Getting Started

This tutorial is a step-by-step introduction to installing Icinga 2 and available Icinga web interfaces. It assumes that you are familiar with the system you're installing Icinga 2 on.

Details on troubleshooting problems can be found here.

Setting up Icinga 2

First off you will have to install Icinga 2. The preferred way of doing this is to use the official package repositories depending on which operating system and distribution you are running.

Distribution	Repository
Debian	Upstream, DebMon, Icinga Repository
Ubuntu	Upstream, Icinga PPA, Icinga Repository
RHEL/CentOS	Icinga Repository
openSUSE	Icinga Repository, Server Monitoring Repository
SLES	Icinga Repository
Gentoo	Upstream
FreeBSD	Upstream
ArchLinux	Upstream

Packages for distributions other than the ones listed above may also be available. Please contact your distribution packagers.

Installing Requirements for Icinga 2

You need to add the Icinga repository to your package management configuration. Below is a list with examples for the various distributions.

Debian (debmon):

# wget -O - http://debmon.org/debmon/repo.key 2>/dev/null | apt-key add -
# cat >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debmon.list<<EOF
deb http://debmon.org/debmon debmon-wheezy main
EOF
# apt-get update

Ubuntu (PPA):

# add-apt-repository ppa:formorer/icinga
# apt-get update

RHEL/CentOS:

# rpm --import http://packages.icinga.org/icinga.key
# wget http://packages.icinga.org/epel/ICINGA-release.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/ICINGA-release.repo
# yum makecache

Fedora:

# wget http://packages.icinga.org/fedora/ICINGA-release.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/ICINGA-release.repo
# yum makecache

SLES:

# zypper ar http://packages.icinga.org/SUSE/ICINGA-release.repo
# zypper ref

openSUSE:

# zypper ar http://packages.icinga.org/openSUSE/ICINGA-release.repo
# zypper ref

The packages for RHEL/CentOS depend on other packages which are distributed as part of the EPEL repository. Please make sure to enable this repository by following these instructions.

Installing Icinga 2

You can install Icinga 2 by using your distribution's package manager to install the icinga2 package.

Debian/Ubuntu:

# apt-get install icinga2

RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:

# yum install icinga2

SLES/openSUSE:

# zypper install icinga2

On RHEL/CentOS and SLES you will need to use chkconfig and service to enable and start the icinga2 service:

# chkconfig icinga2 on
# service icinga2 start

RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora use systemd:

# systemctl enable icinga2
# systemctl start icinga2

Some parts of Icinga 2's functionality are available as separate packages:

Name	Description
icinga2-ido-mysql	DB IDO provider module for MySQL
icinga2-ido-pgsql	DB IDO provider module for PostgreSQL

Enabled Features during Installation

The default installation will enable three features required for a basic Icinga 2 installation:

checker for executing checks
notification for sending notifications
mainlog for writing the icinga2.log file

You can verify that by calling icinga2 feature list CLI command to see which features are enabled and disabled.

# icinga2 feature list
Disabled features: api command compatlog debuglog graphite icingastatus ido-mysql ido-pgsql livestatus notification perfdata statusdata syslog
Enabled features: checker mainlog notification

Installation Paths

By default Icinga 2 uses the following files and directories:

Path	Description
/etc/icinga2	Contains Icinga 2 configuration files.
/etc/init.d/icinga2	The Icinga 2 init script.
/usr/sbin/icinga2*	The Icinga 2 binary.
/usr/share/doc/icinga2	Documentation files that come with Icinga 2.
/usr/share/icinga2/include	The Icinga Template Library and plugin command configuration.
/var/run/icinga2	PID file.
/var/run/icinga2/cmd	Command pipe and Livestatus socket.
/var/cache/icinga2	status.dat/objects.cache, icinga2.debug files
/var/spool/icinga2	Used for performance data spool files.
/var/lib/icinga2	Icinga 2 state file, cluster log, local CA and configuration files.
/var/log/icinga2	Log file location and compat/ directory for the CompatLogger feature.

Setting up Check Plugins

Without plugins Icinga 2 does not know how to check external services. The Monitoring Plugins Project provides an extensive set of plugins which can be used with Icinga 2 to check whether services are working properly.

The recommended way of installing these standard plugins is to use your distribution's package manager.

Note

The Nagios Plugins project was renamed to Monitoring Plugins in January 2014. At the time of this writing some packages are still using the old name while some distributions have adopted the new package name monitoring-plugins already.

For your convenience here is a list of package names for some of the more popular operating systems/distributions:

OS/Distribution	Package Name	Installation Path
RHEL/CentOS (EPEL)	nagios-plugins-all	/usr/lib/nagios/plugins or /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins
Debian	nagios-plugins	/usr/lib/nagios/plugins
FreeBSD	nagios-plugins	/usr/local/libexec/nagios
OS X (MacPorts)	nagios-plugins	/opt/local/libexec

Depending on which directory your plugins are installed into you may need to update the global PluginDir constant in your Icinga 2 configuration. This macro is used by the check command definitions contained in the Icinga Template Library to determine where to find the plugin binaries.

Please refer to the plugins chapter for details about how to integrate additional check plugins into your Icinga 2 setup.

Configuring Icinga 2: First Steps

icinga2.conf

An example configuration file is installed for you in /etc/icinga2/icinga2.conf.

