Download

Ep. 31: Upgrading the Checkmk appliance to version 1.5

To load this YouTube video you are required to accept advertising cookies.

[0:00:00] Welcome to the Checkmk channel. Today, we are taking a look at how to upgrade your Checkmk appliance to version 1.5.
[0:00:17] Upgrading the Checkmk appliance is quite a simple task. You simply acquire the firmware file, which you then upload to your appliance.
[0:00:28] You confirm that you actually want to upgrade your appliance. Then the appliance reboots twice and after that your appliances up and running again and you're good to continue monitoring.
[0:00:40] With the upgrade to version 1.5, there is one minor catch. Because the upgrade from version 1.4 to 1.5 includes a distribution upgrade of the underlying Debian Linux, which makes the old Checkmk installation packages incompatible.
[0:01:03] So, what does that mean? It's really simple in the end after you upgraded the firmware of your Checkmk appliance, you simply need to upload a compatible Checkmk version and then your sites continue running.
[0:01:18] That sounds worse than it is, so I suggest we just take a look and I'll show you how to go through this process.
[0:01:26] So, we are looking at my running appliance over here. We have a Checkmk site that is running at the moment and doing its job. And now we've decided we want to upgrade the firmware to version 1.5.
[0:01:41] So, what we need first is we need to stop the Checkmk site. So, let's go ahead and do that. Because that's generally a requirement of operating your Checkmk appliances firmware, there can be no running Checkmk sites.
[0:01:59] Now that we did that, we can go back to the Main Menu and navigate to the Firmware Update menu. You can see I'm at the most recent version of the 1.4 firmware at the time of recording, that is.
[0:02:15] And now we need to select a new firmware file. Now let's browse there. Here I already have the 1.5 firmware file. Let me open that. Click on Upload & Install.
[0:02:26] That will take a few seconds in that the firmware is uploaded to the appliance verified by the appliance. And we will be presented by a prompt that's asking us if we are actually ready to perform the upgrade.
[0:02:39] In this case we get an additional dialogue. So, you might be familiar with the yellow box, that's telling you what kind of update is going to be performed and if you actually want to go ahead with it.
[0:02:51] And the green box in the upper part of the page now tells you that there are Checkmk versions which are incompatible with the new 1.5 version. That is not a problem at all. This is just an information. Here you can see which sites are affected.
[0:03:07] But, as I already said, the process is really simple, so I suggest we just go ahead, confirm the upgrade, and wait for a few moments until the appliance is rebooted.
[0:03:18] Now while we are waiting, maybe just a few words on what is happening in the background. So, first the error message that you see here about a connection being reset, that is expected because the appliance needs to reboot to install the firmware update.
[0:03:31] And it does that really quickly, so this error message is just your browser telling you the appliance is not reachable anymore. So, this is totally expected, no worries there.
[0:03:41] Now what is happening in the background while we are waiting for the appliance to reboot again? The appliance reboots into a upgrade mode.
[0:03:48] It then upgrades the complete firmware volume to the new firmware version. And then it performs another upgrade to boot the freshly installed new firmware version.
[0:04:01] And after that has happened the appliance boots back and we can log into the web interface again. Let me just try if we already are able to do that.
[0:04:14] That's looking good. We are already or we are still logged in actually. And you can see the current firmware version here is version 1.5. So, that worked like a charm, really easy.
[0:04:25] So, let's get back to the Main Menu because we have to take a look at the site management here. Because as I said earlier, with this major firmware update, we have Checkmk versions that have become incompatible, the warning message also stated that.
[0:04:40] So, let's take a look at the Site Management. There we can see the error message, that the currently installed version is incompatible.
[0:04:49] We already talked about that. So, let's take a look at the versions tab. And here we can see the old version is still installed, but we see it's before the 1.5 firmware and it's incompatible, so let's fix that.
[0:05:02] I already downloaded the installation file for the new Checkmk appliance version, that is denoted by the little 3 in here, just so you notice.
