Easy monitoring with Checkmk
Activating Changes
Finally, you need to activate the changes by clicking on the highlighted field with the yellow ! at the top right corner that counts the number of changes. After that, click on Activate on selected sites, and you will have successfully added the first host to your monitoring.
The activation of changes is a safety mechanism. All changes made will be listed under Pending changes (Figure 7). You can review any listed changes before they affect your monitoring. Checkmk differentiates between the Setup menu as a configuration environment, in which you manage the hosts, services and settings, and the Monitor menu, in which the actual operational monitoring takes place. New hosts and other changes in the configuration initially have no effect on the monitoring. You need to activate these before they can go into production.
You find your host now under Monitor | Overview | All hosts. Click on a host, and you will see an overview of all the monitoring services of that host. Figure 8 shows the overview of my router. You can click on each service to see more details.
Conclusion
This article is intended as a proof of concept. I used the SNMP monitoring agent in the example because SNMP is supported on most home routers. However, be aware that there are some security concerns with SNMP. The US government Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommends that you only use SNMPv3 and has outlined additional precautions [6].
This tutorial ends here, but your real experience with monitoring has only just begun. If you want to continue, you should add your host server to the monitoring as well. Checkmk provides some lightweight, but powerful monitoring agents for server monitoring. You will find the agents for various operating systems, such as Windows and a number of Linux distributions, via the sidebar by clicking on Setup | Agents | Linux.
After you install, the procedure is similar: Add the host that you want to monitor, but you can leave the box Checkmk agent/API integrations unchecked and should not switch that to SNMP. By default, Checkmk assumes you are using Checkmk agents to monitor systems.
The Checkmk documentation [7], as well as in the official Checkmk forum [8], will provide answers for all your Checkmk questions.
Infos
- Checkmk: https://checkmk.com
- Nagios: https://www.nagios.org/
- Checkmk download: https://checkmk.com/download?edition=cre&version=stable&dist=ubuntu&os=focal
- OMD: https://omdistro.org/
- "Network Monitoring with Checkmk": https://checkmk.com/blog/network-monitoring-with-checkmk-2-0
- Reducing the Risk of SNMP Abuse: https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/TA17-156A
- Checkmk documentation: https://docs.checkmk.com/latest/en/
- Checkmk user forum: https://forum.checkmk.com/
« Previous 1 2
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.
-
Kodi 21.0 Open-Source Entertainment Hub Released
After a year of development, the award-winning Kodi cross-platform, media center software is now available with many new additions and improvements.
-
Linux Usage Increases in Two Key Areas
If market share is your thing, you'll be happy to know that Linux is on the rise in two areas that, if they keep climbing, could have serious meaning for Linux's future.
-
Vulnerability Discovered in xz Libraries
An urgent alert for Fedora 40 has been posted and users should pay attention.
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs