Home How To Install LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 10 / AlmaLinux 10

Install LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 10 / AlmaLinux 10

March 19, 2026

LibreNMS is an open-source network monitoring system built on PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, and SNMP. It provides auto-discovery of network devices, real-time alerting, customizable dashboards, and supports hundreds of device types out of the box. LibreNMS handles bandwidth monitoring, device health tracking, and performance analysis for networks of any size.

This guide walks through a full installation of LibreNMS network monitoring on Rocky Linux 10 or AlmaLinux 10, covering the LAMP/LEMP stack, database setup, web configuration, SSL, SNMP device monitoring, alerting integrations, distributed polling, and performance tuning.

Prerequisites

A server running Rocky Linux 10 or AlmaLinux 10 with at least 2 CPU cores and 4GB RAM
Root or sudo access to the server
A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) pointing to your server, e.g. librenms.example.com
Ports 80/TCP, 443/TCP (web UI), and 161/UDP (SNMP) open in the firewall
SELinux set to permissive or configured with appropriate policies
Internet access for package installation

Step 1: Update System and Install Required Packages

Start by updating the system and installing base dependencies that LibreNMS requires.

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

Install the core utilities needed during the setup process.

sudo dnf install -y bash-completion curl fping git ImageMagick mtr net-snmp net-snmp-utils nmap python3 python3-pip python3-PyMySQL rrdtool unzip wget whois cronie policycoreutils-python-utils

Set SELinux to permissive mode. LibreNMS requires write access to several directories and a strict SELinux policy can block those operations.

sudo setenforce 0
sudo sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/' /etc/selinux/config

Verify the change took effect.

$ getenforce
Permissive

Step 2: Install PHP 8.3 on Rocky Linux 10 / AlmaLinux 10

LibreNMS requires PHP 8.1 or newer. PHP 8.3 is the recommended version for best performance and compatibility. Enable the Remi repository to get PHP 8.3 packages.

sudo dnf install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-10.rpm
sudo dnf module reset php -y
sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.3 -y

Install PHP 8.3 with all the extensions that LibreNMS needs.

sudo dnf install -y php php-cli php-common php-curl php-fpm php-gd php-gmp php-json php-mbstring php-mysqlnd php-opcache php-pdo php-process php-snmp php-xml php-zip

Verify the PHP version is correct.

$ php -v
PHP 8.3.x (cli) (built: ...)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.x, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.3.x, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Configure the PHP timezone. Open the PHP configuration file.

sudo vim /etc/php.ini

Find the date.timezone directive and set it to your timezone.

[Date]
date.timezone = Africa/Nairobi

Replace Africa/Nairobi with your local timezone from the PHP timezone list. Enable and start PHP-FPM.

sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm

Step 3: Install and Configure MariaDB

LibreNMS stores all device data, alerts, and configuration in a MariaDB (or MySQL) database. Install MariaDB from the default Rocky Linux 10 / AlmaLinux 10 repositories. For dedicated MariaDB setup instructions, see our guide on installing MariaDB on CentOS / Rocky Linux.

sudo dnf install -y mariadb-server mariadb

Before starting MariaDB, configure the InnoDB settings that LibreNMS requires for optimal performance. Edit the MariaDB server configuration.

sudo vim /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf

Add the following settings under the [mysqld] section.

[mysqld]
innodb_file_per_table=1
lower_case_table_names=0
sql-mode=""

Enable and start MariaDB.

sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

Secure the installation by running the security script.

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

Set a strong root password and answer Y to all remaining prompts to remove anonymous users, disable remote root login, and drop the test database.

Create the LibreNMS Database and User

Log into MariaDB and create the database and a dedicated user for LibreNMS.

sudo mariadb -u root -p

Run the following SQL statements. Replace StrongDBPass2025 with your own secure password.

CREATE DATABASE librenms CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'librenms'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongDBPass2025';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON librenms.* TO 'librenms'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4: Create the LibreNMS System User

LibreNMS runs under its own dedicated system user. Create the librenms user and add it to the necessary groups.

sudo useradd librenms -d /opt/librenms -M -r -s "$(which bash)"

Step 5: Download and Install LibreNMS

Clone the LibreNMS repository into the /opt/librenms directory.

cd /opt
sudo git clone https://github.com/librenms/librenms.git

Set proper ownership so the LibreNMS user can manage all files.

sudo chown -R librenms:librenms /opt/librenms
sudo chmod 771 /opt/librenms

Install PHP Dependencies with Composer

LibreNMS ships with a Composer wrapper script. Run the installation as the librenms user.

sudo su - librenms
./scripts/composer_wrapper.php install --no-dev
exit

This downloads all required PHP libraries into the /opt/librenms/vendor directory. The process may take a few minutes depending on your internet speed.