[0:05:15] The download can be found on the download page, where you also download your Checkmk versions. So, there you can find the firmware version for the appliance version 1.5.
[0:05:25] I already prepared that, so let me just click on Upload & Install. This will take a few moments and then we will see we have a compatible Checkmk version.
[0:05:36] And then we can navigate back to the site overview, take a look at the site, make sure that everything's looking good and then we can restart the site. So, there really is no danger in performing this upgrade.
[0:05:48] It might look a little frightening, but it really is a simple process and it only takes two minutes more than your average upgrade from, let's say, version 1.4.19 to 1.4.20 or something like that.
[0:06:05] Okay, so the version was installed. You can see nothing really changed here, only that the warning message about the incompatible platform has vanished because this is not a additional version.
[0:06:13] The incompatible version has been removed, the compatible version has been installed. And if we move back to the site writer, you can now see we see our site again, nothing has changed here. The only thing is it's still stopped. So, let's go ahead and start the site, so we can continue monitoring.
[0:06:33] Alright, with that, that concludes the first part of the video, which takes care of a single appliance firmware upgrade. In a few moments, we will take a look at the cluster upgrade because there we also have a little difference in comparison to the upgrade process before version 1.5.
[0:06:53] All right, now let's take a look at the upgrade process for a clustered appliance which consists of two appliances. So, before version 1.5, you would simply put one node of the cluster into maintenance mode, you would upgrade that site.
[0:07:09] Make sure it's running again. Then you would shift the cluster from one to the other. You would put the other node in maintenance mode, upgrade that node, and afterwards, your whole cluster would be on the new firmware version and your monitoring continues running.
[0:07:23] With the update to version 1.5, we actually need to disband the cluster because it's a operating system upgrade, so we are changing the underlying Debian operating system from one version to the another.
[0:07:42] And that has also effects on the clustering mechanisms and that's why we cannot simply upgrade it site by site. So, let's take a look how we go about that.
[0:07:52] Now we are looking at our clustered appliance. We can take a look at the Clustering page to see the state. And there we can see both nodes are synchronized.
[0:08:05] The monitoring site is running on the main node of the cluster on CLUSTER1 here, on the right side. And everything is healthy, everything is looking good. So, let's talk about how we perform the upgrade here.
[0:08:20] So, the first thing I have to mention is, I said a few minutes ago, we have to disband the cluster. That is not right. We just need to disconnect the cluster, so we don't need to recreate the cluster completely after the upgrade.
[0:08:32] We simply need to reconnect the cluster. But, for the time being, we need to disconnect the cluster, so both nodes are standalone. The monitoring site will remain on the main node but it will be stopped.
[0:08:45] And then we perform the upgrade on both sites, and restart, and reconnect the cluster. So, let's go right ahead.
[0:08:54] We are going to disconnect the cluster. We are asked if we really want to do this. Of course, we want to be sure that we know what we are doing, so I'm going to confirm this here.
[0:09:02] That takes a few seconds to inform the other node that we are leaving the cluster, disconnecting it. And after that has been done, we can take a look at the monitoring sites.
[0:09:17] So, here it says both nodes have been disconnected, perfect. So, let's go back. We can see the cluster information is still there but the cluster has been disconnected.
[0:09:26] Now let's go to the Main Menu, to the Site Management. And there we can see, while the cluster is disconnected, we cannot start or stop sites. So, the site is stopped which means we can go about our firmware update.
[0:09:42] So, let me start by going to the dialog. I'm going to select the firmware update file, which we downloaded earlier.
[0:09:50] I'm going to say Upload & Install. As this will take a few moments, I'm going to switch over to the second appliance, take a look at the clustering page.
[0:10:00] Actually, logging in again because our session expired. Now taking a look at the cluster page and we can see the second note also was informed about the disconnect. It's also in a disconnected state.
[0:10:12] So, let's right head for the Firmware Update page. And again, we go for the update file, select it, click on Update & Install.  We can do this actually site by site because there are no ramifications.
