Web-app-checkmk Role

Description: Open-source IT and application monitoring server behind SSO with native LDAP user management

Variables

• author: Kevin Veen-Birkenbach

• description: Open-source IT and application monitoring server behind SSO with native LDAP user management

• license: Infinito.Nexus Community License (Non-Commercial)

• company: Kevin Veen-Birkenbach https://www.veen.world

• min_ansible_version: 2.9

• platforms: [{‘name’: ‘ArchLinux’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘Debian’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘EL’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘Fedora’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘Ubuntu’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}]

• galaxy_tags: [‘checkmk’, ‘monitoring’, ‘observability’, ‘docker’, ‘compose’, ‘ldap’, ‘sso’]

• issue_tracker_url: https://s.infinito.nexus/issues

README

Checkmk

Description

Checkmk (Raw / Community edition, 100% open source) is an IT and application monitoring system. This role deploys the official all-in-one checkmk/check-mk-raw container behind the Infinito.Nexus reverse proxy, with Keycloak SSO via the oauth2-proxy gate and native LDAP user management.

Overview

Checkmk Raw bundles its own monitoring core (Nagios), RRD storage, and an Apache-served web GUI, so it needs no external database. All state lives on one persistent volume mounted at /omd/sites, and the GUI is served under the OMD site path (/cmk/check_mk/). The image is pinned to checkmk/check-mk-raw:2.4.0p32 in meta/services.yml; Checkmk renamed the Raw image to check-mk-community from 2.5, so bump the tag only after reviewing the upstream version notes.

Cosmos

The diagram places Checkmk in the Infinito.Nexus cosmos: the components it deploys (capabilities), the central services it consumes (dependencies), and its outward reach (federation and bridged external networks).

flowchart LR
    subgraph deps [Dependencies]
        dep_svc_bkp_volume_2_local["svc-bkp-volume-2-local 💻"]
        dep_svc_db_openldap["svc-db-openldap 🐳🐝"]
        dep_svc_net_tor["svc-net-tor 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_dashboard["web-app-dashboard 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_hermes["web-app-hermes 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_keycloak["web-app-keycloak 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_matomo["web-app-matomo 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_openclaw["web-app-openclaw 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_openwebui["web-app-openwebui 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_prometheus["web-app-prometheus 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_stalwart["web-app-stalwart 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_svc_css["web-svc-css 💻"]
        dep_web_svc_logout["web-svc-logout 🐳🐝"]
    end
    subgraph role [web-app-checkmk 🐳🐝]
        svc_sso["sso"]
        svc_ldap["ldap"]
        svc_logout["logout"]
        svc_dashboard["dashboard"]
        svc_matomo["matomo"]
        svc_email["email"]
        svc_css["css"]
        svc_javascript["javascript"]
        svc_prometheus["prometheus"]
        svc_checkmk["checkmk"]
        svc_tor["tor"]
        svc_container_backup["container_backup"]
        svc_checkmkmcp["checkmkmcp"]
        svc_openwebui["openwebui"]
        svc_hermes["hermes"]
        svc_openclaw["openclaw"]
        svc_flowise["flowise ❌"]
    end
    dep_svc_bkp_volume_2_local -. "0..1" .-> svc_container_backup
    dep_svc_db_openldap -. "0..1" .-> svc_ldap
    dep_svc_net_tor -. "0..1" .-> svc_tor
    dep_web_app_dashboard -. "0..1" .-> svc_dashboard
    dep_web_app_hermes -. "0..1" .-> svc_hermes
    dep_web_app_keycloak -. "0..1" .-> svc_sso
    dep_web_app_matomo -. "0..1" .-> svc_matomo
    dep_web_app_openclaw -. "0..1" .-> svc_openclaw
    dep_web_app_openwebui -. "0..1" .-> svc_openwebui
    dep_web_app_prometheus -. "0..1" .-> svc_prometheus
    dep_web_app_stalwart -. "0..1" .-> svc_email
    dep_web_svc_css -. "0..1" .-> svc_css
    dep_web_svc_logout -. "0..1" .-> svc_logout

Solid 1:1 edges are fixed relationships; dashed 0..1 edges are conditional (enabled only in matching deployments); red 0..0 edges are turned off in this role. Node markers show the role’s deploy modes (💻 host, 🐳 compose, 🐝 swarm); ❌ marks a service that is explicitly turned off, and ⚙️ an Ansible role dependency declared in meta/main.yml.

