Checkmk
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1. Setting up the package sources

Checkmk requires a number of software packages from your Linux distribution. Third-party software is not required. In order that all necessary packages can be subsequently installed, a correct configuration of the software sources is necessary.

With Red Hat and CentOS the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository must be set up as a package source. You can do this with the help of an RPM package, which can be installed with the yum command:

Version Package link

7

https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

8

https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Here is an example of an installation on CentOS 8:

root@linux# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

In order to be able to use EPEL on RedHat and CentOS, the package sources for optional RPMs are required if these haven’t already been installed during the operating system installation. Without these sources the freeradius-utils, graphviz-gd, and php-mbstring packages will be missing. As of version 8.x it will suffice to activate the so-called PowerTools with the help of Dandified YUM in CentOS or the subscription-manager in RHEL respectively. This can be done, e.g., with the following commands:

Red Hat/CentOS 7.X:

root@linux# yum-config-manager --enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
root@linux# yum-config-manager --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms
root@linux# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
root@linux# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms

CentOS 8.X before 8.3.2011:

root@linux# dnf config-manager --set-enabled PowerTools

CentOS 8.3.2011 and later:

root@linux# dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools

RedHat 8.X:

root@linux# subscription-manager repos --enable "codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms"

2. Setup SELinux and Firewall

Since Red Hat and thus CentOS also deliver SELinux and a local firewall by default, adjustments may have to be made here. As the first step you will need to allow your web server to access the network interfaces:

root@linux# setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

Secondly, you release the web server and activate the change:

root@linux# firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=http --permanent
success
root@linux# firewall-cmd --reload
success

3. Download the appropriate packages

If you have a subscription, you will find in the customer portal a suitable RPM or DEB package for your distribution for every available Checkmk version. For a free test or small installations of Checkmk you can use our free editions. These don’t need in consequence any subscription. You are still able to do an upgrade any time to one of the CEE Checkmk Enterprise Editions.

Consider when selecting a package:

  • Choose one of the editions. If you’re unsure, you can get an overview to the differences of the editions.

  • Choose the Checkmk version, the distribution and finally the version of the selected distribution.

  • We recommend the latest stable Checkmk version. If you need an older version anyway, you can find these in the download archive.

  • The name and version of your distribution must be strictly identical.

After you downloaded the package to your machine, you need to copy the file to the target Linux system where Checkmk needs to be installed. You can do that for example with the WinSCP program or — if you are able to use SSH connections — with the command line tool scp, in the following example for the CRE Checkmk Raw Edition and CentOS 8.x:

root@linux# scp check-mk-raw-2.1.0p1-el8-38.x86_64.rpm root@mymonitoring.mydomain.org:

4. Signed-package installation

All packages are signed using GnuPG. Through the use of this signature, on the one hand it can be verified whether the package really is from Checkmk, and on the other hand it can be verified that the package is complete.

So that these signed packages can be installed in the usual way, one time only you will need to import our public key so that the signature will be trusted. First, load the key directly from our website:

root@linux# wget https://download.checkmk.com/checkmk/Check_MK-pubkey.gpg

Then import the key to the list of trusted signatures. On Red Hat and CentOS this is yet another job for rpm:

root@linux# rpm --import Check_MK-pubkey.gpg

Once the key has been imported, you can verify the package and install it the usual way with yum install afterwards:

root@linux# rpm -K check-mk-raw-2.1.0p1-el8-38.x86_64.rpm
check-mk-raw-2.1.0p1-el8-38.x86_64.rpm: digests signatures OK
root@linux# yum install check-mk-raw-2.1.0p1-el8-38.x86_64.rpm

5. Final test

After the successful installation of Checkmk, and all dependencies, you will have access to the omd command. With this command you are able to create and manage monitoring sites. You can request the installed version to verify your installation:

root@linux# omd version
OMD - Open Monitoring Distribution Version 2.1.0p1.cre
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