[0:10:26] Because both appliance are not talking to each other at this point because the cluster is disconnected.
[0:10:33] So, now we are presented again with the confirm update dialog that we saw earlier already. And we also get the information about the clustered mode, which we already talked about. That's why I'm showing you what's going on. The same warnings here.
[0:10:48] So, let's confirm this. The appliance needs to install and reboot. As said earlier, this connection reset information is expected. So, let's head over to the second appliance. So, let's go about the update again, press Yes, and receive the connection reset.
[0:11:07] And now the very same process happens in the background on both appliances. We simply do it site by site with two appliances at once. But, in the end, it's the same process you already saw.
[0:11:17] So, let's wait a few seconds until the appliances have rebooted and we can move on. Okay, let's try and see whether the appliance is back online again.
[0:11:32] There we are, we can see the current firmware version is 1.5, so the upgrade was successful. So, let's get back to the Main Menu. Let's go to the Clustering page, and just really quickly check whether the second appliance is also available again.
[0:11:49] All right, version 1.5. So, both sites have been upgraded to the new firmware version. So, on the main node, I'm going to click on Reconnect Cluster.
[0:12:01] This will again take a few seconds in which the communication between the second node and the first node is being re-established and the cluster can ensure its proper state.
[0:12:16] And there we are, the cluster is already talking or better said the nodes are starting to talk to each other. This can take a few moments until the cluster is synchronized again. So, we can see both sites have firmware version 1.5 over here.
[0:12:32] We can see both our online, Network Reachability has started. And let's refresh the page again. And there we can see file synchronization. Everything is up to date, everything is fully synchronized.
[0:12:45] Mostly, everything is running. The only thing is the monitoring site that stopped. And again, we already talked about that, we need to upload a compatible Checkmk version.
[0:12:55] So, if we go to Checkmk versions, we see this dialog, which we already know. So, I am gonna just upload a compatible Checkmk version. Upload & Install. This will just take a few moments.
[0:13:14] And then we have the compatible version and can restart our monitoring site. And then we will see that everything is back in order. There we are, the version has been uploaded.
[0:13:29] So, now let's go to the sites menu. We can see our monitoring site, it has already been restarted after a compatible version was there.
[0:13:38] So, let's take a last look at the clustering information. And there we can see the cluster is in the expected state. Everything is up and running, the monitoring site is working.
[0:13:49] And with that I'm going to conclude this video. You just learned how to upgrade your Checkmk appliance to version 1.5 and also how to do that with a clustered setup.
[0:14:01] So, with that, thank you for watching. Be sure to subscribe and I will see you next time.

Want to know more about Checkmk? Join us for our Introduction to Checkmk Webinar

Register now

More Checkmk Videos

Ep. 1: Installing Checkmk 2.0 and monitoring your first host
13:23 English
Ep. 1: Installing Checkmk 2.0 and monitoring your first host
In this video, Baris explains how to take get started with Checkmk and start monitoring your first host within a few minutes.
Ep. 2: The Checkmk 2.0 user interface
10:23 English
Ep. 2: The Checkmk 2.0 user interface
In this video, Baris take you through the new user interface in Checkmk 2.0. He explains the various components of the User interface such as the new navigation menus, the Sidebar, main dashboard, tactical overview, how to switch between the Checkmk interface themes and much more
Ep. 3: Using SNMP to monitor network devices in Checkmk 2.0
07:09 English
Ep. 3: Using SNMP to monitor network devices in Checkmk 2.0
In this episode, Baris explains how to monitor network devices with Checkmk. SNMP is a protocol that many switches, routers, printers, UPSs, hardware sensors and other devices have implemented with the purpose of being able to monitor them easily.
Ep. 4: Monitoring Windows in Checkmk
05:33 English
Ep. 4: Monitoring Windows in Checkmk
In this video of our Getting started with Checkmk series, Baris explains how to install a Checkmk agent on a Windows host system and add that into your monitoring environment.