Here's a brief description of the example configuration:

/**
 * Icinga 2 configuration file
 * - this is where you define settings for the Icinga application including
 * which hosts/services to check.
 *
 * For an overview of all available configuration options please refer
 * to the documentation that is distributed as part of Icinga 2.
 */

Icinga 2 supports C/C++-style comments.

/**
 * The constants.conf defines global constants.
 */
include "constants.conf"

The include directive can be used to include other files.

/**
 * The zones.conf defines zones for a cluster setup.
 * Not required for single instance setups.
 */
 include "zones.conf"

/**
 * The Icinga Template Library (ITL) provides a number of useful templates
 * and command definitions.
 * Common monitoring plugin command definitions are included separately.
 */
include <itl>
include <plugins>

/**
 * The features-available directory contains a number of configuration
 * files for features which can be enabled and disabled using the
 * icinga2 feature enable / icinga2 feature disable CLI commands.
 * These commands work by creating and removing symbolic links in
 * the features-enabled directory.
 */
include "features-enabled/*.conf"

This include directive takes care of including the configuration files for all the features which have been enabled with icinga2 feature enable. See Enabling/Disabling Features for more details.

/**
 * The repository.d directory contains all configuration objects
 * managed by the 'icinga2 repository' CLI commands.
 */
include_recursive "repository.d"

This include_recursive directive is used for discovery of services on remote clients and their generated configuration described in this chapter.

/**
 * Although in theory you could define all your objects in this file
 * the preferred way is to create separate directories and files in the conf.d
 * directory. Each of these files must have the file extension ".conf".
 */
include_recursive "conf.d"

You can put your own configuration files in the conf.d directory. This directive makes sure that all of your own configuration files are included.

Tip

The example configuration is shipped in this directory too. You can either remove it entirely, or adapt the existing configuration structure with your own object configuration.

constants.conf

The constants.conf configuration file can be used to define global constants.

By default, you need to make sure to set these constants:

The PluginDir constant must be pointed to your check plugins path. This constant is required by the shipped plugin check command configuration.
The NodeName constant defines your local node name. Should be set to FQDN which is the default if not set. This constant is required for local host configuration, monitoring remote clients and cluster setup.

Example:

/* The directory which contains the plugins from the Monitoring Plugins project. */
const PluginDir = "/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins"


/* The directory which contains the Manubulon plugins.
 * Check the documentation, chapter "SNMP Manubulon Plugin Check Commands", for details.
 */
const ManubulonPluginDir = "/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins"

/* Our local instance name. By default this is the server's hostname as returned by `hostname --fqdn`.
 * This should be the common name from the API certificate.
 */
//const NodeName = "localhost"

/* Our local zone name. */
const ZoneName = NodeName

/* Secret key for remote node tickets */
const TicketSalt = ""

The ZoneName and TicketSalt constants are required for remote client and distributed setups only.

The conf.d Directory

This directory contains example configuration which should help you get started with monitoring the local host and its services. It is included in the icinga2.conf configuration file by default.

It can be used as reference example for your own configuration strategy. Just keep in mind to include the main directories in the icinga2.conf file.

You are certainly not bound to it. Remove it, if you prefer your own way of deploying Icinga 2 configuration.

Further details on configuration best practice and how to build your own strategy is described in this chapter.

Available configuration files shipped by default:

hosts.conf
services.conf
users.conf
notifications.conf
commands.conf
groups.conf
templates.conf
downtimes.conf
timeperiods.conf
satellite.conf

hosts.conf

The hosts.conf file contains an example host based on your NodeName setting in constants.conf. You can use global constants for your object names instead of string values.

The import keyword is used to import the generic-host template which takes care of setting up the host check command to hostalive. If you require a different check command, you can override it in the object definition.

The vars attribute can be used to define custom attributes which are available for check and notification commands. Most of the Plugin Check Commands in the Icinga Template Library require an address attribute.

The custom attribute os is evaluated by the linux-servers group in groups.conf making the local host a member.

The example host will show you how to

define http vhost attributes for the http service apply rule defined in services.conf.
define disks (all, specific /) and their attributes for the disk service apply rule defined in services.conf.
define notification types (mail) and set the groups attribute. This will be used by notification apply rules in notifications.conf.

If you've installed Icinga Web 2 you can uncomment the http vhost attributes and relaod Icinga 2. The apply rules in services.conf will automatically generate a new service checking the /icingaweb2 URI using the http check.

/*
 * Host definitions with object attributes
 * used for apply rules for Service, Notification,
 * Dependency and ScheduledDowntime objects.
 *
 * Tip: Use `icinga2 object list --type Host` to
 * list all host objects after running
 * configuration validation (`icinga2 daemon -C`).
 */

/*
 * This is an example host based on your
 * local host's FQDN. Specify the NodeName
 * constant in `constants.conf` or use your
 * own description, e.g. "db-host-1".
 */

object Host NodeName {
  /* Import the default host template defined in `templates.conf`. */
  import "generic-host"

  /* Specify the address attributes for checks e.g. `ssh` or `http`. */
  address = "127.0.0.1"
  address6 = "::1"

  /* Set custom attribute `os` for hostgroup assignment in `groups.conf`. */
  vars.os = "Linux"

  /* Define http vhost attributes for service apply rules in `services.conf`. */
  vars.http_vhosts["http"] = {
    http_uri = "/"
  }
  /* Uncomment if you've sucessfully installed Icinga Web 2. */
  //vars.http_vhosts["Icinga Web 2"] = {
  //  http_uri = "/icingaweb2"
  //}

  /* Define disks and attributes for service apply rules in `services.conf`. */
  vars.disks["disk"] = {
    /* No parameters. */
  }
  vars.disks["disk /"] = {
    disk_partitions = "/"
  }

  /* Define notification mail attributes for notification apply rules in `notifications.conf`. */
  vars.notification["mail"] = {
    /* The UserGroup `icingaadmins` is defined in `users.conf`. */
    groups = [ "icingaadmins" ]
  }
}

This is only the host object definition. Now we'll need to make sure that this host and your additional hosts are getting services applied.

