Nagios and Raspberry Pi
You may all ask what does security have to do with Nagios? Well, it does. If you can’t know the status of your network / server, you won’t see a problem coming. So, here comes Nagios – an open source monitoring system that includes tons of popular plug-ins.
Well, what about Raspberry PI? Raspberry PI is a project aimed at making computing more interesting to the young generation. The first model that they have launched costs only 25$ and can replace lots of the PC’s that run in all sorts of areas where you simply don’t need all the 4 cores. So, with the accessible cost of a Raspberry PI one can create a small server for all sorts of things such as monitoring jobs or network scanning or network sniffing jobs.
In this part of the tutorial I will start treating the subject of the Nagios installation on the Raspberry PI.
As an OS, I have used a SD card preloaded with Debian “squeeze” 6 (download it from here: torrent or direct download). The setup of the card can be found here. You will need an SD with at least 2 GB of space just for the install!
Once you have the SD ready attach-it to the Raspberry PI and power it up! It would be a good idea to start the ssh daemon so you can work from a remote server, but it’s your choice.
We will be using a lot apt-get, so it’s better to refresh its repository (if you are behind a proxy use “export http_proxy=http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyyyyy” to set the proxy for apt-get).
My RaspBerry PI up and running
Please take into account that Debian comes with a pre-compiled Nagios (3.2) that can be installed with-out any trouble with this command: apt-get install nagios3.
But I wish to have the latest version, so we will need to do a little compiling. It all really depends on what you want 
.
Preparing for the installation:
First thing we need to do is to update the package list:
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi#apt-get update
Before we can compile Nagios, we will need to do a small shopping list for the missing packages. These are the requisites for the installation:
apt-get install php5 apache2 libgd2-xpm libgd2-xpm-dev libgd2-dev libpng12-dev libjpeg62-dev libgd-tools libpng12-dev libgd2-xpm libgd2-xpm-dev libssl-dev gnutls-bin iputils
We will also need to create the apache and Nagios group:
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# groupadd www-data
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# groupadd nagios
Then we will need to add the Nagios user:
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# adduser nagios
Adding user `nagios’ …
Adding new group `nagios’ (1001) …
Adding new user `nagios’ (1002) with group `nagios’ …
Creating home directory `/home/nagios’ …
Copying files from `/etc/skel’ …
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for nagios
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []: Nagios
Room Number []: Nagios
Work Phone []:
Home Phone []:
Other []:
Is the information correct? [Y/n] Y
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# grep nagios /etc/passwd
nagios:x:1002:1001:Nagios,Nagios,,:/home/nagios:/bin/bash
And modify the users so they are included in the new groups:
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# usermod -G nagios nagios
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# usermod -G www-data,nagios www-data
Double check the operation:
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# grep nagios /etc/group
nagios:x:1001:www-data,Nagios
Prepare the install directory:
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# mkdir /usr/local/nagios
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# chown -R nagios:nagios /usr/local/Nagios
We will also need to install GD-Utils:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# wget http://www.boutell.com/gd/http/gd-2.0.33.tar.gz
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# tar -zxvf gd-2.0.33.tar.gz
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/gd-2.0.33# ./configure
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/gd-2.0.33# make && make install
Nagios Install:
I think we are done preparing. Let’s start the actual Nagios installation:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/nagios/nagios-3.4.1.tar.gz
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# tar xzf nagios-3.4.1.tar.gz
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# ./configure –prefix=/usr/local/nagios –with-cgiurl=/nagios/cgi-bin –with-htmurl=/nagios/ –with-nagios-user=nagios –with-nagios-group=nagios –with-command-group=nagios
……………….
*** Configuration summary for nagios 3.4.1 05-11-2012 ***:
General Options:
————————-
Nagios executable: nagios
Nagios user/group: nagios,nagios
Command user/group: nagios,nagios
Embedded Perl: no
Event Broker: yes
Install ${prefix}: /usr/local/nagios
Lock file: ${prefix}/var/nagios.lock
Check result directory: ${prefix}/var/spool/checkresults
Init directory: /etc/init.d
Apache conf.d directory: /etc/apache2/conf.d
Mail program: /bin/mail
Host OS: linux-gnu
Web Interface Options:
————————
HTML URL: http://localhost/nagios/
CGI URL: http://localhost/nagios/cgi-bin/
Traceroute (used by WAP): /usr/sbin/traceroute
Review the options above for accuracy. If they look okay,
type ‘make all’ to compile the main program and CGIs.
