Introduction to GroundWork Monitor CE 8.2.1

GroundWork Monitor Community Edition | Version 8.2.1 | Released 11/30/2021

How does CE and EE compare?

The Community Edition (CE) is a free, light version of GroundWork Monitor. It runs on Linux using Docker containers under Docker Compose, just like the Enterprise Edition (EE) does, but without the enterprise features enabled. You can view feature comparisons between the editions below.

FeatureCommunity Edition (CE)Enterprise Edition (EE)Feature Description

Application Monitoring

The Transit Connection Generator (TCG) APM connector to GroundWork enables hundreds of applications to post metrics to GroundWork Monitor. » Learn more

Audit Logging


Track notifications and system configuration and run time changes in an audit trail. » Learn more

Business Service Monitoring (BSM)


BSM allows for aggregate monitoring across lines of business to create KPIs for sections of your infrastructure.  » Learn more

Cloud Monitoring


GroundWork Cloud Hub enables you to connect to public and private cloud APIs for automated metric discovery and monitoring. » Learn more

Custom Business Dashboards


Create a series of custom dashboards to show SLAs, status, and messages in a carousel styled display. » Learn more

Custom Report Generator

GroundWork supports the use of Jasper Report Server and Jasper Studio to create your own reports against GroundWork data. » Learn more

Elasticsearch Monitoring

Monitor your Elasticsearch cluster's queries to track log messages, trends and combined events. » Learn more

Events Dashboard


Filter events by resource, message text and more. » Learn more

GDMA Plugin Download


In EE, enable the automated downloading of custom plugins and dependencies to GroundWork Distributed Monitoring Agent (GDMA) agents you deploy. » Learn more

GDMA Monitoring

Use the GroundWork Distributed Monitoring Agent (GDMA) to discover and monitor host-based resources. » Learn more

Grafana Integration (Graphing)


Build custom time-series dashboards with GroundWork data and your own data sources using Grafana. » Learn more

GroundWork Desk


GroundWork Desk is a Help Desk server package, integrated with GroundWork Messenger and available as an add-on. » Learn more

GroundWork Messenger (Notifications)


For any resource you monitor with GroundWork Monitor EE, send emails, SMS, or API posts of alerts when things go wrong. CE users can use Nagios notifications for Nagios monitoring. » Learn more

GroundWork TCG (and associated connectors)

The connection between GroundWork servers and monitoring data sources such as Nagios is facilitated by a new component called TCG, or the Transit Connection Generator (see https://github.com/gwos/tcg). See the sections in this table for Application Monitoring, Elasticsearch Monitoring, Microsoft 365 Monitoring, Kubernetes Monitoring. SNMP Monitoring is not included in CE since NeDi is not included.

Hit List Dashboard


Pop the top issues into lists with this role-based, filterable dashboard. » Learn more

Insight Dashboard


Dig into performance data analysis with trends and histogram views. » Learn more

Kubernetes Monitoring

The GroundWork TCG Kubernetes connector lets you use the metrics API in Kubernetes clusters to monitor key metrics exposed on the metrics endpoint. » Learn more

LDAP Integration


Unify your LDAP or Active Directory user logins with GroundWork EE, and assign roles based on LDAP/AD containers. » Learn more

License Required


GroundWork CE does not require a license. GroundWork EE does. » Learn more

Log Analysis


The Log Analysis dashboard option uses the Kibana application. ELK Stack containers are included in GroundWork Monitor 8 and Kibana lets users visualize data with charts and graphs in Elasticsearch.

Menu Editor


Customize which screens your users see by role. Add your own web apps to the GroundWork Monitor menu. » Learn more

Nagios Monitoring

GroundWork Monitor includes Nagios® Core and many free, open source plugins from GroundWork, Nagios and other projects. You can use Monarch to configure Nagios, you can add custom plugins, perform a discovery using Auto Discovery and Automation using GDMA. Within GroundWork you can also access the Nagios UI. » Learn more

Microsoft 365 Monitoring

The GroundWork TCG Office connector lets you use the API that Microsoft™ exposes to the Internet for monitoring any Microsoft 365 accounts to which you have access. » Learn more

Monitor Architect (Monarch) Configuration

In GroundWork Monitor, the Monarch configuration tool is devoted to configuring and managing Nagios monitored elements. It's a full-featured, easy-to-use web based system for use with Nagios allowing users to easily configure and maintain Nagios monitored elements.

