Werk #20127: Add support for running the Relay on Windows
| Component | Relay | ||||
| Title | Add support for running the Relay on Windows | ||||
| Date | Jun 18, 2026 | ||||
| Level | Prominent Change | ||||
| Class | New Feature | ||||
| Compatibility | Compatible - no manual interaction needed | ||||
| Checkmk versions & editions |
|
You can now run a Checkmk Relay on a Windows host. A dedicated Windows installer is provided, and adding a Windows relay is guided by a new wizard in Setup.
What this means
Until now the Relay ran on Linux only. With this release you can also deploy a Relay on Windows. On Windows the relay runs inside a dedicated Ubuntu 24.04 WSL2 distribution that the installer sets up for you - from the site's point of view the relay registers and behaves like any other relay.
Adding a Windows relay
In Setup, when adding a relay, select a Windows operating system (Windows Server 2022 or Windows Server 2025). The wizard then guides you through three steps:
- Download the Windows installer from the Relay setup wizard, which is shipped with your site.
- Make sure WSL2 is enabled on the target host.
- Run the installer, which registers the relay with your site.
The installer can be run interactively - a dialog collects the relay name, the
relay image tag, the target site host (and optional port), the site name, and the
authentication (token or user/password) - or silently via msiexec properties
for unattended deployment.
Prerequisites
- A supported Windows version with WSL2 (Windows Server 2022 or 2025)
- WSL2 enabled on the host
- Administrator rights on the target host: the installer writes under Program Files, imports a WSL distribution, and registers a scheduled task
Good to know
- The relay engine updates automatically, just like on Linux: it checks the site version and pulls the matching relay container image from Docker Hub inside the WSL2 distribution.
- The Windows installation stack itself (the MSI and its WSL2 distribution) does not support in-place upgrades yet. To move to a newer installer, uninstall the existing one and install the new one.
- After a reboot, the relay comes back up automatically. The installer registers a scheduled task that starts the relay at machine boot, so no interactive logon is required - this also works on headless servers.