<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi!<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I'm canvassing opinions for this change to the developer guidelines re: command arguments to thresholds. I first brought this up at the Nagios Conference in Germany (<A href="http://www.netways.de/de/nagios_konferenz/archiv_2006/programm/nagios_plugins/">http://www.netways.de/de/nagios_konferenz/archiv_2006/programm/nagios_plugins/</A>), but want to make sure there is a consensus in this mailing list.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>BACKGROUND</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>There are three main problems:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>1) when you have a check that wants to check multiple "things", the syntax is confusing. For example, free disk space in check_disk is -w/-c (in units or percent), but inode checking is -W/-K. In check_http, -w/-c is for time taken, -m is for page size. This is not very readable and inconsistent</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>2) the output and performance data is inconsistent with what is being checked. For instance, if I check my disks for inodes, I don't necessarily want perf data returned about disk free. This clogs up my graphs and muddies my output</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>3) I've started using common routines for threshold parsing and found that the way that parsing occurs between plugins is inconsistent. For instance, check_procs -c 1:1 means "critical if not 1 process". However, check_disk -c 5% means "critical if between 0 and 5%". Worse, the way the guidelines define ranges so the default is to alert outside a range, which looks wrong.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I did this test to the audience at the Nagios Conference. Given a command 'check_stuff -w 30:50 -c 10:30' where the result of "stuff" is 15, what is the alert level raised?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Go on, have a guess!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The answer is Warning. I had two guesses of "Critical" by the crowd and I think this is because you immediately assume an alert **within** the range, not outside. I think this needs fixing.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>PROPOSAL</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>So my proposal is to have a different, but complementary, method of specifying thresholds:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>--metric=crit/warn</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The crit and warn ranges are defined as min:max (max is optional, defaults to +infinity). Alert if the checked value is inside this range. If you want to alert on the outside of this range, prefix the range with a carat sign (^).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Crit or warn can be blank, meaning no alert to be specified for that alert level.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>If the metric is specified, then output + perfdata will reflect. Eg, check_http --page_size=60K/40K --document_age=5s/3s will give output of the document age and the page size, but not the certificate age or the time taken. If you want output and perfdata without checking the result, specify the metric without any values, eg check_http --certificate_age.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I think the metric name should be composed of alphanumerics and underscore only, so it can map to RRD names. If there is a many-to-many mapping (eg, check_disk, looking at per mountpoint), use a key prefixed at the beginning with a separating colon, eg check_disk --disk_free=2GB --inode_used=/0:500 -p / -p /var would have perf output of:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>/:disk_free=1.3GB;;2 /:inode_used=433;0:500; /var:disk_free=0.7GB;;2 /var:inode_used=700;0:500;</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Whatever processes the perf data can decide how to use the prefix (save to a separate RRD?).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>COMPLICATIONS</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>As this is a new command syntax I can see this being acceptable, as long as the old syntax still works correctly. However, the performance data part will be a problem to current parsers since I'd like to redefine the meaning of warn and crit.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>One option is that the new perf data is outputted in XML format. This might help with structural changes in future. This also ties in with a request from Gerd Muller of Netways at NagConf where he wanted some metadata re: the plugin to be available (name=check_disk version=1.80).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Any opinions?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Ton</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.altinity.com">http://www.altinity.com</A></DIV><DIV>T: +44 (0)870 787 9243</DIV><DIV>F: +44 (0)845 280 1725</DIV><DIV>Skype: tonvoon</DIV></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>