Checkmk
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1. Introduction

Once your Checkmk server has been set up and configured, sooner or later questions will come up: Can the configuration be performed more quickly? Can it be optimized? Can the system be made more secure?

One approach to answering these questions is to review and consequently optimize the site setup on the Checkmk server. The more performant your system is, the faster and more effectively it works. So the more reliably you can secure your site, the more confident you can be when working with it.

Checkmk quickly and clearly analyzes the essential parameters associated with the current site as well as any attached sites in the case of a distributed monitoring.

The hosts and services within your site(s) are not affected by these checks, they are still shown in the views of hosts and services. The results of the checks for the site covered here are displayed on the Setup > Maintenance > Analyze configuration page.

Tip

When Analyze configuration is called, the current state of all checks is always assessed and displayed. Therefore, after calling the menu item it may take a little while before the page with the results is displayed:

“Result from the ‘Analyze configuration’.”
The standard checks in Checkmk Raw

The above screenshot shows the checks that are executed by default for a single site in Checkmk Raw. However, this is not the whole story, as more checks may well be offered. What these are depends, for example, on whether you have installed Checkmk Raw or one of the commercial editions, whether your site is used in a distributed monitoring, whether a specific rule has been set up, an LDAP connection exists, a global setting has been defined — or even the value of an option in a rule. Which check is relevant for your site — Checkmk takes care of that.

2. Interpreting the analysis

The analyzed site data is divided into different categories as checks. Each check has a colored status display. A check can have the following states after analysis:

State Color Description

OK

green

The check is completely fine. All checked values are considered optimal.

WARN

yellow

The check is basically fine, but Checkmk has identified potential for improvement.

CRIT

red

The check has detected critical values. These should be examined and fixed if necessary to ensure a smooth operation of Checkmk.

Let’s consider the Backup configured check with two sites in a distributed monitoring:

Section of the 'Backup configured' check.

This check is in a WARN state, so an Button to acknowledge the message. button appears after the WARN for acknowledging this. This button also appears for checks in the CRIT state. Acknowledgement causes the yellow or red color of the state to disappear. The entry itself remains, but becomes visually more discreet. If the check is acknowledged, the button changes to Button to cancel the acknowledgement.. This button can be used to cancel the acknowledgement.

In general, it makes sense to check the system environment for all parameters. However, if you do not want to run individual checks (again), you can disable any of the checks by clicking on the associated Button to disable a test. button. For example, turn off the Backup configured check if your organization uses a different solution for backup creation.

3. The checks in detail

For each check, clicking on the associated Show more information button. button will give you more details on the detected values, an assessment of the status, as well as hints for optimization.

Detailed view of 'Backup configured'.

Much can be readily understood and acted upon based on this. This User Guide — as well as other sources — provides additional information on the following topics:

Category Check Further information

Connectivity

Site connectivity

In distributed monitoring, remote sites may not be reachable due to unstable or slow connections.

Deprecations

Deprecated HW/SW inventory plug-ins

In Werk #14084 you will find further details and information on the migration of plug-ins that still use the old API for the HW/SW inventory.

Deprecated check plug-ins

In the User Guide you will find articles about the developing of extensions for Checkmk and the writing of agent-based check plug-ins with the check API introduced in version 2.0.0. There is detailed information on the migration of old check plug-ins in this blog article.

Performance

Check helper usage

Auxiliary processes for the Checkmk Micro Core (CMC) in the commercial editions.

Checkmk checker count

Checkmk checker usage

Checkmk fetcher usage

Checkmk helper usage

Livestatus usage

Keeping a connection alive (KeepAlive)

Persistent connections

Persistent connections between central and remote sites in distributed monitoring.

Number of users

User management with LDAP/Active Directory

Size of extensions

In distributed monitoring, the data between central and remote sites may be synchronized slowly because synchronization of extensions such as MKPs is switched on.

Use Livestatus Proxy Daemon

The Livestatus proxy of the commercial editions for connections between central and remote sites in distributed monitoring.

Reliability

Backups configured

Backups

Security

Encrypt backups

Configuring encrypted backups

Encrypt notification daemon communication

The Werk #13610 explains how to activate the transport encryption of the notification spooler mknotifyd.

Livestatus encryption

Connecting Livestatus with encryption for sites that have Livestatus activated via the network (TCP).

Secure Agent Updater

Setting up automatic updates in the commercial editions.

Secure GUI (HTTP)

Securing the web interface with HTTPS

Secure LDAP

Securing LDAP with SSL for established LDAP connections

In addition, the article on Security provides an overview of other security-related matters relevant to Checkmk.

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