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sensu (66) Versions 0.8.0

Installs/Configures Sensu

cookbook 'sensu', '= 0.8.0'
cookbook 'sensu', '= 0.8.0', :supermarket
knife supermarket install sensu
knife supermarket download sensu
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Provides LWRP's and service recipes to install and configure Sensu, a monitoring framework.

This cookbook provides the 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


This cookbook comes with a Gemfile, Cheffile, and a Vagrantfile for testing and evaluating Sensu.

cd examples
gem install bundler
bundle install
librarian-chef install
vagrant up
vagrant ssh



SSL configuration

Running Sensu with SSL is recommended; this cookbook uses a data bag sensu, with an item ssl, containing the SSL certificates required. Sensu data bag items may be encrypted. This cookbook comes with a tool to generate the certificates and data bag item. If the integrity of the certificates is ever compromised, you must regenerate and redeploy them.

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

Use the plain-text data bag item:

knife data bag from file sensu ssl.json

Or, encrypted 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
./ clean



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.


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.


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


Enables and starts the Sensu server.


Enables and starts the Sensu client.


Enables and starts the Sensu API.


Enables and starts the Sensu dashboard.



node.sensu.version - Sensu build to install.

node.sensu.use_unstable_repo - If the build resides on the "unstable" repository. - Sensu configuration directory.

node.sensu.log_directory - Sensu log directory.

node.sensu.log_level - Sensu log level (eg. "warn").

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

node.sensu.use_embedded_ruby - If Sensu Ruby handlers and plugins use the embedded Ruby in the Sensu package.

node.sensu.init_style - Style of init to be used when configuring Sensu services, "sysv" and "runit" are currently supported.

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

RabbitMQ - 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 - Redis host.

node.sensu.redis.port - Redis port.

Sensu API - 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 Dashboard

node.sensu.dashboard.bind - Sensu Dashboard bind address.

node.sensu.dashboard.port - Sensu Dashboard port.

node.sensu.dashboard.user - Sensu basic authentication username.

node.sensu.dashboard.password - Sensu basic authentication password.


Define a client

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

Define a handler

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

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)

Define a filter

sensu_filter "environment" do
  attributes(:client => {:environment => "development"})
  negate true

Define a mutator

sensu_mutator "opentsdb" do
  command "opentsdb.rb"

Define a custom configuration snippet

sensu_snippet "irc" do
  content(:uri => "irc://")


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

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