Icinga for Windows has established itself as default for monitoring Windows environments with Icinga. With the upcoming release of version 1.12.0, there were massive changes introduced regarding usability, customizing and how to manage installations. In this talk we will cover the previous changes with v1.11.0 but also give an overview, of the features following with v1.12.0.

1. Icinga for Windows
Age of PowerShell

2. Before we start
• Icinga for Windows v1.11.1 has been released

3. Whats new
• Fixes config writer for plain Icinga configuration
• Update-Icinga not updating to latest version
• JEA-Profiles were always updated during update-checks
• REST-Api not included in JEA profile on first installation
• Icinga Agent installation could cause automatic reboots

4. Modify your scripts
• Change Update-Icinga calls inside your scripts
• Only applies if v1.11.0 is already installed
PS> Update-Icinga -Version 'release';
Sorry log1-c!

5. New Hyper-V Plugins
• Version 1.3 released
• Various Bugfixes
• Unknown for deleted vdisks
• Freeze of plugin execution because of Hyper-V feature check
• New plugin to check for duplicate virtual machines
• Hyper-V VM health now also checks for blackout times
• Hyper-V health now supports to check for cluster node count

6. Summarizing
Icinga for
Windows

7. What is Icinga for Windows
• Monitoring solution for Windows environments
• Fully based on PowerShell
• Easy extendable by using custom modules

8. Plugin Collections
• Basic Windows Plugins
• MSSQL Plugins
• Hyper-V Plugins
• Cluster Plugins

9. Architecture
Master
Agent
PowerShell Framework
Installation
Konfiguration
EventLog
Check Ausführung
PowerShell
Plugin Ausführung
EventLog

10. Architecture Advanced
Master
Agent
PowerShell Framework
Installation
Konfiguration
EventLog
Check Ausführung
PowerShell
Plugin Ausführung
EventLog
PowerShell Service
EventLog
REST-Api
Installation

11. PowerShell Service
• PowerShell itself cannot run as service
• Icinga provides a C# written binary for that
• Requires .NET Framework 4.5.2 or later on the machine
• Installed by using PowerShell Framework
• Starts a PowerShell in the background
• The PowerShell daemon allows then to side-load modules

12. Architecture Enhanced
Master
Agent
PowerShell Framework
Installation
Konfiguration
EventLog
Check Ausführung
PowerShell
Plugin Ausführung
EventLog
PowerShell Service
EventLog
REST-Api
Installation
PowerShell
Connector

13. Architecture Ultimate
Master
Agent
PowerShell Framework
Installation
Konfiguration
EventLog
Check Ausführung
PowerShell
Plugin Ausführung
EventLog
PowerShell Service
EventLog
REST-Api
Installation

14. Requirements for this feature
• Icinga Master 2.14.0 or later installed
• Icinga Agent 2.14.0 or later installed
• Icinga for Windows v1.11.0 or later installed
• Icinga Director v1.11.0 or later installed (if used)

15. JEA

16. What is JEA
• Just-Enough-Administration
• Permission handling for PowerShell to limit access
• Includes Cmdlets, Binaries, Environments, …
• Profiles are bound to specific users
• Requires the WinRM service to be configured

17. JEA Installation
• Icinga for Windows ships with installation commands
• All installed components are included in the JEA-Builder
• Code-Structure is analyzed during generation
• Builds dependency lists of functions and cmdlets
• Generates a JEA-Profile with required Icinga for Windows code

18. Want to see the
future?

19. The installation paradox
• Windows deployment barely exist in known environments
• Icinga for Windows requires different configurations
• Updates require manual effort on each machine
• Integration with Ansible, SCCM, … is fine, but requires fine tuning

20. Centralize your deployment
Server 1
Director

21. Centralize your deployment
Your Machine
Server 1
Director

22. Manage Icinga for Windows
• Deploy and update your environment
• Collect inventory information from machines
• Import inventory data to the Icinga Director
• Smart deployment based on installed features
• MSSQL, Hyper-V, …

23. Easy Integration
• Use your favorite deployment tools for Icinga for Windows
• Installation and update methods are designed to be modular
• Add core features into your Ansible role as example

24. Roadmap

25. What we are planning
• Re-Write of most Icinga for Windows Core features
• Fully maintain backwards compatibility with current installations
• Full working deployment, update and inventory mechanism
• Smart installation feature to install / update components based on host
• Proper monitoring for cluster environments

26. Cluster Monitoring?
MSSQL 1
Active
MSSQL 2
Standby

27. Usability changes
• Move all remaining operations and tasks into the XMC
• Allow developers to easily provide own hooks into the XMC
• Reconfigure the entire Icinga environment with one command

28. Rework checker core
• Simplify the compiliation of check results during execution
• Reduce CPU overhead by optimizing the entire workflow
• Allow easier integration for future features

29. Plugin Providers
• Remove most plugin data providers and add them to the Framework
• Allows easier usage in different plugins
• Removes dependencies
• More generic approach
• Only collect metrics required for plugins

30. New Background Data Collector
• No longer use plugins as source for metrics over time
• Use newly designed Framework providers for data collection
• Less memory overhead and metrics required to collect
• Increased performance and cross-usage of identical metrics

31. No v1.12.0 – Not Yet!

32. Schedule
• Release of the first 2.0 beta in June 2024
• Second beta / RC1 at OSMC 2024
• Only well tested features will be included in the release
• Everything else is flagged as experimental

33. What about v1.12.0
• Will include preperations for v2.0.0
• Bugfixes
• Improvements
• Certificate renewal
• JEA over WinRM

34. Thats it!

35. twitter.com/icinga github.com/icinga facebook.com/icinga
icinga.com
Thank You!
What are your questions?