How to back up and restore Nagios Core configuration

Nagios Core keeps its monitoring model in text configuration files, so a damaged object file, failed maintenance change, or risky upgrade needs a recoverable copy of the configuration tree. A backup should be more than an archive on disk; it should list the expected files, restore into a staging path, and pass the Nagios pre-flight check after recovery.

The active configuration starts at the main nagios.cfg file and expands through its cfg_file, cfg_dir, and resource_file directives. On Ubuntu and Debian package installs, those paths usually include /etc/nagios4 plus plugin command fragments under /etc/nagios-plugins/config.

A restore belongs in a staging directory before it touches the live tree. After the live restore, run the Nagios pre-flight check before reloading the daemon, because the web interface reads objects from the running process and does not prove that restored source files are valid by itself.

1. List the active Nagios Core configuration include paths.

   $ sudo grep -E '^(cfg_file|cfg_dir|resource_file)=' /etc/nagios4/nagios.cfg
   cfg_dir=/etc/nagios-plugins/config
   cfg_dir=/etc/nagios4/conf.d
   cfg_file=/etc/nagios4/objects/commands.cfg
   cfg_file=/etc/nagios4/objects/contacts.cfg
   cfg_file=/etc/nagios4/objects/timeperiods.cfg
   cfg_file=/etc/nagios4/objects/templates.cfg
   cfg_file=/etc/nagios4/objects/localhost.cfg
   resource_file=/etc/nagios4/resource.cfg

   Back up every file or directory named by these directives. Source installs often start from /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg instead of /etc/nagios4/nagios.cfg.

2. Create a private directory for the backup archive.

   $ sudo install -d -m 700 /root/nagios-config-backups

3. Create a compressed archive of the active configuration trees.

   $ sudo tar --create --gzip --verbose \
     --file /root/nagios-config-backups/nagios-config-2026-06-22.tar.gz \
     /etc/nagios4 \
     /etc/nagios-plugins/config
   tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
   /etc/nagios4/
   /etc/nagios4/resource.cfg
   /etc/nagios4/apache2.conf
   /etc/nagios4/objects/
   /etc/nagios4/objects/localhost.cfg
   /etc/nagios4/objects/printer.cfg
   /etc/nagios4/objects/templates.cfg
   tar: Removing leading `/' from hard link targets
   ##### snipped #####
   /etc/nagios4/nagios.cfg
   /etc/nagios4/cgi.cfg
   /etc/nagios-plugins/config/
   /etc/nagios-plugins/config/http.cfg
   /etc/nagios-plugins/config/ssh.cfg
   ##### snipped #####

   The archive can contain web credentials, resource macros, contact addresses, and command arguments. Store it with root-only permissions and move it only through trusted backup storage.

4. List the archive contents before depending on it.

   $ sudo tar --list --file /root/nagios-config-backups/nagios-config-2026-06-22.tar.gz
   etc/nagios4/
   etc/nagios4/resource.cfg
   etc/nagios4/apache2.conf
   etc/nagios4/objects/
   etc/nagios4/objects/localhost.cfg
   etc/nagios4/objects/printer.cfg
   etc/nagios4/objects/templates.cfg
   ##### snipped #####
   etc/nagios4/nagios.cfg
   etc/nagios4/cgi.cfg
   etc/nagios-plugins/config/
   etc/nagios-plugins/config/http.cfg
   etc/nagios-plugins/config/ssh.cfg
   ##### snipped #####

5. Create a staging directory for a restore test.

   $ sudo install -d -m 700 /root/nagios-restore-test

6. Extract the archive into the staging directory.

   $ sudo tar --extract --gzip \
     --file /root/nagios-config-backups/nagios-config-2026-06-22.tar.gz \
     --directory /root/nagios-restore-test

   The extracted files appear under /root/nagios-restore-test/etc/nagios4 and /root/nagios-restore-test/etc/nagios-plugins/config because tar removed the leading slash when the archive was created.

7. Compare the staged /etc/nagios4 restore with the live tree.

   $ sudo diff -rq /etc/nagios4 /root/nagios-restore-test/etc/nagios4

   No output means the staged /etc/nagios4 tree matches the current source tree.

8. Compare the staged plugin command directory with the live tree.

   $ sudo diff -rq /etc/nagios-plugins/config /root/nagios-restore-test/etc/nagios-plugins/config

   No output means the packaged plugin command fragments were captured with the Nagios configuration.

9. Restore the archive to the live filesystem during the maintenance window.

   $ sudo tar --extract --gzip \
     --file /root/nagios-config-backups/nagios-config-2026-06-22.tar.gz \
     --directory /

   This overwrites matching live configuration files but does not remove extra files that were created after the backup. Use a tested archive, keep console access available, and remove known bad leftovers before reload if the pre-flight check still sees them.

10. Validate the restored Nagios Core configuration.

    $ sudo nagios4 -v /etc/nagios4/nagios.cfg
    Reading configuration data...
       Read main config file okay...
       Read object config files okay...
    
    Running pre-flight check on configuration data...
    
    Checking objects...
    	Checked 8 services.
    	Checked 1 hosts.
    ##### snipped #####
    
    Total Warnings: 0
    Total Errors:   0
    
    Things look okay - No serious problems were detected during the pre-flight check

    Related: How to validate the Nagios Core configuration

11. Reload Nagios Core after validation reports zero errors.

    $ sudo systemctl reload nagios4

    Use the service control method for the host's installation path. Source installs may use an init script or a SIGHUP reload instead of the nagios4 systemd unit.
    Related: How to manage the Nagios Core system service

12. Confirm that the Nagios Core service is active after the reload.

    $ sudo systemctl is-active nagios4
    active

13. Refresh the Nagios Core web interface and confirm that the restored hosts, services, commands, and contacts appear as expected.
14. Remove the staging restore directory after the live restore is validated.

    $ sudo rm -r /root/nagios-restore-test