior
 IcingaWeb2 provides Hook
 HostActionsHook
 Modules can provide Hooks
 DataTypeHook (Icinga Director)
 ReportHook (Reporting)
 CLI actions
 Themes
How is IcingaWeb2 extensible?
© RISE

7. Checkreports

8. 8
 CheckResult
 Update-Report
 Regularly
 Scheduler
 Portable format
 Pdf
 These are already features of the
reporting module
 Using ReportHook
Checkreports
© RISE

9. 9
 Why can’t I use a Notification plugin
 Triggered by state change
 Or external scheduling needed
 No pdf
Checkreports
© RISE

10. 10
 Path
 Smooth as it is based on idoreports
 IDO implementation first
 Access the check result instead of the SLA
 Challenges
 Icingadb
 Plugin Output was sometimes not the same?
 Added the last Execution Time
 Plugin Output was outdated
 $query->
 setResultSetClass(VolatileStateResults::class);
Checkreports
© RISE

11. Impersonate

12. 12
 Other Applications have that too
 Debugging
 Disabled Dashboards
 Restrictions
 Icinga Community Call
Impersonate
© RISE

13. 13
 Path
 Copy LoginController
 Copy LoginForm
 Copy views
 Remove password field
 Remove some styles
 Remove every check 
 Open Questions
 Domain awareness
 Open a ticket if it doesn’t work
Impersonate
© RISE

14. Dashboards

15. 15
 Icinga is working on something
 Enhanced Dashboards #3809
 You can use this till it’s ready
 It shows how extensible IcingaWeb2 is
Dashboards
© RISE

16. Teamdashboards

17. 17
 Inspired by enforceddashboards
 by Thomas Gelf
 Community issue
 Sharing Dashboards create an overflow
 Global Dashboards using configuration.php causes overflow too
 Having a “virtual” or real user
 Map Dashboard to other users
 Keep your own Dashboards
 Manage via Roles
 Rename “users” in the menu
 Pro Tipp
 Use Impersonate module to change the
other Dashboard
Teamdashboards
© RISE

18. 18
 Path
 Using Scaffoldbuilder (Ini-Repository)
 Copy Dashboard.php
 Copy DashboardController.php
 Copy views
 Allow to set a user
 Adapt some urls
 Remove unused code
 Using Roles / Permissions
 Open Questions
 Do you need Current Incidents too?
 Current Incidents
 Muted
 Overdue
Teamdashboards
© RISE

19. Customdashboards

20. 20
 Inspired by teamdashboards
 It’s a community issue, post in the forum
 Community issue
 Sharing Dashboards create an overflow
 Global Dashboards using configuration.php causes overflow too
 Create Dashboards manually
 Pane name
 URL
 Map it to other users
 Keep your own Dashboards
 Manage via Roles
 Change the name in the menu
 Change the icon
 Change the position
 Add entries via CLI
Customdashboards
© RISE

21. PluginDocBuilder

22. 22
 Build a documentation module based on your check plugins
 Use a Template
 Use Icinga Director information
 Include good Documentation like
 icinga-powershell-plugins
 icinga-powershell-mssql
 icinga-itl
 Combine everything
PluginDocBuilder
© RISE

23. 23
 Path
 Using Scaffoldbuilder (Ini-Repository)
 Download releases from GitHub
 Extract & combine
 Already amazing
 Access Icinga Director Command Fields
 Extract information
 Fill out my documentation template
 Key Questions
 Is it ready yet?
 No
 Is it on GitHub yet?
 No
 Can you show it to us?
 YES
PluginDocBuilder
© RISE

24. Scaffoldbuilder

25. 25
 Create module based on almost any name
 Get all directories ready
 Having a basic IndexController
 Blank Page Syndrome
 Having a first menu item
 Get the Namespaces right for reference implementation
 Get all the important config files
 Get multiple IniRepositories
 Get a ModuleConfig (ini file)
 Get a generic documentation
 Fill it out
 Don’t start from scratch
Scaffoldbuilder
© RISE

26. Map

27. 27
 By Nicolai Buchwitz
 Based on latest master
 Adapted search
 Updated mapDatatype
 Add the Ini-Repository for other
“default maps”
 Provide permissions for these maps
icingaweb2-module-map
Confidential © RISE

28. DEMO

29. 29
Where to get it? => GitHub
 RISE-GMBH
 Everything else
© RISE
 Moreamazingnick
 Scaffoldbuilder

30. 30
Porto Alegre
Bangalore
Dubai
North Africa
Paris
Bern
Berlin
Vienna
© RISE
THANK YOU
Research Industrial Systems Engineering (RISE)
Forschungs-, Entwicklungs- und Großprojektberatung GmbH
Concorde Business Park F
2320 Schwechat, Austria
Mail welcome@rise-world.com
Tel +43 1 9049007-0
Fax +43 1 5057473
Web www.rise-world.com
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