Due to the fact that some repositories do not have recent version of Icinga, it becomes very important to install from without using the repositories

If you are planning to install from source then please use the official release tarball.

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.

Icinga and the plugins will be installed underneath /usr/local/icinga Icinga will be configured to monitor a few aspects of your local system (CPU load, disk usage, etc.)

The Icinga classic web interface will be accessible at http://localhost/icinga/ or http://yourdomain.com/icinga

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. Apache

• Apache
• Mysql server
• SNMP

At one time or another you may need to use SNMP-based checks so it is a good idea to install the required packages now. Otherwise some plugins are not compiled i.e. not available when you need them and it would require a recompile of the plugins.

You can install these packages by running the following commands (as root or using sudo).

#> apt-get install apache2 mysql-server build-essential libgd2-xpm-dev  
#> apt-get install libjpeg62 libjpeg62-dev libpng12-0 libpng12-dev  
#> apt-get install snmp snmpd snmp-mibs-downloader libsnmp5-dev

Become the root user.

  $> su -l

OR

 $ sudo -i

Create a new icinga user account and give it a password:

#> /usr/sbin/useradd -m icinga   
#> passwd icinga

On some distributions you'll need to add the group in a single step:

#> /usr/sbin/groupadd icinga

For sending commands from the classic web interface to Icinga, you'll need to create a new group icinga-cmd. Add the webuser and the Icinga user to this group:

#> /usr/sbin/groupadd icinga-cmd 

#> /usr/sbin/usermod -a -G icinga-cmd icinga 

#> /usr/sbin/usermod -a -G icinga-cmd www-data

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

#> cd /usr/src

Get the current source from the Icinga Website.

Don't forget to download the Nagios Plugins.

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

#> cd /usr/src/  
#> tar xvzf icinga-1.8.tar.gz  
#> cd icinga-1.8

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

#> ./configure –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

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

Sample configuration files have been installed by 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

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.<nowiki>

#> service httpd restart

OR

#> /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Compile and Install the Nagios Plugins

Extract the Nagios plugins source code tarball.

#> cd /usr/src
#> tar xvzf nagios-plugins-1.4.16.tar.gz
#> cd nagios-plugins-1.4.16

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

#> ./configure - -prefix=/usr/local/icinga –with-cgiurl=/icinga/cgi-bin –with-htmurl=/
icinga- -with-nagios-user=icinga –with-nagios-group=icinga

#> make
#> make install

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).

#> chkconfig –add icinga
#> chkconfig icinga on
#> update-rc.d icinga defaults

Verify the sample Icinga configuration files.

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

Instead of specifying the paths to binary and config file you can issue

#> /etc/init.d/icinga show-errors

which results in an OK message if everything is fine or several lines which show the location of the error(s).

If there are no errors, start Icinga.

#> service icinga start

OR

#> /etc/init.d/icinga start

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.

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.

 #> iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT

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

Please refer to the Nagios-Wiki for more resources.

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