Installation Overview

The complete installation guide

The purpose of this guide is to help provide new and experienced Sensu users alike with a detailed guide for installing and configuring Sensu into a variety of operating environments. By default, this guide will direct you to install and configure Sensu Core or Sensu Enterprise in a standalone configuration.

If you are a new Sensu user – or if you have only ever used automation tools like Chef, Puppet, or Ansible to install and configure Sensu – working through this installation guide for the exercise alone is strongly recommended. Sensu’s architecture is one of its most compelling features, so learning how Sensu’s components work together will greatly improve your ability to leverage Sensu’s architecture to your advantage.

NOTE: manual installation is recommended for pre-production environments only. Please note that this guide is not intended to provide instructions for deploying Sensu into “production” environments. Production deployment strategies – including using automation tools like Chef, Puppet, or Ansible to install and configure Sensu – will be discussed at the conclusion of this guide.

Selecting an installation strategy

By default, this installation guide will focus on the instructions for configuring a standalone installation, however instructions are available for other configurations including distributed and high-availability. Please consult the installation strategies reference documentation for more information.

Installation overview

What will be covered in this guide:

  1. Install and configure the Sensu server and API (Sensu Core or Sensu Enterprise)
  2. Install and configure a Sensu Client
  3. Install and configure a Sensu Dashboard (Uchiwa or Sensu Enterprise Console)
  4. Install and configure the Redis datastore
  5. Install and configure the RabbitMQ transport
  6. Next steps

Upon the completion of these steps, you should have a fully functional Sensu installation, with one or more Sensu clients reporting keepalives (Sensu’s built-in “heartbeat” mechanism) back to the Sensu server, and a web-based Sensu dashboard providing visibility into the health of your infrastructure.

Installation requirements

What will you need to install Sensu?

  • Familiarity with a modern command-line interface & related tooling
  • Compute resources (e.g. one or more virtual machines, or physical computers)
  • 30-60 minutes (the amount of time it should take to complete this installation guide)
  • OPTIONAL: A Sensu Enterprise subscription (for installing Sensu Enterprise).

Ready? Let’s get started with selecting an installation strategy!

Installation Strategies