The number of productive monitored services is relevant for the necessary subscription level. This number can be found at top left in the Checkmk interface's Tactical Overview. If it is the case that you operate Checkmk redundantly in an HA-cluster, the services will not be doubly counted. Pure test systems for trialling Checkmk versions, etc., are also not counted. If multiple Checkmk instances are in use, then the sum of the services over all of the instances in your business is the relevant number. Standalone or single HA-Cluster: In your monitoring site, under the host on which your site is running, you can find a service 'OMD MYSITE performance', which has a graph tracking the number of monitored hosts and services. Alternatively, you can search for 'OMD' in the quicksearch to find this service. If the agent on the Checkmk server is older than version 1.2.8. the history of the number of services has to be assumed from the "Check Performance" graph. Distributed Monitoring: The graph already mentioned is available for each site. You can add these graphs to a shared, custom graph to get the total number of services over all sites, and then summarize these. Here is an explanation how summarizing works: Calculating with formulae on custom graphs

Yes. You are completely free as to the number of Checkmk instances used for configuring your monitoring. Only the total number of monitored services determines the subscription size.

No. The price is determined solely by the total number of monitored services.

For a typical data center you can expect to have around 30-70 services per host. But naturally it makes a difference if you, eg. monitor a switch only with PING, or a data base server with 50 Oracle instances.

Starting with version 1.6.0 there is no longer an unlimited demo installation of Checkmk. You can use the Checkmk Enterprise Free Edition for demo purposes. It allows monitoring for up to ten hosts on a maximum of two sites.

In older Checkmk versions (1.5.0 and lower) there are still independent demo versions of the Checkmk Enterprise Edition / Managed Services Edition. These versions are completely identical to the complete Checkmk Enterprise Edition / Managed Services Edition - except for the fact that about 5% of the check results randomly assume the state "WARN".

So you can try out all features of Checkmk - even in distributed monitoring. Only a productive use is not possible. You can easily update the demo version to the full version later without losing your configuration and data. Important: The demo versions and the Checkmk Raw Edition are different products.

Please read more in our description of the editions or contact us.

The combined display of monitored services in one view or the joint configuration of the monitoring (“Integrated Monitoring”) requires the purchase of one single subscription that covers the entire Integrated Monitoring.

If the Checkmk Raw Edition is included in an Integrated Monitoring, services monitored from such instances shall be counted towards the number of services monitored by the Customer for the purpose of sizing of the Checkmk Enterprise Subscription;

Example 1:

- Site1 CEE 2000 services

- Site 2 CRE 1500 services

- Independent sites that do not communicate with each other.

=> The subscription will be calculated based on the 2000 services on site1.

Example 2:

The same sites as in example 1, but additionally the services on Site2 are via Multisite visible on Site1

=> The subscription will be calculated based on the 2000 services on site1, plus the 1500 services on Site2 – making a total 3500 services.

When do I need the license option 'Managed Services Use'?

You need the license option "Managed Services Use" whenever you monitor IT infrastructure that you operate for or provide to a "third party".

A "third party" is a company that is not legally part of your company, i.e. this third party is not an affiliated company, your company does not hold a majority share or other similar interests in this third party. The third party is simply 'a customer'.

It is irrelevant whether the third party itself uses the software or whether you use it only internally, for example, to ensure your own service level agreements towards this customer.

It is also irrelevant who owns the infrastructure and whether this infrastructure is located in your data center or in that of your customer.

Typical examples:

- You use Checkmk to monitor physical or virtual infrastructure that you make available to a Managed Services customer for exclusive use (e.g. provision of virtual machines or hosting physical servers)

- You use Checkmk to monitor physical or virtual infrastructure that you operate for a specific Managed Services customer of yours (e.g. as part of a broader Managed Services agreement).

The license option 'Managed Services Use’ is not required if you only provide your customers with services (e.g. SaaS, email, databases or online shops), but no infrastructure for them to use exclusively.

