How-to download an old agent

Owned by Matthew Hierholzer
Last updated: Jun 13, 2024
2 min read

This article shows how to get old Checkmk agents to enable monitoring of legacy operating systems.

APPLICABLE TO CHECKMK 1.2 AND ABOVE


Table of Contents


Background

Editions not listed in the table below are not officially supported. This also includes Windows Embedded, for example. However, for monitoring older Windows versions such as, for example, Windows Server 2008, you can use a legacy agent at your own risk. Legacy agents are agents in older Checkmk versions without the Agent Controller. Of course, this means extended functionalities with the Agent Controller, such as TLS encryption or compression, will be unavailable. Legacy agents are available for download here. For the legacy agents, some special requirements will need to be considered, and these are summarized in the installation chapter.


EditionVersion

Windows 10, 11, Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022

10.0

Only current versions of Microsoft Windows NT are supported


For more information regarding Windows monitoring, please visit our official documentation guide.


Overview

As technology evolves each and every day, so does our Checkmk agent. That sometimes mean to get rid of technical debt and break backwards compatibility. While we try to do this as little as possible, sometimes there is no way around it. So if you have to run a legacy operating system (meaning the vendor does not support it anymore), the most up-to-date Checkmk agent might not work there. To enable monitoring anyway, follow the steps below, to get your hands on an older agent.


Step-by-step guide


  1. Download the Checkmk RAW Edition (CRE) with the version you need — in this example 2.1.0p35 — via command line:

    root@mylinuxhost:~# wget https://download.checkmk.com/checkmk/2.1.0p35/check-mk-raw-2.1.0p35_0.jammy_amd64.deb

    We use the CRE here, as it can be downloaded without authentication and the vanilla agent contained, is the same as in all editions. Also, the target distribution of the server setup is irrelevant.


  2. Create a temporary directory to extract the files to and change into it:

    root@mylinuxhost:~# mkdir mydirectory && cd mydirectory


    .

  3. Extract the downloaded file into this directory:

    root@mylinuxhost:~# tar x ../check-mk-raw-2.1.0p35_0.jammy_amd64.deb


    .

  4. Extract the data.tar.zst archive:

    root@mylinuxhost:~# tar xvf data.tar.zst

    .

  5. This command will show you all the agents contained in the archive:

    root@mylinuxhost:~# find . -name '*check?mk?agent*'
    Image showing the find command to locate the old checkmk agent


    .

  6. Go to the directory that contains the agent you need, for example the windows  directory:

    root@mylinuxhost:~# cd ./opt/omd/versions/2.1.0p35.cre/share/check_mk/agents/windows/

    .

  7. Here you will find the MSI file for 2.1.0p35:

    Image showing were to find the old MSI file.