## Object Configuration Data

What is Object Data?

Object data is simply a generic term I use to describe various data definitions you need in order to monitor anything. Types of object definitions include:

- Services
- Hosts
- Host Groups
- Contacts
- Contact Groups
- Commands
- Time Periods
- Service Escalations
- Service Dependencies
- Host Escalations
- Host Dependencies
- Hostgroup Escalations

How Do You Define Object Data?

That all depends on how you compiled the core program and CGIs. Or more correctly, it depends on what options you supplied to the configure script before you compiled everything. There are two different methods for storing object definitions. They are...

- Old "default" method - This is the old style of configuring objects and is provided for backward compatabilty only. I do not recommend using this method for storing object definitions. Note that although this is call the "default" method for historical reasons, Nagios defaults to using the template-based method (described below) unless you specifically compile it with this method.
- Template-based method - This is the new style of configuring object definitions that is flexible and easy to understand. You can use templates to define entries for multiple hosts, services, etc quickly and easily.