Last updated: 11.06.2026
Icinga mit Icinga DB auf Ubuntu 26.04 LTS installieren: diese Anleitung führt dich Schritt für Schritt durch die komplette Grundinstallation. From the integration of the Icinga repository to the Redis-based IcingaDB setup and the Node Wizard. In around 20 minutes, you have a clean monitoring basis on which you can build directly.
The most important points in 30 seconds
- Installation runs exclusively via the official Icinga repository, the Ubuntu standard packages are not suitable.
- IcingaDB is not a stand-alone database, but a component network consisting of Redis buffer, Icinga feature and daemon.
- Redis deliberately listens on port 6380 for Icinga – so there are no conflicts with existing Redis instances.
- If you use
bind 0.0.0.0, it is essential to secure Redis: password, firewall or TLS. - The Node Wizard defines zones and endpoints and completes the basic installation.
Requirements for the installation
Before you start installing Icinga on Ubuntu 26.04, your environment should fulfill the following requirements:
- Operating system: Ubuntu Desktop 26.04 LTS with min. 6 GB RAM and 25 GB free disk space & Ubuntu Server 26.04 LTS with min. 2 GB RAM and 20 GB storage space
- You have the right to work as a Sudo user on this machine
- Access to an SQL database
- An Internet connection on the machine
Step 1: Integration of the Icinga repository
To install the latest version of Icinga, you need the official Icinga repository. To begin with, you will update the list of available software packages. To do this, execute the following commands in your terminal:
Update system:
apt updateInstall GPG key:
wget -O icinga-archive-keyring.deb "https://packages.icinga.com/icinga-archive-keyring_latest+ubuntu$(
. /etc/os-release; echo "$VERSION_ID"
).deb"wget -O icinga-archive-keyring.deb "https://packages.icinga.com/icinga-archive-keyring_latest+ubuntu$(
. /etc/os-release; echo "$VERSION_ID"
).deb"apt install ./icinga-archive-keyring.debEnter repository:
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/icinga-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.icinga.com/ubuntu icinga-resolute main"> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/resolute-icinga.list
echo "deb-src [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/icinga-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.icinga.com/ubuntu icinga-resolute main">> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/resolute-icinga.listReread package lists:
apt updateThe new repositories are visible in your list as soon as the command block has been completed without errors.
Step 2: Install the Icinga package
To install the Icinga package in the next step, use :
apt install icinga2 -y Step 3: Installing the monitoring plugin and activating the Icinga API
The following step allows you to create the first checks and collect data by installing the monitoring plugins.
Schritt 3: Installation des Monitoring-Plugins und Aktivierung der Icinga-APIapt install monitoring-pluginsTo retrieve the results of the check plugins, the Icinga API must be set up. The first command activates the API feature and automatically creates X.509 TLS certificates for secure communication. An API user is also created in the configuration file.
/etc/icinga2/conf.d/api-users.conf By default, the user here is root and the password is generated randomly. For security reasons, I recommend changing the parameters individually.
Restarting the service loads the new configurations and activates them.
icinga2 api setup
systemctl restart icinga2Better to get it right from the start?
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Step 4: Set up Icinga DB
Contrary to what the name might suggest, Icinga DB is not a stand-alone database.
Rather, it is a collection of components for publishing, synchronizing and visualizing monitoring data in the Icinga ecosystem. These components include Redis, the IcingaDB feature of Icinga Core and the IcingaDB daemon.
To be able to use Icinga DB, you need a Redis server. Redis stands for “Remote Dictionary Server”. This is an in-memory database. Icinga has optimized this so that it fits perfectly into the Icinga 2 infrastructure.
It saves results and downtimes temporarily and thus reduces the load on the main database. Icinga 2 uses port 6380 instead of the usual Redis port 6379. This is set automatically during installation.
apt install icingadb-redis
systemctl enable --now icingadb-redis-serverBy default, icingadb-redis only listens on 127.0.0.1, i.e. on localhost.
/etc/icingadb-redis/icingadb-redis.confIn this file, adjust the “bind” item: bind 127.0.0.1 becomes bind 0.0.0.0
This means that all interfaces can access the Redis.
Security note: Redis does not have active authentication by default. If you change bind to 0.0.0.0 and your system communicates externally, this may allow unauthorized access. To close this security gap, you should take various security precautions.
This includes, for example, setting up a password, establishing firewall rules or activating TLS.
In this guide, however, this has been omitted in order to increase comprehensibility and reduce the scope. However, it is strongly recommended that these adjustments are also made retrospectively. However, it is strongly recommended that these adjustments are also made retrospectively.
systemctl restart icingadb-redisWe restart the service with the command and the changes are activated.
In order for Icinga to be able to process data via Redis using the Icinga DB, the corresponding feature must be enabled. Icinga 2 must then be restarted.
icinga2 feature enable icingadb
systemctl restart icinga2Installing IcingaDB and setting up the database
After the interface between Icinga 2 and Icinga DB has been activated, Icinga DB is now installed.
apt-get install icingadbIn this example, I use MySQL to create a database for IcingaDB.
Note: Alternatively, you can also use MariaDB or PostgreSQL. The commands differ for PostgreSQL. You can find the corresponding steps in the official Icinga documentation.
mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE icingadb;
CREATE USER 'icingadb'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'DeinSicheresPasswort';
GRANT ALL ON icingadb.* TO 'icingadb'@'localhost';You have now successfully created the database and the database user. IcingaDB also provides a database schema, which is now imported:
mysql -u root -p icingadb </usr/share/icingadb/schema/mysql/schema.sqlAdjust access authorizations
During the installation of Icinga DB, the configuration file /etc/icingadb/config.yml is created with default values. In order for the connection from Icinga DB to Redis and MySQL to be established successfully, these values must be checked and adjusted if necessary.
To do this, open the path with a text editor of your choice and adjust the following parameters if necessary:
For the database, these are Host with the corresponding host name/host IP of your database, Database with the name of your database, User with the name of your database user and Password with the password you have assigned for your database.
For Redis: host with the corresponding host name/host IP of your Redis instance. If you have changed the port or set a password during the installation of your Redis server, you must also enter this here.
Once these changes are complete, you can activate the IcingaDB service.
systemctl restart icingadb
systemctl enable --now icingadbStep 5: Node Wizard
The Node Wizard helps you to set up your zones and define the endpoints of your Icinga monitoring. For this you use:
icinga2 node wizardThe queries appear in English, here are the corresponding answers:
- Is this agent/satellite setup? -> Enter ‘n’ here and confirm with Enter
- Specifiy common name (FQDN of your master) -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
- Master zone name -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
- Specify additional global zones -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
- Specify API bind host/port -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
- Bind Host -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
- Bind Port -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
- Disable inclusion of conf.d directory -> Enter nothing and confirm with Enter
To verify the configuration and then reload Icinga 2, proceed as follows:
icinga2 daemon -C
systemctl reload icinga2
Done! The basic installation of Icinga with IcingaDB on Ubuntu 26.04 is complete.
The next article will continue with the installation of Icingaweb2 and Icinga DB Web. You can find more guides to Icinga installations in the overview.