NeDi Integration


Network discovery and monitoring in detail. » Learn more

Network Monitoring


Rapid interface data collection with the Transit Connection Generator (TCG) SNMP connector. » Learn more

NOC Dashboard


Craft filtered, role and group specific views to enable your NOC staff to see the top priority items. » Learn more

Portal Branding


Make GroundWork EE login screen look the way you want it to. Add login messages for compliance. » Learn more

Professional Support

GroundWork offers support for both CE (paid incidents) and EE (subscription based) versions, as well as services for implementation and maintenance. » Learn more

Role Based Access Control (RBAC)

Allow or deny access to specific resources in GroundWork Monitor based on roles. The EE version includes specific features. » Learn more

SLA Monitoring and Reporting


Alert and report on SLAs you specify for your internal (or MSP) customers. » Learn more

Standby Notification Server


GroundWork EE supports Standby Notification Server, a lightweight DR option. » Learn more

Status Dashboard

See everything you monitor in a role-based, filterable hierarchical view. » Learn more

When was CE released?

The GroundWork Monitor Community Edition (CE) was released November 30, 2021, see our press release.

Do I need a CE License?

You don't need a license to use the Community Edition. It's free, and you can install it on as many servers, virtual machines, or cloud instances as you want or need. It's not limited in size by license. In fact, there's no license check at all in CE. The only thing we ask you to do is to agree to the usage agreement and in the user interface of the product itself. 

What about CE Support?

Please contact GroundWork Sales for information regarding support options. A support contract is separate from the usage agreement and disclaimers. GroundWork documentation is accessible publicly.

Can I use GroundWork Messenger to get notifications with CE?

No, GroundWork Messenger is an Enterprise feature, and isn't available in the Community Edition. You can use the notifications you get with Nagios if you need to, or rig up another way to get notified when state changes are detected. 

Is CE Open Source?

Partly. We haven't opened all the repositories to the public as there's still work to be done to make them ready. This release makes all the code we can public on GitHub, however. 

How do I install CE?

The Community Edition does not have an installer file and instead is pulled from Docker Hub as the installation method. All CE containers are public to pull and the download is just the docker-compose.yml file. See the Installation (CE) section below. 

Can I provide feedback for CE to GroundWork?

Yes please. You can sign up for an account and make your suggestions for new plugins, libraries, features, anything, really, and we'll read them and include them if we can. CE technical support requires a CE Support Subscription, contact GroundWork Sales.

Release Notes (CE)

These release notes describe the new features and improvements, fixed Issues, and known Issues and limitations for GroundWork Monitor CE 8.2.1. This is the first release of GroundWork Monitor Community Edition in quite some time. The last time we released a community edition, it was version 6.0.0! You can imagine how excited we are to bring back CE, Dockerized! 

This 8.2.1 release includes quite a bit of enhancements which we have also made to the Enterprise Edition. Most of the back-end system is present and identical, in fact, though many "Enterprise" front end features are disabled or simply not present. That doesn't mean it's not a great monitoring suite though. You can monitor Elasticsearch queries you run in your Elastic cluster, use the GroundWork Distributed Monitoring Agent (GDMA) to automatically discover and provision monitoring on your host resources like disk space and deployed software, track your Microsoft 365™ licenses, and so much more. It's the most functional, useful free release we have ever made. 

There's a lot more we want to do with the Community Edition, but for now we want you to just use it and let us know what you think! Sign up for an account and make your suggestions for new plugins, libraries, features, anything, really, and we'll read them and include them if we can. 

System Requirements (CE)

This section organized in tabs, outlines the system requirements for GroundWork Monitor Community Edition version 8.2.1.

Hardware

Resources assigned to the operating system running GroundWork Monitor should be dedicated resources reserved for that operating system, and if possible, dedicated hardware is recommended. Avoid HyperV deployments, as we have seen extremely bad performance in some cases when using HyperV that is not evident when using dedicated hardware or other virtual machine platforms. 

