I’ve installed Munin on my server but when I try to access the mypage.com/munin I get Munin 403 forbidden error.

This is a recent request that we have got from our customers to solve the error.

Why this error is occurring?

Often, this error may happen due to bad settings in the Munin configuration file or incorrect settings in Apache configuration file.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to install Munin for cPanel as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s get into the details on how our Support Engineers fix the related errors.

How we fixed Munin 403 forbidden error?

Munin is a networked resource monitoring tool that can help analyze resource usage on the server.  Therefore, it monitors server resources such as Apache, Disk Usage, Exim, MySQL, Network, and Processes.

In addition, it provides information in graphs through a web browser. So, there is no need to login to the control panel to check what going on the server.

Again, the installation and configuration procedures are very easy. But, we see many customers face problems while managing the Munin plugin.

One such error is,

Now, let’s see the major reasons for the 403 forbidden error and how our Support Engineers fix this error.

Incorrect settings in the apache configuration file

Recently, one of our customers installed Munin on the server with ubuntu 14:04. However, when he tried to access ServerIP/munin he received a 403 Forbidden error.

On checking, our Support Engineers found a bad setting in the file /etc/munin/apache24.conf.

So, we opened the file apache24.conf and changed the following lines.

Require local
Options None

to,

Require all granted
Options FollowSymLinks SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

Then, we restarted Apache.

service apache2 restart

That’s it! After that, He could access ServerIP/munin without any problem.

Wrong directory path

Similarly, another customer has received an error while accessing his domain.com/munin. The error said,

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /munin on this server.

By investigating, our Support Engineers found that the directory path in the munin.config file and apache.conf were different. That blocked the user from access the domain.com/munin on this server.

Furthermore, the 403 Forbidden error may happen when the directory path in the /etc/munin/munin.conf file and /etc/munin/apache.conf are different.

Here, we edited the /etc/munin/munin.conf as below.

htmldir /var/cache/munin/www

To:

htmldir /var/www/munin

Also, we make sure that /etc/munin/apache.conf file has the same directory path.

That solved the problem.

Sometimes, incorrect permission may cause 403 error while accessing domain.com/munin.

Then, we set up the permission as below.

chmod 755 /var/www/munin
chown -R munin:munin /var/www/munin

That’s it.

[Need assistance to fix plugin​ errors? We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

In short, Munin 403 forbidden error may happen due to bad settings in the Munin configuration file and in Apache config or because of insufficient user permission on the server. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers assisted our customers to solve this error.