I am new at learning the Nagios of 4.4.6 version. I have configured host configuration and service configuration in my Nagios CLI and restarted then everything updated on Nagios Web GUI (localhost/nagiosxi).
When I was updating "contact" in web GUI, it is updating on Nagios CLI of /usr/local/nagios/etc/contacts.cfg. But when I was configured my own "contact" in /usr/local/nagios/etc/contacts.cfg it has not been updating on web GUI.
Copy existing /usr/local/nagios/etc/contacts.cfg into /usr/local/nagios/etc/import. Change anything, add anything, then do "Apply Configuration". The file will be removed from the import folder, all new contacs will appear in contacts.cfg. All changes will also be applied. However, you cannot remove contacts using this procedure.
If you make any mistake in the cfg file, the existing configuration will not be changed (the revert mechanism will be used) but your cfg file will be removed from /usr/local/nagios/etc/import. Just have a spare copy somewhere.
Tested on recent Nagios XI 5.8.4.