Tip

If you don't understand all the attributes and how to use apply rules don't worry - the monitoring basics chapter will explain that in detail.

services.conf

These service apply rules will show you how to monitor the local host, but also allow you to re-use or modify them for your own requirements.

You should define all your service apply rules in services.conf or any other central location keeping them organized.

By default, the local host will be monitored by the following services

Service(s)	Applied on host(s)
`load`, `procs`, `swap`, `users`, `icinga`	The `NodeName` host only
`ping4`, `ping6`	All hosts with `address` resp. `address6` attribute
`ssh`	All hosts with `address` and `vars.os` set to `Linux`
`http`, optional: `Icinga Web 2`	All hosts with custom attribute `http_vhosts` defined as dictionary
`disk`, `disk /`	All hosts with custom attribute `disks` defined as dictionary

The Debian packages also ship an additional apt service check applied to the local host.

The command object icinga for the embedded health check is provided by the Icinga Template Library (ITL) while http_ip, ssh, load, processes, users and disk are all provided by the Plugin Check Commands which we enabled earlier by including the itl and plugins configuration file.

Example load service apply rule:

apply Service "load" {
  import "generic-service"

  check_command = "load"

  /* Used by the ScheduledDowntime apply rule in `downtimes.conf`. */
  vars.backup_downtime = "02:00-03:00"

  assign where host.name == NodeName
}

The apply keyword can be used to create new objects which are associated with another group of objects. You can import existing templates, define (custom) attributes.

The custom attribe backup_downtime is defined to a specific timerange string. This variable value will be used for applying a ScheduledDowntime object to these services in downtimes.conf.

In this example the assign where condition is a boolean expression which is evaluated for all objects of type Host and a new service with name "load" is created for each matching host. Expression operators may be used in assign where conditions.

Multiple assign where condition can be combined with AND using the && operator as shown in the ssh example:

apply Service "ssh" {
  import "generic-service"

  check_command = "ssh"

  assign where host.address && host.vars.os == "Linux"
}

In this example, the service ssh is applied to all hosts having the address attribute defined AND having the custom attribute os set to the string Linux. You can modify this condition to match multiple expressions by combinding AND and OR using && and || operators, for example assign where host.address && (vars.os == "Linux" || vars.os == "Windows").

A more advanced example is shown by the http and disk service apply rules. While one apply rule for ssh will only create a service for matching hosts, you can go one step further: Generate apply rules based on array items or dictionary key-value pairs.

The idea is simple: Your host in hosts.conf defines the disks dictionary as custom attribute in vars.

Remember the example from hosts.conf:

...

  /* Define disks and attributes for service apply rules in `services.conf`. */
  vars.disks["disk"] = {
    /* No parameters. */
  }
  vars.disks["disk /"] = {
    disk_partition = "/"
  }
...

This dictionary contains multiple service names we want to monitor. disk should just check all available disks, while disk / will pass an additional parameter disk_partition to the check command.

You'll recognize that the naming is important - that's the very same name as it is passed from a service to a check command argument. Read about services and passing check commands in this chapter.

Using apply Service for omits the service name, it will take the key stored in the disk variable in key => config as new service object name.

The for keyword expects a loop definition, for example key => value in dictionary as known from Perl and other scripting languages.

Once defined like this, the apply rule defined below will do the following:

only match hosts with host.vars.disks defined through the assign where condition
loop through all entries in the host.vars.disks dictionary. That's disk and disk / as keys.
call apply on each, and set the service object name from the provided key
inside apply, the generic-service template is imported
defining the disk check command requiring command arguments like disk_partition
adding the config dictionary items to vars. Simply said, there's now vars.disk_partition defined for the generated service

Configuration example:

apply Service for (disk => config in host.vars.disks) {
  import "generic-service"

  check_command = "disk"

  vars += config

  assign where host.vars.disks
}

A similar example is used for the http services. That way you can make your host the information provider for all apply rules. Define them once, and only manage your hosts.

Look into notifications.conf how this technique is used for applying notifications to hosts and services using their type and user attributes.

Don't forget to install the check plugins required by the hosts and services and their check commands.

Further details on the monitoring configuration can be found in the monitoring basics chapter.

users.conf

Defines the icingaadmin User and the icingaadmins UserGroup. The latter is used in hosts.conf for defining a custom host attribute later used in notifications.conf for notification apply rules.

object User "icingaadmin" {
  import "generic-user"

  display_name = "Icinga 2 Admin"
  groups = [ "icingaadmins" ]

  email = "icinga@localhost"
}

object UserGroup "icingaadmins" {
  display_name = "Icinga 2 Admin Group"
}

notifications.conf

Notifications for check alerts are an integral part or your Icinga 2 monitoring stack.

The shipped example defines two notification apply rules for hosts and services. Both apply rules match on the same condition: They are only applied if the nested dictionary attribute notification.mail is set.

