Skip to content

comparison.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
156 lines (125 loc) · 7.92 KB

comparison.md

File metadata and controls

156 lines (125 loc) · 7.92 KB
Raw

OrbVis vs. NagVis

A practical comparison for users and admins evaluating OrbVis as a NagVis successor. This is opinionated and pragmatic — not marketing.

TL;DR

OrbVis covers the everyday NagVis workflow (boards, hosts/services, lines, weathermaps, hover info, context menus) with a modern stack and real-time updates over Server-Sent Events. A handful of NagVis features are not yet present (see Missing). For most installs the result is a strict upgrade; for installs that depend on the missing features, OrbVis is not a drop-in replacement yet.

Stack

Aspect NagVis OrbVis
Backend language PHP 7+ Python 3.12 + FastAPI
Frontend stack Vanilla JS, jQuery Vue 3 + TypeScript + Vite
Map storage .cfg files JSON files
Auth store SQLite (auth.db) SQLite (stdlib sqlite3)
State delivery Polling via AJAX (~10 s) SSE push (default 15 s)
Backend protocol Livestatus, mklivestatus Livestatus (asyncio), Icinga2
RBAC model mod / act / obj triples mod / act / obj triples (same)
Code base size ~52 kLOC PHP + JS ~30 kLOC Py + ~25 kLOC TS
License GPL-2.0-only GPL-2.0-only
Active development NagVis 1.9.49 (Apr 2024) 1 Active

Feature parity

Legend: ✅ done · 🟡 partial / different · ❌ not yet · ➕ new in OrbVis.

Boards & objects

Feature NagVis OrbVis
Static map with background image ✅ ✅
Host / service / hostgroup / servicegroup icons ✅ ✅
Lines (plain, arrow, dashed) ✅ ✅
Weathermap lines (bandwidth / metric) ✅ ✅
Textbox ✅ ✅
Image / shape ✅ ✅
Map links between boards ✅ ✅
Geo map (lat / lng) with Leaflet 🟡 2 ✅
Force-directed topology (Flow board) ❌ ➕
Severity grid (Radar board) ❌ ➕
Folder tree as treemap (Folder board) ❌ ➕
Design-first slide editor (Presentation board) 🟡 3 ➕
Multi-select + bulk move ❌ ➕
Drag-drop reorder of boards on home screen ❌ ➕
Inline edit panel (vs. modal-only edit) ❌ ➕

Live data

Feature NagVis OrbVis
Livestatus (Unix socket) ✅ ✅
Livestatus (TCP) ✅ ✅
Multiple backends per OrbVis instance ✅ ✅
Real-time push (Server-Sent Events) ❌ ➕
Acknowledged + downtime indicators ✅ ✅
only_hard_states, recognize_services ✅ ✅
BI aggregations (Checkmk Business Intelligence) ✅ 4 ✅ 4

Auth & permissions

Feature NagVis OrbVis
Built-in user/role management (standalone mode) ✅ ✅
Checkmk SSO via auth cookie 🟡 ✅
htpasswd verification (multiple hash formats) 🟡 ✅
RBAC (mod / act / obj) — standalone ✅ ✅
WATO-driven permissions in OMD mode 5 ❌ ➕
Per-board view/edit/use/configure roles ✅ ✅
LDAP ✅ ❌
OAuth / SAML ❌ ❌

UX & accessibility

Feature NagVis OrbVis
Light / dark theme 🟡 ✅
Configurable hover template ✅ ✅
Configurable context menu ✅ ✅
Auto-rotation of board links (kiosk mode) ✅ ✅
Mobile-friendly UI ❌ 🟡 3
Checkmk visual integration (sidebar snapin) ❌ ✅

Operations

Feature NagVis OrbVis
OMD-site native packaging ✅ ✅ (MKP)
.deb / .rpm packages for standalone ❌ ✅
Docker / docker-compose 🟡 ✅
Hot-reload of map files ✅ ✅
Database-free map storage (JSON / .cfg) ✅ ✅
Audit log 🟡 ❌
API for automation 🟡 ✅ (FastAPI / OpenAPI)

Missing features (we want these too)

These are the most-requested NagVis features that OrbVis does not yet have. PRs welcome.

  • LDAP authentication — Checkmk SSO covers most OMD users; standalone installs that rely on LDAP currently can't use OrbVis.
  • Audit log — NagVis keeps a structured edit log; OrbVis logs at application level only.
  • All NagVis stock gadgets — only the most common (gauge, bar) are recognised by the importer. Custom gadgets fall back to icons.
  • Plug-in architecture — NagVis allows custom map sources / actions via PHP plugins; OrbVis does not yet expose an extension point.

When to choose OrbVis today

Pick OrbVis if you want:

  • Real-time updates (Server-Sent Events) instead of polling
  • A modern, type-safe codebase that's easier to extend
  • A force-directed topology view or a severity radar
  • Tight Checkmk visual integration (sidebar snapin, menu entry, SSO)
  • Native geo lines between two coordinates
  • A maintained project for the next few years

Stick with NagVis (for now) if you depend on:

  • LDAP authentication (no Checkmk SSO option)
  • Custom PHP gadgets / plugins
  • A specific NagVis-only feature listed under Missing above

Footnotes

  1. NagVis upstream releases have slowed considerably in recent years. OrbVis exists in part to give the community a forward-looking option without forking NagVis. ↩

  2. NagVis has Worldmap (OpenStreetMap-backed) but lat/lng support is limited to point objects; lines between two geo coordinates are OrbVis-only. ↩

  3. NagVis places shapes and gadgets on a map background, but OrbVis's Presentation board is a dedicated design-first editor (template gallery, connect-data walkthrough, drag-and-drop data browser). Experimental in 0.6.0. ↩ ↩2

  4. NagVis ships an mkbi backend that polls the Multisite view.py?view_name=aggr_all_api JSON endpoint per request. OrbVis runs cmk.bi.compiler / cmk.bi.computer in-process when deployed inside an OMD site, which avoids the HTTP round-trip and exposes the full aggregation tree. ↩ ↩2

  5. Inside an OMD site, OrbVis delegates board permissions to Checkmk's WATO permission system (orbvis.view_*, orbvis.edit_*). The internal mod/act/obj role table is only used in standalone deployments. See docs/install.md#permissions--access-control. ↩