Check_mk - The Official Documentation

Getting started

This is the official reference for Check_MK. It is organized as a collection of articles about the various aspects of monitoring with Check_MK. Before reading one the specialized articles you should first starting with reading one of the introductions presented here:

• Getting Started - How to install and use Check_MK
• Turbostart Guide - A very compact Getting started for experianced users

Basic Articles

Further reading and more detailed information about all aspects of Check_MK is found here:

• Inventory - How Check_MK automatically finds items to check
• Manually Configured Checks - How to configure checks that do not support inventory
• The Linux Agent - How to install and test the Linux agent
• The Windows Agent - How to monitor Windows hosts with Check_MK
• Filesystems - How to monitor Filesystems
• Logfiles - Monitoring of Logfiles on Windows and Linux/UNIX
• SNMP Checks - Check_MK can be used for SNMP checking
• Table of Checks - Documentation about some of most important checks types
• Local checks - How to integrate your own checks into Check_MK
• MK's Remote Plugin Executor - How to integrate standard Nagios into the agent
• Calling check_mk - An overview over all command line options of check_mk
• Configuration variables - An overview over all configuration variables for main.mk
• FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Advanced Topics

The following articles cover advanced topics for those who are familiar with the basic operation of Check_MK:

• Configuration Files - How Check_MK reads its configuration files
• Host Tags - Making your configuration easier with host tags
• Service Dependencies - How to suppress redundant notifications when services depend upon each other
• Hosts' parents - How to define the parents of a host for Nagios
• Scanning for Parents - NEW in 1.1.7i2: Check_MK can automatically detect your network topology
• Monitoring Clusters - Check_MK provides a solution for monitoring clustered services
• Service Aggregation - Combine a group of services into one new service
• Datasource Programs - How to use ssh or rsh for monitoring with Check_MK
• Inventory Checks - Let Check_MK make regular checks for new services
• Cache Files - How Check_MK uses cache files to speed up inventory
• Backup & Restore - Backup and Restore of Check_MK's data
• Simulation Mode - All about dry running Check_MK
• Writing Checks - A tutorial for writing your own checks
• Calling setup - Details of the setup script - useful also for packagers
• Check_MK Packages - NEW in 1.1.5i3: How to create and deal with extension packages
• Donating host data - NEW in 1.1.6rc6: Help the project by providing agent data of hosts

Multisite

Version 1.1.3 of Check_MK introduces Multisite - a new and innovative GUI for viewing Nagios status information and controlling your monitoring system. It is based on MK Livestatus and aims at replacing the Nagios web GUI (also known as "the CGIs"). Multisite supports distributed monitoring in a very efficient way. Read more:

• Introduction - Learn what is making Multisite unique
• Setup - Setting up and configuring Multisite
• Authorization - How to configure who may see and do what
• Limiting Queries - Multisite protects your system from too large queries
• Playing alarm sounds - How to play alarm sounds if hosts or services are critical
• Connectivity Monitoring - NEW How to avoid timeouts when remote sites are unreachable
• High latency Connections - NEW Multisite setup with slow or high latency network connections

Livestatus

The fastest and easiest way of accessing status and historic data:

• Livestatus - Check_MK's Livestatus Module provides immediate access to Nagios' status and log data

Back home

• Back to the Check_MK Homepage