Please note that the to keyword is important in notification apply rules defining whether these notifications are applies to hosts or services. The import keyword imports the specific mail templates defined in templates.conf.

The interval attribute is not explicitly set - it defaults to 30 minutes.

By setting the user_groups to the value provided by the respective host.vars.notification.mail attribute we'll implicitely use theicingaadmins UserGroup defined in users.conf.

apply Notification "mail-icingaadmin" to Host {
  import "mail-host-notification"

  user_groups = host.vars.notification.mail.groups

  assign where host.vars.notification.mail
}

apply Notification "mail-icingaadmin" to Service {
  import "mail-service-notification"

  user_groups = host.vars.notification.mail.groups

  assign where host.vars.notification.mail
}

More details on defining notifications and their additional attributes such as filters can be read in this chapter.

commands.conf

This is the place where your own command configuration can be defined. By default only the notification commands used by the notification templates defined in templates.conf.

Tip

Icinga 2 ships the most common command definitions already in the Plugin Check Commands definitions. More details on that topic in the troubleshooting section.

You can freely customize these notification commands, and adapt them for your needs. Read more on that topic here.

groups.conf

The example host defined in hosts.conf already has the custom attribute os set to Linux and is therefore automatically a member of the host group linux-servers.

This is done by using the group assign expressions similar to previously seen apply rules.

object HostGroup "linux-servers" {
  display_name = "Linux Servers"

  assign where host.vars.os == "Linux"
}

object HostGroup "windows-servers" {
  display_name = "Windows Servers"

  assign where host.vars.os == "Windows"
}

Service groups can be grouped together by similar pattern matches. The match() function expects a wildcard match string and the attribute string to match with.

object ServiceGroup "ping" {
  display_name = "Ping Checks"

  assign where match("ping*", service.name)
}

object ServiceGroup "http" {
  display_name = "HTTP Checks"

  assign where match("http*", service.check_command)
}

object ServiceGroup "disk" {
  display_name = "Disk Checks"

  assign where match("disk*", service.check_command)
}

templates.conf

All shipped example configuration objects use generic global templates by default. Be it setting a default check_command attribute in the generic-host templates for your hosts defined in hosts.conf, or defining the default states and types filters for notification apply rules defined in notifications.conf.

template Host "generic-host" {
  max_check_attempts = 5
  check_interval = 1m
  retry_interval = 30s

  check_command = "hostalive"
}

template Service "generic-service" {
  max_check_attempts = 3
  check_interval = 1m
  retry_interval = 30s
}

The hostalive check command is shipped with Icinga 2 in the Plugin Check Commands.

template Notification "mail-host-notification" {
  command = "mail-host-notification"

  states = [ Up, Down ]
  types = [ Problem, Acknowledgement, Recovery, Custom,
            FlappingStart, FlappingEnd,
            DowntimeStart, DowntimeEnd, DowntimeRemoved ]

  period = "24x7"
}

template Notification "mail-service-notification" {
  command = "mail-service-notification"

  states = [ OK, Warning, Critical, Unknown ]
  types = [ Problem, Acknowledgement, Recovery, Custom,
            FlappingStart, FlappingEnd,
            DowntimeStart, DowntimeEnd, DowntimeRemoved ]

  period = "24x7"
}

More details on Notification object attributes can be found here.

downtimes.conf

The load service apply rule defined in services.conf defines the backup_downtime custom attribute.

The ScheduledDowntime apply rule uses this attribute to define the default value for the time ranges required for recurring downtime slots.

apply ScheduledDowntime "backup-downtime" to Service {
  author = "icingaadmin"
  comment = "Scheduled downtime for backup"

  ranges = {
    monday = service.vars.backup_downtime
    tuesday = service.vars.backup_downtime
    wednesday = service.vars.backup_downtime
    thursday = service.vars.backup_downtime
    friday = service.vars.backup_downtime
    saturday = service.vars.backup_downtime
    sunday = service.vars.backup_downtime
  }

  assign where service.vars.backup_downtime != ""
}

timeperiods.conf

This file ships the default timeperiod definitions for 24x7, 9to5 and never. Timeperiod objects are referenced by *period objects such as hosts, services or notifications.

satellite.conf

Ships default templates and dependencies for monitoring remote clients using service discovery and config generation on the master. Can be ignored/removed on setups not using this features.

Further details on the monitoring configuration can be found in the monitoring basics chapter.

Configuring DB IDO

The DB IDO (Database Icinga Data Output) modules for Icinga 2 take care of exporting all configuration and status information into a database. The IDO database is used by a number of projects including Icinga Web 2, Icinga Reporting or Icinga Web 1.x.

You only need to set up the IDO modules if you're using an external project which uses the IDO database.

There is a separate module for each database backend. At present support for both MySQL and PostgreSQL is implemented.

Icinga 2 uses the Icinga 1.x IDOUtils database schema. Icinga 2 requires additional features not yet released with older Icinga 1.x versions.

Note

Please check the what's new section for the required schema version.

Installing the Database Server

In order to use DB IDO you need to setup either MySQL or PostgreSQL as supported database server.

