How to monitor if a node drops?

SpacemanSpiff

So basically I have a Pfsense box with 3 LAN interfaces and 1 wan running on 2.2.2-RELEASE (i386)
LAN 1 - vitals.
LAN 2 - Business pcs
LAN 3- Guest Wifi (via access point)

I have about 10 nodes on LAN 1 that I would like to recieve email notifications if they drop. I have set up the smtp email notifications and tested it and it works. So now I am trying to figure out how I can poll the IPs in question and get notifications if they go down.

I found this link:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=66355.0

Where it states that I can set the individual IP addresses as gateways and then when they go down I should get an email. Is that correct?

For the configuration of the gateway I go to system > Routing and then add.
Interface > LAN1
DO NOT CHECK DEFAULT GATEWAY
Name> (whatever name i want for the device)
Gateway > The IP i want to poll

and then im done? Is that the correct configuration. I am doing this remote and its a far drive to the site so i really dont want to mess up the actual gateway and kick me out so that is why im looking for confirmation that this will work. Ive tried PC based software on a computer at the location to monitor the nodes but cant find one thats free and that doesnt only poll snmp devices.

Thank you

KOM

Ive tried PC based software on a computer at the location to monitor the nodes but cant find one thats free and that doesnt only poll snmp devices.

You must not have looked very hard…

http://www.opennms.org/

https://www.nagios.org/

http://www.zabbix.com/

pfSense even comes with a package to support Zabbix.

Sorry, no idea about your real problem.

Derelict

I found this link:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=66355.0

Where it states that I can set the individual IP addresses as gateways and then when they go down I should get an email. Is that correct?

Your firewall is not a network management appliance. You shouldn't try to use it as one.

All of the mentioned packages will do what you want. None of them are trivial to configure. Nagios is probably the easiest. Zabbix is second and OpenNMS is third. OpenNMS is probably the closest to a real NMS but it's not without its complexity and overhead (java-based, needs some RAM).

Then there's always what's up gold or paessler PRTG. Both windows, neither is free.

SpacemanSpiff

Not exactly the answers I was looking for but thank you. Im in the process of getting OpenNMS set up. No easy feat…

Derelict

Actually paessler prtg is free forever with up to 100 sensors.

https://shop.paessler.com/shop/standalone_free_license/

phil.davis

I am doing this remote and its a far drive to the site so i really dont want to mess up the actual gateway and kick me out so that is why im looking for confirmation that this will work.

For those that might be adding gateways to internal back-end networks and doing so via some remote webGUI access over VPN… that works fine and does not blow up the upstream gateways to the public internet.
And I agree with the posts above that it is not the purpose of gateways in pfSense to be used as a client monitoring tool. But that said, it should work, and as long as those "gateways" are not put in any gateway groups or mentioned anywhere else in routes, rules... then back-end gateway state transitions should have no effect on the real operation of pfSense routing/filtering.

tim.mcmanus

@SpacemanSpiff:

Not exactly the answers I was looking for but thank you. Im in the process of getting OpenNMS set up. No easy feat…

OpenNMS is actually very easy to set up. It requires work, but their step-by-step guide is very thorough and well maintained. I've been using it for years with excellent results.

http://www.opennms.org/wiki/Installation:Yum

SpacemanSpiff

It would be going on windows 8 machine and their guides still use windows xp. I almost had it up yesterday but the batch file keeps hanging on the last step.

Thank you Phil.Davis for your response.

johnpoz

Why not just use smokeping to ping your devices, if they don't answer it can email you.

If your running windows then prtg is prob best bet.

tgharold

Or consider installing "monit" on the pfSense box as a minimal tool. You'll have to do it from command line. I prefer Monit for small independent boxes, much easier to setup then Nagios/Zabbix/Icinga.