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cwd
Asked: 2011-12-12 15:14:16 +0800 CST

How can I manually run a nagios check from the command line?

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When defining and testing new services in nagios I have been restarting nagios, then clicking the service, and rescheduling a check for as soon as possible, then waiting until the check happens.

Is there a more efficient way to do this? I'd like to use the command line to run that particular check and get the output.

linux unix monitoring command-line-interface nagios

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Sometimes I find it tricky figuring out exactly what a plugin is doing. To figure this out I set nagios into debug mode with the configuration like this. debug_level=2048 With nagios in debug mode I simply tail the debug_log file debug_file=/var/log/nagios3/nagios.debug. Force a check and you will see exactly how the command is being run. I wouldn't leave this setting on normally though, it is very verbose and fills your log file at a rapid rate.

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  2. It's pretty simple. Just cd (or not) into the plugins directory (this directory location varies, depending on how you've installed it, but check /usr/local/nagios, or /usr/lib/nagios).

    Find the plugin you want to run (if you're not sure, compare what you see in your plugins directory on your Linux box with the plugins located here: http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Plugins, or try running "./plugin-name -h" to get the help info about the plugin).

    The method for using any of these "plugins" from the command line is the same as any other Linux script: Just run "./plugin-name" with the appropriate flags you want to check, and voila!

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  3. I take a slightly more brute-force direction than @Zoredache, I login to the nagios server and do "while true; do ps awwlx | grep NAGIOS_CHECK_NAME; done", while I force a re-check of the service, where NAGIOS_CHECK_NAME is either part of the check name or the IP of the server I am looking for. Usually within a few seconds the full check command pops up and I then kill the while loop and run the check command.

    Yeah, it's totally brute-force, but <shrug> it works for me.

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  4. You might also want to give the 'capture' plugin a try. It essentially does the same thing as a debug level of 2048, but can be used on a per-plugin basis. This yields less output to dig through.

    http://www.waggy.at/nagios/capture_plugin.htm

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  5. Go to your plugin directory - in my example it is 

    /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/

    Type you plugin name - in my example it is

    check_tcp

    now run the full command - (plugin name) -H (hostname) -p (port number)

    /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/check_tcp -H myservername -p 8080

    output 

    TCP OK - 0.004 second response time on port 8080|time=0.004146s;;;0.000000;10.000000

    However in this example port number is optional

    another example -

    in your config file which is look something like below (myserver.cfg) and you want to run check_cpu from command line

    define service{
  use                             generic-service
  host_name                       myserver
  servicegroups                   windows
  service_description             CPU
  contact_groups                  sysadmin_email_only
  notification_options            w,c,r
  check_command                   check_nrpe!check_cpu
}

    to check instantly (without GUI green or red)

    Try this - (plugin full path) - H (servername) -c (checkname)

    /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/check_nrpe -H spc7atc01 -c check_cpu

    output -

    OK CPU Load ok.|'5'=4;80;90; '10'=3;80;90; '15'=3;80;90;

    Thats it

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