Was als einfaches Add-on für Nagios begann - welches die Erzeugung der Konfiguration vereinfachte und die Ausführung von Checks beschleunigte - hat sich inzwischen zu einer vollwertigen und weit verbreiteten Open-Source-Monitoring-Lösung entwickelt. Für alle, die Check_MK noch nicht kennen, gibt der Gründer des Projektes einen Einstieg und zeigt in einer Live-Demonstration, wie einfach und elegant mit einer aktuellen Check_MK-Version ein Monitoring aufgesetzt werden kann. Im zweiten Teil des Vortrags werden dann neueste Entwicklungen im Projekt vorgestellt - darunter das in Check_MK integrierte System zur Hard- und Softwareinventarisierung.

1. 24.11.2015
Check_MK

2. 2 /
24.11.2015
Mathias Kettner
● Born in Munich
● Linux & Open Source since 1993
● 1998-2000 worked for S.u.S.E in Nürnberg
● Since 2000 self employed
● 2007 CEO + Founder of Mathias Kettner GmbH
● Now: Check_MK and nothing else...

3. 3 /
24.11.2015
I'm from the generation Commodore 64

4. 4 /
24.11.2015
Mathias Kettner GmbH
● Founded 2007
● 12 Employees (and growing)
● Offers everything round about Check_MK:
● Check_MK Enterprise Edition
● Custom Software development for
Check_MK
● Support & Consulting
● Trainings & Workshops
● Check_MK Conference (every October)

5. 5 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK
Raw Edition
Check_MK
Enterprise Edition

6. 6 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK® Raw Edition
Check_MK Raw Edition
● Complete Monitoring System
● Built around Nagios® Core
● 100% Open Source

7. 7 /
24.11.2015
●Monitoring Core
●Status GUI
●Configuration Language
●That's it!

8. 8 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK:
● Multi-instance status GUI
● Rule based configuration GUI (WATO)
● Rule based notification system
● Business Intelligence module
● Event Console (syslog, traps, etc.)
● Hardware/Software-Inventory
● And: more than 1000 own check plugins

9. 9 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK vs Nagicinga
Nagios
®
/Icinga =
● Monitoring framework without content
Check_MK
®
Raw Edition =
● Complete IT monitoring system

10. 10 /
24.11.2015
Why is Check_MK so much fun?

11. 11 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK is...
● ...super easy to setup
● ...super easy to maintain
● ...super fast and scales well
● ...flexible, comprehensive, powerful

12. 12 /
24.11.2015
Easy to setup
1. Install one single RPM/DEB
2. omd create mysite
3. omd start mysite
That was it!
Point your browser to http://host/mysite/

13. 13 /
24.11.2015
Easy to upgrade
1. Install one further single RPM/DEB
2. omd stop mysite
3. omd update mysite
4. When asked select target version
5.omd start mysite
Again that was it!
And: Easy and fast downgrade - just in case.

14. 14 /
24.11.2015
Easy to maintain
● Check_MK automatically discovers services
● Check_MK warns you about unmonitored
services
● Rule based setup for easy handling for frequent
changes
● Everything can be configured web based

15. 15 /
24.11.2015
Database based configuration
Database based configuration (bad)
●Maintained with Copy & Paste and bulk operations
●Hard question: how are our thresholds actually set?
●No documentation about the why either.

16. 16 /
24.11.2015
Template based configuration
Template based configuration (bad)
● Template inherit other templates
● Hosts use several templates
● Conflicts are resolved in arkane ways
● Hard question:
Why do I have certain settings for a specific
object?

17. 17 /
24.11.2015
Rule based configuration
Rule based - the natural way
First match wins:
1. Filesystem /foo on host bar has levels 98/99%.
2. Filesystems beginning with /foo/tmp have
levels at 101/101%
3. Filesystems on production systems have levels
at 80/90%
4. All (other) filesystem have levels 90/95%

18. 18 /
24.11.2015
Rule based configuration
Advantages:
● Natural way of thinking and speaking
● All policies visible in one single screen
● Exceptions are immediately clear
● Documentation is easy
● Easy to specify defaults
● Adding new hosts does what you expect
● Works for large numbers of objects

19. 19 /
24.11.2015
Performance / Scaling
Check_MK uses „passive checks“:
● No process creations anymore
Check_MK contacts every host only once.
● Saves CPU on target host
● Saves CPU on monitoring system
● Saves network bandwidth

20. 21 /
24.11.2015
Flexible, Comprehensive, Powerful
● Can use classical Nagios plugins
● Many plugin interfaces for extensions
● Everywhere scripting interfaces
● Native event processing
● Over 1000 maintained check plugins
● Comprehensive notification system

21. 22 /
24.11.2015
Development of Check_MK

22. 23 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK - History
● Started 2008 in a customer project
● Reason: Problems with Performance and
Maintainability of classical Nagios
● Designed as Addon for Nagios
● 2009 first public release
● 2010 foundation of OMD
● 2011 start of professional support
● Today: Complete monitoring solution

23. 24 /
24.11.2015
Lines of Code
source: ohloh.net

24. 25 /
24.11.2015
Homepage Visitors
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
mathias-kettner.de
mathias-kettner.com
Unique Visitors each September

25. 26 /
24.11.2015
Subscriptions
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
0
100
200
300
400
500
Number of Subscriptions
Germany
USA
Austria
Switzerland
Romania
Others

26. 27 /
24.11.2015
By Country
Subscriptions by Country
USA
Germany
Switzerland
Austria
Romania
Others

27. 28 /
24.11.2015
And now...
Check_MK live in action!

28. 29 /
24.11.2015
Check_MK Status-GUI