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How to install the Linuxfabrik Monitoring Plugins Collection

Platform Install When Installation Instructions
Linux rpm/deb package (recommended) Want to use OS package manager and have distro that uses rpm/deb package formats See https://repo.linuxfabrik.ch/monitoring-plugins/
Linux zip Don't want to use OS package manager or have distro that uses package formats other than rpm/deb and can't run Python 3.9+ See Installation on Linux in this document
Linux Source Code Want to use the latest development version and Python 3.9+ available See Run from Source in this document
Windows Binaries from msi (recommended) Want to use OS package manager Get the 'signed-packaged' msi file from Linuxfabrik's Download Server and run it. Note: Icinga2 Agent is required.
Windows Binaries from zip Don't want to use OS package manager Get the 'signed-compiled' zip file from Linuxfabrik's Download Server and unpack it to a folder of your choice, usually C:\Program Files\icinga2\sbin\linuxfabrik
Windows Source Code Want to use the latest development version and Python 3.9+ available See Run from Source in this document
Any Using Ansible Want to automate the installation process See the LFOps Ansible Role linuxfabrik.lfops.monitoring_plugins

Installation on Linux

You will need to install Python 3.9+ on the remote host and set it as the default. Get the zip file from Linuxfabrik's Download Server and unpack it to a folder of your choice, usually /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins

On Linux, some check plugins require sudo-permissions to run. To do this, we provide sudoers files for various operating system families in monitoring-plugins/assets/sudoers, for example RedHat.sudoers. The file name is compatible to ansible_facts['os_family']. You need to place this file in /etc/sudoers.d/ on the target host.

Currently available:

  • Debian.sudoers: for Debian, Raspbian, Ubuntu (and maybe more)
  • RedHat.sudoers: for Alma, Amazon, Ascendos, CentOS, CloudLinux, Fedora, OEL, OracleLinux, OVS, PSBM, RedHat, Rocky Linux, Scientific, SLC, XenServer (and maybe more)

Run from Source

Below, we describe an example installation method on Linux only.

You will need to install Python 3.9+ on the remote host and set it as the default.

Clone the monitoring check plugins from the Linuxfabrik Git repository to your local machine or deployment host:

# https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins/releases
release=1.2.3

git clone https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins.git
cd monitoring-plugins
git checkout tags/$release
cd ..

Copy one or more of the Python check plugins to the /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins directory. For example, you can do this by following these steps on your deployment host:

plugin_source_dir=/path/to/monitoring-plugins/check-plugins
remote_user=root
remote_host=192.0.2.74
remote_target_dir=/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins

ssh $remote_user@$remote_host "sudo mkdir -p $remote_target_dir/lib"
for dir in $(find $plugin_source_dir -maxdepth 1 -type d); do
    file=$(basename $dir)
    rsync \
        --archive \
        --progress \
        --human-readable \
        --rsync-path='sudo rsync' \
        $dir/$file \
        $remote_user@$remote_host:/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/${file}
done
scp $plugin_source_dir/../requirements.txt $remote_user@$remote_host:/tmp

Once installation/copying is complete, the directory on the remote host should resemble the following:

/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins
├── about-me
├── apache-httpd-status
├── apache-httpd-version
├── ...
└── xml

Wherever possible, we try to avoid dependencies on third-party OS or Python libraries. If we need to use additional libraries for various reasons, such as psutil, we stick with the official versions. The easiest way to install them is using your package manager (rpm or pip, for example, depending on your environment). On the remote machine, this may involve switching to the "icinga" user.

sudo -u icinga python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pip
sudo -u icinga python3 -m pip install --user --requirement /tmp/requirements.txt --require-hashes

To make SELinux happy on RHEL and compatible systems, run:

restorecon -Fvr /usr/lib64/nagios
setsebool -P nagios_run_sudo on