Bare MinimumRecommended Minimum

Bare minimum environment specification for correct operation:

4 cores CPU

16GB of RAM

200GB Disk Space

  • It is recommended to have at least 200GB disk space assigned to the partition that contains the /var/lib/docker path, the location for the docker volumes used by GroundWork Monitor.
  • /tmp partition with at least 20GB
  • /tmp partition mounted RW

The recommended minimums for production use: 

4 cores CPU

32GB of RAM

1TB Disk Space

  • It is recommended to have at least 200GB disk space assigned to the partition that contains the /var/lib/docker path, the location for the docker volumes used by GroundWork Monitor.
  • /tmp partition with at least 40GB
  • /tmp partition mounted RW
Software

GroundWork runs on Linux with Docker CE and Docker Compose installed. You will need to install Docker CE on your Linux distro yourself. Instructions for several distros are included as part of the instructions for GroundWork Monitor.

  • Docker CE: Version 18, or higher
  • Docker Compose: Version 1.24, or higher
Operating System

GroundWork Monitor 8.2.1 has been tested with the following versions of Linux:

  • Amazon Linux 2
  • CentOS 7.5
  • CentOS 8
  • Red Hat 7.5
  • Red Hat 8 (includes 8.8, 8.9)
  • SLES 15
  • Ubuntu 20.04 (recommended)
Browser

This version of GroundWork Monitor has been tested with the latest versions of Firefox and Google Chrome. Chrome is recommended. Internet Explorer is not supported.

Installation (CE)

As with the GroundWork Monitor Enterprise Edition (EE), GroundWork Monitor Community Edition (CE) utilizes Docker containers and a Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment methodology. This means less waiting for feature development, security patches and bug fixes. You will get faster updates with little effort on your part to maintain your on-premise monitoring system. The Community Edition does not have an installer file and instead is pulled from Docker Hub as the installation method.

Download

GroundWork Monitor Community Edition  |  Platform: Linux  |  Version: 8.2.1  |  Release Date: 11/30/2021

EULA GroundWork Monitor CE and Install .yml

Review the GroundWork CE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT below, and click I AGREE at the bottom of the page to download the .yml file you will need to install CE. 

GroundWork Monitor Community Edition Software License Agreement

Prerequisites

As mentioned in the System Requirements above, you need a Linux system that meets the requirements, and has Docker engine and docker-compose installed and working. These instructions assume you are using Ubuntu Linux, but similar steps are needed for other distros, so this should be a good guide. 

You will also need a (free) account on Docker Hub.

Docker and Docker Compose
  1. Log in as a user with sudo and get to a root shell (sudo su -), or use a user with rights to execute commands using sudo.

  2. Disable the firewall. These steps will disable the default firewall configuration and leave your GroundWork server in a potentially vulnerable state, so be sure to set up compatible secure rules after installing or upgrading GroundWork Monitor.  

    • If you are using the ufw default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu, enter:

      sudo ufw disable
      CODE
    • If you are using the iptables utility, enter:

      sudo iptables -F
      CODE
    • If you are using the firewall tool firewalld, enter:

      sudo systemctl disable firewalld
      sudo systemctl stop firewalld
      CODE
  3. Create the user gwos to be used to run the application. The adduser utility will walk you through options, including setting a password and other optional fields:

    sudo adduser gwos
    CODE
  4. Install Docker CE using Docker's RPM repository and installation instructions. Here's an example (for Ubuntu Linux):

    If Docker has been previously installed using Snap, or a similar package manager, it must be removed prior to following the steps below.

    • Go to Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu.

    • Scroll down to the section Install using the repository.

    • Then, perform the steps in the section SET UP THE REPOSITORY.

    • Next, perform steps 1 and 3 in the INSTALL DOCKER ENGINE, then return to this page.

  5. Install Docker Compose:

    • Download docker-compose using curl:  

      sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.27.4/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
      CODE
    • Set the docker-compose binary to be executable:

      sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
      CODE
    • Create a symbolic link:

      sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/docker-compose /usr/bin/docker-compose
      CODE
  6. Verify Docker is running:

    • Enable Docker auto-start:

      sudo systemctl enable docker
      CODE
    • Check the status of Docker:

      sudo systemctl status docker --no-pager
      CODE
    • If Docker is not running, enter the following:

      sudo systemctl start docker
      CODE
  7. Add gwos user to the docker group, which was created by the installation of Docker:

    sudo usermod -a -G docker gwos
    CODE
  8. As gwos user verify access to Docker commands:

    All commands, including installation commands, are performed as the gwos user, do not attempt installation as the root user.

