Check_MK simplifies Nagios monitoring

Check_MK bundles a long list of extensions to the open source monitoring system Nagios, with features including automatic configuration, a user-definable interface and improved performance. A year after development started, the Check_MK project has just released a stable version 1.2.2.

Along with hundreds of smaller changes and bug fixes, a few new modules have been added. The new Event Console, for example, makes it easy to process events like syslog messages, text file entries, Windows logs and SNMP traps – and seamlessly integrates into Check_MK's Multisite GUI.

Check_MK now has its own system for sending notifications, which each user can customise to their own preferred format through the GUI. In order to increase flexibility, the developers came up with a separate component to handle decisions about how to deliver notifications, rather than leaving them to Nagios; for example, a user can receive notifications as emails during the day and as text messages outside of working hours without needing multiple Nagios contact entries.

The LDAP integration in Multisite means that users can automatically be imported from an Active Directory or an OpenLDAP directory. Roles and contact groups can then be managed centrally, along with authentication. With this release, Check_MK continues its strategy of leaving the core tasks, like scheduling and executing checks, to Nagios, while passing on more advanced functions to specialised external components.

Check_MK is available for download from the project's web site as RPM and .deb packages for Linux, in source code form and as a Windows installer. The software is released under the GPLv2.

(Götz Rieger / fab)