Werk #20059: New "Related hosts" section for hosts
| Component | Setup | ||
| Title | New "Related hosts" section for hosts | ||
| Date | Jul 8, 2026 | ||
| Level | Trivial Change | ||
| Class | New Feature | ||
| Compatibility | Compatible - no manual interaction needed | ||
| Checkmk versions & editions |
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You can now record which hosts belong together: a server's management board (its IPMI, iDRAC or iLO interface) and the OS host it manages, each monitored as a host of its own. The monitoring then shows, for every host, which hosts it is related to and their state.
Relations are informational only. They do not change how a host is checked or notified, and they do not configure how a management board is queried. The "Management board" section of the host properties, which did that, is deprecated (see werk #22018).
Adding a relation
- In Setup, open the properties of a host, or create a new one.
- In the new section "Related hosts", click "Add new relation".
- Choose the "Type" "Management board", a "Direction" and the related "Host". The direction says what the host you are editing is to the related host: "is management board of" or "is OS host of".
- Save. To see the relation in the monitoring, activate changes.
Enter a relation on one of the two hosts only. It appears on the other host right away, and you can change or remove it from either side.
The related host can be in another folder or on another site. It must exist and you must be permitted to see it. In a multi-tenant setup, both hosts must belong to the same customer.
To find and add relations for many hosts at once, use the "Relation detection" page (see werk #22017). The REST API supports relations as well (see werk #22022).
Good to know
- Changing a relation also changes the related host. You need permission to edit that host, and you get a pending change for it, too. In a distributed setup, its site is activated together with yours.
- Renaming a host updates the relations pointing at it, like parent definitions. Cloning a host does not copy its relations.
- Deleting a host removes its relations on both sides, even on related hosts you may not edit. When you delete a single host, the confirmation lists the hosts it is related to.
- Relations are set per host only: not on folders, not in the bulk edit of Setup, and not with "Remove explicit attribute settings".
- Hosts created by a Quick setup cannot get new relations, because the Quick setup recreates them. Removing a relation works.
Relations in the monitoring
After you have activated changes, the "All hosts" page shows a "Relations" column with the number of related hosts of each host. The column appears as soon as at least one host you may see has a relation. Click the number or the host to open its details: under "Relations" they list every related host with its state, its role and a summary of its services, with a link to them.
This works across sites. A relation shows once the sites of both hosts have activated it. Related hosts you may not see are neither listed nor counted. If the site of a related host is unavailable, users who may see all hosts get a note instead of its state; other users do not see that host.
If a relation does not show up
If a relation cannot be shown in the monitoring, for example after "hosts.mk" was edited by hand, "Activate changes" shows a warning naming the hosts concerned, and the host properties tell you what to fix.