Features

• Open-source monitoring: Hosts, services, metrics, and alerting from the Checkmk Raw all-in-one container.

• Keycloak SSO: Fronted by the platform oauth2-proxy gate; the authenticated user is passed to Checkmk via the trusted X-Remote-User header (auth_by_http_header), so no second login prompt appears.

• Native LDAP: A central-OpenLDAP connection supplies user records, roles, and contact groups; the header user (Keycloak preferred_username) resolves to a real Checkmk user.

• No external database: Self-contained on a single persistent volume.

• Agent receiver: Container port 8000 is mapped to a host port (local.agent); external proxying for remote-host TLS agent registration is a follow-up.

• Break-glass ``cmkadmin``: Seeded on first run via CMK_PASSWORD and re-converged onto the running site on every deploy; reachable via the local login form only when the SSO gate is absent.

Quick Setup

Development

Clone, set up the workstation, and deploy Checkmk onto the local stack:

git clone https://github.com/infinito-nexus/core.git
cd core
make onboard
make compose-deploy mode=reinstall apps=web-app-checkmk full_cycle=false

Production

Run the published image to provision the inventory and deploy Checkmk to a managed server (the mounted volume persists the inventory):

APP=web-app-checkmk
HOST=<your-server>
DOMAIN=<your-domain>
TLS_MODE=self_signed
SSH_PUBLIC_KEY="<your-ssh-public-key>"

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$PWD/inventories:/etc/infinito.nexus/inventories" \
  -e APP="$APP" -e HOST="$HOST" -e DOMAIN="$DOMAIN" -e TLS_MODE="$TLS_MODE" -e SSH_PUBLIC_KEY="$SSH_PUBLIC_KEY" \
  ghcr.io/infinito-nexus/core/debian bash -c '
    INVENTORY=/etc/infinito.nexus/inventories/production
    infinito administration inventory provision "$INVENTORY" \
      --inventory-file "$INVENTORY/devices.yml" \
      --host "$HOST" \
      --include "$APP" \
      --vars "{\"TLS_MODE\": \"$TLS_MODE\", \"DOMAIN_PRIMARY\": \"$DOMAIN\", \"users\": {\"administrator\": {\"authorized_keys\": [\"$SSH_PUBLIC_KEY\"]}}}" &&
    infinito administration deploy dedicated "$INVENTORY/devices.yml" \
      --password-file "$INVENTORY/.password" \
      --diff -vv'

Further Resources

• Checkmk Docker docs

• LDAP user management

• HTTP header authentication (Werk #7819)

• Checkmk GitHub Repository

Persona contract opt-outs

Both authenticated Playwright personas are blocked while services.sso.enabled is false. Without SSO, files/configure-sso.sh skips the auth_by_http_header snippet, so the OMD site falls back to its own login form.

The only account that form accepts is Checkmk’s built-in cmkadmin, whose password comes from credentials.cmk_password (CMK_PASSWORD in the container env) — a site-local secret unrelated to the Keycloak credentials the personas use. No Checkmk user is provisioned for a non-admin identity at all. With SSO enabled both personas run through the header-auth chain.

Credits

Implemented by Kevin Veen-Birkenbach. Part of the Infinito.Nexus Project and maintained by Kevin Veen-Birkenbach. Licensed under the Infinito.Nexus Community License (Non-Commercial).