Master Server Monitoring with Checkmate: Install, Docker Setup & Real‑Time Insights

Introduction

After deploying a project, monitoring server status becomes essential; many tools have outdated interfaces or complex configurations. Checkmate is a modern open‑source monitoring tool that sets a new benchmark.

Key Features

Self‑hosted: fully open source and deployable on your own servers.

Website monitoring: track site availability, performance, response time, and multi‑region uptime.

Hardware monitoring: use the Capture plugin to monitor CPU, memory, disk usage, and system performance.

Docker monitoring: real‑time visibility into container status, resource usage, and metrics.

Network monitoring: custom Ping checks for latency and availability.

Installation

Using Docker is the most convenient way to install Checkmate.

docker pull ghcr.io/bluewave-labs/checkmate-client:latest
docker pull ghcr.io/bluewave-labs/checkmate-backend:latest

Since the backend depends on MongoDB, start a MongoDB container first:

docker run -p 27017:27017 --name mongo \
  -v /mydata/mongo/db:/data/db \
  -d mongo:4

Then launch both client and backend with Docker Compose using the following docker-compose.yml:

services:
  client:
    image: ghcr.io/bluewave-labs/checkmate-client:latest
    environment:
      UPTIME_APP_API_BASE_URL: "http://192.168.3.101:52345/api/v1"
      UPTIME_APP_CLIENT_HOST: "http://192.168.3.101"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    depends_on:
      - server
  server:
    image: ghcr.io/bluewave-labs/checkmate-backend:latest
    ports:
      - "52345:52345"
    environment:
      - DB_CONNECTION_STRING=mongodb://192.168.3.101:27017/uptime_db
      - CLIENT_HOST=http://192.168.3.101
      - JWT_SECRET=my_secret
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

Upload the script to the server and run: docker-compose -f checkmate.yml up -d After a successful start, access the Checkmate UI at http://192.168.3.101 and register the first account.

Usage

Website Monitoring

Click the “Create new” button, select “Website monitoring”, and enter the target URL and interval.

Server Monitoring

Choose “Ping monitoring” and provide the server’s IP address.

Docker Monitoring

Obtain the container ID (e.g., for a MongoDB container) with: docker inspect -f '{{.Id}}' mongo Then select “Docker container monitoring” and configure the ID.

Hardware Monitoring

Run the Capture plugin:

docker run -p 59232:59232 --name capture \
  -e API_SECRET=your-secret-key \
  -d ghcr.io/bluewave-labs/capture:latest

Open the “infrastructure” panel, click “create”, and input the Capture endpoint (e.g., 192.168.3.101:59232/api/v1/metrics) along with the API secret to view CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics.

Themes

Checkmate supports both light and dark themes, switchable via settings.

Conclusion

Checkmate is a powerful open‑source monitoring solution trusted by engineers at Google, Microsoft, Tencent, and ByteDance; it’s worth trying for anyone needing comprehensive server and application observability.