A special feature of the Managed Services license is the purely passive right of use for the Managed Services customer. This means that your Managed Services customer may only have read access to the web interface to retrieve information and/or reports and set maintenance periods. Your Managed Services customer is not entitled to active use, especially in the form of own configuration changes. If this is intended, this customer would require their own separate Checkmk subscription.

The Managed Services Usage license option always includes the possibility of using the software as a group. This is already included for customers with the subscription 'Checkmk Enterprise Managed Services Edition'  Checkmk Enterprise Managed Services Edition and must only be purchased separately for the Checkmk Enterprise Standard Edition. Conversely, the Group Use license option always includes the possibility of using the software as a managed service provider.

Managed Services customers are only entitled to passive use of Checkmk. This means they may have read access to the web interface to retrieve information and/or reports and set maintenance periods.

Managed Services customers are not entitled to active use, especially in the form of their own configuration changes. So, if a customer actively uses the Checkmk system himself, he needs his own Checkmk subscription.

In general, every interaction with Checkmk, both directly and via interfaces, represents active use. This includes, for example, logging on to the Web interface, administering the program, creating and deleting hosts, or reading data using another application.

In summary: You need a license for group use under two conditions:

a) You want to set up instances outside the legal entity that is a customer of tribe29 (e.g. in another country) and these instances monitor more than 10% of the services for which you have purchased a subscription.

b) If employees of other affiliated companies use Checkmk (that is, log on to the Web interface, configure Checkmk, or request data via API)

What does that mean exactly:

A company typically consists of several legal entities. Example: Alpha Inc. has two subsidiaries, Alpha North Corp. and Alpha South Corp. Alpha South Corp. itself has two subsidiaries, Alpha Spain Ltd. and Alpha Italy Ltd.

The customer is always only the entity that takes out a subscription with tribe29, e.g. Alpha South Corp.

Of course, with the basic license of Checkmk Enterprise Standard Edition you can monitor all these group companies, legally called "affiliated companies". I.e. Alpha South Corp. can be the customer of tribe29, but also monitor IT in the parent company (Alpha Inc.), its sister company (Alpha North Corp.) and the subsidiaries (Alpha Spain Ltd. and Alpha Italy Ltd.). You can also create as many instances as you like as part of the basic license. However, there are two restrictions:

1. Where do the instances reside: With the 'normal' license, the instances of Checkmk must basically run in the legal entity that is the customer. In our example, this means that Checkmk instances - no matter how many - may only run in the data centers of Alpha South. Checkmk instances in other legal entities, e.g. an instance in Alpha Italy Ltd., are only permitted within the framework of a 'fair use policy'.

Monitoring of cloud services used by Alpha North Corp., such as AWS, Microsoft Azure or local hosters, is also permitted under the basic license. These are treated as services of the actual customer, in this case Alpha Nord GmbH.

2. Who uses Checkmk: With the 'normal' license Checkmk may only be used by employees or service providers of the legal entity that is a customer of tribe29. That means in our example only employees of Alpha South Corp. may use Checkmk. "Use" is defined as e.g. logging into the web interface, configuring Checkmk, or retrieving data - no matter if manually or via an API, e.g. by Grafana.

Even if instances in other legal entities may be set up within the framework of the 'Fair Use Policy', the software may nevertheless only be used by the customer of tribe29, in the above example Alpha South Corp. If employees or service providers of other affiliated companies want to use Checkmk, they need the Group Use license option.

For details, please refer to our EULA, which can be retrieved from https://checkmk.com/legal.html.

The fair use policy allows instances to be set up in other affiliated companies as long as these together account for less than 10% of the licensed services.

As an example: Alpha South Corp. has purchased a subscription for 100,000 services and would like to set up an instance in Alpha Italy Ltd. and an instance in Alpha Spain Ltd. in addition to its own instances. This is permitted under the basic license if the instances in Alpha Spain Ltd. and Alpha Italy Ltd. together make up less than 10,000 services (10% of the licensed service number). If they amount to more than 10%, you need a group license.