Step 6: Set Permissions and Directory Structure

Set the correct permissions on LibreNMS directories. The web server and LibreNMS user both need access to specific paths.

sudo setfacl -d -m g::rwx /opt/librenms/rrd /opt/librenms/logs /opt/librenms/bootstrap/cache /opt/librenms/storage
sudo setfacl -R -m g::rwx /opt/librenms/rrd /opt/librenms/logs /opt/librenms/bootstrap/cache /opt/librenms/storage

Ensure the acl package is installed if the commands above fail.

sudo dnf install -y acl

Step 7: Configure Apache as the Web Server

Install Apache (httpd) and configure a virtual host for LibreNMS.

sudo dnf install -y httpd

Create the LibreNMS Apache virtual host configuration file.

sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/librenms.conf

Add the following virtual host configuration. Replace librenms.example.com with your actual domain name.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot /opt/librenms/html/
  ServerName librenms.example.com

  AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode

  <Directory "/opt/librenms/html/">
    Require all granted
    AllowOverride All
    Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
  </Directory>

  # Enable /api/ URL
  <Directory "/opt/librenms/html/plugins/">
    Require all granted
    AllowOverride All
    Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Remove the default welcome page to prevent conflicts.

sudo rm -f /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf

Configure PHP-FPM to run as the librenms user. Edit the PHP-FPM pool configuration.

sudo vim /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

Change the user and group settings from apache to librenms.

user = librenms
group = librenms

Add the apache user to the librenms group so Apache can read files managed by LibreNMS.

sudo usermod -a -G librenms apache

Enable and start both Apache and PHP-FPM, then restart PHP-FPM to apply the user change.

sudo systemctl enable --now httpd
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Verify Apache is running.

$ systemctl status httpd
   Active: active (running)

Alternative: Configure Nginx Instead of Apache

If you prefer Nginx over Apache, install it and create the server block. Do not install both – choose one.

sudo dnf install -y nginx

Create the Nginx server block configuration.

sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/librenms.conf

Add the following configuration. Replace librenms.example.com with your domain.

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name librenms.example.com;
    root /opt/librenms/html;
    index index.php;

    charset utf-8;
    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/css application/javascript text/javascript application/x-javascript image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        include fastcgi.conf;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

When using Nginx, update the PHP-FPM pool user to librenms as described above, and also add nginx to the librenms group.

sudo usermod -a -G librenms nginx
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Step 8: Configure SNMP on the LibreNMS Server

LibreNMS uses SNMP to communicate with monitored devices. Configure the local SNMP daemon first so the LibreNMS server can monitor itself.

sudo cp /opt/librenms/snmpd.conf.example /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
sudo vim /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

Replace the default community string RANDOMSTRINGGOESHERE with your own community string.

com2sec readonly  default         myCommunityString

Download the LibreNMS SNMP distribution detection script. This script allows LibreNMS to identify the operating system running on the monitored host.

sudo curl -o /usr/bin/distro https://raw.githubusercontent.com/librenms/librenms-agent/master/snmp/distro
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/distro

Enable and start the SNMP daemon.

sudo systemctl enable --now snmpd

Step 9: Set Up Cron Jobs and Log Rotation

LibreNMS uses cron jobs for polling devices, discovering new devices, and running maintenance tasks. Copy the provided cron file and logrotate config.

sudo cp /opt/librenms/dist/librenms.cron /etc/cron.d/librenms
sudo cp /opt/librenms/misc/librenms.logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/librenms

Enable the LibreNMS scheduler service for more accurate polling intervals.

sudo cp /opt/librenms/dist/librenms-scheduler.service /opt/librenms/dist/librenms-scheduler.timer /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now librenms-scheduler.timer

Step 10: Configure Firewall Rules

Open the required ports in firewalld for web access and SNMP communication.

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=161/udp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Verify the rules are active.

$ sudo firewall-cmd --list-all
public (active)
  services: cockpit dhcpv6-client http https ssh
  ports: 161/udp

Step 11: Complete LibreNMS Web Installer

Open your browser and navigate to http://librenms.example.com/install. The web installer validates your environment and completes the setup in several steps.

The installer checks for required PHP extensions, verifies file permissions, and tests database connectivity. Enter the database credentials created in Step 3:

Database Host: localhost
Database Name: librenms
Database User: librenms
Database Password: StrongDBPass2025 (or whatever you set)

The installer runs the database migrations to create all required tables. After that, create your admin user account and finalize the setup. Once complete, you will be redirected to the LibreNMS login page.

After logging in, run the validation tool from the CLI to confirm everything is configured correctly.

sudo su - librenms
./validate.php

Fix any warnings or errors the validation script reports before proceeding.