Ep. 5: Using metrics and graphs in Checkmk 2.0
05:21 English
Ep. 5: Using metrics and graphs in Checkmk 2.0
In the 5th episode of the Getting started with Checkmk series, Baris explains using various metrics that you can monitor in Checkmk such as CPU utilization, CPU load etc. You can also see graph visualizations for these metrics or create and customize your own as per your requirements.
Ep. 6: Updating Checkmk 2.0 and using multiple instances
08:30 English
Ep. 6: Updating Checkmk 2.0 and using multiple instances
In this video, Baris explains how to update your Checkmk instance. It is very easy and can be done within minutes. You can run multiple Checkmk instances with different versions on the same system. This gives you the flexibility to test the new version before using it in production.
Ep. 7 (part 1): Working with rules and setting thresholds in Checkmk
18:34 English
Ep. 7 (part 1): Working with rules and setting thresholds in Checkmk
In the following three-part videos series, Baris explains rule-based monitoring with Checkmk. In the first part, he shows you how you can work with rules and set threshold values. Rule-based configuration is one of the key features for Checkmk which helps you to scale your monitoring easily within minutes.
Ep. 7 (part 2): Smart rules with Host Tags in Checkmk
16:41 English
Ep. 7 (part 2): Smart rules with Host Tags in Checkmk
In the second part of this video, Baris explains using Smart rules with host tags in Checkmk. In the first part, he shows you how you can work with rules and set threshold values. These are features that you can use to build your rules even more intelligently and to better organize your monitoring.
Ep. 7 (part 3): Managing Hosts in Folder in Checkmk
11:42 English
Ep. 7 (part 3): Managing Hosts in Folder in Checkmk
In this final part of our episode on Rule-based monitoring in Checkmk, Baris demonstrates how to manage hosts in folders in Checkmk. This helps you to apply your monitoring configurations at scale and organize your hosts according to your needs.
Ep. 8: Working with Host and Service Groups in Checkmk
07:51 English
Ep. 8: Working with Host and Service Groups in Checkmk
In this Baris demonstrates how to create host and service groups in Checkmk, so you can perform actions on an entire group instead of configuring each of them individually.
Ep. 9: Using the Quicksearch function in Checkmk
06:02 English
Ep. 9: Using the Quicksearch function in Checkmk
In this episode of the Checkmk tutorials, Baris shows how you can use the Quicksearch function in Checkmk. You can use it to easily find and manage certain hosts or services. He also explains some examples of filters to you. In Checkmk 2.0 you can use the same syntax in the Seach function found in the monitor menu to get identical results.
Ep. 10: Detecting configuration errors with the Analyze Configuration feature
04:24 English
Ep. 10: Detecting configuration errors with the Analyze Configuration feature
With the Analyze Configuration feature, you can check if there are any configuration errors in your installation. Checkmk controls a number of possible security risks or potential performance restrictions and indicates if there are any problems.
Ep. 11: View creation and customization in Checkmk
10:22 English
Ep. 11: View creation and customization in Checkmk
In this video, Baris demonstrates how to customize headers, columns, and more in Views in Checkmk for yourself or other users. He also explains how to create custom views and add desired information to these views.
Ep. 12: Acknowledging problems in Checkmk
08:39 English
Ep. 12: Acknowledging problems in Checkmk
In this video, Baris explains how you can acknowledge problems in Checkmk. This function helps you to qualify the states of hosts and services. This allows you to keep track of messages in the main dashboard and, for example, you can add comments to problems.
Ep. 13: Scheduling downtimes in Checkmk
10:06 English
Ep. 13: Scheduling downtimes in Checkmk
In the episode of our Getting started with Checkmk series, Baris explains how you can manage the maintenance times of your systems in Checkmk. Such scheduled downtimes prevent your monitoring from sending false alarms when a host or service goes to WARN or CRIT during maintenance work. You can also inform the users concerned about the maintenance via Checkmk.
