[Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Archive checkmk-en
1

Hi,

  is there some way to specify a host that's status is *only* available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

  The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name...

  I've tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting "always assume this host is up" from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

···

--
- Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -
- Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

2

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

···

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

checkmk-en mailing list

checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de

http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!

Book your place now and be part of it.

October 18th-20th, 2015

http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

3

Sorry, forgot to mention this: choose “only ping this host” as agent type.

···

Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:14 Uhr:

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

checkmk-en mailing list

checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de

http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!

Book your place now and be part of it.

October 18th-20th, 2015

http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

4

Thanks, this seems to work with (known-good) ESX.

Now for the second part of the exercise…creating own piggybacked checks
J

···

Sorry, forgot to mention this: choose “only ping this host” as agent type.

Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:14 Uhr:

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -
  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo |
    www.vintor.fi     -

checkmk-en mailing list
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!
Book your place now and be part of it.
October 18th-20th, 2015
http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

5

Assumed hostA checks some df things for remoteB… Then an agent plugin at hostA should output this:
<<<>>>
<<>>
(think of df output inserted here)
<<<<>>>>

…and all between the line with the four braces will be treated as piggyback data for remoteB.

HTH,
Marcel

···

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 16:30:

Thanks, this seems to work with (known-good) ESX.

Now for the second part of the exercise…creating own piggybacked checks
J

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

From: Marcel Schulte [mailto:schulte.marcel@gmail.com]
Sent: 16. lokakuuta 2015 16:15
To: Mäkelä, Antti; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Sorry, forgot to mention this: choose “only ping this host” as agent type.

Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:14 Uhr:

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -
  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo |
    www.vintor.fi     -

checkmk-en mailing list
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!
Book your place now and be part of it.
October 18th-20th, 2015
http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

6

I’m actually trying this.

Are you sure this works with dropping an executable in the plugins directory of an agent? (I can confirm that the output is pretty similar to what you outline). However, e.g. the Azure agent at

http://git.mathias-kettner.de/git/?p=check_mk.git;a=blob;f=doc/treasures/azure/README;h=c7f1d1f56b41aa5fb61aeaef17564714ca302e41;hb=HEAD

seems to indicate that I should create a new datasource program and have that return the results instead.

When I try this with a plugin for a standard (Linux) agent, the check_mk poller pretty much ignores the data.

···

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 17:41
To: Mäkelä, Antti; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Assumed hostA checks some df things for remoteB… Then an agent plugin at hostA should output this:
<<<>>>
<<>>
(think of df output inserted here)
<<<<>>>>

…and all between the line with the four braces will be treated as piggyback data for remoteB.

HTH,
Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 16:30:

Thanks, this seems to work with (known-good) ESX.

Now for the second part of the exercise…creating own piggybacked checks
J

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

From: Marcel Schulte [mailto:schulte.marcel@gmail.com]
Sent: 16. lokakuuta 2015 16:15
To: Mäkelä, Antti;
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Sorry, forgot to mention this: choose “only ping this host” as agent type.

Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:14 Uhr:

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -
  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo |
    www.vintor.fi     -

checkmk-en mailing list
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!
Book your place now and be part of it.
October 18th-20th, 2015
http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

7

Confirmed. Piggybacking doesn’t work as a plugin to existing check_mk-agent, but requires a datasource program to be defined.

···

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: checkmk-en-bounces@lists.mathias-kettner.de checkmk-en-bounces@lists.mathias-kettner.de on behalf of Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 17:52
To: Marcel Schulte; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

I’m actually trying this.

Are you sure this works with dropping an executable in the plugins directory of an agent? (I can confirm that the output is pretty similar to what you outline). However, e.g. the Azure agent at

http://git.mathias-kettner.de/git/?p=check_mk.git;a=blob;f=doc/treasures/azure/README;h=c7f1d1f56b41aa5fb61aeaef17564714ca302e41;hb=HEAD

seems to indicate that I should create a new datasource program and have that return the results instead.