Installing MySQL database server

Debian/Ubuntu:

# apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

RHEL/CentOS 5/6:

# yum install mysql-server mysql
# chkconfig mysqld on
# service mysqld start

RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora 20 prefer MariaDB over MySQL:

# yum install mariadb-server mariadb
# systemctl enable mariadb
# systemctl start mariadb

SUSE:

# zypper install mysql mysql-client
# chkconfig mysqld on
# service mysqld start

RHEL based distributions do not automatically set a secure root password. Do that now:

# /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

Installing PostgreSQL database server

Debian/Ubuntu:

# apt-get install postgresql

RHEL/CentOS 5/6:

# yum install postgresql-server postgresql
# chkconfig postgresql on
# service postgresql start

RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora 20 use systemd:

# yum install postgresql-server postgresql
# systemctl enable postgresql
# systemctl start postgresql

SUSE:

# zypper install postgresql postgresql-server
# chkconfig postgresql on
# service postgresql start

Configuring DB IDO MySQL

First of all you have to install the icinga2-ido-mysql package using your distribution's package manager.

Debian/Ubuntu:

# apt-get install icinga2-ido-mysql

RHEL/CentOS:

# yum install icinga2-ido-mysql

SUSE:

# zypper install icinga2-ido-mysql

Note

Upstream Debian packages provide a database configuration wizard by default. You can skip the automated setup and install/upgrade the database manually if you prefer that.

Setting up the MySQL database

Set up a MySQL database for Icinga 2:

# mysql -u root -p

mysql>  CREATE DATABASE icinga;
        GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP, CREATE VIEW, INDEX, EXECUTE ON icinga.* TO 'icinga'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'icinga';
        quit

After creating the database you can import the Icinga 2 IDO schema using the following command:

# mysql -u root -p icinga < /usr/share/icinga2-ido-mysql/schema/mysql.sql

Upgrading the MySQL database

If you're upgrading an existing Icinga 2 instance you should check the /usr/share/icinga2-ido-mysql/schema/upgrade directory for an incremental schema upgrade file.

Note

If there isn't an upgrade file for your current version available there's nothing to do.

Apply all database schema upgrade files incrementially.

# mysql -u root -p icinga < /usr/share/icinga2-ido-mysql/schema/upgrade/<version>.sql

The Icinga 2 DB IDO module will check for the required database schema version on startup and generate an error message if not satisfied.

Example: You are upgrading Icinga 2 from version 2.0.2 to 2.2.0. Look into the upgrade directory:

$ ls /usr/share/icinga2-ido-mysql/schema/upgrade/
2.0.2.sql  2.1.0.sql 2.2.0.sql

There are two new upgrade files called 2.1.0.sql and 2.2.0.sql which must be applied incrementially to your IDO database.

Installing the IDO MySQL module

The package provides a new configuration file that is installed in /etc/icinga2/features-available/ido-mysql.conf. You will need to update the database credentials in this file. All available attributes are listed in the IdoMysqlConnection object configuration details.

You can enable the ido-mysql feature configuration file using icinga2 feature enable:

# icinga2 feature enable ido-mysql
Module 'ido-mysql' was enabled.
Make sure to restart Icinga 2 for these changes to take effect.

After enabling the ido-mysql feature you have to restart Icinga 2:

Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS 6 and SUSE:

# service icinga2 restart

RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora 20:

# systemctl restart icinga2

Configuring DB IDO PostgreSQL

First of all you have to install the icinga2-ido-pgsql package using your distribution's package manager.

Debian/Ubuntu:

# apt-get install icinga2-ido-pgsql

RHEL/CentOS:

# yum install icinga2-ido-pgsql

SUSE:

# zypper install icinga2-ido-pgsql

Note

Upstream Debian packages provide a database configuration wizard by default. You can skip the automated setup and install/upgrade the database manually if you prefer that.

Setting up the PostgreSQL database

Set up a PostgreSQL database for Icinga 2:

# cd /tmp
# sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE ROLE icinga WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'icinga'";
# sudo -u postgres createdb -O icinga -E UTF8 icinga
# sudo -u postgres createlang plpgsql icinga

Note

Using PostgreSQL 9.x you can omit the createlang command.

Locate your pg_hba.conf (Debian: /etc/postgresql/*/main/pg_hba.conf, RHEL/SUSE: /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf), add the icinga user with md5 authentication method and restart the postgresql server.

# vim /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

# icinga
local   icinga      icinga                            md5
host    icinga      icinga      127.0.0.1/32          md5
host    icinga      icinga      ::1/128               md5

# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all         all                               ident
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          ident
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all         all         ::1/128               ident

# /etc/init.d/postgresql restart

After creating the database and permissions you can import the Icinga 2 IDO schema using the following command:

# export PGPASSWORD=icinga
# psql -U icinga -d icinga < /usr/share/icinga2-ido-pgsql/schema/pgsql.sql

Upgrading the PostgreSQL database

If you're updating an existing Icinga 2 instance you should check the /usr/share/icinga2-ido-pgsql/schema/upgrade directory for an incremental schema upgrade file.

Note

If there isn't an upgrade file for your current version available there's nothing to do.

Apply all database schema upgrade files incrementially.

# export PGPASSWORD=icinga
# psql -U icinga -d icinga < /usr/share/icinga2-ido-pgsql/schema/upgrade/<version>.sql

The Icinga 2 DB IDO module will check for the required database schema version on startup and generate an error message if not satisfied.

Example: You are upgrading Icinga 2 from version 2.0.2 to 2.1.0. Look into the upgrade directory:

$ ls /usr/share/icinga2-ido-pgsql/schema/upgrade/
2.0.2.sql  2.1.0.sql 2.2.0.sql

There are two new upgrade files called 2.1.0.sql and 2.2.0.sql which must be applied incrementially to your IDO database.

