Nagios-NRPE Overview

Execute a plugin on a client and have the results returned as if the plugin where executed on the server.

Con: There are no pre-configured commands

Con: There is no secure way to specify arguments to the commands in a service defintion, so it is recommended that you define the commands on a per-client basis.

Pro: You can test the availability of network services to the client instead of the server

nagios-statd uses the same port as nrpe you will want to use the equivalent local plugins on the server instead.