How to install nagios in RHEL|Centos|Fedora

Written by Mel Kham on April 4, 2009. Posted in Linux tutorials

Nagios is the industry standard in enterprise-class monitoring for good reason. It allows you to gain insight into your network and fix problems before customers know they even exist. It’s stable, scalable, supported, and extensible.

Install Nagios

I First step :

Let me show you how to install nagios monitoring tool .

This installation has been tested by unixmen team in Fedora/Cenots/RHEL/ .

1- First install some tools : httpd, gcc, glib, glibc-common, gd and gd-devel

 yum install httpd php

yum install gcc

yum install glibc glibc-common

yum install gd gd-devel

2- Create nagios user :

#/usr/sbin/useradd -m nagios

#passwd nagios

3- Add nagcmd group

/usr/sbin/groupadd nagcmd

/usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios

/usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd apache

4- Now go to http://www.nagios.org download files .

nagios-3.1.0.tar.gz nagios-plugins-1.4.13.tar.gz nrpe-2.12.tar.gz

tar  -zxvf  nagios-3.1.0.tar.gz

cd  nagios-3.1.0

./configure --with-command-group=nagcmd

 #make all; make install; make install-init; make install-config; make install-commandmode; make install-webconf

5- Edit your email admin address :

Go to

vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

6- Create a nagiosadmin account for logging into the Nagios web interfaceassign to this you’ll need it later.

htpasswd -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

enter the password.

7- Restart the httpd server :

#Service  httpd   restart

The second step : Extract and install plugins

1- Go to you downloaded nagios tools

 tar  -zxvf   nagios-plugins-1.4.13.tar.gz

2- cd nagios-plugins

./configure --with-nagios-user=nagios --with-nagios-group=nagios

make; make   install

3- Now you have to add nagios to Chkconfig

chkconfig --add nagios

chkconfig nagios on

4- Verify if you have a good config of nagios with the command

/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

5- Check if there are no errors displayed; then start nagios with command :

service  nagios  start

To simplify the procesure please disable the selinux and iptables and ip6tables

now open your browser and http://localhost/nagios orr http://ip/nagios

N.B : Please if you have questions about debian or ubuntu or othe unix system . we are here to help.

if ou have more questions abouth commands nrpe ? , how to add new client to the server ?Feel free to ask

Unixmen Team

{module user9-footer}

For questions please refer to our Q/A forum at : http://ask.unixmen.com

Centos

Fedora

monitoring tool

jpedlow

SElinux causes problems with allowing nagios to start (it wouldnt let me login), I simply put SElinux to permissive mode and then nagios started like a charm.
emka57

hello,

for me it was also necessary to:
yum install php
for avoiding cgi to produce 403 erors when accessing the website

greetz,

Manu K
Roy

Hi,
I am completely new to Linux and I
have Acer Aspire One-Linpus Linux.
I am trying to install a Comic book viewer-Cbrpager which is a tar.gz file. I have extracted it to my Downloads folder, but I can’t seem to install it! I would be very grateful if you could give me step by step instructions on how to do it!
- zinovsky
  
  Hi,
  The answer for your question i posted it on the forum under aspireone, this is the link :
  http://www.unixmen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=167&p=205#p205
  
  :)
arlly

I have successfully gone through the local installation part. where can I find instructions for monitor remote servers, services. etc. I have tied more than a week. still cannot make it work with monitoring nodes other than the local host.
Could you please give me some links?

thanks
- pirat9
  
  i will add next week how to add new remote hosts to nagios server.
  
  Best regards
  Unixmen admin
Dennis C. Bernardo

Hi,

We have existing nagios and also have 30 running servers. We can create a group of alert only for certain servers and just to check only LOAD Average, DISKSpace, HTTP. There’s any configuration or guidelines on this matter.

Hoping you help me. Thanks…

Regards on the team.
pirat9

Hi Dennis C. Bernardo;
please check the search of in this website . add nagios host is another usefull tutorial .
im waiting of your feedback if you have other questions
Anonymous

Hi pirat9,

Thanks you its usefull, can i ask you again, we have 2 existing team to handle all the servers, can we track the IP who latest access the servers???

Any tools or apps that can monitor who accessing the servers.
Pirat9

You have to add a script to nagios to check in system Logs the lateste IP adresses who connected yesterday to your machine .
Dennis

Hi Pirat9,

Who have any idea about the script, or sample?

