Dear Lazyweb,

When my NRPE host goes down, I get email notifications for dozens of services. But all of my services have dependencies, so I should be getting one email. What am I doing wrong?

For example: the "ntp" service on host "cerebellum" depends on the "ping" service on host "cerebellum":

 define service{
        register                        0
        name              generic-service
        ...
        notification_options      w,c,f,r  ; notify on warn,crit,flap,recover
        check_interval                  5  ; check every N minutes
        retry_interval                0.5  ; check every N min when not "OK"
        max_check_attempts             10  ; notify after 5 min
                                           ; (later than host checks)
        }

define service{
        register                        0
        name               parent-service
        max_check_attempts              8  ; notify earlier (faster than
                                           ; generic, later than host)
        use                             generic-service
        }

...

define service{
        host_name                       A4:cerebellum
        service_description             ping
        check_command                   check_nrpe_membrane!ping_cerebellum
        use                             parent-service
        }

define service{
        host_name                       A4:cerebellum
        service_description             ntp
        check_command                   check_nrpe_membrane!check_ntp
        use                             generic-service
        }

define servicedependency {
        dependent_host_name             A4:cerebellum
        dependent_service_description   ntp
        host_name                       A4:cerebellum
        service_description             ping
        execution_failure_criteria      n
        notification_failure_criteria   w,u,c
        inherits_parent                 1
        }

("ping" is a service rather than a host check because the Nagios host has to tunnel through another gateway to get there, rather than pinging directly.)

I got these email notifications:

• 8:18:25 ntp critical, service check timed out
• 8:22:27 ping critical, service check timed out
• 8:27:45 ping ok
• 8:29:40 ntp ok

...and repeat for dozens of other services. Then they went critical again, but this time I didn't get email about it. This is as per the "View Availability Report" link instead of the "View Notifications" link:

• 10:20:31 ping critical, service check timed out
• 10:21:10 ntp critical, service check timed out

PS: Thanks, PG&E, for the massive power outage today taking down most of SOMA. You are so good at your job.