Kernel 7

Nagios is particularly complicated itself in scheduling a downtime, and automating it is a pain.
Here is an easy to use PHP script that will make scheduling a breeze:

[1] Download the “Downtime Scheduling Utility” and extract it to your preferred location:
http://sweetdeliah.com/nagios/downtime/nagios_down-0.2.tar.gz

[2] To schedule a maintenance, here is a template:
./nagios_down.php -h ‘host-server-001′ -f -b ’03:00 23 January 2012′ -e ’03:30 23 January 2012’ -a ‘John Doe’ -c ‘Monthly Maintenance for Windows Patches’

This will put the host “host-server-001” in maintenance mode for 30 minutes on January 23rd, 2012, between 03:00 AM and 03:30 AM, with “John Doe” as the person responsible for logging the downtime, and “Monthly Maintenance for Windows Patches” as a comment.

[3] You can automate the process using Cron or your Custom GUI if any.

[+] Secure ISC BIND Template:
http://www.cymru.com/Documents/secure-bind-template.html

[+] Secure BGP Template for Cisco Routers:
http://www.cymru.com/Documents/secure-bgp-template.html

[+] Secure BGP Template for Juniper Routers:
http://www.cymru.com/gillsr/documents/junos-bgp-template.pdf

[+] Secure IOS Template:
http://www.cymru.com/Documents/secure-ios-template.html
http://wiki.nil.com/Router_security_template

[+] Secure JunOS Template:
http://www.cymru.com/gillsr/documents/junos-template.pdf

As you already know, “mysqldump” is nifty command. The following examle script should be scheduled to run daily via “cron” to backup all your MySQL Databases in a SQL file like “MySQL-Dump—v2009-06-02.sql” and compress it to save on space:

mysqldump –host=YOUR_MYSQL_HOST –port=YOUR_MYSQL_PORT –user=root \
–password=YOUR_ROOT_PASSWORD –add-drop-database –add-drop-table –comments –force \
–all-databases > /YOUR_BACKUP_LOCATION/MySQL-Dump—v`date +”%Y-%m-%d”`.sql ; \
gzip /YOUR_BACKUP_LOCATION/MySQL-Dump—v`date +”%Y-%m-%d”`.sql