Thanks
pirat9

make sh script with tail -f /var/log/secure option and add script to nagios plugins in /usr/local/nagios/libexec

and this monitoting script to nagios configuration and restartnagios

Good Luck :)
Oren

If you encounter with 403 apache error you’ll need to disable the SELinux service.

The above will switch off enforcement temporarily – until you reboot the system. If you want the system to always start in permissive mode, then here is how you do it.
In Fedora Core and RedHat Enterprise, edit /etc/selinux/config and you will see some lines like this:

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing – SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive – SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled – No SELinux policy is loaded.
SELINUX=enforcing
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
# targeted – Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict – Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted
… just change SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=permissive, and you’re done. Reboot if you want to prove it.
Avinesh

Thanks for this tutorial. works perfectly

I had tried installing nagios with the plugins on fedora 12. Installation was successful was Nagios did start up properly as no log on screen popped up and no details of host or services were shown. these were installed using kpackagekit, yum, rpm. no success with these one

I tried this tutorial. it work it worked perfectly. A tip for all fedora users – DONT USE kpackagekit, yum or rpm for nagios installation

Always using the tar.gz file.

Also you may need to browse for the contacts, and other configuration files. havent tried that yet.
- Avinesh
  
  Hi,
  
  I have tried installing nagios on fedora12 following the instructions given above. I had this installation on a virtualbox machine on running in fedora12.
  
  the installation was successful but it gives all critical errors for the localhost. when i did a ping to localhost using the terminal, its successful but nagios is not able to ping the localhost. the error say, "plugin may be missing"
  
  does mean that i need to install all the plugins individually or do i need to do some changes to the nagios settings
  
  Avinesh
pirat9

you are welcome. we are here to help
Charles So

Followed the installation step-by-step, and started Nagios in Fedora 13.

Typed’nagiosadmin’ to log in, and Apache says Forbidden, you don’t have permission to access /nagios/ on this server.

I have not touched httpd (Apache) config at all. It can load the Apache front page.

What else do I have to configure?
Charles So

[quote=Charles So]Followed the installation step-by-step, and started Nagios in Fedora 13.

Typed’nagiosadmin’ to log in, and Apache says Forbidden, you don’t have permission to access /nagios/ on this server.

I have not touched httpd (Apache) config at all. It can load the Apache front page.

What else do I have to configure?[/quote]

I need to follow the post above by ‘emka57′, install php, restart httpd before I can log in.

Thanks alot!
rizwan

i want to install nagios and apache.
i followed the step which is given above.
but it not yet completed.

plz look cmd where is the fault.?
[root@redhat /]# yum install httpd
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with RHN.
RHN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
No package httpd available.
Nothing to do
[root@redhat /]# yum install gcc
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with RHN.
RHN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
No package gcc available.
Nothing to do
[root@redhat /]# yum install glibc glibc-common
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with RHN.
RHN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
Nothing to do
[root@redhat /]# yum install gd gd-devel
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with RHN.
RHN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
No package gd-devel available.
Nothing to do
[root@redhat /]# usr/sbin/useradd -m nagios
useradd: user nagios exists
[root@redhat /]# passwd nagios
Changing password for user nagios.
New UNIX password:
BAD PASSWORD: it is based on a dictionary word
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
[root@redhat /]# /usr/sbin/groupadd nagcmd
groupadd: group nagcmd exists
[root@redhat /]# /usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios
[root@redhat /]# /usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd apache
[root@redhat /]# tar -zxvf nagios-3.2.0.tar.gz
tar: nagios-3.2.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[root@redhat /]# tar tmp nagios-3.2.0.tar.gz
cd nagios-3.2.0
./configure –with-command-group=nagcmd
make all; make install; make install-init; make install-config; make install-commandmode; make install-webconf

vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg
htpasswd -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

[1]+ Stopped tar tmp nagios-3.2.0.tar.gz
[root@redhat /]# Service httpd restart
bash: Service: command not found
[root@redhat /]# service httpd restart
httpd: unrecognized service
[root@redhat /]# make all
make: *** No rule to make target `all’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# make install
make: *** No rule to make target `install’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# make install-init
make: *** No rule to make target `install-init’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# make install-config
make: *** No rule to make target `install-config’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# make install-commandmode
make: *** No rule to make target `install-commandmode’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# make install-webconf
make: *** No rule to make target `install-webconf’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

