Cannot open config file when installing nagios

Question

When trying to setup nagios, I'm running into some errors.

Error: Cannot open config file ‘/usr/local/nagios/etc/hosts.cfg ;new file added ‘ for reading: No such file or directory
Error processing object config files!
One or more problems was encountered while processing the config files…

Check your configuration file(s) to ensure that they contain valid
directives and data definitions. If you are upgrading from a previous
version of Nagios, you should be aware that some variables/definitions
may have been removed or modified in this version. Make sure to read
the HTML documentation regarding the config files, as well as the
‘Whats New’ section to find out what has changed.

My config file is perfect as far as I know, but I can't seem to figure out where the error is coming from.

# Define a host for the remote machine
define host{
 use linux-server ; Name of host template to use
 ; This host definition will inherit all variables that are defined
 ; in (or inherited by) the linux-server host template definition.
 host_name nci-helicarrier.nci.nih.gov
 alias CentOS 6.5
 address 128.231.12.230
 }
# Linux host definition template #
define host{
 name linux-server ; The name of this host template
 use generic-host ; This template inherits other values from the generic-host template
 check_period 24×7 ; By default, Linux hosts are checked round the clock
 check_interval 5 ; Actively check the host every 5 minutes
 retry_interval 1 ; Schedule host check retries at 1 minute intervals
 max_check_attempts 10 ; Check each Linux host 10 times (max)
 check_command check-host-alive ; Default command to check Linux hosts
 notification_period workhours ; Linux admins hate to be woken up, so we only notify during the day
 ; Note that the notification_period variable is being overridden from
 ; the value that is inherited from the generic-host template!
 notification_interval 120 ; Resend notifications every 2 hours
 notification_options d,u,r ; Only send notifications for specific host states
 contact_groups admins ; Notifications get sent to the admins by default
 register 1 ; DONT REGISTER THIS DEFINITION – ITS NOT A REAL HOST, JUST A TEMPLATE!
 }

Even the objects configuration file seems perfect:

# OBJECT CONFIGURATION FILE(S)
 # These are the object configuration files in which you define hosts,
 # host groups, contacts, contact groups, services, etc.
 # You can split your object definitions across several config files
 # if you wish (as shown below), or keep them all in a single config file.
# You can specify individual object config files as shown below:
 cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg
 cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg
 cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/timeperiods.cfg
 cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/templates.cfg
 cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/hosts.cfg ;new file added
 cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/services.cfg ;new file added
# Definitions for monitoring the local (Linux) host

I can't seem to find the issue here.

1. the file is readable
2. its labelled right
3. The only thing i changed on it was the (hostname, alias and IP address).

Does anyone know what's going wrong here?

Solution

cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/hosts.cfg ;new file added
cfg_file=/usr/local/nagios/etc/services.cfg ;new file added

It seems as if you made the incorrect assumption that you can add a comment to a line using the ; character. Remove those comments and try again.