Zabbix: is it possible to monitor arbitrary string variable?

Question

We are using Zabbix for services monitoring.

There are some essential monitoring configured. I want to have timeline of version strings of my service along with this monitorings. That would give me opportunity to see that upgrading to this version altered overall error-count.

Is it possible?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible.

You can pass arbitrary data from your Zabbix agent to the Zabbix server by using "UserParameter" fields in zabbix_server.conf, i.e. agent configuration file.

General syntax is:

UserParameter=section[id], command

For example, let's assume you want to monitor how many users are logged in. You would use:

UserParameter=sys[num_users], who | wc -l

(I assume you know how to configure the Zabbix server to receive this data, it's pretty straightforward - just create a new item, bind it to a template and connect a template to a server or server group).

If you want to monitor some file for a specific string, just use grep, sed, cut, tr and other standard Unix tools. If you need more complex things, just write a shell script.

Answer 2

Update to Igor's answer:

UserParameter is declared client-side in zabbix_agentd.conf or zabbix_agent.conf (depending on whether you're using the daemon or inetd version), not zabbix_server.conf.

Answer 3

documentation on using custom data from agents : http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/1.8/manual/config/user_parameters

you can also do that from zabbix server as well. i can't post more than one external link, so copy the following and add "h" in front of the url :) ttp://www.zabbix.com/documentation/1.8/manual/config/items#external_checks