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
-
Fedora 39 Beta is Now Available for Testing
For fans and users of Fedora Linux, the first beta of release 39 is now available, which is a minor upgrade but does include GNOME 45.
-
Fedora Linux 40 to Drop X11 for KDE Plasma
When Fedora 40 arrives in 2024, there will be a few big changes coming, especially for the KDE Plasma option.
-
Real-Time Ubuntu Available in AWS Marketplace
Anyone looking for a Linux distribution for real-time processing could do a whole lot worse than Real-Time Ubuntu.
-
KSMBD Finally Reaches a Stable State
For those who've been looking forward to the first release of KSMBD, after two years it's no longer considered experimental.
-
Nitrux 3.0.0 Has Been Released
The latest version of Nitrux brings plenty of innovation and fresh apps to the table.
-
Linux From Scratch 12.0 Now Available
If you're looking to roll your own Linux distribution, the latest version of Linux From Scratch is now available with plenty of updates.
-
Linux Kernel 6.5 Has Been Released
The newest Linux kernel, version 6.5, now includes initial support for two very exciting features.
-
UbuntuDDE 23.04 Now Available
A new version of the UbuntuDDE remix has finally arrived with all the updates from the Deepin desktop and everything that comes with the Ubuntu 23.04 base.
-
Star Labs Reveals a New Surface-Like Linux Tablet
If you've ever wanted a tablet that rivals the MS Surface, you're in luck as Star Labs has created such a device.
-
SUSE Going Private (Again)
The company behind SUSE Linux Enterprise, Rancher, and NeuVector recently announced that Marcel LUX III SARL (Marcel), its majority shareholder, intends to delist it from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by way of a merger.