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How to Completely Uninstall Observium from Ubuntu Observium is a powerful network monitoring platform, but you might need to remove it to free up resources, migrate to another server, or switch to an alternative tool like LibreNMS. Completely purging Observium requires removing its web files, cron jobs, database, and system dependencies.
A standard Ubuntu package removal will not delete Observium because it is typically installed manually via a archive download. This comprehensive guide walks you through the step-by-step process to safely wipe Observium, its database, cron jobs, and web server configurations from your Ubuntu system. Prerequisites: Prepare for Removal
Drop the Observium database (replace observium with your actual database name if you customized it during installation): DROP DATABASE observium; Use code with caution.
sudo apt --purge autoremove sudo apt autoclean uninstall observium ubuntu
Observium stores its configuration and device data in a dedicated database. Log into your database: sudo mysql -u root -p Remove the database and the specific user: observium; 'observium' 'localhost' PRIVILEGES Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard 4. Remove Web Server Configuration
If you have systemd service files for Observium (e.g., observium-poller.service ), disable and stop them:
Delete the main application files located in the directory where you originally extracted the Observium tarball. sudo rm -rf /opt/observium Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard How to Completely Uninstall Observium from Ubuntu Observium
Observium stores its data in a MariaDB or MySQL database. You should remove the dedicated database and user. Log into your database: sudo mysql -u root -p Drop the database: DROP DATABASE observium; Remove the user: DROP USER 'observium'@'localhost'; Exit: EXIT;
If you created a virtual host specifically for Observium, you should remove those configuration files to prevent errors in your web server logs. : Remove the site configuration using sudo a2dissite observium.conf and delete the file from /etc/apache2/sites-available/ : Remove the symbolic link in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ and the original config in sites-available/ Considerations for Dependencies
Open the system cron file where Observium jobs are typically placed: sudo nano /etc/cron.d/observium Use code with caution. This comprehensive guide walks you through the step-by-step
RRD files store historical graphing data and can consume significant disk space.
# Check for remaining dependencies (dry run) sudo apt remove --dry-run apache2 mysql-server php snmp
If you are migrating or think you might need this data later, back up your critical directories.
| Step | Action | Primary Commands | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Prepare | dpkg -l \| grep observium , grep db /opt/observium/config.php | | 1 | Core Removal | sudo apt purge observium (APT) OR sudo rm -rf /opt/observium (Manual) | | 2 | Database | Log into MySQL: DROP DATABASE observium; DROP USER 'observium'@'localhost'; | | 3 | Application Data | sudo rm -rf /opt/observium/rrd /opt/observium/logs | | 4 | Web Server Config | sudo rm -f /etc/apache2/sites-*/*observium* (or Nginx equivalent) | | 5 | Cron Jobs | sudo rm -f /etc/cron.d/observium , check crontab -l | | 6 | System User | sudo userdel -r observium | | 7 | Optional Cleanup | Use apt purge on dependencies, e.g., sudo apt purge apache2 |