[2]+ Stopped vi /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg
[root@redhat /]# Service httpd restart
bash: Service: command not found
[root@redhat /]# service httpd restart
httpd: unrecognized service
[root@redhat /]# service http restart
http: unrecognized service
[root@redhat /]# tar -tmp nagios-plugins-1.4.13.tar.gz
./configure –with-nagios-user=nagios –with-nagios-group=nagios
make
make install
chkconfig –add nagios
chkconfig nagios on
/usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg
wq

^X
[3]+ Stopped tar -tmp nagios-plugins-1.4.13.tar.gz
[root@redhat /]# make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# make install
make: *** No rule to make target `install’. Stop.
[root@redhat /]# chkconfig –add nagios
error reading information on service nagios: No such file or directory
[root@redhat /]# chkconfig -add nagios
-add: unknown option
[root@redhat /]# chkconfig –add nagios on
chkconfig version 1.3.30.1 – Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Red Hat, Inc.
This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License.

usage: chkconfig –list [name]
chkconfig –add
chkconfig –del
chkconfig [--level ]
[root@redhat /]# chkconfig –add nagios
chkconfig version 1.3.30.1 – Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Red Hat, Inc.
This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License.

usage: chkconfig –list [name]
chkconfig –add
chkconfig –del
chkconfig [--level ]
[root@redhat /]# service nagios start
nagios: unrecognized service
[root@redhat /]#
- Morshed
  
  Brother,
  I am a new user and i make Nagious. So please advice me the correct information and i can do the job. Help me and success this job.
  Morshed
pirat9

you are behind RHEL not registred . convert to centos and enjoy
Avinesh

Hi, I had problems with nagios running on Fedora 12 on a virtualbox machine. I installed it on a dedicated machine and it works fine. The initial problem of not able tp ping check the localhost has been solve the new installation.

The steps provided above was a great help. Thank you for it

Avinesh
Seyyed

you forgot to say
yum install php
- mosleh
  
  but OpenNMS is better than nagios
http://enteryoursiteURL... Vishal

how should i integrate nrpe with the installation?
Bill

#Service httpd restart

should be

#service httpd restart

minor I know
http://servertechz.com/?s=nagios jin

good article..i completed installing nagios with out any issues with the help of this post..good work.
Charles So

unsubscribe
http://enteryoursiteURL... abcd

as shown in the above picture,igot the first page … but how to get the 2nd page(service layout page)
http://enteryoursiteURL... ztank

Hello,
is there an alternative for [b]SELINUX issue[/b]? I got the nagios environment working fine putting the SELINUX policy in [b]permissive[/b] mode but is there any different approach to this? Is it possible to just disable SELINUX only for what is related to nagios?
Thanks a lot for helping.
Sumit Gupta

Hi i have installed the nagios on linux system and when i am checking the error then there is no error but web interface is not coming. please suggest.

Regards,
Ramesh
Sumit Gupta

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable
to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, root@localhost and inform them of
the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have
caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error
log.

Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at 10.0.55.42 Port 80I am facing this issue on consol.regards,Sumit
Cd72886

The Nagios server is now running..how to introduce machines to be monitored?
Jeffin_m

Hi,
First of all Thank you for a good post. I have two doughts

1. what is the use of nrpe that we download already nrpe-2.12.tar.gz
2. how can i add a new machine into the serverPlease make a post regarding this.
Bashasks

how to add client to nagios server
Sunny_fs4u

Forbidden

You don’t have permission to access /nagios/
on this server.

Apache/2.2.15 (Fedora) Server at localhost Port 80Fedora 12
vishal_babrekar

This a really useful and perfect post for Nagios I ever seen. If we follow each step correctly all works good.

Thanks a lot !!
Nareshd20

Executable file /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios not found.. i am this error …pls do the needful,what may be problem,

Can u send the Clear document of how to install nagios and how to use in same system and remotely ..

my mail id: nareshd20@gmail:disqus .com
redhatrider

If selinux is enforcing mode use these two commands

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /usr/local/nagios/sbin/
chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /usr/local/nagios/share/
http://www.facebook.com/xavii87 Sérgio Pedrosa

Hey! Thank you for this tutorial! Helped me a lot with my school project! ;)