Checkmk
IT infrastructure monitoring software
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Checkmk is an open-source IT infrastructure monitoring software system developed in Python and C++. It originated as an extension to Nagios and has since evolved into a self-contained monitoring platform.
| Checkmk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developers | Checkmk GmbH (previously tribe29 GmbH and Mathias Kettner GmbH) |
| Initial release | 2008 |
| Stable release | 2.4
/ May 6, 2025 |
| Written in | Python, C++ |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Type | IT infrastructure monitoring |
| License | GNU GPL v2 and other open-source licenses; Checkmk Enterprise License[1] |
| Website | checkmk |
| Repository | |
The software is available in four editions: an open-source edition (Checkmk Raw Edition), a commercial enterprise edition (Checkmk Enterprise Edition), a commercial cloud-focused edition (Checkmk Cloud Edition), and an edition for managed services providers (Checkmk Managed Services Edition).[2]
History
Checkmk originated in 2008 as an agent-substituting shell script for inetd, and was published in April 2009 under the GPL.[3] It was initially built on top of Nagios and added several new components to that system.[4] The open-source Checkmk Raw Edition continues to use the Nagios core.[5]
Over time, the commercial editions replaced the core Nagios components with proprietary equivalents, including a custom monitoring core written in C++.[3]
The software was developed by Mathias Kettner GmbH, based in Munich, Germany.[6] In April 2019 the company was renamed tribe29 GmbH, and the product name was changed from "Check_MK" to "Checkmk". In April 2023 the company was renamed again to Checkmk GmbH.[6]
Checkmk GmbH follows an open-core model. The Raw Edition is available under open-source licenses, primarily GPLv2, while the commercial editions are licensed under the proprietary Checkmk Enterprise License.[1]
Editions
The Raw Edition is built on the Nagios monitoring core and is distributed under open-source licenses. The commercial editions — Enterprise, Cloud, and Managed Services — use a proprietary monitoring core (the Checkmk Microcore, or CMC) written in C++, which is designed to handle configuration changes without a restart and to support short-lived objects such as containers.
The software runs on Linux and is distributed as packages for Debian, Ubuntu, SLES, and Red Hat-based distributions, and as a Docker image.[7]
