Nagios, 2nd Edition

13.3 Passive Host Checks

Passive host checks follow the same principle as passive service checks, except that they involve computers and not services. To allow them globally, the accept_passive_host_checks parameter is set in nagios.cfg to 1:

# /etc/nagios/nagios.cfg
...
accept_passive_host_checks=1
...

In addition, the host definition for the computer to be monitored passively must allow this kind of host check:

define host{
    host_name                       linux01
    passive_checks_enabled          1
    active_checks_enabled           0
    check_period                    none
    check_command                   check_dummy
    ...
}

In this example it simultaneously forbids active checks.

The command to be sent through the external interface with which the computer delivers its test results differs here only marginally from the syntax used ...