Description

This cookbook provides custom resources and service recipes to install and configure
Sensu, a monitoring framework.

The custom resources provide building blocks for creating a monitoring
cookbook specific to your environment (wrapper). Without such a
wrapper, no Sensu configuration files will be created for your nodes.

An example wrapper cookbook can be found HERE.

How to Write Reusable Chef Cookbooks

Contributing

See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, CONTRIBUTING.md and TESTING.md documents.

Dependencies

Platforms

• Ubuntu/Debian
• RHEL and derivatives
• Fedora
• Windows
• AIX

Chef

• Chef 13.3+ please check the metadata.rb file for the latest released version for example

Cookbooks

• Windows
• RabbitMQ
• RedisIO
• ms_dotnet

NOTE: This cookbook either constrains its dependencies optimistically (>=) or
not at all. You’re strongly encouraged to more strictly manage these
dependencies in your wrapper cookbook.

Package versioning

This cookbook makes no attempt to manage the versions of its package
dependencies. If you desire or require management of these versions, you should
handle these via your wrapper cookbook.

Prerequisites

SSL configuration

Running Sensu with SSL is recommended; by default this cookbook attempts to load
SSL credentials from a data bag sensu, with an item ssl, containing the
required SSL certificates and keys. These data bag items may be encrypted via
native Chef encrypted data bags or via Chef Vault.

The data loaded from the data bag by default is expected to be formatted as
follows:

{
  "server": {
    "cert": "CERTIFICATE_DATA",
    "key": "PRIVATE_KEY_DATA",
    "cacert": "CA_CERTIFICATE_DATA"
  },
  "client": {
    "cert": "CERTIFICATE_DATA",
    "key": "PRIVATE_KEY_DATA"
  }
}

All of the above values are expected to be strings comprised of PEM-formatted
credentials with escaped line endings. See
test/integration/data_bags/sensu/ssl.json for a more literal example.

If the attempt to load SSL credentials from a data bag fails, the cookbook will
log a warning but proceed with the rest of the Chef run anyway, on the
assumption that credentials will be inserted into the Chef “run state” (i.e.
node.run_state['sensu']['ssl']) in the same format using the
Sensu::ChefRunState helper methods, set_sensu_run_state and
get_sensu_run_state.

Please see the documentation for the run state helper
methods for more information.

This cookbook comes with a tool to generate the certificates and data bag items.
If the integrity of the certificates is ever compromised, you must regenerate
and redeploy them.

cd examples/ssl
./ssl_certs.sh generate
knife data bag create sensu

Use the plain-text data bag item:

knife data bag from file sensu ssl.json

Or, encrypt it with your data bag secret. See Encrypt a Data Bag
for more information.

knife data bag --secret-file /path/to/your/secret from file sensu ssl.json

./ssl_certs.sh clean

Recipes

sensu::default

Installs Sensu and creates a base configuration file, intended to be
extended. This recipe must be included before any of the Sensu LWRP’s
can be used. This recipe does not enable or start any services.

sensu::rabbitmq

Installs and configures RabbitMQ for Sensu, from configuring SSL to
creating a vhost and credentials. This recipe relies heavily on the
community RabbitMQ cookbook LWRP’s.

sensu::redis

Installs and configures Redis for Sensu. This recipe uses the
RedisIO cookbook and installs Redis from source.

sensu::enterprise

Installs and configures Sensu Enterprise.

sensu::server_service

Enables and starts the Sensu server.

sensu::client_service

Enables and starts the Sensu client.

sensu::api_service

Enables and starts the Sensu API.

sensu::enterprise_service

Enables and starts Sensu Enterprise.

sensu::enterprise_dashboard

Installs and configures Sensu Enterprise Dashboard.

sensu::enterprise_dashboard_service

Enables and starts Sensu Enterprise Dashboard.

Attributes

Installation

node["sensu"]["version"] - Sensu build to install.

node["sensu"]["use_unstable_repo"] - If the build resides on the
“unstable” repository.

node["sensu"]["apt_repo_codename"] - Override LSB release codename
detected by ohai for purposes of configuring the apt repository definition.

node["sensu"]["yum_repo_releasever"] - Override $releasever string
used in yum repository definition.

node['sensu']['yum_flush_cache'] - Override chefs in memory cache of yum cache during a chef-client run. For more information see here.

node["sensu"]["directory"] - Sensu configuration directory.

node["sensu"]["log_directory"] - Sensu log directory.

node["sensu"]["log_level"] - Sensu log level (eg. “warn”).