Installing the IDO PostgreSQL module

The package provides a new configuration file that is installed in /etc/icinga2/features-available/ido-pgsql.conf. You will need to update the database credentials in this file. All available attributes are listed in the IdoPgsqlConnection object configuration details.

You can enable the ido-pgsql feature configuration file using icinga2 feature enable:

# icinga2 feature enable ido-pgsql
Module 'ido-pgsql' was enabled.
Make sure to restart Icinga 2 for these changes to take effect.

After enabling the ido-pgsql feature you have to restart Icinga 2:

Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS 6 and SUSE:

# service icinga2 restart

RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora 20:

# systemctl restart icinga2

Setting Up External Command Pipe

Web interfaces and other Icinga addons are able to send commands to Icinga 2 through the external command pipe.

You can enable the External Command Pipe using the CLI:

# icinga2 feature enable command

After that you will have to restart Icinga 2:

Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS 6 and SUSE:

# service icinga2 restart

RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora 20:

# systemctl restart icinga2

By default the command pipe file is owned by the group icingacmd with read/write permissions. Add your webserver's user to the group icingacmd to enable sending commands to Icinga 2 through your web interface:

# usermod -a -G icingacmd www-data

Debian packages use nagios as the default user and group name. Therefore change icingacmd to nagios. The webserver's user is different between distributions so you might have to change www-data to wwwrun, www, or apache.

Change "www-data" to the user you're using to run queries.

Note

Packages will do that automatically. Verify that by running id <your-webserver-user> and skip this step.

Setting up Icinga 2 User Interfaces

Icinga 2 can be used with Icinga Web 2, using DB IDO or Livestatus as preferred backend provider, next to the command pipe.

Icinga 2 also is compatible with Icinga 1.x user interfaces Classic UI 1.x and Icinga Web 1.x by providing additional features required as backends.

Some Icinga 1.x interface features will only work in a limited manner due to compatibility reasons, other features like the statusmap parents are available by dumping the host dependencies as parents. Special restrictions are noted specifically in the sections below.

You can also use other user interface addons, if you prefer. Keep in mind that Icinga 2 core features might not be fully supported in these addons.

Tip

Choose your preferred interface. There's no need to install Classic UI 1.x if you prefer Icinga Web 1.x or Icinga Web 2 for example.

Requirements

Web server (Apache2/Httpd, Nginx, Lighttp, etc)
User credentials
Firewall ports (tcp/80)

The Debian, RHEL and SUSE packages for Icinga Classic UI, Web and Icingaweb 2 depend on Apache2 as web server.

Webserver

Debian/Ubuntu packages will automatically fetch and install the required packages.

RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:

# yum install httpd
# chkconfig httpd on && service httpd start
## RHEL7
# systemctl enable httpd && systemctl start httpd

SUSE:

# zypper install apache2
# chkconfig on && service apache2 start

Firewall Rules

Example:

# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
# service iptables save

RHEL/CentOS 7 specific:

# firewall-cmd --add-service=http
# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http

Setting up Icinga Web 2

Icinga Web 2 supports DB IDO or Livestatus as backends.

Using DB IDO as backend, you need to install and configure the DB IDO backend. Once finished, you can enable the feature for DB IDO MySQL:

# icinga2 feature enable ido-mysql

Furthermore external commands are supported through the external command pipe.

# icinga2 feature enable command

In order for commands to work you will need to setup the external command pipe.

Icinga Web 2 ships its own web-based setup wizard which will guide you through the entire setup process.

Generate the Webserver configuration and a setup token using its local cli and proceed with the web setup when accessing /icingaweb2 after reloading your webserver configuration.

Please consult the installation documentation shipped with Icinga Web 2 for further instructions on how to install Icinga Web 2 and to configure backends, resources and instances manually.

Check the Icinga website for release announcements and packages.

Setting up Icinga Classic UI 1.x

Icinga 2 can write status.dat and objects.cache files in the format that is supported by the Icinga 1.x Classic UI. External commands (a.k.a. the "command pipe") are also supported. It also supports writing Icinga 1.x log files which are required for the reporting functionality in the Classic UI.

Installing Icinga Classic UI 1.x

The Icinga package repository has both Debian and RPM packages. You can install the Classic UI using the following packages:

Distribution	Packages
Debian	icinga2-classicui
RHEL/SUSE	icinga2-classicui-config icinga-gui

The Debian packages require additional packages which are provided by the Debian Monitoring Project (DebMon) repository.

libjs-jquery-ui requires at least version 1.10.* which is not available in Debian 7 (Wheezy) and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise). Add the following repositories to satisfy this dependency:

Distribution	Package Repositories
Debian Wheezy	wheezy-backports or DebMon
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise)	Icinga PPA

On all distributions other than Debian you may have to restart both your web server as well as Icinga 2 after installing the Classic UI package.

Icinga Classic UI requires the StatusDataWriter, CompatLogger and ExternalCommandListener features. Enable these features and restart Icinga 2.

# icinga2 feature enable statusdata compatlog command

In order for commands to work you will need to setup the external command pipe.

Setting Up Icinga Classic UI 1.x Summary

Verify that your Icinga 1.x Classic UI works by browsing to your Classic UI installation URL:

Distribution	URL	Default Login
Debian	http://localhost/icinga2-classicui	asked during installation
all others	http://localhost/icinga	icingaadmin/icingaadmin

For further information on configuration, troubleshooting and interface documentation please check the official Icinga 1.x user interface documentation.

