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8 Internal checks

8.1 Overview

Internal checks allow to monitor the internal processes of Zabbix. Internal checks are calculated by Zabbix server.

To use this item, choose the Zabbix internal item type.

Internal checks are processed by Zabbix pollers.

8.2 Supported checks

  • Parameters without angle brackets are constants - for example, 'host' and 'available' in zabbix[host,<type>,available]. Use them in the item key as is.
Key
Description Return value Comments
zabbix[boottime]
Startup time of Zabbix server process in seconds. Integer. In seconds since the epoch.
zabbix[history]
Number of values stored in table HISTORY Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
zabbix[history_log]
Number of values stored in table HISTORY_LOG Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
This item is supported starting from version 1.8.3.
zabbix[history_str]
Number of values stored in table HISTORY_STR Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
zabbix[history_text]
Number of values stored in table HISTORY_TEXT Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
This item is supported starting from version 1.8.3.
zabbix[history_uint]
Number of values stored in table HISTORY_UINT Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
This item is supported starting from version 1.8.3.
zabbix[host,<type>,available]
Returns availability of a particular type of checks on the host. The value of this item corresponds to availability icons in the host list. 0 - not available, 1 - available, 2 - unknown. Valid types are: agent, snmp, ipmi, jmx.

The item value is calculated according to configuration parameters regarding host unreachability/unavailability.

This item is supported starting from version 2.0.0.
zabbix[items]
Number of items in Zabbix database Integer.
zabbix[items_unsupported]
Number of unsupported items in Zabbix database Integer.
zabbix[java,,<param>]
Returns information associated with Zabbix Java gateway. If <param> is ping, "1" is returned. Can be used to check Java gateway availability using nodata() trigger function.

If <param> is version, version of Java gateway is returned. Example: "2.0.0".
Valid values for <param> are: ping, version

Second parameter must be empty and is reserved for future use.

This item is supported starting from version 2.0.0.
zabbix[process,<type>,<mode>,<state>]
Time a particular Zabbix process or a group of processes (identified by <type> and <mode>) spent in <state> in percentage. It is calculated for last minute only.

If <mode> is Zabbix process number that is not running (for example, with 5 pollers running <mode> is specified to be 6), such an item will turn into unsupported state.
Minimum and maximum refers to the usage percentage for a single process. So if in a group of 3 pollers usage percentages per process were 2, 18 and 66, min would return 2 and max would return 66.
Processes report what they are doing in shared memory and the self-monitoring process summarizes that data each second. State changes (busy/idle) are registered upon change - thus a process that becomes busy registers as such and doesn't change or update the state until it becomes idle. This ensures that even fully hung processes will be correctly registered as 100% busy.
Currently, "busy" means "not sleeping", but in the future additional states might be introduced - waiting for locks, performing database queries, etc.
On Linux and most other systems, resolution is 1/100 of a second.
Percentage of time.
Float.
The following process types are currently supported:
alerter - process for sending notifications
configuration syncer - process for managing in-memory cache of configuration data
db watchdog - sender of a warning message in case DB is not available
discoverer - process for discovery of devices
escalator - process for escalation of actions
history syncer - history DB writer
housekeeper - process for removal of old historical data
http poller - web monitoring poller
icmp pinger - poller for icmpping checks
ipmi poller - poller for IPMI checks
java poller - poller for Java checks
node watcher - process for sending historical data and configuration changes between nodes
poller - normal poller for passive checks
proxy poller - poller for passive proxies
self-monitoring - process for collecting internal server statistics
snmp trapper - trapper for SNMP traps
timer - process for evaluation of time-related trigger functions and maintenances
trapper - trapper for active checks, traps, inter-node and -proxy communication
unreachable poller - poller for unreachable devices

Note: You can also see these process types in a server log file.

Valid modes are:
avg - average value for all processes of a given type (default)
count - returns number of forks for a given process type, <state> should not be specified
max - maximum value
min - minimum value
<process number> - process number (between 1 and the number of pre-forked instances). For example, if 4 trappers are running, the value is between 1 and 4.

Valid states are:
busy - process is in busy state, for example, processing request (default).
idle - process is in idle state doing nothing.

Examples:
zabbix[process,poller,avg,busy] - average time of poller processes spent doing something during the last minute
zabbix[process,"icmp pinger",max,busy] - maximum time spent doing something by any ICMP pinger process during the last minute
zabbix[process,trapper,count] - amount of currently running trapper processes

This item is supported starting from version 1.8.5.
zabbix[proxy,<name>,<param>]
Access to Zabbix proxy related information. Integer. <name> - Proxy name
List of supported parameters (<param>):
lastaccess - timestamp of last heart beat message received from Proxy
For example, zabbix[proxy,"Germany",lastaccess]
fuzzytime() trigger function can be used to check availability of proxies.
zabbix[queue,<from>,<to>]
Number of server monitored items in the Queue which are delayed by <from> to <to> seconds, inclusive. Integer. <from> - default: 6 seconds
<to> - default: infinity
Time-unit symbols (s,m,h,d,w) are supported for these parameters.
Parameters from and to are supported starting from version 1.8.3.
zabbix[rcache,<cache>,<mode>]
Availability statistics of Zabbix configuration cache. Integer (for size); float (for percentage). Cache: buffer
Mode:
total - total size of buffer
free - size of free buffer
pfree - percentage of free buffer
used - size of used buffer
zabbix[requiredperformance]
Required performance of the Zabbix server, in new values per second expected. Float. Approximately correlates with "Required server performance, new values per second" in Reports → Status of Zabbix. Supported since Zabbix 1.6.2.
zabbix[trends]
Number of values stored in table TRENDS Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
zabbix[trends_uint]
Number of values stored in table TRENDS_UINT Integer. Do not use if MySQL InnoDB, Oracle or PostgreSQL is used!
This item is supported starting from version 1.8.3.
zabbix[triggers]
Number of enabled triggers in Zabbix database, with at least one enabled item on an enabled host. Integer.
zabbix[uptime]
Uptime of Zabbix server process in seconds. Integer.
zabbix[wcache,<cache>,<mode>]
Statistics and availability of Zabbix write cache.
Cache Mode
values all Total number of values processed by Zabbix server, except unsupported items. Integer. Counter.
float Number of processed float values. Integer. Counter.
uint Number of processed unsigned integer values. Integer. Counter.
str Number of processed character/string values. Integer. Counter.
log Number of processed log items. Integer. Counter.
text Number of processed text items. Integer. Counter.
not supported Number of processed unsupported items. Integer. Counter.
Not supported mode is supported starting with Zabbix 1.8.6.
history pfree Percentage of free history buffer. Float. A low number indicates performance problems on the database side.
free Size of free history buffer. Integer.
total Total size of history buffer. Integer.
used Size of used history buffer. Integer.
trend pfree Percentage of free trend buffer. Float.
free Size of free trend buffer. Integer.
total Total size of trend buffer. Integer.
used Size of used trend buffer. Integer.
text pfree Percentage of free text history buffer. Float.
free Size of free text history buffer. Integer.
total Total size of text history buffer. Integer.
used Size of used text history buffer. Integer.