Shinken: A Nagios-Like Monitor That Grew Up
Nagios is still everywhere — in legacy racks, old sysadmin playbooks, and default configs from 10 years ago. But anyone who’s had to scale it knows how quickly it starts to choke. Shinken showed up to fix that. Same checks, same config structure — but with an actual distributed architecture and a Python core that doesn’t feel like it was frozen in time.
It’s modular. It runs daemons for scheduling, polling, notifications, and brokering. You can split them across nodes, containerize them, or keep it simple and run everything local. Either way, it moves beyond the single-threaded world Nagios was stuck in.
The best part? It doesn’t demand a full rewrite of your existing check definitions. If there’s a working Nagios setup collecting dust, Shinken can pick it up and keep going — without dragging in a Java stack or Prometheus exporters.
Where Shinken Earns Its Keep
| Component/Feature | What It Actually Delivers |
| Nagios config support | Drop in your old `.cfg` files and scripts — minimal headaches |
| Distributed monitoring | Spread the load out — different roles can live on different nodes |
| Python-based | Easier to extend, less cryptic than legacy C code |
| Built-in web UI | Comes with Arakis, but also works with Grafana, or custom setups |
| Alert escalation logic | Better control over who gets pinged and when |
| NSCA/NRPE compatible | Can plug right into legacy systems without rebuilding everything |
Shinken vs. Everything Else
| Tool | What It Does Best | Where Shinken Fits In |
| Nagios Core | Simplicity and plugin legacy | Shinken just scales it without rewriting everything |
| Prometheus | Time-series metrics and exporters | Shinken is better for stateful, plugin-driven checks |
| Zabbix | Agent-based central monitoring | Shinken is more modular, and more scripting-friendly |
| Checkmk Raw | Nagios engine, GUI-first | Shinken’s more flexible in how things are wired |
| Icinga 2 | Clean config and fancy UI | Shinken sticks closer to traditional Nagios logic |
Getting It Running
There’s no need for a monolith. Shinken lets you deploy what you need, where you need it.
Install (Debian/Ubuntu):
“`
sudo apt update
sudo apt install shinken
“`
Or build it from source:
“`
git clone https://github.com/naparuba/shinken.git
cd shinken
sudo python setup.py install
“`
Then launch:
– shinken-scheduler
– shinken-poller
– shinken-reactionner
– shinken-broker
All configs stay in .cfg files — familiar, fast to edit, and easy to version.
Places Where It Still Makes Sense
Shops trying to modernize Nagios setups without losing custom checks
Multi-location teams where monitoring needs to spread across networks
Admins who rely more on `check_*` scripts than agents or metrics
Mixed stacks — legacy apps with NRPE, newer ones without agents
Monitoring environments where Prometheus would be overkill or unfit
Shinken doesn’t pretend to be revolutionary. It just makes something old work better — and sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed. Especially when downtime costs more than technical debt.