node["sensu"]["log_rotate_file_size"] - Windows only attribute to tell winsw to rotate log file when size reaches this.

node["sensu"]["log_rotate_file_keep"] - Windows only attribute to tell winsw to keep x number of log files on disk.

node["sensu"]["use_ssl"] - If Sensu and RabbitMQ are to use SSL.

node["sensu"]["user"] - The user who owns all sensu files and directories. Default
“sensu”.

node["sensu"]["group"] - The group that owns all sensu files and directories.
Default “sensu”.

node["sensu"]["use_embedded_ruby"] - If Sensu Ruby handlers and plugins
use the embedded Ruby in the Sensu package (default: true).

node["sensu"]["service_max_wait"] - How long service scripts should wait
for Sensu to start/stop.

node["sensu"]["loaded_tempfile_dir"] - Where Sensu stores temporary files. Set a persistent directory if you use hardened system that cleans temporary directory regularly.

Windows

Sensu requires Microsoft’s .Net Framework to run on Windows. The following attributes influence the installation of .Net via this cookbook:

node["sensu"]["windows"]["install_dotnet"] - Toggles installation of .Net Framework using ms_dotnet cookbook. (default: true)

node["sensu"]["windows"]["dotnet_major_version"] - Major version of .Net Framework to install. (default: 4)

Adjusting the value of dotnet_major_version attribute will influence which
recipe from ms_dotnet cookbook will be included. See ms_dotnet cookbook
for additional details on using this cookbook.

Transport

node["sensu"]["transport"]["name"] - Name of transport to use for Sensu communications. Default “rabbitmq”

RabbitMQ

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["hosts"] - Array of RabbitMQ hosts as strings, which will be combined with other RabbitMQ attributes to generate the Sensu RabbitMQ transport configuration as an array of hashes. Falls back to node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["host"] when empty. Defaults to an empty array.

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["host"] - RabbitMQ host.

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["port"] - RabbitMQ port, usually for SSL.

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["ssl"] - RabbitMQ SSL configuration, DO NOT EDIT THIS.

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["vhost"] - RabbitMQ vhost for Sensu.

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["user"] - RabbitMQ user for Sensu.

node["sensu"]["rabbitmq"]["password"] - RabbitMQ password for Sensu.

Redis

node["sensu"]["redis"]["host"] - Redis host.

node["sensu"]["redis"]["port"] - Redis port.

Sensu API

node["sensu"]["api"]["host"] - Sensu API host, for other services to reach it.

node["sensu"]["api"]["bind"] - Sensu API bind address.

node["sensu"]["api"]["port"] - Sensu API port.

Sensu Enterprise

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["repo_protocol"] - Sensu Enterprise repo protocol (e.g. http, https)

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["repo_host"] - Sensu Enterprise repo host

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["version"] - Desired Sensu Enterprise package version

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["use_unstable_repo"] - Toggle use of Sensu Enterprise unstable repository

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["log_level"] - Configure Sensu Enterprise log level

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["heap_size"] - Configure Sensu Enterprise heap size

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["heap_dump_path"] - Configure path where Sensu Enterprise will store heap dumps. Directory path will be managed by Chef. Honored by Enterprise version 2.0.0 and newer.

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["java_opts"] - Specify additional Java options when running Sensu Enterprise

node["sensu"]["enterprise"]["max_open_files"] - Specify maxiumum number of file handles. Honored by Enterprise version 1.7.2 and newer.

Custom Resources (LWRPs)

Define a client

sensu_client node["name"] do
  address node["ipaddress"]
  subscriptions node["roles"] + ["all"]
  additional(:cluster => node["cluster"])
end

The sensu_client provider also supports the following optional attributes:

• deregister
• deregistration
• keepalive
• keepalives
• redact
• registration
• safe_mode
• socket

Define a handler

sensu_handler "pagerduty" do
  type "pipe"
  command "pagerduty.rb"
  severities ["ok", "critical"]
end

Define a check

sensu_check "redis_process" do
  command "check-procs.rb -p redis-server -C 1"
  handlers ["default"]
  subscribers ["redis"]
  interval 30
  additional(:notification => "Redis is not running", :occurrences => 5)
end

The sensu_check provider supports the following attributes:

• additional
• aggregate
• aggregates
• command
• cron
• handle
• handlers
• high_flap_threshold
• interval
• low_flap_threshold
• publish
• source
• subdue
• standalone
• subscribers
• timeout
• ttl
• type

