Can I setup notification for Distribution Monitoring nodes

Troubleshooting
1

CMK version: RAW

Hi all,

I am using the Distribution monitoring feature on my company HQ’s checkmk to remote monitoring all branches;s checkmks. I wondering if the branch’s checkmk has lost connection to HQ’s checkmk, can it trigger alert and send out notification ? Is there a way to do so ?

Regards
Ming

2

Hi Ming,

there’s no native “site connection lost” alert in Checkmk, but the standard solution is straightforward: create a regular host on your HQ central site representing each branch’s Checkmk server.

On the central site:

  1. Create a host with the IP of the branch Checkmk server
  2. Set “Monitored from” → central site
  3. If you only want reachability: set “Checkmk agent / API integration” → “No agent, no API”
  4. Set up a normal notification rule for this host → you’ll be alerted when it goes CRIT

If HQ can reach the branch directly (e.g. VPN): use a regular ping check as the host check command.

If only the Livestatus port is forwarded: go to Setup > Host monitoring rules > Host check command, select “TCP connection” and point it to port 6557.

This approach is described and confirmed working by other users here:

Note for Raw Edition: centralized notification forwarding from branch to HQ requires the Notification Spooler, which is an Enterprise feature. In Raw, each site sends its own notifications independently — even when the connection to HQ is down. More details: Distributed monitoring - Scaling and distributing Checkmk

Bernd