CheckMK - An Open Source, Self Hosted, Network and System monitoring tool that is easy to setup.

=== Links ===
Show Notes

CheckMK Main Site

CheckMK Documentation

Support my Channel and ongoing efforts through Patreon:

=== Timestamps ===
00:00 Beginning
00:09 Introduction to CheckMK
02:25 Thank you to my Patrons over at Patreon, and to my subscribers at YouTube
03:00 The CheckMK Paid Plans for the IT Professional who wants support
05:25 Documentation
07:40 Downloading the CheckMK Raw Edition Server Software
08:55 Following the Docs - Installing CheckMK on a VM or Bare Metal
13:30 Accessing our new Server Web UI
14:10 Installing Agents on Hosts (monitored clients)
16:30 Web UI Overview for Usage
24:45 System Overview for Monitored Hosts
31:18 Setup the CheckMK Server in Docker
38:05 Change the default password

=== Contact ===
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=== Attributions ===

[mynameisjesus]

Oh, I love CheckMK! Using it since ehm, a couple years now. Monitoring 110 hosts with 1200 service checks, it is just awesome OSS!

[Damarious]

Used this at 2 workplaces. Introduced at 1, and then deployed RAW from scratch at the second. It can get deep and come off as complicated - but it's very very tunable. I love it. The agent is light weight and the server is very reliable. I've used this extensively and can't speak highly enough about this software. You put in the time and it will reward you for your effort. LPT: Don't touch this if you're a lazy admin.

[chadmarkley]

You are hands down my favorite work distraction. I've tried out nearly every software you've done a video for lol. Good thing I own my own business and I can't fire myself for getting lost in fun opensource projects!

[egeainc]

Thanks for sharing this tool, I see it as super complete, it's a shame that only 25 hosts can be configured for free.
Thanks for the video!!

[ja]

Checkmk is a really great tool. Been using it for a few years.
Checkmk raw version can do a lot more than 25 hosts for free as well. Really like checkmk

[SvenMazet]

This is pretty awesome software, we used the Enterprise Edition at my previous job. Pretty much a do-all tool: monitoring, dashboards, warnings via just about all corporate messaging systems (slack, mail, etc.), BI setting etcetera.... very extensive. I'll be looking into this for my homelab.

[Samzehboy]

As a "Monitoring" consultant I use CheckMK on a daily basis for a couple of years now. In comparison with other monitoring tools i think this is the most complete solution out there especially when it comes to managing/configuring the so called "monitoring clients" you install on your servers. Together with the great community on the forum this is by far my favourite monitoring tool ;-)

[AaronWeissRocks]

This looks like an excellent option to replace nagios. EDIT: Although now I see that this uses nagios in the back end during the docker compose up command.

[udirt]

I loved this from the moment i found due the simple approach over old times nagios. I got to see a lot of the innards and the possibilities were even greater than one could have imagined. There's downsides in every piece of software, but for the long run what you want is that the core architecture is stellar. Thats the case here.
Everyone shall make their own chocies but back when working on it and even up to now, most alternatives make me, well, cringe, why anyone would even bother. Otoh it does work best if you take time to sit and learn, for people who don't want/like/can put in the time the differences might just be smaller than what they appear to me. No, seriously, read all the docs and try all examples, you will rarely have such powerful a tool available as with that.

[akki]

Really it's awesome. my luck is that I have done a subscription to your channel.very helpfull.

[niclas_]

How does it work with monitoring docker containers? I think thats an interesting question for HomeLab.
Could you please make a video for it?

[yourpcmd]

Thanks for the video. Still waiting on that Openfire video though.

[JeanLucGARNIER]

One again, a great video that will push me installing the tool! 😉 However, before I jump into the settings, can CheckMK also collect / analyse logs? This could avoid using a dédicated (and complex) tool such as Graylog... 🤔 Thanks in advance for any advice!

[JamesGreen-gvyn]

Thank you for this overview.

I have to admit that I was disappointed to see that this is using Nagios under the covers. I had a very bad experience trying to get Nagios working in the past and have never recovered from it.

Secondly, it appears that this doesn't provide historical trend graphs from the dashboards you showed. This is a MUST have in any monitoring solution I plan to implement now days. If it does have that, it would have been nice to see it included in the video. For now, I am off to look at other solutions.

[bend]

Zabbix I think is a much better package. Just as easy to setup. (actually easier) is fully open source and free no premium models. Has builtin templates for popular hardware and software. Much better integration options. Agent and agent less services. The new V6 has native support for cluster/ha setups. Proxy servers for bigger remote sites saving resources etc.

[MrBrutalmetalhead]

You can use sudo !! to add sudo at front of the previous command but great video

[SanjayAroraIN]

- Can we run this on a Pi for a home network?
- What about a partitioned network....a home/local one on a fiber broadband and a cloud VPC....what best way to handle local broadband downtime?

[PatipanWongkleaw]

Why someone would want this over Prometheus and Grafana?
Everyone keeps mentioning its completeness but I find that it could do a lot of things, but it's only good for a few things.

I don't know, maybe someone could tell me the advantage of this over Prometheus? I didn't give this much consideration.

[FelipoGoncalves]

Hey! Have you tried ZABBIX? I think the interface does not look as good/polished, but I think is a bit superior.

[okjd]

When you add the agent to Windows you will have access the personal firewall on Windows and open the ports that CheckMK use or you'll never be able to monitor these hosts.