Step 12: Secure LibreNMS with Let’s Encrypt SSL

Production deployments should always use HTTPS. Install Certbot and obtain a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt. For detailed Nginx proxy with SSL setup, refer to the guide on configuring Nginx reverse proxy with Let’s Encrypt SSL.

sudo dnf install -y certbot

For Apache, install the Apache plugin and run the certificate request.

sudo dnf install -y python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d librenms.example.com

For Nginx, use the Nginx plugin instead.

sudo dnf install -y python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d librenms.example.com

Certbot automatically configures the virtual host for SSL and sets up auto-renewal. Verify the renewal timer is active.

$ sudo systemctl list-timers | grep certbot
certbot-renew.timer    loaded active waiting

Test the renewal process to confirm it works.

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Step 13: Add Devices to LibreNMS via SNMP

With LibreNMS running, add your first monitored device. The server itself is a good starting point. Navigate to Devices > Add Device in the web UI, or use the command line.

sudo su - librenms
./addhost.php localhost myCommunityString v2c

To add a remote device with SNMPv2c, provide the hostname or IP, community string, and SNMP version.

./addhost.php 192.168.1.1 myCommunityString v2c

After adding a device, trigger an initial discovery and poll cycle to populate data immediately.

./discovery.php -h 192.168.1.1
./poller.php -h 192.168.1.1

The device should appear in the dashboard within a few minutes with port utilization, CPU, memory, and storage graphs. For monitoring VMware hosts, see our article on monitoring VMware ESXi hosts using LibreNMS.

Step 14: Configure SNMPv3 for Secure Monitoring

SNMPv2c sends community strings in plaintext. For production environments, SNMPv3 provides authentication and encryption. Configure an SNMPv3 user on the target device first.

On a Linux target running net-snmp, stop the SNMP daemon and create a user.

sudo systemctl stop snmpd
sudo net-snmp-create-v3-user -ro -A AuthPass123 -X PrivPass456 -a SHA -x AES librenmsuser

Start SNMP again after creating the user.

sudo systemctl start snmpd

Add the device to LibreNMS with SNMPv3 credentials from the CLI.

sudo su - librenms
./addhost.php 192.168.1.50 ap v3 librenmsuser AuthPass123 PrivPass456 sha aes

You can also add SNMPv3 devices through the web UI under Devices > Add Device. Select SNMPv3 and fill in the authentication protocol (SHA), privacy protocol (AES), and the corresponding passwords.

Test SNMP connectivity from the LibreNMS server to verify the configuration.

snmpwalk -v3 -u librenmsuser -l authPriv -a SHA -A AuthPass123 -x AES -X PrivPass456 192.168.1.50 sysDescr

A successful response returns the device’s system description string.

Step 15: Configure Alerting in LibreNMS

LibreNMS supports alerting through multiple channels. Alert rules define what conditions trigger a notification, and alert transports define where notifications are sent.

Email Alerting

Configure email settings in the LibreNMS configuration. Edit the .env file or configure through the web UI at Settings > Alerting > Email Options.

sudo su - librenms
./lnms config:set alert.transports.mail.1.email [email protected]

Set the mail driver in the global config. Edit /opt/librenms/.env and add your SMTP settings.

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.example.com
MAIL_PORT=587
[email protected]
MAIL_PASSWORD=YourMailPassword
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
[email protected]
MAIL_FROM_NAME="LibreNMS Alerts"

Slack Alerting

To send alerts to a Slack channel, create an Incoming Webhook in your Slack workspace, then add it as a transport in LibreNMS. Go to Alerts > Alert Transports > Create Transport.

Transport Type: Slack
Webhook URL: https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Channel: #network-alerts

You can also add Slack transports via the CLI.

sudo su - librenms
./lnms config:set alert.transports.slack.1.url "https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

PagerDuty Alerting

For PagerDuty integration, you need a PagerDuty service integration key. Navigate to Alerts > Alert Transports > Create Transport and select PagerDuty as the type.

Transport Type: PagerDuty
Integration Key: Your PagerDuty Events API v2 integration key

PagerDuty alerts include device name, alert severity, and the specific condition that triggered the notification. Resolved alerts automatically clear the incident in PagerDuty.

Create Alert Rules

LibreNMS ships with a set of default alert rules. Import them from Alerts > Alert Rules > Create Rule from Collection. Common rules include device down, port utilization over threshold, high CPU, and disk space warnings.

To create a custom rule, go to Alerts > Alert Rules > Create New Rule and define the condition using the rule builder. For example, to alert when a port exceeds 90% utilization:

Rule: ports.ifInOctets_rate / ports.ifSpeed * 100 > 90
Severity: Critical
Recovery: Enabled

Assign the transport (email, Slack, or PagerDuty) to the alert rule to start receiving notifications.

