Adding a poller to Centreon has always followed the same routine: prepare a VM, install the packages, configure Centreon Engine and Gorgone, then do it all again on the next site. What if one generated command on a container host were enough?
That is the idea behind containerized pollers, now open for beta testing with Centreon Infra Monitoring 26.10. The beta runs until General Availability (GA), and we want community members to test it in their own environments and help shape it before GA.
👉 Join the Pollers in Containers beta group
What Is a Containerized Poller?
A containerized poller does the same job as a classic poller: it runs your monitoring checks and reports to your Central server. The difference is how it is delivered. Instead of packages installed on a VM, the poller runs as a set of containers, deployed from a generated Compose file. Centreon Engine and Gorgone each run in their own dedicated container, and optional services can be added on top.
Why Containers?
Containers make a poller packaged, repeatable and quick to deploy. Every poller starts from the same images, so your sites stay consistent. Deployment comes down to one command generated in the Centreon UI. And if your teams already run containers, pollers become one more workload they know how to manage.
Containerized Pollers in a Nutshell
- Guided creation: the Create new poller wizard in the Centreon UI generates the install command for you.
- One command to deploy: the generated install.sh script deploys the containers on your host.
- Modular: enable SNMP traps, VMware monitoring or the Centreon Monitoring Agent (CMA) only if you need them.
- Your plugins come along: custom plugins are supported, through local volumes or your own image.
- Safe to try: test in a lab or another non-critical environment.
What's Included in the Beta
Deployment
- The Create new poller wizard, which generates the install command, and the install.sh script, which deploys the poller as containers.
Containers
| Service | Role | How to enable it |
|---|---|---|
| Centreon Engine | Runs the monitoring checks | Deployed by default |
| Gorgone | Communicates with the Central server | Deployed by default |
| SNMP traps (snmptrapd and centreontrapd) | Receives and processes SNMP traps | Script option |
| VMware monitoring (centreon-vmware) | Monitors VMware environments | Script option |
| Centreon Monitoring Agent (CMA) | Collects data from the Centreon Monitoring Agent | Script option |
Custom plugins
- A lightweight method: mount your plugins and their dependencies through local volumes.
- An advanced method: rebuild your own image on top of ours.
Supported Environments
- Centreon version: Centreon Infra Monitoring 26.10.x
- Deployment: containers, from a generated Compose file
- Architecture: pollers attached to the Central server
What's Not Available Yet (Planned for GA)
- Podman compatibility
- Helm charts for Kubernetes deployments
- Automatic CMA certificate generation, coming in an upcoming 26.10.x release
- Safer re-runs of the install script, which will create .new files instead of overwriting your configuration
- More options in the wizard, such as SNMP traps, so you don't have to edit the generated command by hand
- Support for attaching pollers to Remote Servers
- Hardened base images, currently under study
This list is not exhaustive. Fixes and improvements will ship in regular 26.10.x releases.
Before You Start
- Use an FQDN rather than an IP address for the peer address: certificates are not generated for IP addresses.
- If you enable CMA, provide the certificates manually in 26.10.
- If your Central uses self-signed certificates, you may need to add -k to the curl command that downloads the install script.
- In 26.10, running the install script again overwrites your existing configuration: back up your files first.
Getting Started
Open the Create new poller wizard in the Centreon UI, copy the generated command and run it on your container host. The Getting started post in the beta group walks you through each step.
How You Can Help
- Test it in a lab or another non-critical environment.
- Share your feedback in the group, whether it worked smoothly or something broke.
- Tell us about your use cases: do you need Kubernetes or Podman? Do you rely on many custom plugins? Do you have security requirements such as hardened images?
- Contribute: suggestions for the documentation, the scripts and the Compose files are very welcome.
When you report an issue, please include your OS, your containerization system and version, your architecture (Central only, or with Remote Servers) and the options you used. Remove secrets and internal hostnames from logs before you share them. The Welcome post explains how the group works.
Good to Know
- This is a beta: do not use it to monitor business-critical production.
- The install script, the generated command and the Compose files may still change between 26.10.x releases. Breaking changes will be announced in the group and in the release notes.
- Beta features are not covered by Centreon Support commitments or SLAs. All discussion happens in the beta group.
- The Beta program charter details the scope and everyone's commitments.
Join the Beta Group
Everything you need is in the group:
- Welcome message
- Program description and how it works
- Getting started: deploy your first containerized poller
- Beta program charter
👉 Join the Pollers in Containers beta group
Your feedback will shape what containerized pollers become. See you in the group!