Setting up Icinga Web 1.x

Icinga 2 can write to the same schema supplied by Icinga IDOUtils 1.x which is an explicit requirement to run Icinga Web next to the external command pipe. Therefore you need to setup the DB IDO feature remarked in the previous sections.

Installing Icinga Web 1.x

The Icinga package repository has both Debian and RPM packages. You can install Icinga Web using the following packages (RPMs ship an additional configuration package):

Distribution	Packages
RHEL/SUSE	icinga-web icinga-web-{mysql,pgsql}
Debian	icinga-web icinga-web-config-icinga2-ido-{mysql,pgsql}

Icinga Web 1.x on RPM based systems

Additionally you need to setup the icinga_web database and import the database schema. Details can be found in the package README files, for example README.RHEL

The Icinga Web RPM packages install the schema files into /usr/share/doc/icinga-web-*/schema (* means package version). The Icinga Web dist tarball ships the schema files in etc/schema.

On SuSE-based distributions the schema files are installed in /usr/share/doc/packages/icinga-web/schema.

Example for RHEL and MySQL:

# mysql -u root -p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE icinga_web;
       GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP, CREATE VIEW, INDEX, EXECUTE ON icinga_web.* TO 'icinga_web'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'icinga_web';
       quit

# mysql -u root -p icinga_web <  /usr/share/doc/icinga-web-<version>/schema/mysql.sql

Icinga Web requires the IDO feature as database backend using MySQL or PostgreSQL. Enable that feature, e.g. for MySQL.

# icinga2 feature enable ido-mysql

If you've changed your default credentials you may either create a read-only user or use the credentials defined in the IDO feature for Icinga Web backend configuration. Edit databases.xml accordingly and clear the cache afterwards. Further details can be found in the Icinga Web documentation.

# vim /etc/icinga-web/conf.d/databases.xml

# icinga-web-clearcache

Additionally you need to enable the command feature for sending external commands:

# icinga2 feature enable command

In order for commands to work you will need to setup the external command pipe.

Then edit the Icinga Web configuration for sending commands in /etc/icinga-web/conf.d/access.xml (RHEL) or /etc/icinga-web/access.xml (SUSE) setting the command pipe path to the default used in Icinga 2. Make sure to clear the cache afterwards.

# vim /etc/icinga-web/conf.d/access.xml

            <write>
                <files>
                    <resource name="icinga_pipe">/var/run/icinga2/cmd/icinga2.cmd</resource>
                </files>
            </write>

# icinga-web-clearcache

Note

The path to the Icinga Web clearcache script may differ. Please check the Icinga Web documentation for details.

Icinga Web on Debian systems

Since Icinga Web 1.11.1-2 the IDO auto-configuration has been moved into additional packages on Debian and Ubuntu.

The package icinga-web no longer configures the IDO connection. You must now use one of the config packages:

icinga-web-config-icinga2-ido-mysql
icinga-web-config-icinga2-ido-pgsql

These packages take care of setting up the DB IDO configuration, enabling the external command pipe for Icinga Web and depend on the corresponding packages of Icinga 2.

Please read the README.Debian files for details and advanced configuration:

/usr/share/doc/icinga-web/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/icinga-web-config-icinga2-ido-mysql/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/icinga-web-config-icinga2-ido-pgsql/README.Debian

When changing Icinga Web configuration files make sure to clear the config cache:

# /usr/lib/icinga-web/bin/clearcache.sh

Note

If you are using an older version of Icinga Web, install it like this and adapt the configuration manually as shown in the RPM notes:

apt-get install --no-install-recommends icinga-web

Setting Up Icinga Web 1.x Summary

Verify that your Icinga 1.x Web works by browsing to your Web installation URL:

Distribution	URL	Default Login
Debian	http://localhost/icinga-web	asked during installation
all others	http://localhost/icinga-web	root/password

For further information on configuration, troubleshooting and interface documentation please check the official Icinga 1.x user interface documentation.

Additional visualization

There are many visualization addons which can be used with Icinga 2.

Some of the more popular ones are PNP, inGraph (graphing performance data), Graphite, and NagVis (network maps).

Configuration Tools

If you require your favourite configuration tool to export Icinga 2 configuration, please get in touch with their developers. The Icinga project does not provide a configuration web interface or similar.

Tip

Get to know the new configuration format and the advanced apply rules and use syntax highlighting in vim/nano.

If you're looking for puppet manifests, chef cookbooks, ansible recipes, etc - we're happy to integrate them upstream, so please get in touch at https://support.icinga.org.

These tools are in development and require feedback and tests:

Ansible Roles
Puppet Module

Configuration Syntax Highlighting

Icinga 2 ships configuration examples for syntax highlighting using the vim and nano editors. The RHEL, SUSE and Debian package icinga2-common install these files into /usr/share/*/icinga2-common/syntax. Sources provide these files in tools/syntax.

Configuration Syntax Highlighting using Vim

Create a new local vim configuration storage, if not already existing. Edit vim/ftdetect/icinga2.vim if your paths to the Icinga 2 configuration differ.

