Nagios Support Forum

Hello Nagios Support Team,

We are currently configuring workers in Nagios version 2026R1.4 and we have encountered an issue regarding the SSH credentials required during the worker setup process.

As shown in the worker configuration screen, the setup requires an SSH username and password with root privileges on the Linux worker servers.

However, in our environment the workers are managed Linux systems, and the server administrators cannot provide us with a root account or full sudo/root credentials for security and compliance reasons.

We would like to know if there is an alternative supported approach to configure workers without using a root user. For example:

Using a dedicated service account with limited sudo permissions
Granting only the minimum required privileges
Using specific sudo rules for the commands needed by the worker
Any agent-based or key-based alternative supported in 2026R1.4

Could you please clarify:

Which exact permissions are required on the worker host?
Whether a non-root user can be used successfully
If there is any official documentation or best practice for hardened/managed Linux environments

We appreciate your guidance

Hi @igae1,

At the moment, Nagios Mod Gearman in Nagios XI only supports privileged users (either root or root via sudo), because installing Nagios Mod Gearman on a remote system requires package management, repository management, file / system changes, and service management.

I will make an issue internally to support alternative methods of authentication but the user will still require the minimum permissions enumerated above.

In the meantime, it is certainly possible to install Nagios Mod Gearman workers manually provided you have access and the required permissions (or can otherwise install the required packages and configure the system). Note that manual worker configuration will not sync with Nagios XI's Worker Management.

Thank you.