How to Install Alerta on nixOS Latest

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Alerta on nixOS Latest. Alerta is an open-source solution that enables you to receive and respond to alerts from various monitoring systems like Nagios, Zabbix, Prometheus, and many others.

Prerequisites

Before we start, there are a few prerequisites to be met:

• A running instance of nixOS latest.
• Basic knowledge of the nix package manager.

Step 1: Update nixOS

The first step is to update your system to ensure that all the packages are up-to-date. Run the following command:

$ sudo nix-channel --update && sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Step 2: Install Alerta

To install Alerta on nixOS, we need to write a nix expression file. Navigate to the nixos directory and create a new file:

$ cd /etc/nixos && sudo vim alerta.nix

Paste the following code in the file:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

let
  alerta = pkgs.python3Packages.callPackage (pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "alerta";
    repo = "alerta";
    rev = "v8.1.0";
    sha256 = "12zggp61ksp45zn0vk8w4w4pkz4x2gdxd1xl21xz9rcaxdai4a7p";
  }) {
    inherit pkgs;
  };
in
  {
    environment.systemPackages = [ alerta ];
  }

Save the file and close it. This code downloads the Alerta package from GitHub and installs it.

Step 3: Activate the Configuration

Now that we have written our nix expression file, we need to activate it. Run the following command:

$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch

This command rebuilds your system's configuration and installs the Alerta package.

Step 4: Configure Alerta

Once you have successfully installed Alerta, the next step is to configure it. Alerta uses a configuration file, which is located at /etc/alertad.conf. Edit this file to configure Alerta.

$ vim /etc/alertad.conf

Add the following configurations in the file:

DEBUG = False
ALERTA_SVR_ENDPOINT = 'http://localhost:8080'
ALLOWED_ENVIRONMENTS = ['Production']
HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD = 120
ERROR_THRESHOLD = 360

Save and close the file.

Step 5: Start Alerta

After configuring Alerta, we need to start the service. Run the following command:

$ sudo systemctl enable alertad && sudo systemctl start alertad

This command enables the Alerta service and starts it.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have now successfully installed and configured Alerta on nixOS Latest using a nix expression file. You can now use Alerta to receive and respond to alerts from various monitoring systems.

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