Step 16: Add Distributed Pollers for Scalability

For large networks with hundreds or thousands of devices, a single poller may not complete all polls within the 5-minute polling interval. LibreNMS supports distributed polling to spread the workload across multiple servers.

Architecture Overview

The distributed polling setup consists of a central server (running the database, web UI, and RRD storage) and one or more remote pollers that run polling and discovery tasks. All pollers connect to the same MariaDB database and share the same RRD storage (via NFS or RRDcached).

Configure the Central Server

On the main LibreNMS server, enable distributed polling in the configuration.

sudo su - librenms
./lnms config:set distributed_poller true
./lnms config:set distributed_poller_memcached_host 10.0.1.10
./lnms config:set distributed_poller_memcached_port 11211

Install and start Memcached on the central server. Distributed polling requires Memcached for lock coordination between pollers.

sudo dnf install -y memcached
sudo systemctl enable --now memcached

Configure MariaDB on the central server to accept remote connections. Edit /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf and set the bind address.

[mysqld]
bind-address = 0.0.0.0

Grant database access to the remote poller IP addresses.

sudo mariadb -u root -p

Run the following SQL to grant access from the remote poller.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON librenms.* TO 'librenms'@'10.0.1.20' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongDBPass2025';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Restart MariaDB to apply the bind address change.

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Configure the Remote Poller

On the remote poller server, install LibreNMS following Steps 1 through 6 of this guide. Skip the web server and database server installation – the remote poller only needs PHP, SNMP tools, and the LibreNMS codebase.

Configure the remote poller to connect to the central database. Edit /opt/librenms/.env on the remote poller.

DB_HOST=10.0.1.10
DB_DATABASE=librenms
DB_USERNAME=librenms
DB_PASSWORD=StrongDBPass2025

Set up RRD storage sharing. The simplest option is to use RRDcached on the central server. Configure it in LibreNMS.

sudo su - librenms
./lnms config:set rrdcached "10.0.1.10:42217"

Copy the cron jobs to the remote poller and start polling. The poller will automatically pick up devices assigned to its polling group.

Step 17: Performance Tuning for LibreNMS

As the number of monitored devices grows, tuning becomes important to keep polls completing within the 5-minute window. For related monitoring approaches, check out monitoring MySQL/MariaDB with Prometheus.

Enable Fast Ping

Fast ping checks device availability without running a full SNMP poll. Enable it to reduce polling time.

sudo su - librenms
./lnms config:set ping_rrd true
./lnms config:set fping_options.count 3
./lnms config:set fping_options.interval 500
./lnms config:set fping_options.timeout 500

Increase Poller Threads

By default, LibreNMS uses 16 poller threads. Increase this based on your CPU count and device count.

./lnms config:set poller_threads 32

Enable RRDcached

RRDcached batches RRD file writes, reducing disk I/O significantly. Install and configure it on the LibreNMS server.

sudo dnf install -y rrdtool-cached

Edit the RRDcached service configuration.

sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/rrdcached

Set the following options to configure caching behavior and socket access.

OPTIONS="-w 1800 -z 900 -f 3600 -B -R -j /tmp -l unix:/run/rrdcached/rrdcached.sock -t 4 -F"
SOCKFILE=/run/rrdcached/rrdcached.sock
SOCKGROUP=librenms

Enable and start RRDcached.

sudo systemctl enable --now rrdcached

Tell LibreNMS to use the RRDcached socket.

sudo su - librenms
./lnms config:set rrdcached "unix:/run/rrdcached/rrdcached.sock"

Optimize MariaDB for LibreNMS

Tune the MariaDB InnoDB buffer pool based on your available RAM. A good starting point is 50-70% of total server memory dedicated to the buffer pool.

sudo vim /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf

Add or update the following performance settings under [mysqld].

[mysqld]
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 2G
innodb_log_file_size = 256M
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2
innodb_flush_method = O_DIRECT
max_connections = 256
query_cache_type = 0

Restart MariaDB after changing the buffer pool settings.

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Enable PHP OPcache Tuning

Tune PHP OPcache for LibreNMS workloads. Edit the OPcache configuration.

sudo vim /etc/php.d/10-opcache.ini

Set these values for better caching.

opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
opcache.validate_timestamps=0
opcache.revalidate_freq=0

Restart PHP-FPM to apply the OPcache changes.

sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Conclusion

LibreNMS is now installed and running on Rocky Linux 10 / AlmaLinux 10 with PHP 8.3, MariaDB, and a web server secured with SSL. The system is ready to discover and monitor network devices, servers, and services using SNMP.

For production environments, enable regular database backups, configure SNMPv3 on all devices, set up distributed polling if you exceed 500 devices, and monitor the LibreNMS server itself with the local SNMP agent. Keep the installation updated by running ./daily.sh regularly or enabling automatic updates through the web UI.