Create user for nagios web GUI and limit access to some specific hosts

For allowing a user view-only access only to some hosts in Nagios webview you have to implement following changes:

Note: Jump to 3. if you already have password protected authentication enabled

1. Edit the cgi.cfg located in your nagios installation (e.g. /usr/local/nagios/etc) to enable password protected login:

   use_authentication=1
   

2. In the nagios.conf file in your Apache installation directory, verify that the following lines are included to point to the htpasswd.users file:

   AuthName "Nagios Access"
   AuthType Basic
   AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users
   Require valid-user
   

3. Add the user to the htpasswd.users file using the htpasswd command and the Apache HTTPD password manager. Location could vary depending on your system; a few common locations for it are /usr/bin and /usr/local/apache/bin:

   # htpasswd /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users testuser01
   New password:
   Re-type new password:
   Adding password for user testuser01
   

4. Edit the cgi.cfg located in your nagios installation; uncomment authorized_for_read_only and add the username(s) for which you want to grant the access:

   authorized_for_read_only=testuser1
   

5. Create an entry for the user in objects/contacts.cfg from your nagios installation:

   define contact {
       contact_name                    testuser01
       use                             generic-contact
       alias                           Test User 01
       email                           [email protected]
   }
   

6. In the same objects/contacts.cfg define also a group that will hold the user and other future users that will need same access to same hosts – easier to manage when users are contain in groups:

   define contactgroup {
       contactgroup_name       view-only-host01
       alias                   View Only access to alarms for Host01
       members                 testuser01
   }
   

7. Take the contactgroup defined previously, view-only-host01, and in the .cfg of your host (e.g. objects/host01.cfg) add it to every service for which you want to grant the view only access:

   define service{
          service_description     Alarm for Test service - Metric 01
          check_command           webinject!test/test.xml
          servicegroups           availability
          contact_groups          admins,view-only-host01
   }
   

8. Restart nagios