And make:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make all
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/nagios/module’
*** Compile finished ***
If the main program and CGIs compiled without any errors, you
can continue with installing Nagios as follows (type ‘make’
without any arguments for a list of all possible options):
make install
- This installs the main program, CGIs, and HTML files
make install-init
- This installs the init script in /etc/init.d
make install-commandmode
- This installs and configures permissions on the
directory for holding the external command file
make install-config
- This installs *SAMPLE* config files in /usr/local/nagios/etc
You’ll have to modify these sample files before you can
use Nagios. Read the HTML documentation for more info
on doing this. Pay particular attention to the docs on
object configuration files, as they determine what/how
things get monitored!
make install-webconf
- This installs the Apache config file for the Nagios
web interface
make install-exfoliation
- This installs the Exfoliation theme for the Nagios
web interface
make install-classicui
- This installs the classic theme for the Nagios
web interface
*** Support Notes *******************************************
If you have questions about configuring or running Nagios,
please make sure that you:
- Look at the sample config files
- Read the documentation on the Nagios Library at:
http://library.nagios.com
before you post a question to one of the mailing lists.
Also make sure to include pertinent information that could
help others help you. This might include:
- What version of Nagios you are using
- What version of the plugins you are using
- Relevant snippets from your config files
- Relevant error messages from the Nagios log file
For more information on obtaining support for Nagios, visit:
http://support.nagios.com
*************************************************************
Enjoy.
Almost there:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make install
By default Nagios comes installed with Exfoliation theme.
We will need to install the init script:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make install-init
Install and configure the directory for that holds the external command file:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make install-commandmode
Install the apache configuration:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make install-webconf
And at the end install the sample config files:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make install-config
Restart the apache daemon:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload
Install Nagios plugins:
We can install them in two modes:
The package way (remember to modify the “$USER1$” in the nagios plugins to point to the default install directory):
apt-get install nagios-plugins nagios-snmp-plugins
Or by compiling them:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/nagiosplug/nagios-plugins-1.4.15.tar.gz
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# tar xzf nagios-plugins-1.4.15.tar.gz
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios-plugins-1.4.15# ./configure
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios-plugins-1.4.15# make && make install
That should be all! Let’s check the configuration:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp# /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg
And start the daemon:
root@raspberrypi:/tmp#service nagios start
Nagios Core – web interface
Voilà! You have Nagios on the Raspberry PI installed!
Oh… and if you see the load too big (in the screenshot), don’t worry! That’s because I gave it a stress test: at the time of the screenshot it was running almost 700 services, on almost 173 hots made from the default nagios-snmp-plugins (Perl scripts SNMP checks).
That’s all!
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13 comments
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Zachary
July 3, 2012 at 04:42 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Thanks for posting this. I hoping someone would configure Nagios on a Raspberry pi!
Mihai
July 5, 2012 at 23:14 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Glad you liked it!
Biscuit
July 5, 2012 at 18:56 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Great post and very good instructions
One suggestion I have would be to move this line
root@raspberrypi:/tmp/nagios# make install
out of the large block of text. I missed it first time round because it was at the bottom of a big block of screen output.
Mihai
July 5, 2012 at 23:20 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Ok. Thanks for the suggestions! I have inserted in the text some formatting on the commands part. It should improve the visibility.
Manunc
September 13, 2012 at 15:05 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Hello, thanks for your post on Nagios and RPI.
I did the same and it works too. My aim is to connect Nagios to the Centreon monitoring software (www.centreon.com) for this we need to install NDOUtils but altthough I succeed to compile also NDOUtils I have a segmentation fault when trying to start it.
Did you try to use NDOUtils ?
I would be interested to get some help on this.
Regards
Emmanuel
Ale
October 9, 2012 at 13:49 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
ey thanks for the tutorial!
Also i’ve found that through apt is possible to install too
just:
$ sudo aptitude install nagios3 -y
Mihai
February 28, 2013 at 22:50 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
You can. Depends if you want or not the latest version.
andydis
February 19, 2013 at 12:40 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
The download you have suggested can only login as pi and raspberry
This then brings up and error when running the commands permission denied , Are you root?
Whats the root username and pass?
Mihai
February 28, 2013 at 22:53 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Yep! You can do: sudo bash (& insert your user password) and then you will have a root shell. Then you can proceed with the install.
Robert
February 19, 2013 at 18:06 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
sudo apt-get install nagios
Mihai
February 28, 2013 at 22:49 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Yep! But you get an old version.
cesco73
March 4, 2013 at 20:12 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
hi,
On raspbian server edition, i have this problem,
sudo apt-get install php5 apache2 libgd2-xpm libgd2-xpm-dev libgd2-dev libpng12-dev libjpeg62-dev libgd-tools libpng12-dev libgd2-xpm libgd2-xpm-dev libssl-dev gnutls-bin iputils
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package libgd2-dev is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package ‘libgd2-dev’ has no installation candidate
E: Unable to locate package iputils
what source add to install ‘libgd2-dev’?
Thanks
Mihai
March 10, 2013 at 20:54 (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Try this one: libgd2-xpm-dev or libgd2-noxpm-dev
I didn’t had time to test it myself on a new installation but it seems to work fine for the guys in this forum:
https://github.com/fsphil/fswebcam/issues/4
Let me know if it worked for you.
Have a nice day!