Ep. 14: Distributed monitoring with Checkmk
17:27 English
Ep. 14: Distributed monitoring with Checkmk
In this video, Baris explains how you can connect several Checkmk instances to a monitoring system and then manage it.
Ep. 15: MKPs and Plugins in Checkmk
07:53 English
Ep. 15: MKPs and Plugins in Checkmk
In the 15th episode of our Getting started with Checkmk tutorial series, Baris explains what are Checkmk Extension Packages (MKPs) and how easy it is to integrate them into your Checkmk monitoring environment. MKPs are the preferred format when you make your own extensions as it makes it easy to share with other users or deploy in distributed environments.
Ep. 16: Working with 'Bulk Actions' in Checkmk
19:49 English
Ep. 16: Working with 'Bulk Actions' in Checkmk
In this episode of our Checkmk tutorials series, Baris explains how you can save a lot of time with bulk actions. With this feature you can perform various tasks such as deleting, renaming, service discovery etc. on a large number of hosts simultaneously.
Ep. 17: Working with network topologies in Checkmk
10:30 English
Ep. 17: Working with network topologies in Checkmk
In this video of our gettign startted with Checkmk series, Baris explains how to map network topologies in Checkmk. This feature is quite helpful to manage your network and prevent any unnecessary notifications from the devices in your network.
Ep. 18: Creating and customizing dashboards in Checkmk
11:38 English
Ep. 18: Creating and customizing dashboards in Checkmk
In this video of our Getting started with Checkmk series, Mathias explains how you can create and customize dashboards in Checkmk 2.0, so you can get insights into your monitoring according to your requirements. Find out more in this video.
Ep. 19: Monitoring websites and their certificates with Checkmk
15:43 English
Ep. 19: Monitoring websites and their certificates with Checkmk
In this episode, Bastian demonstrates how to monitor a website and its certificate with Checkmk. You can also monitor specific web pages with Checkmk by using the several options that will suit your use case. Learn more in this video.
Ep. 20: Configuring dashboard elements in Checkmk
9:14 English
Ep. 20: Configuring dashboard elements in Checkmk
Learn how to add data visualization elements of the various metrics into your Checkmk Dashboard. In this video, Mathias explains how you can configure these elements and create a dashboard as per your requirements.
Ep. 21: Setting up notifications in Checkmk
8:37 English
Ep. 21: Setting up notifications in Checkmk
Learn how to set up notifications in Checkmk and assign relevant contacts and contact groups to be notified for various events. Later in this video, our presenter Bastian also demonstrates how you can set up rule-based notifications according to different conditions for hosts and services.
Ep. 22: Monitoring logfiles with Checkmk
10:19 English
Ep. 22: Monitoring logfiles with Checkmk
Monitor your logfiles with Checkmk using its Logwatch plugin. It is very useful when you want to monitor your logfiles regardless of whether you are using a UNIX/Linux or a windows based system. Learn more in this video.
Ep. 24: 3 Rules for efficient network monitoring
10:59 English
Ep. 24: 3 Rules for efficient network monitoring
In this video, Bastian demonstrates 3 rules that will help you to efficiently monitor your network interfaces. With Checkmk 2.0, with just three rules, you can set up an efficient network monitoring that will not only monitor all of your network interfaces but also simultaneously provide a detailed overview of all of your ports.
Ep. 25: New UX and security improvements in Checkmk 2.1
9:01 English
Ep. 25: New UX and security improvements in Checkmk 2.1
Checkmk 2.1 come with many UX improvements such as pre-built dashboards for Linux and Windows, faster core performance and much more. Security features such as two-factor authentication etc. were also added in this new version. Watch this video to learn how to use these new features and enhancements in Checkmk.
Ep. 28: Working with InfluxDB integration in Checkmk
5:36 English
Ep. 28: Working with InfluxDB integration in Checkmk
Learn how to send data to InfluxDB from Checkmk. As InfluxDB introduced a new protocol to send data to it, a new connector was developed with Checkmk to talk natively with it. Learn more about it in this video.
