Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions for us which are not covered below, please do not hesitate to contact us. Icinga is about active and open communication.

What license does Icinga use?

Icinga is open source software licensed under GPL version 2. So it is free (as in beer and as in speech) to use, distribute and modify.

What is a fork?

A fork happens, when someone takes a copy of source code from a software package, e.g. Nagios and starts independent development based on it. Thus creating a new and distinct piece of software. Free or open source software may be forked with no prior permission, per the definitions of “free software” (“Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits”) and “open source” (“3. Derived Works: redistribution of modifications must be allowed. (To allow legal sharing and to permit new features or repairs.)”). Examples of successful forks are Joomla (forked from Mambo) or X.Org (forked from XFree86).

See Wikipedia for more information.

What will change for Nagios users?

The development of Nagios in recent years has been hindered, as the project creator focused programming on the core program and adopted few suggestions or patches from the community. Through this fork, significantly more people can participate in the development of the software because the Icinga project openly encourages participation. Community suggestions or patches are embraced more than before, to ensure the ongoing improvement of Icinga. Technically, Icinga will be compatible with Nagios, to ensure a smooth transition to the new software.

What are the reasons for the fork? Why now?

Please see the page “Why a fork?” for more information.

Will Icinga be Nagios compatible?

YES! The Icinga project seeks to remain compatible with Nagios as long as possible. In the first release, database connections will be improved alongside a new web interface and a standardised extensions interface. Configurations, log-files, plugins and other extensions remain compatible for the time being.

What happens next?

So far the project has been set up and is undergoing development under the new name Icinga. The first release was made on 28 October 2009 with subsequent releases to follow. To stay up to date, subscribe to an Icinga mailing list, simply visit our blog or follow us on Twitter.

What features does Icinga offer?

Please see page “Features” for information on current features and follow our blog or roadmap for upcoming new features.

What’s the difference between Icinga and Nagios?

Over time, Icinga has implemented hundreds of patches, bug fixes and new features which the community has long asked for.  Now with a new architecture supported by an API and a new web interface – Icinga now boasts features and capabilities that make it a real monitoring force to reckon with.

For more information: Icinga vs. Nagios – What’s the difference?

For more technical details: Icinga vs. Nagios – A Developer’s Comparison

Is there a chance to contribute?

YES! That is one of the major goals of this project. We welcome everyone to submit patches and feature requests, notify us of a bug or add a guide in our wiki. For how to do both, see our “How to report a bug & edit Icinga Wiki” help page.

What happens to the money received from my purchase off the Icinga merchandise store?

When you buy anything from the store, the profit we make of 1 EUR per item goes toward the Icinga Pizza Please Appeal which feeds the hungry Icingies when they meet to work on bringing you the next awesome release.

You get a cool piece of Icinga merchandise and Lara puts the money in our pizza piggy bank for the next team meeting.  If we gather enough it may even help us attend conferences, trade fairs and other open source events to bolster community support. Thanks for being an Icinga friend!

What does the name Icinga mean? How is it pronounced?

Icinga is a Zulu word meaning ‘it looks for’, ‘it browses’, ‘it examines’. As far as we can tell, it is pronounced with one of the famous Zulu click consonants. So it should be almost impossible for Non-Zulu people to pronounce it correct. So the best answer probably is: You can pronounce it any way you like. This is how we do it:  “Icinga”