diff --git a/puppet/zulip/files/nagios_plugins/zulip_postgresql/check_fts_update_log b/puppet/zulip/files/nagios_plugins/zulip_postgresql/check_fts_update_log
deleted file mode 100755
index fd50c6b455..0000000000
--- a/puppet/zulip/files/nagios_plugins/zulip_postgresql/check_fts_update_log
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
-
-"""
-Nagios plugin to check the length of the FTS update log.
-"""
-import sys
-
-sys.path.append("/home/zulip/deployments/current")
-try:
-    from scripts.lib.setup_path import setup_path
-
-    setup_path()
-except ImportError:
-    pass
-
-import psycopg2
-
-states = {
-    "OK": 0,
-    "WARNING": 1,
-    "CRITICAL": 2,
-    "UNKNOWN": 3,
-}
-
-
-def report(state: str, num: str) -> None:
-    print(f"{state}: {num} rows in fts_update_log table")
-    exit(states[state])
-
-
-conn = psycopg2.connect(database="zulip")
-cursor = conn.cursor()
-
-cursor.execute("SELECT count(*) FROM fts_update_log")
-num = cursor.fetchall()[0][0]
-
-if num > 5:
-    report("CRITICAL", num)
-
-report("OK", num)
diff --git a/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/process_fts_updates b/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/process_fts_updates
index 6386100020..4954cfaf8a 100755
--- a/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/process_fts_updates
+++ b/puppet/zulip/files/postgresql/process_fts_updates
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ BATCH_SIZE = 1000
 
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
 parser.add_argument("--quiet", action="store_true")
+parser.add_argument("--nagios-check", action="store_true")
 options = parser.parse_args()
 
 logging.Formatter.converter = time.gmtime
@@ -135,6 +136,28 @@ except ImportError:
         pg_args["host"] = "localhost"
     pg_args["dbname"] = get_config(config_file, "postgresql", "database_name", "zulip")
 
+
+if options.nagios_check:
+    conn = psycopg2.connect(**pg_args)
+    cursor = conn.cursor()
+    cursor.execute("SELECT count(*) FROM fts_update_log")
+    num = cursor.fetchall()[0][0]
+
+    # nagios exit codes
+    states = {
+        "OK": 0,
+        "WARNING": 1,
+        "CRITICAL": 2,
+        "UNKNOWN": 3,
+    }
+
+    state = "OK"
+    if num > 5:
+        state = "CRITICAL"
+    print(f"{state}: {num} rows in fts_update_log table")
+    exit(states[state])
+
+
 conn = None
 
 retries = 1
diff --git a/puppet/zulip_ops/files/nagios3/commands.cfg b/puppet/zulip_ops/files/nagios3/commands.cfg
index 71aa85eb6d..12430e5f7a 100644
--- a/puppet/zulip_ops/files/nagios3/commands.cfg
+++ b/puppet/zulip_ops/files/nagios3/commands.cfg
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ define command {
 
 define command {
         command_name    check_fts_update_log
-        command_line    /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_by_ssh -l nagios -t 30 -i /var/lib/nagios/.ssh/id_ed25519 -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -C '/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/zulip_postgresql/check_fts_update_log'
+        command_line    /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_by_ssh -l nagios -t 30 -i /var/lib/nagios/.ssh/id_ed25519 -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -C '/usr/local/bin/process_fts_updates --nagios-check'
 }
 
 define command {
diff --git a/tools/ci/production-verify b/tools/ci/production-verify
index bb1197aa88..ea2f12c673 100755
--- a/tools/ci/production-verify
+++ b/tools/ci/production-verify
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ echo
 echo "Now running additional Nagios tests"
 echo
 if ! /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/zulip_app_frontend/check_queue_worker_errors \
-    || ! su zulip -c /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/zulip_postgresql/check_fts_update_log; then # || \
+    || ! su zulip -c "/usr/local/bin/process_fts_updates --nagios-check"; then # || \
     #   ! su zulip -c "/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/zulip_app_frontend/check_send_receive_time --site=https://127.0.0.1/api --nagios --insecure"; then
     set +x
     echo