chkconfig is this sweet program that keeps track of all the init scripts that run at boot. For details on what runlevels and such these programs run at, check out my runlevels overview.

Here's my current chkconfig and what i need to make changes too.

[jocasta] ~ > chkconfig
abrt-ccpp       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
abrtd           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
acpid           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
atd             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
auditd          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
autofs          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
blk-availability        0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
certmonger      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cgconfig        0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
cgred           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
cpuspeed        0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
crond           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cups            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
haldaemon       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
htcacheclean    0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
httpd           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
ip6tables       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
iptables        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
irqbalance      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
kdump           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
lm_sensors      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
lvm2-monitor    0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mcelogd         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
mdmonitor       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
messagebus      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nagios          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
netconsole      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
netfs           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nfs             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
nfslock         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nrpe            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
nsca            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
ntpd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
ntpdate         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
numad           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
oddjobd         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
portreserve     0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
postfix         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
psacct          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
quota_nld       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
rdisc           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
restorecond     0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
rngd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
rpcbind         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rpcgssd         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rpcidmapd       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rpcsvcgssd      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
rsyslog         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
saslauthd       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
smartd          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
snmpd           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
snmptrapd       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
sssd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
sysstat         0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
udev-post       0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
winbind         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
ypbind          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off

So check out sshd on this list:

sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

This tells us that when it starts up, it runs on level 2345 (levels 2 and 3 and 4 and 5); on multi-user mode without networking (2), on multi-user mode with networking (3), on a user defined run-level (4), and on multi-user mode with x and console (5).

whereas nagios:

nagios          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off

Is pretty much disabled at boot. This means I would have to manually turn it on each time i need it. That's not a great synario as nagios is monitoring software for the other computers on the network, so it needs to be running whenever the server is on. So I will change my chkconfig to allow it to run (pretty much on the same levels as sshd).

[jocasta] ~ > chkconfig --level 2345 nagios
[jocasta] ~ >

And now when i run chkconfig again, it prints:

nagios            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

You can do the same thing to turn off a service, or to add a service simply use –add with chkconfig.