[Sidebar] What happened to "Host Matrix"?

[GorePig]

CMK version:
2.1.0 p2
OS version:
Debian 11

Since the update to version 2.1.0p2 the “Host Matrix” widget has disappeared from the Sidebar. Has it been deprecated?

If so it’s a shame, it’s very useful to see the problems at a glance

Is his return planned?

Thx

[kdeutsch (Karl Deutsch)]

Hi,
this snapin has been removed: https://checkmk.com/werk/13736

Karl

[Knolli (Knoll)]

I found the snapin quite useful. Really a pity.
Sascha

[GorePig]

I confirm, the snapin was very useful:

Just around me I know 3 IT managers who used it for their team. What a pity…

[openmindz (Thomas Karatzoglou)]

I miss the Host matrix snapin, too: It was useful.
Any alternative(s) to it?

[louis (Louis Wevers)]

I agree, really a shame that it’s gone. I used it a lot. There’s now only the “Quick setup” available, which is a lot less useful.

[finalduty (Andy)]

I found the snapin handy as well, especially as you can see where groups of hosts are having an issue, which you don’t see with just the host/service problem count.

I had a look through the source code and figured I could get the snapin running again with a few tweaks. I’ve uploaded that tweaked version to Github in case anyone else wants to give it a try too: GitHub - finalduty/checkmk-hostmatrix-snapin: Checkmk's retired Host Matrix snapin, updated to work with 2.1.0+

[louis (Louis Wevers)]

Thank you for this. However, I don’t seem to be able to get it to work. I followed the instructions on the github page (Copied [host_matrix.py to ~/local/lib/python3/cmk/gui/plugins/sidebar/ and restarted) where I assumed this being the home directory of my instance user.

But alas, nothing appears in the sidebar. Nor can I see the plugin on page of plugins when editing the sidebar contents. So what am I doing wrong? Can you please point me in the right direction?

Regards,
Louis

[finalduty (Andy)]

@louis Yes, that is the home directory of the instance user. I’ve tried installing it in a fresh CMK instance without issue, taking the steps as per the following screenshot:

Here are the commands I ran, so you may copy/paste them, if you need:

omd version
pwd
mkdir -pv local/lib/python3/cmk/gui/plugins/sidebar/
cd local/lib/python3/cmk/gui/plugins/sidebar/
curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finalduty/checkmk-hostmatrix-snapin/main/host_matrix.py
ls -hal
md5sum host_matrix.py
omd restart

Please let me know if this helps, so I can update the documentation on Github as needed

[louis (Louis Wevers)]

Hi @finalduty,

Thanks for the reply. I did as you suggested, but alas, still no luck. Then I noticed that you are on 2.1.0p16.cre, while I still was at 2.1.0p15.cre. So I upgraded, but I’m afraid that had no effect either.

In my instance home directory I have this:

root@Hestia:/opt/omd/sites/Home/local/lib/python3/cmk/gui/plugins/sidebar# ls -lah
total 8.0K
drwxrwx--- 3 Home Home   47 Nov  7 09:14 .
drwxrwx--- 3 Home Home   21 Nov  7 09:11 ..
-rw-rw---- 1 Home Home 5.7K Nov  9 13:49 host_matrix.py
drwxr-xr-x 2 Home Home   40 Nov  7 09:14 __pycache__
root@Hestia:/opt/omd/sites/Home/local/lib/python3/cmk/gui/plugins/sidebar# md5sum host_matrix.py
d9eec2820a256cc6dfcd9c67817b6863  host_matrix.py

The md5sum on host_matrix.py matches the one in your screenshot so I guess that’s good. Also I noticed that I have the __pycache__ directory so I guess it must have done something. It’s just not showing

[finalduty (Andy)]

@louis, that certainly looks right, and it is a good sign that the __pycache__ directory shows up, I agree that it looks like it’s done something.

Could you take a look in the ~/var/log/web.log (/opt/omd/sites/Home/var/log/web.log) file and see if there are any related errors there? And would you mind creating a second, new instance on that box and seeing if you have the same issues with that one?

[luigys (LUIGY)]

Hello , on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS with
OMD - Open Monitoring Distribution Version 2.1.0p16.cre
works fine , this snapin is very useful.
Thanks a lot , regards

[louis (Louis Wevers)]

@finalduty , sorry for the late reply. Been really busy here. But good news. After I didn’t find much useful information in the log, I did as you suggested an created a new test instance. It had the same result.

So I did a full reboot of the server (was pending anyway for a kernel update) and like magic it appeard. So thanks for your help and great work on this snapin.

Kind regards,
Louis

[MarkP (Mark)]

Unfortunately. It is such a great tool for our organisation and you removed it.
Reading upon all requests there are more people that really would like to use it.

Would it be a wierd request for it to come back into our gui?

[m1sh4l]

Ah, exactly what I was looking for and from the person I should have contacted earlier.

[pedro_sanchez]

@finalduty thanks dusty