When I try this with a plugin for a standard (Linux) agent, the check_mk poller pretty much ignores the data.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 17:41
To: Mäkelä, Antti; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Assumed hostA checks some df things for remoteB… Then an agent plugin at hostA should output this:
<<<>>>
<<>>
(think of df output inserted here)
<<<<>>>>

…and all between the line with the four braces will be treated as piggyback data for remoteB.

HTH,
Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 16:30:

Thanks, this seems to work with (known-good) ESX.

Now for the second part of the exercise…creating own piggybacked checks
J

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

From: Marcel Schulte [mailto:schulte.marcel@gmail.com]
Sent: 16. lokakuuta 2015 16:15
To: Mäkelä, Antti;
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Sorry, forgot to mention this: choose “only ping this host” as agent type.

Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:14 Uhr:

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -
  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo |
    www.vintor.fi     -

checkmk-en mailing list
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!
Book your place now and be part of it.
October 18th-20th, 2015
http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

8

Ah, you got hit by a bug which is fixed in innovation release - but I can confirm you can also fix it by applying the changes at least in 1.2.6p10:

http://git.mathias-kettner.de/git/?p=check_mk.git;a=commit;h=2909e259405009094df5c386bd7839705a492ee4

HTH,

Marcel

···

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 16:59 Uhr:

Confirmed. Piggybacking doesn’t work as a plugin to existing check_mk-agent, but requires a datasource program to be defined.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: checkmk-en-bounces@lists.mathias-kettner.de checkmk-en-bounces@lists.mathias-kettner.de on behalf of Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 17:52
To: Marcel Schulte; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de

Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

I’m actually trying this.

Are you sure this works with dropping an executable in the plugins directory of an agent? (I can confirm that the output is pretty similar to what you outline). However, e.g. the Azure agent at

http://git.mathias-kettner.de/git/?p=check_mk.git;a=blob;f=doc/treasures/azure/README;h=c7f1d1f56b41aa5fb61aeaef17564714ca302e41;hb=HEAD

seems to indicate that I should create a new datasource program and have that return the results instead.

When I try this with a plugin for a standard (Linux) agent, the check_mk poller pretty much ignores the data.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 17:41
To: Mäkelä, Antti; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Assumed hostA checks some df things for remoteB… Then an agent plugin at hostA should output this:
<<<>>>
<<>>
(think of df output inserted here)
<<<<>>>>

…and all between the line with the four braces will be treated as piggyback data for remoteB.

HTH,
Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 16:30:

Thanks, this seems to work with (known-good) ESX.

Now for the second part of the exercise…creating own piggybacked checks
J

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

From: Marcel Schulte [mailto:schulte.marcel@gmail.com]
Sent: 16. lokakuuta 2015 16:15
To: Mäkelä, Antti;
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Sorry, forgot to mention this: choose “only ping this host” as agent type.

Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:14 Uhr:

Hi Antti,

I’d create a host with the name of the VM in question and hardcoded IP of 127.0.0.1.

…you can create a rule to take a service’s status as host status here: WATO → Monitoring Configuration → Host Check Command

HTH,

Marcel

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 um 15:09 Uhr:

Hi,

is there some way to specify a host that’s status is only available as piggybacked information, meaning that there is no direct connection from monitoring host to the actual host?

The system seems to insist that each host has an IP address or a resolvable name…

I’ve tried pointing the host to a non-existing IP address in our network and then setting “always assume this host is up” from the configuration, but this is hardly elegant.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -
  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo |
    www.vintor.fi     -

checkmk-en mailing list
checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
http://lists.mathias-kettner.de/mailman/listinfo/checkmk-en

Well meet in Munich for the 2nd Check_MK Conference!
Book your place now and be part of it.
October 18th-20th, 2015
http://mathias-kettner.com/conference

9

Just FYI, here’s how I tested this for myself (after having applied the mentioned fix, in original file):

  • place attached plugin in agent plugins folder at localhost

  • created a host named “justatest” with IP of localhost and agent type “No agent” (ping only)

  • “cmk -Iv localhost” reported no output

  • “cmk -Ivvvvv justatest” reported this:

justatest.sh (157 Bytes)

···

$ cmk -Ivvvvv justatest

Discovering services on justatest:

justatest:

Using piggyback information from host localhost.

