Icinga 2 — Modern Take on Classic Monitoring
General Information
Icinga 2 started as a fork of Nagios, but with time it became its own system. The basic idea stayed the same — watch hosts and services, send alerts when something goes wrong — yet the architecture is far more flexible. It’s used in places where classic checks are still valuable, but the environment already needs automation, APIs, and better integration with other tools.
How It Works
The core does the usual: runs checks, stores results, raises alarms. But unlike older systems, Icinga 2 splits work between master, satellite, and agent nodes, so monitoring can be spread across data centers. Results can be pushed into databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL, or into InfluxDB/Elasticsearch if metrics storage is needed. The web frontend, Icinga Web 2, gives a clean overview with states, history, and dashboards. For graphs, most teams wire it into Grafana.
Functions
| Area | What it covers |
| Checks | Active and passive, compatible with Nagios plugins. |
| Distributed setup | Master-satellite-agent model for scaling. |
| Notifications | Custom rules, email/SMS/chat channels. |
| API | REST interface for automation and external systems. |
| Storage | Works with SQL, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch. |
| Dashboards | Icinga Web 2, plus Grafana integration. |
| Plugins | Supports Nagios-style scripts and community add-ons. |
Installation Notes
On Debian/Ubuntu the usual way is:
– add the official repository,
– apt install icinga2 icingaweb2 icinga2-ido-mysql,
– enable and start the service.
On RHEL-based systems:
– add repo,
– yum install icinga2 icingaweb2 icinga2-ido-mysql,
– then systemctl enable –now icinga2.
After that comes database setup (MySQL or PostgreSQL), followed by the web wizard to finish the initial configuration. Hosts and services can be defined by hand in config files or managed automatically with Puppet, Ansible, or Chef.
Everyday Use
Admins often pick Icinga 2 for environments where Nagios would feel too rigid. It’s useful when part of the infrastructure runs on-prem and part in the cloud. Some teams use it only for state checks, while pushing metrics into Prometheus or Elastic, others rely on it as the central alarm engine. In practice it’s not unusual to see it tied into Grafana dashboards, Slack alerts, and a CMDB all at once.
Drawbacks
The system isn’t lightweight. Setting it up takes time, and the learning curve is noticeable compared to SaaS tools. Scaling requires planning. And while it handles states and alerts well, it doesn’t cover the full “observability” stack — no tracing, limited log handling.
Comparison
| Tool | Platforms | Strengths | Typical Fit |
| Icinga 2 | Linux/Unix | Flexible, distributed, strong plugin support | Enterprises that need customizable monitoring |
| Nagios Core | Linux/Unix | Proven, stable, massive plugin library | Smaller setups, simple host/service checks |
| Zabbix | Linux/Windows | Integrated alerting + visualization | Enterprises wanting one-box monitoring |
| Prometheus | Multi-platform | Cloud-native metrics and pull model | Kubernetes and container-heavy estates |