[Nagiosplug-help] Using a hostgroup as the host object in service definitions

[Mike Feetham]

I've searched around to see if this is somehow possible, but can't seem to
find anything.  We have several hostgroups that contain servers/equipment
for various teams within our IT department.

I would like to set up a service (let's use a basic PING for example) that
will run for each host within a hostgroup.  I know you can specify "*" in
the hostname for a service, and it will run that service check for every
host object.  But this means the same contact group(s) gets alerted for
every host.

Let's say we have a UNIX hostgroup, an NT hostgroup and a NETWORK hostgroup.
I would like to create one service called "PING-UNIX" that will check each
host in the UNIX hostgroup and notify the UNIX contact group if there are
any alerts.  Then another service would do the same for the NT group, and a
third for the NETWORK group.

I have tried simply using the hostgroup in the host_name field, but that
doesn't work.

Can anyone tell me if what I'm trying to do is possible?  Or is there an
easy way to script this?

We end up adding and removing hosts to groups on a weekly basis, and I would
like to avoid constantly updating services as well.

TIA,

Mike