Nagios Support Forum

Hi all,
I'm trying to setup check_apt in order to check on my network if some debian-based hosts has some package to update, but I'm really confused for two reasons:

• I setup it apparently to any debian-like host but I always get green, even if I notice some packages are to update
• in plugin manual page I found here : https://nagios-plugins.org/doc/man/check_apt.html , there are no options about specifying host to check and an authentication method/credential, so I really don't know how this plugin could access to remote host and run.

I don't know if this is a plugin that is supposed to work only in local machine or I really miss something about how it works.
If I'm using a wrong plugin, please tell me which could be suitable to check on remote hosts if there are packages to update.

Best regards,
magowiz

Hi @magowiz,

If the script you are working with needs to be run on the local machine you are trying to check with XI, you will want to set up NCPA (Nagios Cross Platform Agent) on the remote hosts you are trying to check. Once you have NCPA installed, you will need to put the check_apt script on that host, and then you'll need to set up a service check on your XI machine that will call that script via NCPA and return the results to your XI system. We have a guide for this process here:

https://www.nagios.org/ncpa/getting-started.php

Please let us know if you have any related questions or run into any difficulty following this guide!