Nagios author Ethan Galstad

The Future of Nagios

Article from ADMIN 04/2011

By Kemel Zaidan

Ethan Galstad visited Sao Paulo Brazil in April for the Nagios Latin America Conference. In his first visit to the country and Latin America, Ethan gave an exclusive interview to our the Linux Magazine Brazilian edition and told us a bit about the history of Nagios – perhaps one of the most successful stories in open source network software.

Linux Magazine: Tell us a little bit about yourself – how did you get started as a developer?

Ethan Galstad: I started as a network and systems administrator. I went to the University of Minnesota for computer science, but I also liked hardware and networking. My first job was as a network administrator, but I actually liked developing software, and that's I think why a monitoring solution like Nagios is really a nice fit; it's a combination of systems and networking and development. It's what I like to do.

LM: Why did you start to develop Nagios? When did the idea come to you?

EG: First in 1996. Actually, it was my first job in network administration, and at the place where I was working, we used to have our IT team meetings at a local bar, a pub, and drink and talk. And, at one of our meetings, the servers back at the office crashed, and nobody knew where we were, and so we got into a lot of trouble.

They said, "you can't have the meetings at the bar anymore," so I started thinking, well, I need a solution to monitor them, so I know when they're up or down. That's when the idea first came to me, and I wrote a very early program in 1996. It wasn't until 1999 that I decided … actually, I was looking at starting a company that would offer monitoring services.

LM: You started a company?

EG: I was going to. I wanted to start a company that would offer monitoring services, and the software that was out there didn't do what I wanted it to do, so I thought, well, I will take the idea I had before and try to use that application. I ended up not starting the company, but I'd already written the first version of Nagios and I released it. Honestly, I didn't think more than 10 or 12 people would use it. I didn't think anyone would find it interesting,

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