$ PREFIX=~/.vim
$ mkdir -p $PREFIX/{syntax,ftdetect}
$ cp vim/syntax/icinga2.vim $PREFIX/syntax/
$ cp vim/ftdetect/icinga2.vim $PREFIX/ftdetect/

Test it:

$ vim /etc/icinga2/conf.d/templates.conf

Configuration Syntax Highlighting using Nano

Copy the /etc/nanorc sample file to your home directory. Create the /etc/nano directory and copy the provided icinga2.nanorc into it.

$ cp /etc/nanorc ~/.nanorc

# mkdir -p /etc/nano
# cp icinga2.nanorc /etc/nano/

Then include the icinga2.nanorc file in your ~/.nanorc by adding the following line:

$ vim ~/.nanorc

## Icinga 2
include "/etc/nano/icinga2.nanorc"

Test it:

$ nano /etc/icinga2/conf.d/templates.conf

Running Icinga 2

Init Script

Icinga 2's init script is installed in /etc/init.d/icinga2 by default:

# /etc/init.d/icinga2
Usage: /etc/init.d/icinga2 {start|stop|restart|reload|checkconfig|status}

Command	Description
start	The `start` action starts the Icinga 2 daemon.
stop	The `stop` action stops the Icinga 2 daemon.
restart	The `restart` action is a shortcut for running the `stop` action followed by `start`.
reload	The `reload` action sends the `HUP` signal to Icinga 2 which causes it to restart. Unlike the `restart` action `reload` does not wait until Icinga 2 has restarted.
checkconfig	The `checkconfig` action checks if the `/etc/icinga2/icinga2.conf` configuration file contains any errors.
status	The `status` action checks if Icinga 2 is running.

By default the Icinga 2 daemon is running as icinga user and group using the init script. Using Debian packages the user and group are set to nagios for historical reasons.

systemd Service

Some distributions (e.g. Fedora, openSUSE and RHEL/CentOS 7) use systemd. The Icinga 2 packages automatically install the necessary systemd unit files.

The Icinga 2 systemd service can be (re)started, reloaded, stopped and also queried for its current status.

# systemctl status icinga2
icinga2.service - Icinga host/service/network monitoring system
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/icinga2.service; disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mi 2014-07-23 13:39:38 CEST; 15s ago
  Process: 21692 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/icinga2 -c ${ICINGA2_CONFIG_FILE} -d -e ${ICINGA2_ERROR_LOG} -u ${ICINGA2_USER} -g ${ICINGA2_GROUP} (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 21674 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/icinga2-prepare-dirs /etc/sysconfig/icinga2 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 21727 (icinga2)
   CGroup: /system.slice/icinga2.service
           └─21727 /usr/sbin/icinga2 -c /etc/icinga2/icinga2.conf -d -e /var/log/icinga2/error.log -u icinga -g icinga --no-stack-rlimit

Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 309 Service(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 1 User(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 15 Notification(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 4 ScheduledDowntime(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 1 UserGroup(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 1 IcingaApplication(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif icinga2[21692]: [2014-07-23 13:39:38 +0200] information/ConfigItem: Checked 8 Dependency(s).
Jul 23 13:39:38 nbmif systemd[1]: Started Icinga host/service/network monitoring system.

The systemctl command supports the following actions:

Command	Description
start	The `start` action starts the Icinga 2 daemon.
stop	The `stop` action stops the Icinga 2 daemon.
restart	The `restart` action is a shortcut for running the `stop` action followed by `start`.
reload	The `reload` action sends the `HUP` signal to Icinga 2 which causes it to restart. Unlike the `restart` action `reload` does not wait until Icinga 2 has restarted.
status	The `status` action checks if Icinga 2 is running.
enable	The `enable` action enables the service being started at system boot time (similar to `chkconfig`)

If you're stuck with configuration errors, you can manually invoke the configuration validation.

# systemctl enable icinga2

# systemctl restart icinga2
Job for icinga2.service failed. See 'systemctl status icinga2.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details.

Files

2-getting-started.md

Latest commit

History

2-getting-started.md

File metadata and controls

Getting Started

Setting up Icinga 2

Installing Requirements for Icinga 2

Installing Icinga 2

Enabled Features during Installation

Installation Paths

Setting up Check Plugins

Configuring Icinga 2: First Steps

icinga2.conf

constants.conf

The conf.d Directory

hosts.conf

services.conf

users.conf

notifications.conf

commands.conf

groups.conf

templates.conf

downtimes.conf

timeperiods.conf

satellite.conf

Configuring DB IDO

Installing the Database Server

Installing MySQL database server

Installing PostgreSQL database server

Configuring DB IDO MySQL

Setting up the MySQL database

Upgrading the MySQL database

Installing the IDO MySQL module

Configuring DB IDO PostgreSQL

Setting up the PostgreSQL database

Upgrading the PostgreSQL database

Installing the IDO PostgreSQL module

Setting Up External Command Pipe

Setting up Icinga 2 User Interfaces

Requirements

Webserver

Firewall Rules

Setting up Icinga Web 2

Setting up Icinga Classic UI 1.x

Installing Icinga Classic UI 1.x

Setting Up Icinga Classic UI 1.x Summary

Setting up Icinga Web 1.x

Installing Icinga Web 1.x

Icinga Web 1.x on RPM based systems

Icinga Web on Debian systems

Setting Up Icinga Web 1.x Summary

Additional visualization

Configuration Tools

Configuration Syntax Highlighting

Configuration Syntax Highlighting using Vim

Configuration Syntax Highlighting using Nano

Running Icinga 2

Init Script

systemd Service