How to Install and Configure Nagios on Arch Linux

Nagios is a powerful, open-source monitoring system that helps you identify and resolve IT infrastructure problems before they affect critical business processes. In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through how to install and configure Nagios on Arch Linux. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a fully functional Nagios server up and running on your Arch Linux machine.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have:

An Arch Linux system up-to-date and running with root privileges.
A working knowledge of Arch Linux and basic command-line skills.
A web server installed (we’ll use Apache for this tutorial).

How to Install and Configure Nagios on Arch Linux

Install Required Dependencies on Arch Linux

First, we need to install the required dependencies for Nagios. Run the following commands to update your Arch Linux system and install the necessary packages:

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S gcc make apache php php-cgi

Now that you have the required dependencies installed, let’s proceed with the installation of Nagios.

Download and Compile Nagios on Arch Linux

Download the latest version of Nagios from the official website using the wget command. If you haven’t installed wget yet, check out our tutorial on how to install wget on Arch Linux.

wget https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagioscore/releases/nagios-x.x.x.tar.gz
tar xvf nagios-x.x.x.tar.gz
cd nagios-x.x.x/

Replace x.x.x with the version number you downloaded.

Now, compile Nagios using the following commands:

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

Create Nagios User and Group on Arch Linux

Next, create a new user and group for Nagios:

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash nagios
sudo groupadd nagcmd
sudo usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios
sudo usermod -a -G nagcmd apache

Install Nagios on Arch Linux and Configure Permissions

Install Nagios and set the appropriate permissions:

sudo make install
sudo make install-commandmode
sudo make install-init
sudo make install-config

Configure Apache for Nagios

To access the Nagios web interface, you’ll need to configure Apache. First, create a new Apache configuration file for Nagios:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/extra/nagios.conf

Add the following content to the newly created configuration file:

ScriptAlias /nagios/cgi-bin/ "/usr/local/nagios/sbin/"
<Directory "/usr/local/nagios/sbin/">
    Options ExecCGI
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Nagios Access"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users
    Require valid-user
</Directory>

Alias /nagios "/usr/local/nagios/share/"
<Directory "/usr/local/nagios/share/">
    Options None
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Nagios Access"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users
    Require valid-user
</Directory>

Save and exit the file. Now, include the Nagios configuration in the main Apache configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Add the following line at the end of the file:

Include conf/extra/nagios.conf

Save and exit the file. Now, restart Apache to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Create Nagios Web Interface User

Create a user account for accessing the Nagios web interface:

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

You’ll be prompted to enter a password for the nagiosadmin user.

Install Nagios Plugins on Arch Linux

To monitor various services and hosts, you’ll need to install the Nagios plugins. Download the latest version of the Nagios plugins from the official website using the wget command:

wget https://nagios-plugins.org/download/nagios-plugins-x.x.tar.gz
tar xvf nagios-plugins-x.x.tar.gz
cd nagios-plugins-x.x/

Replace x.x with the version number you downloaded.

Compile and install the Nagios plugins:

./configure --with-nagios-user=nagios --with-nagios-group=nagios
make
sudo make install

Start Nagios and Enable it at Boot

Start the Nagios service and enable it to run at system boot:

sudo systemctl start nagios
sudo systemctl enable nagios

Access Nagios Web Interface

Finally, you can access the Nagios web interface by navigating to the following URL in your web browser:

http://your_server_ip/nagios

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed and configured Nagios on your Arch Linux system. You can now monitor your IT infrastructure using the powerful features provided by Nagios.

For more tutorials on Arch Linux, check out our guides on how to set up a LAMP stack, how to set up a cron job, or how to install and configure MongoDB.