Introduction

This guide is intended to provide you with simple instructions on how to install Icinga from source (code) and have it monitoring your local machine within 20 minutes.

No advanced installation options are discussed here - just the basics that will work for most of the users who want to get started.

This guide will give you examples for installation on FreeBSD 7.2.

Later distributions of FreeBSD may inherit from these examples.

What You'll End Up With

If you follow these instructions, here's what you'll end up with:

Prerequisites

During portions of the installation you'll need to have root access to your machine.

Make sure you've installed the following packages on your system before continuing.

Install ports

You can install these ports by running the following commands (as root):

Please update your ports before doing so.

 #> cd /usr/ports/devel/libtool22/ && make deinstall && make clean && make && make install 
 #> cd /usr/ports/graphics/jpeg && make deinstall && make clean && make && make install
 #> cd /usr/ports/graphics/png && make deinstall && make clean && make && make install
 #> cd /usr/ports/graphics/gd && make deinstall && make clean && make && make install

Create Account Information

Become the root user.

 $> su -l

Create a new icinga user account without a password and without the ability to log-in (set no password when asked):

 #> adduser -D -w no -s nologin

For sending commands from the classic web interface to Icinga, you'll need to create a new group icinga-cmd and add the webuser (www) and the Icingauser to this group:

 #> pw groupadd -n icinga-cmd -M icinga,www 

Download Icinga and the Plugins

Change to your local source directory i.e. ~/src

 #> mkdir ~/src
 #> cd ~/src

Get the current source from the Icinga Website.

Don't forget to download the Monitoring Plugins.

Compile and install Icinga

Extract the Icinga source code tarball (or change directory to the GIT snapshot)

 #> cd ~/src/ 
 #> tar xvzf icinga-1.14.tar.gz 
 #> cd icinga-1.14

Run the Icinga configure script. You will get help by using the --help flag.

 #> ./configure --with-httpd-conf=/usr/local/etc/apache22/Includes/ \
    --with-gd-lib=/usr/local/lib/ \
    --with-gd-inc=/usr/local/include/ \
    --with-command-group=icinga-cmd

Compile the Icinga source code. To see available options, only use "make".

 #> make all

Install binaries, init script, sample config files, some eventhandlers, and set permissions on the external command directory.

 #> make install
 #> make install-init
 #> make install-config
 #> make install-eventhandlers
 #> make install-commandmode 

or shorter

 #> make fullinstall
 #> make install-config

The Icinga-API will be installed during "make install" so if you are required to install it manually please try:

 #> make install-api

This will be mandatory for Icinga Web.

Don't start Icinga yet - there's still more that needs to be done...

Customise Configuration

Sample configuration files have been installed using

 #> make install-config

into /usr/local/icinga/etc/. You'll need to make just one change before you proceed...

Edit the /usr/local/icinga/etc/objects/contacts.cfg config file with your favourite editor and change the email address associated with the icingaadmin contact definition to the address you'd like to use for receiving alerts.

 #> vi /usr/local/icinga/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

Install and configure the Classic Web Interface

Icinga ships with the Classic Web Interface ("the CGIs") which can be installed via

 #> make cgis
 #> make install-cgis
 #> make install-html

If you are interested in the new Icinga Web, please refer to Install Icinga Web Interface.

Install the Icinga Classic web config file in the Apache conf.d directory.

 #> make install-webconf

Create an icingaadmin account for logging into the Icinga classic web interface. If you want to change it later, use the same command. Remember the password you assign to this account - you'll need it later.

 #> htpasswd -c /usr/local/icinga/etc/htpasswd.users icingaadmin

If you want to change it later or want to add another user, use the following command:

 #> htpasswd /usr/local/icinga/etc/htpasswd.users <USERNAME>

Reload/Restart Apache to make the new settings take effect.

 #> /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 reload

Compile and Install the Monitoring Plugins

Extract the plugins source code tarball.

 #> cd ~/src 
 #> tar xvzf nagios-plugins-2.1.tar.gz
 #> cd nagios-plugins-2.1 

Compile and install the plugins by changing install directory to /usr/local/icinga

 #> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/icinga \
    --with-cgiurl=/icinga/cgi-bin \
    --with-nagios-user=icinga --with-nagios-group=icinga
 #> make 
 #> make install 

Start Icinga

Add Icinga to the list of system services and have it automatically start when the system boots (make sure you have installed the init script before).

 #> echo icinga_enable=\"YES\" >> /etc/rc.conf

Verify the sample Icinga configuration files.

 #> /usr/local/icinga/bin/icinga -v /usr/local/icinga/etc/icinga.cfg

If there are no errors, start Icinga.

 #> /usr/local/etc/rc.d/icinga start

Login to the Classic Web Interface

You should now be able to access the Icinga classic web interface at the URL below. You'll be prompted for the username ( icingaadmin) and password you specified earlier.

 http://localhost/icinga/

or

 http://yourdomain.com/icinga/

Click on the "Service Detail" navbar link to see details of what's being monitored on your local machine. It will take a few minutes for Icinga to check all the services associated with your machine.

Other Modifications

Make sure your system's firewall rules are configured to allow access to the web server if you want to access the Icinga classic interface remotely.

 #> TCP port 80

Setting up your mail transfer agent (MTA) like exim, sendmail or postfix to allow Icinga sending notification emails won't be explained here.

You're Done

Congratulations! You successfully installed Icinga. Your journey into monitoring has just begun.

You'll no doubt want to monitor more than just your local machine, so check out the chapter on "Getting Started" about "Monitoring ..."