How to install Xymon Monitoring System
Step 1: PreRequisites
Following are some services/packages which are necessary for xymon installation
# yum update # yum install xinetd gcc fping libpcre rrdtool pcre-devel openssl-devel openldap-devel c-ares libcares.so.2 rrdtool-devel
Step 2: Package fping Installation
Download package fping, install and configure it on server
# cd /usr/local/ # wget http://fping.sourceforge.net/download/fping.tar.gz # tar -zxvf fping.tar.gz # cd fping-2.4b2_to/ # ./configure # make # make install
Step 3: Download Xymon Source Files
In order to make Xymon Monitoring server, download the source files from sourceforge.net
# wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xymon/files/latest/download
Step 4: Create Xymon User
# useradd xymon
Step 5: Xymon Installation and Configuration
Extract the source files, install and configure the files:
# tar -zxvf download # mkdir /usr/local/xymon # chown xymon:apache xymon # cd xymon-4.3.20/ # ./configure Configuration script for Xymon This script asks a few questions and builds a Makefile to compile Xymon Checking your make-utility Checking pre-requisites for building Xymon Checking for fping ... Xymon has a built-in ping utility (xymonping) However, it is not yet fully stable and therefore it may be best to use the external fping utility instead. I found fping in /usr/local/sbin/fping Do you want to use it [Y/n] ? Y Checking to see if '/usr/local/sbin/fping 127.0.0.1' works ... 127.0.0.1 is alive OK, will use '/usr/local/sbin/fping' for ping tests NOTE: If you are using an suid-root wrapper, make sure the 'xymond' user is also allowed to run fping without having to enter passwords. For 'sudo', add something like this to your 'sudoers' file: xymon ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/fping Checking for PCRE ... Compiling with PCRE library works OK Linking with PCRE library works OK Checking for C-ARES library ... Compiling with c-ares library works OK C-ARES version: Found 1.10.0 - OK, require 1.10.0 Linking with c-ares library works OK Checking for RRDtool ... Not RRDtool 1.0.x, checking for 1.2.x Compiling with RRDtool works OK Linking with RRDtool works OK Checking for OpenSSL ... Compiling with SSL library works OK Linking with SSL library works OK Checking if your SSL library has SSLv2 enabled Will support SSLv2 when testing SSL-enabled network services Xymon can use the OpenSSL library to test SSL-enabled services like https-encrypted websites, POP3S, IMAPS, NNTPS and TELNETS. If you have the OpenSSL library installed, I recommend that you enable this. Do you want to be able to test SSL-enabled services (y) ? (enter) Checking for LDAP ... Compiling with LDAP works OK LBER library not needed Linking with LDAP works OK Xymon can use your OpenLDAP LDAP client library to test LDAP servers. Do you want to be able to test LDAP servers (y) ? (enter) Checking for clock_gettime() requiring librt ... clock_gettime() requires librt Checking for Large File Support ... Large File Support OK Setting up for a Xymon server What userid will be running Xymon [xymon] ? Found passwd entry for user xymon:x:516:517::/home/xymon:/bin/bash Where do you want the Xymon installation [/home/xymon] ? OK, will configure to use /usr/local/xymon as the Xymon toplevel directory What URL will you use for the Xymon webpages [/xymon] ? (enter) Where to put the Xymon CGI scripts [/usr/local/xymon/cgi-bin] ? (Note: This is the filesystem directory - we will get to the URL shortly) (enter) What is the URL for the Xymon CGI directory [/xymon-cgi] ? (Note: This is the URL - NOT the filesystem directory) (enter) ********************** SECURITY NOTICE **************************** If your Xymon server is accessible by outsiders, then you should restrict access to the CGI scripts that handle enable/disable of hosts, and acknowledging of alerts. The easiest way to do this is to put these in a separate CGI directory and require a password to access them. Even if your Xymon server is on a secured, internal network, you may want to have some operations (like disabling a host) be password- protected - that lets you see who disabled or acknowledged an alert. Where to put the Xymon Administration CGI scripts [/usr/local/xymon/cgi-secure] ? (Note: This is the filesystem directory - we will get to the URL shortly) (enter) What is the URL for the Xymon Administration CGI directory [/xymon-seccgi] ? (Note: This is the URL - NOT the filesystem directory) (enter) ** Note that you may need to modify your webserver configuration. ** After installing, see /usr/local/xymon/server/etc/xymon-apache.conf for an example configuration. To generate Xymon availability reports, your webserver must have write-access to a directory below the Xymon top-level directory. I can set this up if you tell me what group-ID your webserver runs with. This is typically 'nobody' or 'apache' or 'www-data' What group-ID does your webserver use [nobody] ? (enter) Where to put the Xymon logfiles [/var/log/xymon] ? (enter) What is the name of this host [example.com] ? (enter) What is the IP-address of this host [127.0.0.1] ? 10.10.10.10 Where should I install the Xymon man-pages (/usr/local/man) ? (enter) Using Linux Makefile settings Created Makefile with the necessary information to build Xymon Some defaults are used, so do look at the Makefile before continuing. Configuration complete - now run make (GNU make) to build the tools
Step:6 Install Xymon
Configuration is completed successfully, now execute make and make install command to install the xymon monitoring server.
# make # make install
Step:7 Start Xymon Service
After Installation login with xymon user and start the xymon server
# su xymon # /usr/local/xymon/server/bin/xymon.sh start Xymon started
Step:8 Concatenate Config File
Concatenate xymon-apache.conf with httpd.conf
# cat /usr/local/xymon/server/etc/xymon-apache.conf >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
TroubleShooting
Case 1: Directory Path
Create a softlink in /var/www/html / where you DocumentRoot is set(by default directory is /var/www/html)
# cd /var/www/html # ln -s /usr/local/xymon xymon
Case 2: fping permissions issue
In case you face xymongen alert just change the ownership and file permissions of fping
# chown root:xymon /usr/sbin/fping # chmod 710 /usr/sbin/fping # chmod ug+s /usr/sbin/fping
Order of commands matters, Linux will reset setuid bit after a chown for security reasons.
So, you must do these commands in the order defined in the manual (chown first).
Awsome article!!
May I also know if you have any posting on how to configure xymon clients (for monitoring network disk, heap memory, etc) & how to access the xymon server??
Yes you can monitor disk, heap memory etc by editing its configuration files like hosts etc.
Thanks for your interest…………….!!!
Xymon client is builtin with the Xymon server, you can hit your IP or hostname that you have mentioned in your configuration file i.e hosts.cfg while installation of Xymon Server.
By Default Path:
Your-Server-IP-Address/xymon/xymon.html
or
Your-Server-Hostname/xymon/xymon.html
Dear Sir,
Thanks a lot for the tutorial.
I am following the steps but this command doesn’t work form me. “# chown xymon:apache xymon”.
Any suggestion please?
check if apache group extis
Hi Sir,
same as mine, “# chown xymon:apache xymon”
error: chown: cannot access ‘xymon’: No such file or directory
Check the location where Xymon is installed.
chown xymon:apache /path-where-xymon-installed/
you must to install the apache service, yum install httpd and next start the service: service httpd start.
Centos 6