    • Switch user to user gwos:

      su - gwos
      CODE
    • Verify the docker command returns usage output:

      docker
      CODE
    • Verify the docker-compose command returns usage output:

      docker-compose
      CODE
  9. Adjust your Log Settings so the logs won't fill your disk space. GroundWork recommends keeping some container logs on disk for support and troubleshooting purposes. The default settings for Docker retain too much data to be useful, so we recommend making the following changes on production systems. Add or edit the docker daemon logging control file.

    • Log in as root to your GroundWork server and edit the file /etc/docker/daemon.json. This file may or may not exist, depending on your Docker version and package. 

    • Add (or edit) the log driver section to look like the following:

      {
        "log-driver": "json-file",
        "log-opts": {
          "max-size": "10m",
          "max-file": "3",
          "labels": "production_status",
          "env": "os,customer"
        }
      }
      CODE
    • If the file does not exist, just create it with this content. These settings will keep a maximum of 30M of log data for each container, in 3 10M files. For reference see https://docs.docker.com/config/containers/logging/configure/.
    • If you are already running GroundWork and are adding this setting, you will have logs that will take some time to truncate.

New Install

  1. To install GroundWork Monitor CE for the first time, log in to your GroundWork server and become the non-root user you want to run the application as (we use gwos). 
  2. Go to the directory into which you want to install GroundWork CE. We suggest the home directory of the gwos user. 

    cd ~gwos
  3. Set a few environment variables (you can copy and paste these to the command line): 

    TAG=8.2.1-CE
    GW8IMAGE=groundworkdevelopment/gw8ce:${TAG}
    GW8_INSTANCE_NAME=$(hostname -f)
    CODE
  4. Pull the GroundWork setup container: 

    docker pull ${GW8IMAGE}
    CODE
  5. Make a gw8 subdirectory to hold the GroundWork configuration files you need. 

    mkdir gw8
    CODE
  6. Copy in the yaml file you downloaded above after agreeing to the EULA, making sure it is in the gw8 directory and owned by the gwos user, for example: 

    cp docker-compose.yml ./gw8
    chown gwos:gwos gw8/docker-compose.yml
    CODE
  7. Change to the gw8 subdirectory you created: 

    cd gw8
    CODE
  8. Run the gw8 setup container:

    docker run \
        -e GW8_INSTANCE_NAME=$GW8_INSTANCE_NAME \
        -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
        -v ${HOME}/.docker:/root/.docker \
        -v /tmp:/tmp/tmp \
        -v ${PWD}/docker-compose.yml:/src/docker-compose.yml \
         --name gw8 ${GW8IMAGE}
    CODE

    This will set up your volumes. Note that a groundwork-ce container will also be pulled. 

  9. Next copy out the environment and override yaml files: 

    docker cp gw8:RELEASE .
    docker cp gw8:.env .
    docker cp gw8:gw8.env .
    docker cp gw8:docker-compose.override.yml .
    CODE
  10. Next, optionally edit the environment file to suit your needs, you can refer to the gw8.env section of the Configuration Files document: 

    vi gw8.env
    CODE
  11. Next, optionally customize the override yaml to suit your needs, you can refer to the docker-compose.override.yml section of the Configuration Files document:

    vi docker-compose.override.yml
    CODE
  12. Remove the gw8 setup container: 

    docker rm gw8
    CODE
  13. Pull the full set of the latest images for the chosen release: 

    docker-compose pull
    CODE
  14. Start up GroundWork Monitor CE:

    docker-compose up -d
    CODE
  15. At this point, you can access the web user interface of your GroundWork CE installation using the hostname of the Linux server. If you are wondering where that is exactly, try running:

    hostname -f

    This will give you the name GroundWork used in configuring your installation, for example if the above command returns "host001", you can access GroundWork CE at https://host001. The default username/password are admin/admin. See  the following links to get started Configuration, TCG ConnectorsGDMA Monitoring.

Update Install

Once GroundWork Monitor CE is installed, you can update it to the latest version with the following procedure:

  1. Log in to Docker Hub from the command line on your GroundWork server:

    docker login
    CODE
  2. Find and set the tag for the release of GroundWork Monitor CE you want to upgrade to. For example, if there is a tag in Docker Hub for 8.2.2-CE, then type:

    TAG=8.2.2-CE
    CODE
  3. Edit the gw8.env file and update the tag there: 

    vi gw8.env
    CODE

    and change:

        TAG=8.2.1-CE

    to:

        TAG=8.2.2-CE 
  4. Pull the new containers:

    docker-compose pull
    CODE