Knowing how an IT infrastructure works it is vital for eradicating certain errors and inappropriate behavior. But to know how it works, complex applications are required to facilitate this task. Today we will tell you about one of them. Today you will learn how to install Checkmk on Debian 10. / Ubuntu 20.04
Checkmk is a very complete application created with Python and C++ that allows monitoring a whole IT infrastructure. This includes web servers, database managers, containers and more network services. It works with one server and on each computer, you have to install an agent.
With Checkmk you can have the very own characteristics of any monitoring system but also very particular ones. For example, you can monitor anything thanks to more than 1800 plugins which are compatible with Checkmk.
On the other hand, you will not lose any data thanks to the graphics and metrics you can analyze the behavior of the network. Alternatively use exporters for Graphite / InfluxDBl which even further increases the potential of the application.
There are really many important features and it is possible to read them from this link.
So, let’s get started.
Install Checkmk on Debian 10 / 20.04
The Checkmk development team provides us with a DEB package for Debian 10 / Ubuntu 20.04 which makes the installation much easier.
So, navigate to the tmp folder and from there download using the wget command.
For Debian 10:
:~$ cd /tmp/ :~$ wget -c https://download.checkmk.com/checkmk/1.6.0p20/check-mk-raw-1.6.0p20_0.buster_amd64.deb
For Ubuntu 20.04:
:~$ cd /tmp/ :~$ wget -c wget -c https://download.checkmk.com/checkmk/1.6.0p20/check-mk-raw-1.6.0p20_0.focal_amd64.deb
Now we can start the installation.
As the Checkmk package needs some dependencies, it’s better not to install it using dpkg but APT or Gdebi. As you may not have Gdebi installed, then we will use dpkg.
For Debian 10:
:~$ sudo apt install ./check-mk-raw-1.6.0p20_0.buster_amd64.deb
During the installation process, you will be asked a configuration question about the samba service. In this case, I answered NO.
In the end, you will see a final message as in the image below.
For Ubuntu 20.04:
sudo apt install ./check-mk-raw-1.6.0p20_0.focal_amd64.deb
Now, Checkmk works by creating a new instance on the server. This instance is created by executing a command. To know which are the available commands:
:~$ sudo omd Usage (called as root): omd help Show general help omd setversion VERSION Sets the default version of OMD which will be used by new sites omd version [SITE] Show version of OMD omd versions List installed OMD versions omd sites Show list of sites omd create SITE Create a new site (-u UID, -g GID) omd init SITE Populate site directory with default files and enable the site omd rm SITE Remove a site (and its data) omd disable SITE Disable a site (stop it, unmount tmpfs, remove Apache hook) omd enable SITE Enable a site (reenable a formerly disabled site) omd mv SITE NEWNAME Rename a site omd cp SITE NEWNAME Make a copy of a site omd update SITE Update site to other version of OMD omd start [SITE] [SERVICE] Start services of one or all sites omd stop [SITE] [SERVICE] Stop services of site(s) omd restart [SITE] [SERVICE] Restart services of site(s) omd reload [SITE] [SERVICE] Reload services of site(s) omd status [SITE] [SERVICE] Show status of services of site(s) omd config SITE … Show and set site configuration parameters omd diff SITE ([RELBASE]) Shows differences compared to the original version files omd su SITE Run a shell as a site-user omd umount [SITE] Umount ramdisk volumes of site(s) omd backup SITE [SITE] [-|ARCHIVE_PATH] Create a backup tarball of a site, writing it to a file or stdout omd restore [SITE] [-|ARCHIVE_PATH] Restores the backup of a site to an existing site or creates a new site omd cleanup Uninstall all Check_MK versions that are not used by any site. General Options: -V set specific version, useful in combination with update/create omd COMMAND -h, --help show available options of COMMAND
And to create the new instantiation, execute the following command:
:~$ sudo omd create monsvrs Adding /opt/omd/sites/monsvrs/tmp to /etc/fstab. Creating temporary filesystem /omd/sites/monsvrs/tmp…OK Restarting Apache…OK Created new site monsvrs with version 1.6.0p11.cre. The site can be started with omd start monsvrs. The default web UI is available at http://osradar/monsvrs/ The admin user for the web applications is cmkadmin with password: gTLqW8cC (It can be changed with 'htpasswd -m ~/etc/htpasswd cmkadmin' as site user. ) Please do a su - monsvrs for administration of this site.
You can replace monsvrs by your instance name.
In the message, you will see the address you have to access from the web browser as well as the username and password of the administrator user.
Then, you have to start the newly created instance:
:~$ sudo omd start monsvrs Starting mkeventd…OK Starting rrdcached…OK Starting npcd…OK Starting nagios…OK Starting apache…OK Initializing Crontab…OK
Finally, open your favorite web browser and go to the address the installer gave you. It also works with the IP address of the server. You will see the following:
Enter the username and password you were given and you will see the following:
That’s it, the instance is now complete. Soon we will install the agent on another computer and add it.
Conclusion
Checkmk is a software wonder and only with it, you can monitor an entire IT infrastructure. That’s how fast and easy it is. Thanks to the many plug-ins you can even extend the potential of the application further.
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