icinga2/doc/9-monitoring-remote-systems.md

4.0 KiB

Monitoring Remote Systems

Overview

There's a variety of possibilities to monitor remote servers and services. First off you should decide how your primary monitoring master is able to reach these hosts and services.

  • direct connection querying the service interface (for example http), so-called agent-less checks
  • local checks requiring an additional daemon as communication device for your monitoring server

Agent-less Checks

If the remote service is available using a network protocol and port, and a check plugin is available, you don't necessarily need a local client installed. Rather choose a plugin and configure all parameters and thresholds. The Icinga 2 Template Library already ships various examples like

There are numerous check plugins contributed by community members available on the internet. If you found one for your requirements, integrate them into Icinga 2.

Start your search at

An example is provided in the sample configuration in the getting started section provided by Icinga 2 (hosts.conf, services.conf).

Agent-based Checks

If the remote services are not directly accessible through the network, a local agent installation exposing the results to check queries can become handy.

Icinga 2 itself can be used as agent (client, satellite) in this scenario, but there are also a couple of addons available for this task.

The most famous ones are listed below.

Agent-based Checks for Linux/Unix

The agent runs as daemon and communicates with the master requesting a check being executed or local stored information (SNMP OID). The Icinga 2 client continues to execute checks when the connection dies, and does not need the master as check scheduler like the other listed agents.

  • Icinga 2 Client
  • SSH
  • SNMP
  • NRPE

Agent-based Checks for Windows

The Windows agent runs as administrative service and offers direct plugin execution and/or local check result being sent to the master instance.

  • Icinga 2 Client
  • NSClient++

SNMP could also be used, but was deprecated in Windows Server 2012. Alternatively you can look into the WMI interface.