1 df

  • Filesystem /mnt/justatest {}

…and voila my piggybacked service:

$ cmk -nv justatest

Check_mk version 1.2.6p10

Using piggyback information from host localhost.

Filesystem /mnt/justatest OK - 58.5% used (4.75 of 8.12 GB), (levels at 80.00/90.00%), trend: 0.00 B / 24 hours

OK - execution time 0.0 sec|execution_time=0.001 user_time=0.310 system_time=0.020 children_user_time=0.000 children_system_time=0.000

HTH,

Marcel

10

Ok, thanks.

We are still at 1.2.6p2, upgrading to latest in next maintenance windows, so good to know that’s fixed.

···

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 18:53
To: Mäkelä, Antti; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Just FYI, here’s how I tested this for myself (after having applied the mentioned fix, in original file):

  • place attached plugin in agent plugins folder at localhost

  • created a host named “justatest” with IP of localhost and agent type “No agent” (ping only)

  • “cmk -Iv localhost” reported no output

  • “cmk -Ivvvvv justatest” reported this:

$ cmk -Ivvvvv justatest

Discovering services on justatest:

justatest:

Using piggyback information from host localhost.

1 df

  • Filesystem /mnt/justatest {}

…and voila my piggybacked service:

$ cmk -nv justatest

Check_mk version 1.2.6p10

Using piggyback information from host localhost.

Filesystem /mnt/justatest OK - 58.5% used (4.75 of 8.12 GB), (levels at 80.00/90.00%), trend: 0.00 B / 24 hours

OK - execution time 0.0 sec|execution_time=0.001 user_time=0.310 system_time=0.020 children_user_time=0.000 children_system_time=0.000

HTH,

Marcel

11

It’s fixed but not in 1.2.6 branch, only in 1.2.7.

I’ll request the fix in 1.2.6 at Sunday arriving at CMK conference…

···

Mäkelä, Antti Antti.Makela@vintor.fi schrieb am Fr., 16. Okt. 2015 17:56:

Ok, thanks.

We are still at 1.2.6p2, upgrading to latest in next maintenance windows, so good to know that’s fixed.

–

  • Dr. Antti Mäkelä | Senior Architect | CCIE #20962 -

  • Vintor Oy, Itsehallintokuja 6, 02600 Espoo | www.vintor.fi -

From: Marcel Schulte schulte.marcel@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 18:53

To: Mäkelä, Antti; checkmk-en@lists.mathias-kettner.de
Subject: Re: [Check_mk (english)] Dummy host that only gets piggyback data

Just FYI, here’s how I tested this for myself (after having applied the mentioned fix, in original file):

  • place attached plugin in agent plugins folder at localhost
  • created a host named “justatest” with IP of localhost and agent type “No agent” (ping only)
  • “cmk -Iv localhost” reported no output
  • “cmk -Ivvvvv justatest” reported this:

$ cmk -Ivvvvv justatest

Discovering services on justatest:

justatest:

Using piggyback information from host localhost.

1 df

  • Filesystem /mnt/justatest {}

…and voila my piggybacked service:

$ cmk -nv justatest

Check_mk version 1.2.6p10

Using piggyback information from host localhost.

Filesystem /mnt/justatest OK - 58.5% used (4.75 of 8.12 GB), (levels at 80.00/90.00%), trend: 0.00 B / 24 hours

OK - execution time 0.0 sec|execution_time=0.001 user_time=0.310 system_time=0.020 children_user_time=0.000 children_system_time=0.000

HTH,

Marcel