How to Monitor Debian 11 with Nagios Cross-Platform Agent (NCPA)

Nagios Cross-Platform Agent (NCPA) is a powerful monitoring agent for Windows, Linux (including Debian), and macOS. It provides an all-in-one solution for system metrics, service monitoring, and network statistics using a built-in REST API. Supporting both active and passive checks, NCPA simplifies monitoring with its user-friendly interface and custom plugin support, making it an efficient choice for seamless Nagios integration on Debian and other systems.

Prerequisites

Before installing NCPA on your Debian 11 device, make sure you have the following items:

• A user with sudo privileges
• A working Debian 11 device

Step 1: Download NCPA

To start off with installing NCPA, go to the tmp directory to store the file. You may use another location as well.

cd /tmp

Once in the desired location, the following command can be run to download the correlating NCPA version.

wget https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/ncpa/ncpa-latest.d11.amd64.deb

When done downloading, it should look like this:

Step 2: Install NCPA

To install NCPA use this command:

dpkg -i ./ncpa-latest.d11.amd64.deb

The result should look like this:

Step 3: Configure NCPA

Next, to make NCPA more secure, go to the configuration file using this command:

nano /usr/local/ncpa/etc/ncpa.cfg 

The section that has the Community String will be down the file a bit. It will look like this:

Change the Community String to a new value and remember it for later.

Step 4: Start the Service

Now that all these changes have been made, it’s time to start up NCPA and save those changes. Use the following command to start NCPA:

systemctl restart ncpa_listener.service

Step 5: Start Monitoring Debian 11 Device in Nagios

In Nagios, go to Configuration > Configuration Wizards > NCPA.

The next page will ask for the IP address and the Community String. Fill in those fields and select Debian as the system. After you select Next, a page with defaults will appear. Those can be changed as seen fit or can be left as is.

Step 6: Host Status

Your Debian 11 device is now being monitored with NCPA. You can see more details about the Host if you go to Home > Host Status > Your Device.

If you have additional questions or other support-related questions, please visit Nagios Support. The Nagios Support Knowledgebase is also a great support resource.