Ep. 29: New agent architecture in Checkmk 2.1
11:00 English
Ep. 29: New agent architecture in Checkmk 2.1
With Checkmk 2.1, the agent architecture was modified to enable performance improvements and add new features such as TLS encryption, data compression, and the reversal of direction of communication from the agent. This will enable push mode and pull mode.
Ep. 30: Clustering the Checkmk appliance
9:17 English
Ep. 30: Clustering the Checkmk appliance
In this video, Robin demonstrates how you can cluster your Checkmk appliance to make it resilient against hardware failures. If you are using the Checkmk hardware appliance, it may be helpful to cluster your appliance to maintain high availability.
Ep. 32: Working with the Agent bakery in Checkmk
13:40 English
Ep. 32: Working with the Agent bakery in Checkmk
In this video, Robin demonstrates how to roll out agent packages with the required configuration for different monitored systems using the agent bakery in Checkmk. The "Automatic agent update" is quite a helpful feature as it pulls the latest configurations for an agent automatically and you don't need to manually update all of your agents deployed on different systems.
Ep 33: Monitoring Docker containers with Checkmk
9:20 English
Ep 33: Monitoring Docker containers with Checkmk
Learn how to monitor Docker containers with Checkmk.In this video, Robin demonstrates the process of setting up a rule to configure the docker plugin and bake an agent with the desired settings for the Docker host.
Ep 34: Introduction to Checkmk Ansible collection
5:06 English
Ep 34: Introduction to Checkmk Ansible collection
Last year the Checkmk Ansible collection was created to interact with the Checkmk REST API. In this video, Robin demonstrates how you can use this Ansible collection to automate your monitoring with Checkmk.
Ep 35: Monitoring SQL databases with Checkmk
5:18 English
Ep 35: Monitoring SQL databases with Checkmk
In this video, Robin demonstrates how you can configure your Checkmk site to monitor your SQL databases. As there are many flavours of SQL databases, the process is mostly the same.
Ep. 36: Introduction to different types of checks for monitoring with Checkmk
11:22 English
Ep. 36: Introduction to different types of checks for monitoring with Checkmk
Learn about the different types of "checks" and services in Checkmk. In this video, Robin demonstrates how you can expand the information collected by your Checkmk agent using these different "Checks".
Ep. 43: Working with Hardware/Software inventory in Checkmk
7:12 English
Ep. 43: Working with Hardware/Software inventory in Checkmk
In this video, Robin demonstrates the hardware/software inventory feature in Checkmk. With this feature one can get an overview of various pieces of hardware present in their servers, switches etc. and also the software packages installed on their operating system. Watch this video to learn more.
Ep. 48: Monitoring file servers with Checkmk
12:11 English
Ep. 48: Monitoring file servers with Checkmk
Monitoring file servers is essential for ensuring best experience for people working remotely. In this video, Bastian demonstrates various configuration options in the file system check one can use to monitor their file server efficiently.
Ep. 50: Working with the push mode of the Checkmk agent
10:17 English
Ep. 50: Working with the push mode of the Checkmk agent
A new feature “Push mode” has been added in the Checkmk agent since the Checkmk version 2.2. The Checkmk agent pushes the data transmission on its own and does not wait for a request from the server. This is especially useful when Checkmk server cant access the network of the monitored host or for example in the cloud.
Ep. 51: Automated host creation in Checkmk
15:56 English
Ep. 51: Automated host creation in Checkmk
In this tutorial, Sudhir demonstrates how to use the auto-registration and automated host creation feature in Checkmk. The user can easily create hosts and register for the push mode automatically. As cloud objects are created and often deleted, they needed to be added to checkmk without delay, this feature helps in solving this problem.
See it yourself

Try out Checkmk now.

Get the Raw Edition Free and open source monitoring
Play with Checkmk Try Checkmk without installing