Hi Josef,
Issue: The “Count, size and age of files” rule (mk_filestats / fileinfo) causes massive slowdowns on some Windows hosts — agent runtime jumps from ~2 seconds to ~48–50 seconds, while the same rule runs fine on other hosts with similar file counts.
This is a well-known performance problem with the Windows agent when monitoring files.
Main causes:
- The plugin uses globbing to scan directories. Even with only ~200 matching files, Windows can be very slow if the folder contains thousands of files, is on HDD, heavily fragmented, or scanned by antivirus in real-time.
- Too broad patterns (e.g. C:\Backups** or recursive search) make it dramatically worse.
Quick recommendations:
- Make your include patterns as narrow and specific as possible (e.g. C:\PG_Backups*.backup instead of broad wildcards).
- Test the section manually on the slow host:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\checkmk\agent\check_mk_agent.exe" fileinfo
- Consider running the rule less frequently or switch to a custom local check (PowerShell) for better performance.
- On servers with many files, use aggregation options like count_only where possible.
See also:
- Official docs: Monitoring files (mk_filestats / fileinfo) → Monitoring files
- Similar reports: Filestats.cfg checks slow - Fetcher timeouts
- Timeout of check_mk_agent because of fileinfo
Can you share the exact include/exclude patterns you are using in the rule? That usually helps pinpoint the bottleneck.
by the way
3. Consider running the rule less frequently or switch to a custom local check (PowerShell) for better performance.
it`s my preference
Greets Bernd