Define a filter

sensu_filter "environment" do
  attributes(:client => {:environment => "development"})
  days(
    :all => [{ :begin => "05:00 PM", :end => "09:00 AM" }}],
    :saturday => [{ :begin => "09:00 AM", :end => "05:00 PM" }],
    :sunday => [{ :begin => "09:00 AM", :end => "05:00 PM" }]
  )
  negate true
end

Define a mutator

sensu_mutator "opentsdb" do
  command "opentsdb.rb"
end

Define a custom configuration snippet

sensu_snippet "irc" do
  content(:uri => "irc://sensu:password@irc.freenode.net:6667#channel")
end

Install plugins

# define a hash of plugins (gems) WITH VERSIONS PINNED
default['MY_CUSTOM_NAMESPACE']['sensu']['plugins'] = {
  ## pretty much all checks rely on this
  'sensu-plugin' => '2.1.0',
  ## check consul
  'sensu-plugins-consul' => '1.4.1',
  ## check cpu
  'sensu-plugins-cpu-checks' => '1.1.2',
  ## check disks
  'sensu-plugins-disk-checks' => '2.4.0',
  ## check disks
  'sensu-plugins-http' => '2.6.0',
  ## check elasticsearch
  'sensu-plugins-elasticsearch' => '1.5.1',
  ## check load
  'sensu-plugins-load-checks' => '3.0.0',
  ## check memory
  'sensu-plugins-memory-checks' => '3.0.2',
  ## check network
  'sensu-plugins-network-checks' => '2.0.1',
  ## check processes
  'sensu-plugins-process-checks' => '2.4.0',
  ## check rabbitmq
  'sensu-plugins-rabbitmq' => '3.2.0',
  ## check redis
  'sensu-plugins-redis' => '2.0.0',
  ## check chef
  'sensu-plugins-chef' => '3.0.2',
  'hashie' => '3.5.6',
  ## check nginx
  'sensu-plugins-nginx' => '2.2.0'
}
# loop over each gem and install it into the sensu embedded ruby
node['MY_CUSTOM_NAMESPACE']['sensu']['plugins'].each do |plugin, version|
  sensu_gem plugin do
    version version
  end
end

To install gems with a Ruby other than the Sensu embedded Ruby, use Chef’s gem_package in stead of sensu_gem.

Helper modules and methods

Run State Helpers

The Sensu::ChefRunState module provides helper methods which populate node.run_state['sensu'] with arbitrary key/value pairs. This provides a means for wrapper cookbooks to populate the node.run_state with data required by the cookbook, e.g. SSL credentials, without cookbook itself enforcing source for that data.

NOTE: The node.run_state is not persisted locally nor on a Chef server. Data stored here exists only for the duration of the Chef run.

set_sensu_state

This method sets values inside the node.run_state['sensu'] Mash, and expects arguments in the following order:

1. the Chef node object
2. one or more keys, providing the path to walk
3. the value to set at that path

Example:

set_sensu_state(node, 'food', 'nachos', true)

The above sets the value of node.run_state['sensu']['food']['nachos'] to true.

get_sensu_state

This method retrieves the value of a key inside the node.run_state['sensu'] Mash and expects arguments in the following order:

1. the Chef node object
2. one or more keys, providing the path to walk

Examples:

get_sensu_state(node, 'food', 'nachos') would return true

When no value is set for a requested path, this method returns nil:

get_sensu_state(node, 'this', 'path', 'is', 'invalid') returns nil

Support

Please visit sensuapp.org/support for details on community and commercial
support resources, including the official IRC channel.

Build and Release

For maintainers looking to release new versions of this cookbook you should follow this process:

1. Add any README.md and CHANGELOG.md changes with links to Pull Requests. Commit this to develop branch.
2. Update CHANGELOG.md with new version header and update diff links.
3. Create a commit to then tag for release I would suggest something like this git commit -am 'prep for v$MAJOR.$MINOR.$RELEASE release'. Commit this to develop and make sure that everything is good to go (ci passing and such).
4. Push from develop to master: git push origin develop:master
5. checkout master branch and pull in changes: git checkout master && git pull
6. Create a tagged release: hub release create v$MAJOR.$MINOR.$PATCH this should prompt you in an editor to modify the tag message. I typically leave it default, but feel free to include any useful release notes.
7. Use the stove command to push the newly versioned cookbook to the supermarket: stove --no-git. This assumes that you have installed stove, properly configured authentication, and have been granted access to the supermarket.
8. Optionally but recommended to update any associated PRs with a release link.